The New Traditional Student

It's time to reevaluate what is a "traditional" student. 

I was an undergraduate and a grad student during the Clinton administration (most of the 1990s) at the University of Washington. The economy was good. Jobs were plentiful. Tuition was affordable. My favorite wife, Jennifer, attended the University of Arizona. Tuition was so affordable that her parents, who were both retail workers, were able to pay for her tuition. She worked to pay for her books.

Books were so affordable that when I went to the University of Washington's bookstore to buy my required books, I routinely wandered into the area of other disciplines and picked out a book or two. Because I could. The GI Bill and Pell Grants also had roles to play, but that's another story. 

When I was an undergrad, I was considered a "non-traditional student." I was 29, an Army veteran with a disability, divorced, and had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I was surrounded by traditional students: 18-year-olds who has just graduated high school.  That was in 1994.

Now nearly 30 years later I find myslf on the other end of the class, but seeing more of me in the students then I do of my classmates of the 1990s. 

Today, more and more, my students are the veteran, the 32 yo trying college for the second time, the divorced person starting a new life, the retiree taking classes for personal enrichment, or the adult who is married with children looking for a better career -all participating in their household income. More and more those are our traditional students.

It's time to reevaluate what is a "non-tradtional" student. 

"Hot Town, summer in the city . . . "

I had both on-campus and online classes this summer. Having Summer on-campus students were much to my amazement and pleasure. There was a big push of enrollment in the last few weeks. So now I have a good way to compare and contrast things such as ungrading, peer review, and group work. 

It took a bit for these Summer students to get the hang of ungrading. More prompting, leading, and pushing than students in the long semesters. Not sure if it's because students have more time over a 15-week semester vs these five-week semesters or if it's because the students have different characteristics. I had more younger students and returning university students in the Summer than in the Fall and Spring. Not sure how that would translate into taking longer to get the hang of ungrading. But I have my ideas. 

Anyhow, by the second ungrading essay online students were on board and heading in the right direction, thinking holistically, and writing metacognitively. They were performing solid research with minimal assistance (such as help with providing a primary source document or a JSTOR article). Interestingly enough, on-campus students were behind. Normally that is reversed. Was it a question of preparation? Higher level of expectations? A rigor question? Maybe maturity had something to do with it. Some discipline issues. Falling behind. Not reaching out for help -not recognizing the need for help even when help was offered.

I spent lecture time holding office hours to give them time to work on their research essays, allowing them to see me if they needed help. Not one student took me up on my offer. I did that twice. 

The final ungrading essay asked all students to take a holistic look at what they learned this semester and how they would take that into their future studies. The online students got it. The on-campus students overwhelmingly did not succeed at the same level as the online students, even though they had more access to me and spent more time writing and evaluating drafts. This raises more questions than it answers.