ESSAY 2: Learning During a Global Pandemic
What challenges, innovations, perspectives, and insights have you gained as a college student during the first acute planetary crisis? Specifically address:
1. What have been the greatest difficulties and challenges in being a student in this situation?
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected higher education in every way possible. We will likely be dealing with its effects for years in not just the local level, but also the state, and national levels. In this time, some of the greatest difficulties have come from dealing with uncertainty; we do not know what life will be like in a few months, or whether it will worsen, stay the same, or decline, or when (or for that matter, whether) a vaccine will be available after deeming its efficacy. In relation to the education side of things, dealing with online classes has been very stressful during this time. Having to adapt to classes that were not meant to be online, now being taught online has been a struggle for everyone. It has felt like our workload has increased because we are doing everything at home now and staying focused has been a lot harder now with added distractions from home. It has been a challenge to keep up motivation levels, especially when we must listen to many long lectures for our classes. Although, nonetheless, I have learned that it is possible to be successful academic-wise even in this new online environment, but it takes a lot of work and many hours spent on completing assignments.
2. What has worked well in this time? What improvements would help you, as a student, learn in this situation (given the parameters of social distancing and the like)?
Having asynchronous classes has been helpful so we do not have to watch the class at the scheduled time of class as well as some classes giving us more time for assignments. But drawbacks to asynchronous are that it is very easy to miss a lecture and then have them build up on top of each other. Improvements that would help would be to reduce the amount of unessential assignments (like clicker quizzes), so we are not overloaded with work during an online semester. Also, all professors should allow for extensions on essays and writing assignments. All these adjustments would help reduce stress and anxiety.
3. If you were to have another partial (or whole) semester of learning at home again, what would you like to see done differently? And what you personally do differently?
I would like professors in general to be more accommodating of the circumstances and make sure to be flexible with due dates, so we do not have to stress as much. In addition, professors should make sure that assignments are clearly laid out so there would not be confusion. Personally, I would make sure to take care of my mental health more; by going for walks more frequently and staying more active so I do not spend all my time doing homework. Also, I would make sure to stay in touch with my friends and take breaks when doing homework, so I do not stress too much. It is important to keep anxiety and stress to a manageable level, so it does not impact your health. Overall, this has been a challenging semester, but Terps are strong and we will get through this eventually.