Online School/Classes

[Ever]

Hey everyone, I'm currently in my last year of uni and doing all online classes and I'm sure some of you are in the same boat as me re: absolutely miserable not being able to go to classes in person. I would love to hear everyone's experiences, good or bad, or if you have any tips for navigating online school and keeping yourself motivated (I'm finding it a lot more difficult than when I had classes in person to stay on top of all my studying and assignments). Are you enjoying online school? Like it better than having classes in person? Absolutely hate it? If any of you are in high school, how's that going?

 

[IndigoClaudia]

Well, I'm speaking as 2 things:

1. The token 8th grader
2. The one person who is going to (social distance-ized) physical school

Online school is absolutely misrable. It's just teachers regurtitating assigments and it's stressful as heck. I'm not a fan of my in person classes either, because it's kinda... kinda the same actually. They want to make it easy for the people who are staying home, and it's not easy for anyone, but at the very least, i get in the school mood when im at school, and i have to go back to online in 2 weeks, so goodbye good grades.

 

[qenya]

I'm in the exact same boat as you, Ever! Last year of uni, everything online. I haven't even been able to go back to campus because my flatmate-to-be caught the virus before I could move in, and then the county went back into lockdown again last week. (And I may have it myself now too, though it's hard to be certain without a test.)

I don't really mind not having classes in person because it does give me a bit more flexibility about when I do things - I can watch a recorded lecture whenever I like, without having to keep to a timetable or anything - but yeah, it's definitely been tricky trying to keep focused on coursework. The thing I've found helps the most is setting up regular meetings or conversations or whatever with friends or lecturers in order to chat about what I've been doing recently. The fear of seeming like I've been slacking helps to keep me honest.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I took some online college classes before joining this site. From some University in Maine. Something about library science or whatever.

 

[sanderidge]

hashtag last year of school everything is online. it makes me feel like an idiot for deciding to take an extra year to do projects and things like that but as everyone says when i fret about this there was no way i could have predicted this happening lmao. i also don't like it (i feel like if i wanted to take classes online i'd have chosen to take online classes before this!!!!) but i very much do not want to be on campus right now. my school's letting people live on campus & go to classes in person - some classes even are straight up just in person - but most lecture classes are offered at least as a hybridized option, with so many seats for people in person and more slots for online-only people.

things that help me... i have my schedule for the week written out on a notecard and taped to the wall behind my desk, so i can see everything i have every week (and at what time!) whenever i might need to. last quarter (which was partially online) i started writing deadlines and other due dates for every upcoming week on sundays, which helped me remember what's coming up and what i'll need to do that week. i don't do it as much this year because it's still early and i don't have too much due yet, but it might be useful again later.
i also have recurring alarms set for every class and meeting which help with the anxiety of "but what if i miss a thing" by going "then i would've heard my phone yell at me about it".

one of the things i actually miss about in person things are the little conversations you get to have or overhear when you just exist around them - i was really surprised that i missed the chatter before lab meetings! - and it's also much more intimidating now to go to an office hour or speak up in class, since some of my lectures are being recorded as video in case anyone misses them.

 

[storm]

yeah, all my classes are online which is great for no commute and no bringing back 50000 germs to my 99 year old grandmother but... absolutely horrible for motivation and not falling asleep during seminars. one of my profs does a full three hours seminar which is brutal, and I'm not shy about flaking out at break if I need to, and my recall for concepts this year is absolutely awful. I'm so glad we don't have exams this year or I would fail all of them - if anyone has lectures or wordier professors prone to going on tangents, I definitely recommend taking physical notes to try and cement things from week to week

I try to keep my camera on as encouragement to speak up, but I do like my material and engaging with the prof. I just miss... hanging around before or after class and getting the material recommendations and the field gossip. you have to book office hours now, and have a one on one zoom and I'm not going to do that just to chat about planned obsolescence or some cool articles I read recently

one class is entirely online and it's so hard to keep up with the readings because without the structure of being present, it's always my last to get to. I read really fast And Yet I'm still! behind! I'm only striving to catch up because there's an essay due... and yet I'm doing okay by all measures because I have three classes - some of my classmates are doing their best to graduate as fast as possible and are taking six this year and I. do not envy them at all. but the profs are struggling too, which is almost heartening to hear some days. we're just all holding on, I guess

 

[Ever]

I'm in the exact same boat as you, Ever! Last year of uni, everything online. I haven't even been able to go back to campus because my flatmate-to-be caught the virus before I could move in, and then the county went back into lockdown again last week. (And I may have it myself now too, though it's hard to be certain without a test.)

