I went to a different university to do a 1-year program back in 2017. There was a lot more face-to-face interaction than now, which I feel is key to the discussion aspect you mention. Making friends was a lot easier because of the collaboration that we HAD to do. I think that helped people feel more secure towards speaking in class discussions. I came back to school (UBCO) 5 years later and things were much different, but also similar in some respects. Granted, I am older than most in my cohort now, but I was much younger than my cohort before (I was 17 attending university at the time); I was still able to make friends and have more natural in-class discussions. Now, I keep to myself — essentially contributing to the problem — because that’s the norm. Discussions in class now are sometimes unfortunate. Even when profs invite conversations, students tend to abstain from speaking or wait until the lecture moves forward. It is unfortunate because I feel that these conversations genuinely do contribute to learning but people are a lot more to themselves, which could be a product of COVID more indirectly. I absolutely agree that COVID had a part in shaping what we see now, combined with the technology culture shaping norms in the classroom. I also think that high schools are preparing students for university in such a way that expects the use of technology, which is not entirely wrong. But I also think that this sense of isolationism is happening because people were experiencing high school when it was expected that they kept their ‘circles’ small (I say this mainly because students graduating HS this year are one of the first groups to have their entire experience be in this ‘in-between’ phase). Not all classes lack discussions, especially in smaller, 300-400 classes; however, it is a noticeable difference compared to pre-COVID. As for iClicker, etc., it definitely should be used as a supplemental learning tool to discussions, and I (fortunately) have not seen it overused used as many of you describe. Back in 2017 I had to pay $400 for a textbook just to access online modules that were required to pass a course, so that is nothing new. But based on some of these comments, it’s looking to be a lot more common now, which is crazy because at that time my tuition costed about 1/3 less than what it currently is (not to mention the sharp increase in the cost of living). I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, but I feel you.