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Claudia Huggins, 19, logs into the University of Pittsburgh’s online portal.
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Trib Live
College students cope with shortcomings of online learning during coronavirus
Teghan Simonton
April 15, 2020
Ironic and goofy humor fills this Facebook page. There’s a picture of a
tombstone that reads “Here lies my motivation to do online college
classes.” There are GIFs and memes repurposing lines from “Parks and
Recreation” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Each post is a lighthearted
joke, and each one has received hundreds of comments and likes.
The page, “Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens,” was created by a group of
Carnegie Mellon University students. About a month after classes
transitioned online, it has nearly 600,000 members around the world.
“We were expecting 250 people or something,” said Mehul Agarwal, a CMU
computer science student and a founding member of the page. “I think we
got 4,000 on the first day.”
When CMU moved classes online amid the covid-19 pandemic, Agarwal and
his friends quickly began sending memes back in forth in their own
group chat. They decided “there’s a market for this,” Agarwal said, and
created the Facebook page, inviting their friends at CMU to revel in
the jokes. Agarwal is now attending virtual classes from his home in
New Delhi .
As online classes at the region’s colleges are now in full swing,
students are finding ways to cope, settling into a routine of online
lectures, Zoom calls and — like Agarwal — memes. Many say nothing can
replicate the experience of being on campus.
Universities have long been expanding online programming, offering
remote degrees as a lower-priced alternative to attending school
in-person. But college students benefit more from being physically
present, said Emily Fidago, associate director of Chatham University’s
Student Engagement Office. Establishing a connection to their place of
learning is important for student retention, she said.
“The more that students foster relationships to a university, the more
likely they are to be retained and complete their degree,” Fidago said.
“The more that students feel a connection specifically to their faculty
members and staff members and friends there, the more likely they are
to stay at the college.”
Now, institutions and students must make do with what’s available.
Online work has posed the greatest challenge to students who normally
work in labs or studios. Graduate researchers have had to postpone
work, and many professors have altered assignments for a remote working
environment.
Robin Kaufman, a freshman bioengineering major at the University of
Pittsburgh, now works from her home in Rochester, Pa. Her chemistry lab
class has changed drastically. No longer able to perform experiments,
the class is now focused on calculations and theory. While she
understands the necessity, she knows the hands-on experience cannot be
replicated online.
Classes that were already lecture-oriented have had smoother
transitions, students say. Kaufman emphasized that not every subject is
conducive to online learning. She struggles to keep up with her
calculus class. Lectures are recorded ahead of time, not livestreamed,
and she can’t ask questions in real time. She had planned to take an
online differential equations class this summer. She canceled, not
wanting to learn math remotely anymore.
Without in-person class and discussions, it seems like the workload has
actually increased, said Claudia Huggins, 19, another freshman at Pitt.
Many students feel that online learning, so far, has involved a lot of
“busy work.”
And while Zoom — a video-telephone and online chat program — is helpful
for maintaining communication, it poses some challenges. Huggins said
she knows at least one group of classmates working on a project
together who must coordinate across time zones that can be 12 hours
apart. The Zoom program, built for open access, can also be easily
hacked for mischief unless the host installs password protection.
(Kaufman said one Zoom lecture was interrupted by a Temple University
student “spamming” the chat function.)
Most students understand the situation. Still, they mourn the loss of
the in-person experience. Many consistently said they just aren’t able
to focus as easily or take much from lessons when getting them from a
computer screen.
“For me, I don’t do well with a lot of online things,” Huggins said. “Being there in person is easier for me to concentrate.”
Liam O’Connell, a sophomore studying history and architecture at CMU,
is working from his home in New York City — the epicenter of the
covid-19 outbreak in the United States. Managing online assignments is
nothing new to O’Connell, but absorbing a lecture is tough to do from
your bedroom, he said.
“It’s never going to be the same as being in the classroom — it’s a lot
harder to focus, especially in a long class,” he said. “What gets
really difficult is having classes back to back. Normally, between
classes, you have that break to move. It’s kind of different when
you’re just sitting in your room the whole time for hours straight.”
Conversations and classroom discussions don’t flow as well over Zoom,
either, O’Connell said. He also misses feeling like part of the school
community, now working in a different city 400 miles away.
“There’s no running into people, seeing people, (campus) events,” he
said. “That’s probably the most difficult part. It isn’t academic, but
it’s the personal and social implications. Not having that physical
community to be a part of.”
Being on campus has always benefited students outside the classroom,
Fidago said. Activities, clubs and sports help students develop skills
such as time management, interpersonal skills and professional
development. It makes students more marketable, in addition to helping
them connect with the community. Replacing all of those opportunities
with a virtual equivalent has been challenging, she said.
Universities everywhere have acknowledged the limitations to moving all
functions online, but it’s their only option, and they’re learning as
they go. Officials at Pitt, CMU, Duquesne and several other of the
region’s colleges have released statements encouraging students,
emphasizing that this is a temporary, but essential, measure. Many have
also changed to pass/fail grading systems to ease the transition.
Fidago was relieved that Chatham students only missed about a month of
in-person instruction. The spring semester runs from early January to
late April.
Students continue to seek out remote alternatives to maintain a
community, building campus replicas on the video game Minecraft and
parties via Zoom. At Chatham, Fidago said, her office is organizing
Netflix parties and trivia nights through Zoom.
Agarwal believes this is what made his Facebook page so popular. It may
consist of students who have never met, attending schools both far and
near, but they are all moving through the same transition to “Zoom
University.” And for Agarwal, who is now living in a different time
zone from most of his peers and classmates, the community is especially
welcome.
“We have a community of colleges and students that are doing the same things, facing the same challenges,” he said.
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