My campus has opened its doors to a hybrid situation. This means some days I go to class and another I log on to zoom to attend my class, some are online altogether. During this experience, I have encountered many different types of professors! Here’s my review…
- Professors That are Flexible
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Most teachers fall into this category, considering this is a situation no one was expecting to be in. Professors that I’ve been in contact with have been very flexible and work with their students. Online classes came as a shock so most professors took the input of the students to make sure the learning environment was what worked best for the majority of the class. A lot of classes started using Zoom to finish out the semester, now that we are doing the hybrid classes almost every online class uses Zoom for the online lecture. My roommate and I take an online class together so we had emailed our professor if it was okay with them to use the same laptop that way the sound wouldn’t interfere with each other. The professor was so happy and sharing a laptop for zoom was no problem at all! Those kinds of professors are the ones that make online classes a little easier!
- Professors That Have NO Flexibility
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Other professors, you will meet in this online journey will run their class the same as they would in person, in a national pandemic this is very hard to achieve! One professor I have this semester who’s class should be in person has made the first four weeks all online. This means once again my roommate and I would be taking this class at the same time in the same room because we can’t leave our room and join zoom because we would then have to wear our masks, which would make it hard to hear us on zoom. We emailed them and she said there was no way we could share a laptop for zoom. We then joined the class and when either one of us unmuted our sound would start clashing, our professor told us she expected us to have the problem fixed by the next class. These kinds of teachers make it extremely hard to do online classes. The standards set for some classes online are just unrealistic like not allowing animals in the frame or no drinking or eating, we are in our home, not their classroom.
- Professors That Don’t Use Zoom
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These were my personal favorite! I liked the professors that had prerecorded lessons and you could follow along at your own pace and if you have questions or even just need some clarification they always had online office hours. This style of teaching was the best for me because I could pause the lecture if I wasn’t done writing the notes when the teacher was moving on. I always knew that if I did have questions I could email them if I didn’t want to go to open office hours. Speaking out loud on zoom makes me really anxious so being able to have a one-on-one option was nice.
As this semester continues I’m sure there will be many more kinds of professors! I hope this semester everyone does well, this is a learning experience for everyone involved. I’m lucky to be able to have an open campus at all!