Teaching and Engaging Generation Z during the Coronavirus

Abstract

According to Seemiller and Grace (2015), another pivotal experience for Generation Z has been the quadrupling of student loan debt in 2017. Institutions of higher education deepened conversations around moving the learning environment, including the advising, counseling, and key support services that student rely on at their college campuses. [...]more than ever, they will look for a return on investment around areas like income, work flexibility, lifestyle, and career paths (Seemiller and Grace 2015). [...]the majors that students pick will matter. COVID‐19 has also shed an even brighter light on the inequities students face in terms of access to key learning technology and programs, internet availability, and food insecurities.

In February 2019, I had the honor of presenting a workshop at the Academic Chairpersons Conference in Savannah, Georgia, on Generation Z. The session focused on the best ways to work with this generation of students who were born between 1997 and 2012. The session yielded several outcomes and, most importantly, a time for chairs and administrators to talk about ways to serve these students through marketing, technology, outreach, admissions, and advising. This was the last trip I took before my home institution, just outside of Denver, Colorado, started the massive shift of moving about seven hundred course sections to online delivery. The move to remote learning put my knowledge to the test around ways to teach, connect with, and create stability for Gen Z students who have already experienced many traumatic events in their lives, and this virus will be another defining generational marker.

As educators, now more than ever we are faced with how to effectively engage students in remote learning environments. These environments must account for the diversity of learning and accessibility to all students while managing student accommodations and learning needs. The purpose of this article is to explore the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic and remote learning on Gen Z students. It will also share ways to engage students in a postpandemic educational environment.

Overview of Generation Z

In the past year, I have facilitated several presentations on Generation Z across Colorado for K–12 educators, higher education professionals, and university faculty and staff. Through this work, I have developed a passion for this group of driven, motivated, diverse, and digitally connected students. These students are more focused on quality and easily accessible services than they are on campus amenities. They crave a variety of different types of engagement and community and are constantly toggling between virtual and in‐person interactions (Seemiller and Grace 2015). My roles in higher education have allowed me to engage with Gen Z students by advising them on internships and career paths and also teaching MBA students (along with two Gen Z kids in my own home).

Generation Z students are a diverse group, with only 57 percent of students identifying as Caucasian, 17 percent as black, and 27 percent as Hispanic (Seemiller and Grace 2015). This generation is about 6 percent smaller than the previous millennial generation. With the invention of the iPhone in 2007, this generation has never lived without a technology component in their lives. These students are connected globally and instantly became proficient at multitasking. They have seen the dot.com bust and the one‐click Amazon search and have lived through the Great Recession of 2008 and now the pandemic of 2020. According to Seemiller and Grace (2015), another pivotal experience for Generation Z has been the quadrupling of student loan debt in 2017. Millennial parents are still paying off a large amount of educational debt and can be skeptical of the value of higher education.

Gen Z students are looking for authentic and meaningful relationships, along with opportunities to connect through a variety of in‐person and online platforms. They want services that are easily accessible in person and online and that are available twenty‐four hours a day. These students are driven by their passions, are empathic, and are looking for others to be a part of their personal and professional journeys. This generation is also constantly seeking value and return on investment.

The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic

The United States started a major shift in thinking about spring 2020 classes on March 13 when President Trump declared a national emergency. Institutions of higher education deepened conversations around moving the learning environment, including the advising, counseling, and key support services that student rely on at their college campuses. These changes in academic learning happened quickly. Even with this digitally savvy group, student connection and campus communities started to rapidly transform. Students were reporting the need for enhanced technology and access to the internet.

Putting these support systems in place outside of the classroom will continue to be critical components of this generation's lives. Many institutions will continue to see students lose jobs, become ill themselves, or care for family members, along with a series of disappointments around graduations, connections to community, and uncertain futures (Mull 2020). This generation is also open to discussing mental health issues and to seeking out support services (Gillihan 2019). It will be our duty to continue to find authentic ways to provide support services for these students well after this pandemic has subsided.

Connecting with Generation Z during the Pandemic

There are several ways to enhance our engagement with students, faculty, and staff during and after the coronavirus. Gen Z is accustomed to multitasking. The truth is that we have all been multitasking, with technology creating key missed opportunities for meaningful connection, conversation, and coaching with students. Your virtual presence as a chair and administrator matters not only to students but also to others around you.

