By Madeline Lanning, Contributing Writer and Editor
Across the globe, schools and their administration have been battling to figure out the best version of learning for students due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Surely not everyone has taken the same course of action, many schools have chosen hybrid learning models and others have kept their doors closed for the remainder of 2020. Susquehanna gave students the option to stay remote or move back to campus in a phased move-in style.
This meant that students who were not able to be on campus at the start of the semester had to take their classes via Zoom or Kultura meetings for the first several weeks of the semester. After everyone returns to campus, the hybrid learning model will still be in place for students who chose to stay remote and for classes that cannot properly social distance due to room capacity. This however is posing many concerns for us as students.
Faculty at Susquehanna have had to adjust in the same ways as we have, but what we couldn’t have prepared for was all of the technical setbacks. Although these two programs are used by many people around the world, they aren’t always perfect in their presentation.
Students without access to or who have slow running WiFi have seen a number of issues arise with the hybrid model of learning. Microphones cut out, cameras won’t turn on or they aren’t able to log into class at all because they are stuck in the waiting rooms of their professors’ Zoom call. Professors who haven’t used these sites are facing the same issues, and are still trying to adjust to this new way of learning.
There are some classes that are not meant to be taught online and are better suited for a classroom setting. In these cases, faculty and students have been looking to other methods of learning, such as maybe taking class outside (weather permitting) where they can socially distance.
Here, though, we are still facing many of the same issues with online learning. The students who chose to stay remote won’t be able to participate in, say a workshop that has to be taught outside.
The technology just won’t allow for it, but that is no fault of our own.
Online learning has become the new norm for most of the country, but nothing can beat the in-person experience that university students are paying to obtain. Not only are we missing out on key interactions with one another, but our money seems to be going to waste and we don’t feel nearly as fulfilled in our schooling experience.
This is all still a lesson in trial and error and hopefully there will be a resolution for all of us soon. Until then, plug in your laptops and get a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow is a new day, and who knows, maybe we will get to put our laptops away.
