What Online Learning Has Been Like During The Pandemic
These challenging times with the COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world inside out as it continues to rage. The virus has affected millions of people who have gotten severely ill and have died worldwide. It has disrupted the economy on so many levels from putting places out of business to people losing their jobs.
Colleges and universities have obviously had a rough go of it as well and has been one of the main contributors to the spread of this virus.
As a college student myself currently in my second year, I just wrapped up the fall semester this week and have been fully online since the start of the pandemic back in March. That means I have not commuted to campus since that time when everything started to take a turn. It was actually the last day before the week of spring break, so everyone was leaving at the same time.
When I got home that day, I was notified that classes were cancelled after the week of break. Then shortly after that, it went all remote which everyone including myself felt was coming.
I would have to say that I am in the middle of this remote/online learning world, meaning that in some ways I do like it and others not really. The ways I like it obviously is that with the advantage of not going to campus is not putting myself at risk and the potential of bringing the virus home to my family. Also I am enjoying how short my commute has become, as it went from 40 minutes to 5 feet for now. That is basically from my bed to my desk, so I am not complaining there.
The ways I don’t really like it however, is that you don’t get in-person interaction with professors, classmates, advisors, etc. In other words, I hate missing the true on-campus experience that I feel is important, even for primary and secondary education students who need that interaction as well. You are still interacting with everybody, but when its through a screen, its just not the same. I was on a class meeting on Zoom which has become a popular platform for communication during these times, I said “I feel like a caged animal staying at home!” which some nodded their heads and some even laughed including the professor.
Other downsides is technology and when it fails, things can get pretty ugly. The whole thing of being online, of course is the need of technology which has become the lifeblood of today’s world connecting with school, work, family, doctors, etc. Without it, what would we do? If this happened hundreds of years ago, we would have nothing to communicate with this whole staying at home thing.
I have experienced a bunch of technical difficulties so far while on my computer at home. My internet connection sometimes gets jumpy and gets really slow when trying to access certain applications. So, yeah, it can be quite frustrating sometimes, but hey that’s life now (for me anyway).
I can say that I have adjusted decently to this new lifestyle as a college student as it took some time, but it has been a lot from getting the right technology, strong internet connection and creating my own space at home so I can work efficiently and comfortably.