I don't really mind not having classes in person because it does give me a bit more flexibility about when I do things - I can watch a recorded lecture whenever I like, without having to keep to a timetable or anything - but yeah, it's definitely been tricky trying to keep focused on coursework. The thing I've found helps the most is setting up regular meetings or conversations or whatever with friends or lecturers in order to chat about what I've been doing recently. The fear of seeming like I've been slacking helps to keep me honest.

Yeah, I think some of my friends are really vibing with the more flexible schedule but I think I'm learning right now that I do better with more structure. And trying to regularly touch base with profs and TAs is a really good idea, I might try that out to keep myself motivated a little better.

hashtag last year of school everything is online. it makes me feel like an idiot for deciding to take an extra year to do projects and things like that but as everyone says when i fret about this there was no way i could have predicted this happening lmao. i also don't like it (i feel like if i wanted to take classes online i'd have chosen to take online classes before this!!!!) but i very much do not want to be on campus right now. my school's letting people live on campus & go to classes in person - some classes even are straight up just in person - but most lecture classes are offered at least as a hybridized option, with so many seats for people in person and more slots for online-only people.

things that help me... i have my schedule for the week written out on a notecard and taped to the wall behind my desk, so i can see everything i have every week (and at what time!) whenever i might need to. last quarter (which was partially online) i started writing deadlines and other due dates for every upcoming week on sundays, which helped me remember what's coming up and what i'll need to do that week. i don't do it as much this year because it's still early and i don't have too much due yet, but it might be useful again later.
i also have recurring alarms set for every class and meeting which help with the anxiety of "but what if i miss a thing" by going "then i would've heard my phone yell at me about it".

one of the things i actually miss about in person things are the little conversations you get to have or overhear when you just exist around them - i was really surprised that i missed the chatter before lab meetings! - and it's also much more intimidating now to go to an office hour or speak up in class, since some of my lectures are being recorded as video in case anyone misses them.

My campus isn't letting anyone live on campus or go to class in person, which I'm grateful for since our college town already isn't doing super well in terms of cases; god only knows how bad it would be if campus was open. I have alarms set for my synchronous classes and I usually keep a to-do list on my phone, but it might be better for me to have it on paper like you do since it's so easy to get distracted once I open my phone. And I totally agree about missing the social aspect of in-person classes, even just the silly little things like overhearing someone's conversation while you're waiting for a lecture to start. I hope all your projects for this year go well, good luck!

yeah, all my classes are online which is great for no commute and no bringing back 50000 germs to my 99 year old grandmother but... absolutely horrible for motivation and not falling asleep during seminars. one of my profs does a full three hours seminar which is brutal, and I'm not shy about flaking out at break if I need to, and my recall for concepts this year is absolutely awful. I'm so glad we don't have exams this year or I would fail all of them - if anyone has lectures or wordier professors prone to going on tangents, I definitely recommend taking physical notes to try and cement things from week to week

I try to keep my camera on as encouragement to speak up, but I do like my material and engaging with the prof. I just miss... hanging around before or after class and getting the material recommendations and the field gossip. you have to book office hours now, and have a one on one zoom and I'm not going to do that just to chat about planned obsolescence or some cool articles I read recently

one class is entirely online and it's so hard to keep up with the readings because without the structure of being present, it's always my last to get to. I read really fast And Yet I'm still! behind! I'm only striving to catch up because there's an essay due... and yet I'm doing okay by all measures because I have three classes - some of my classmates are doing their best to graduate as fast as possible and are taking six this year and I. do not envy them at all. but the profs are struggling too, which is almost heartening to hear some days. we're just all holding on, I guess

I also find it super hard to keep up with asynchronous classes, because there's like no frame of reference for how I'm doing compared to the rest of class so it can be hard for me to tell if I'm doing a good job of keeping pace. And I keep feeling like I should go to office hours but somehow being in a 1-on-1 Zoom is way more intimidating to me than just dropping by a prof's office. I'm glad to hear that you're managing your classes alright, I'm also trying to keep my workload light but I'm also trying to graduate on time so I still have to take on a pretty substantial workload.

 

[M&F]

there's not much I miss about classes in person; I no longer have to deal with my hour-long commute, or how early I had to wake up in order to make that commute in time, or the lousy chairs in our building that no human body was meant to be seated in for hours on end, or even much of the occasional shit from some of my more annoying colleagues

nonetheless, I'm struggling. I may or may not be having the same structure problems as everyone else, or I may instead have a number of other things to point to, the least of which not being that my disorganized hell mess of an uni definitely didn't get any better on that front when abruptly having to switch to online classes, or that my mother's lack of respect for my personal time gets worse everyday-

 

[Zoroark]

Makes you wonder what you're paying all those thousands of dollars for, doesn't it?

They used to say 'it's for the university experience', but that is no longer true.