Being a student during the year 2020 has been a rollercoaster ride, to say the least.
When I first heard that classes would be online for this entire fall semester, I was somewhat relieved. Never having to walk to class from my off-campus apartment was pretty appealing, I’m not gonna lie. I had been in Florida during the previous semester taking the usual distance education classes, so Zoom was a whole new concept once I started this semester. I was nervous, inexperienced, and worried that I wouldn’t be learning in the same way I had before. A hands on approach had always been my preferred way of learning and being in class was most effective when it came to keeping my grades up.
When the time finally came to log into Zoom, I was five minutes late to my first class, I didn’t know how to mute my mic, and I probably looked like such an idiot. I had no experience with attending class online and you could definitely tell. Class after class, I was running into issues left and right, whether it be my internet connection or figuring out how to type a chat to the class. Lets just say the first week was a bit of a struggle.
Since then, I’ve gotten the hang of using the Zoom links and keeping my mic muted when I should. But just because you know how to work Zoom doesn’t mean that you’re getting the type of education you would if you were in person. Sure, you can see and hear your professor and the rest of the class, but there is still some kind of disconnect. I feel isolated and honestly way less motivated than I would if I were in an actual classroom. There is just something about attending class through a computer screen that hasn’t sat right with me.
Something that I’ve learned throughout this first half of the semester is that learning and passing a class are two very different things. They do NOT go hand in hand. It is so easy to fake it until you make it when your classes aren’t in person, especially when you don’t have to turn your camera on. And don’t even get me started on the amount of money we STILL have to pay even though most students aren’t even on campus.
Overall, I feel that being online is necessary during this pandemic but I don’t feel that I am getting the most from my classes. I feel like we are all just trying to get through this hard time the best we can but our education is suffering. I worry that I’m not going to gain the skills I’ll need for the future, but there is nothing any of us can really do about the state of the world.
We’ll get through this and hopefully be stronger when we reach the other side of this pandemic. I feel like we will all be so much more grateful when we can finally get back into a classroom and learn the way we were intended to.