How do students feel about taking online classes? Do they prefer in-person or are they ok with the way things are? A few students offered their thoughts on how things are going this semester.
(Gavin Carter) “Well, I like that everything for me is collected. I can keep everything on my laptop and on my flash drives. I don’t have to worry about carrying, you know, 50, 60 pounds of books and equipment with me class to class to class.”
(Carter) “ I mean, it’s better for me this way because now I open my laptop daily. So I’m always able to do homework and study and research, but there’s just a lot of nostalgic feelings that I miss about classes.”
(Kaleigh Johnston) “I really like being able to do class wherever you want. Like we recently moved a couple of weeks ago. So it’s been really nice to not have to worry about the commute to classes because we moved like 40 minutes away. And then I started going like coffee shops because we don’t have internet yet, which is really nice because I can do a class and I can enjoy some coffee and it’s not really as bad as I thought it was going to be.”
While some students don’t mind the online aspects, others have not found the semester so easy.
(Cecil Miller) “My experience with online classes has been kind of rocky. I personally have severe ADHD issues. I have depression and anxiety issues and those have been major inhibitors to my education online for it.”
(Edmond Zhou) “I think it’s a lot less personal. You know, usually after class, I there’d be like time for people to get together and all that stuff, like for lunch and that kind of thing. Or like go out to play volleyball or like some school activities in JCCC, right. But that doesn’t happen anymore for obvious reasons.”
Despite the ups and downs, what will students continue to take online classes or wait for in-person to resume?
(Carter) “Gavin: Well, I feel like with the current situation of events, I’m going to continue doing online classes so I can keep both myself, my family safe, but also my friends, my colleagues safe.”
(Miller) “I would like, you know, as much as I would like to wait for in-person classes, I know that if I stopped taking classes, I’m not going to start back up. So I’m going to have to trooper through.”
(Zhou) “I’m waiting until everything settles, I’d say indefinitely, though I am planning to transfer to KU next year or so. So we’ll see how they’d like to schedule things.”
(Johnston) “I’m trying to graduate college as fast as possible, so I will be continuing classes to get some of those gen eds out of the way. I do hope that it opens back up eventually, though, because I do miss those interpersonal relationships that you get from being in person with other people.”
For The Campus Ledger, I’m Landen Fields.