Coronavirus: Southern California educator shares insight as students continue learning remotely

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (KABC) -- It's been about two months since most college students started studying online. Now, many are getting ready for finals. It's been challenging for both students and professors who aren't used to this type of remote learning.

Glenn Roquemore, President of California Southern University, joined ABC7 via Skype to share his perspective.

What advice or suggestions do you have for those students who are about to take finals?

"It really shouldn't be that different, actually you have to avoid the distractions that comes with being at home, but you know you think about it you'd be home probably anyway when you're doing your studying or that elaborate. So just the focus that you would normally have when you're about to get started on your finals," said Roquemore.

Schools are still deciding what to do in the fall, many feel the traditional in-person experience is important to maintain. What are your thoughts?

"Well, you know that has been an issue through the years as online education began to emerge and certainly there are those faculty better highly dedicated to the face-to-face brick and mortar. And then there are others that actually have migrated to online and some of the college have, as much as 20 to 30% online as we speak now in the public sector. So there's a place for both. The important thing is to make sure that we're serving our students and that we're serving their needs," said Roquemore.

With so much uncertainty, do you expect more students coming to California Southern University in the fall?

"I can tell you my wife is in the living room right now teaching chemistry online, college chemistry. After 22 years of teaching brick and mortar and she heroically shifted over. And I imagine there's many other faculty with that same experience that might begin to pray for that style, but we also know that this generation that we're teaching right now is very technologically savvy and they do prefer to have the flexibility of time. And to be able to take courses when they can because they may be working, they may have maybe single parents and things like that. I think one outcome will be is we'll see a lot more of the younger generation moving to online education," said Roquemore.

What are some of the things that your students have learned about the online learning experience that may help students struggling with remote learning?

"We've been in existence for just over 40 years. So we're California Southern. We have unique opportunities where we have our faculty mentors, have a one-to-one ratio with student-to-faculty ratio, so they're well covered there. We also have services through our academic advisers and they provide tremendous assistance for our students that may struggle for one reason or another as they're doing their online studying. So the main thing is to keep the wraparound services for them, keep them supported and of course the most important aspect of this is to have the faculty contact," said Roquemore.