by Tony Makaj, Product Specialist
We’ve all had those moments. Minutes before your lecture begins on Zoom, you wake up in a groggy state of mind, half awake, reaching for your laptop and signing into your course while you’re still in bed. Your professor doesn’t know - nor do your classmates - about your struggle to stay awake. Before you know it, class is over, and you wake up to your professor asking you if you have any questions. In a panic, you leave the call.
Have we gotten used to this routine? For many students, it’s been a while since they’ve taken online classes, since many colleges and universities have transitioned to fully in-person classes. We have all longed for the traditional classroom setting that we’ve missed for so long as well as the relationships we could’ve made during an in-person experience during the last year. “Many students, including myself, are frustrated. We haven’t been in a classroom setting for a full year (for some, even more): how are we supposed to transition back into the swing of things? It appeared as a shock to me when I registered for my first in-person class as a junior since the end of the ‘two-week break’ that we were supposed to have in March 2020.”
Since the beginning of this current fall semester, I’ve had roughly 3 online class sessions, and they’ve seemed like a nice break from the in-person class sessions that I’ve gotten accustomed to nowadays. Especially for commuters like myself, I didn’t have to drive, park, and walk to class, it seemed like I didn’t have school at all.
But is this an issue? Is it harder to stay focused in an online class compared to being in a classroom? For some, not at all, but for others, it makes it much harder to stay focused, learn effectively, and keep your grades up. We can all agree that the COVID-19 pandemic has definitely made many changes in the normal daily routine of so many people. But most importantly, it helps you to understand the effects and the tradeoffs of an in-person versus an online environment. Take the time to think about and understand that although you may feel like you’re fighting the battle yourself, you are most definitely not alone. Best of luck!