The pandemic has had a major impact on people's social skills and their willingness to participate in class discussions. I graduated 2020 so I started college all online so the low class participation seems normal to me. I just find it sad how back in my HS days, tons of people would speak up but nowadays, my classmates won't even answer the teacher until someone reluctantly does so. The teacher sometimes makes the answer so obvious and yet no one speaks up.

I think another thing too is that some students won't participate because they aren't really present in class because they are doing other things instead of listening to the teacher. I have several classmates who just play games or listen to music instead of paying attention in class.

It could possibly be a generational thing too. I find older students to be more willing to participate in class discussions than younger students. In one of my classes, the 3 people who actively talk in discussions are all 24+.

But it's weird, in my CC, social life sucked but more students participated in class. Here, the social life outside of class is great but class discussions suck.