Giving Compass' Take:

· Urban Institute touches on the challenges for disadvantaged communities posed by online distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

· What challenges do students face with online courses? How can schools provide equitable access to necessary resources for online education?

· Check out this podcast about pursuing educational equity for students transitioning to home learning due to COVID-19.

As colleges across the country move toward distance education to close out the school year, looming questions about equitable access for students remain.

Though distance education has been expanding recently, the coronavirus pandemic brought about a sudden turn toward online education at almost all colleges, raising questions about access and supports. Of particular concern are low-income students, older students, Black and Hispanic/Latinx students, and students from rural areas, all of whom face particular barriers to access and success.

At the most basic level, being able to take an online course requires that students have access to broadband internet. On average, students from Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Native American households are less likely to have access to this resource.

To take advantage of online education, students also need digital skills to be able to navigate online courses and programs. Recent research examined the issue of digital skills as a foundation for educational and labor market success. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, about 16 percent of Americans ages 16 to 65 lack very basic digital skills, meaning they cannot turn on a computer or report never having used a computer. And more than half have some basic digital skills but lack a level of digital literacy, which means they’re not proficient enough to navigate technology applications or use specific tools like “find” in Microsoft Word or “sort” in an Excel spreadsheet.

Digital skill levels vary widely across groups. On average, those who have less education, are older, or are Black or Hispanic/Latinx have lower digital skill levels. Though some may assume college populations wouldn’t lack digital skills, older students represent a significant portion of undergraduate students. In 2017, 42 percent of students in public four-year programs were 25 or older, and about 39 percent of students in public two-year programs were in that age group. And although white students still make up the largest group of college students (8.9 million of the 16.8 million undergraduate students enrolled for fall 2017), about 3.3 million were Hispanic/Latinx and 2.2 million were Black.

Read the full article about the challenges of online education by Shayne Spaulding and Adaeze Okoli at Urban Institute.