As an administrator and adjunct faculty member, I've had to adjust my focus and work space and devote my whole self to meetings by not checking email or working on other projects. Gen Z students want the same and are trying to navigate the virtual and real worlds while creating meaningful relationships with faculty and staff. So go ahead and show off your cats, your kids, your artwork, or even the two‐thousand‐piece puzzle my staff member texted me.

As the higher education machine recovers and evolves from this pandemic and we move back to teaching in the classroom (virtual and in person), meaningful interactions with students will be critical. Many of these students have encountered job losses, mainly in the service industry. Gen Z students face pressures from parents and family members who were already skeptical about higher education and will have increased anxiety as they reframe what the world will look like. This resistant generation will be faced with decisions around taking a gap year before college or going to a community college instead of living on campus or attending their first‐choice institution (Mull 2020).

This generation of students is also incredibly passionate and driven. They are thoughtful about ensuring that they meet whatever goals they choose to pursue. Now more than ever, they will look for a return on investment around areas like income, work flexibility, lifestyle, and career paths (Seemiller and Grace 2015). Therefore, the majors that students pick will matter. The details of the major, the kinds of classes, and the jobs they will be qualified for are important to students and their families. As our institutions of higher education have moved to online learning to meet the challenges of the coronavirus, will we see a generation of more doctors, health‐care workers, public health professionals, and epidemiologists? These shifts in career paths could mirror the upticks seen in these types of careers pursued by students after September 11, 2001.

This pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color due to a variety of factors, including access to health care, lower incomes, and the high volume of service‐related jobs (Mull 2020). These inequities are important to acknowledge as a piece of this generation's story. Exploring why COVID‐19 has impacted people differently is an opportunity for colleges and universities to expand and create majors in these public health areas.

Students are also seeing how this pandemic has affected things like climate change, supply chain management, and accessibility to health‐care systems across the world. These topics are important to Generation Z, and department leaders can help these students funnel their pandemic experiences into passions and careers.

Conclusion

I ask myself every day how we can help and engage students through this pandemic that could extend into 2021 or beyond. This prolonged critical community engagement at colleges and universities will cause students to change their trajectory around higher education. Many students were struggling before the coronavirus, working multiple jobs, carrying debt, and often lacking an outlet at home. Students need support and encouragement in their educational growth and development. This tech‐savvy generation deserves and needs more from us in virtual classrooms, chat spaces, and one‐on‐one interactions using a variety of technology‐based applications. COVID‐19 has also shed an even brighter light on the inequities students face in terms of access to key learning technology and programs, internet availability, and food insecurities.

As faculty, staff, and administrators, we'll all come out of this experience with a much better understanding of things like Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Zoom as well as our professional presence in virtual one‐on‐one meetings coaching faculty and staff. One way to engage this generation is to provide continuous professional development around technology and to create clear and well‐structured course context and opportunities for students to learn.

It's important that we help students understand that a degree and that what you learn in college really matter. Our jobs as chairs and as educators is to constantly reinforce that educational goals, degrees, and certificates create opportunities for students well beyond this pandemic. This generation must feel understood, heard, and supported. This support will come through in‐person authentic engagement and multiple virtual platforms so that students know they are valued and that higher education holds hope and a future for them.

This article is based on a presentation at the 37th annual Academic Chairpersons Conference, February 5–7, 2020, Savannah, Georgia .

About the Author

VA Hayman Barber is dean of academic affairs and workforce partnerships at the Community College of Aurora and an adjunct faculty member at Johnson & Wales University–Denver. Email: [email protected]

References

Gillihan, Seth J. 2019. “ Why Young People Face a Major Mental Health Crisis.” Psychology Today. December 26. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think‐act‐be/201912/why‐young‐people‐face‐major‐mental‐health‐crisis.

Mull, Amanda. 2020. “ Generation C Has Nowhere to Turn.” The Atlantic. April 13. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/how‐coronavirus‐will‐change‐young‐peoples‐lives/609862.

Seemiller, Corey, and Meghan Grace. 2015. Generation Z Goes to College. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass.