COVID-19: Students Weigh In
Anna, UW Tacoma
“I find myself no longer having a effective work and life balance. Due to having to work more and more hours on top of still valuing my education in the 2020 Spring quarter, my work seems to be taking up all free time outside of family obligations.
With this being a struggle that I face, it also presents another issue. I find myself lacking motivation to start even minor tasks. In less than a week, I will have another full course load for the 2020 Fall Quarter on top of working and that is a little daunting knowing my current state.
I do find that in light of the pandemic, many professors have been more open to being understanding of the different situations that arise and may inhibit a person from accessing material or even attending class on time. I know UWT has continued to make efforts so that the students on and off the campus feel safe, prioritized, and welcomed on campus. During the summer quarter, UW sent two free face masks to every student registered for classes this fall. These are the actions that show they care about students.”
Zinaida, Green River College
“For the positive side, I have a lot more free time to create my own schedule and do school work when it is most convenient for me. The negatives would be that I have a lot less motivation and a lot of times it becomes easy to fall behind. It has also made it fairly difficult to learn the harder material just because it is not in a classroom setting and do homework.
Then, there is the worry about having a stable place to participate in Zoom meetings and do homework with a strong internet connection. I feel with COVID-19, my grades seem to be lower than what they were before online learning began and I have little to no motivation to keep up with the work. I’m no longer at a point where I want to get good grades but more at a place where I’m okay with a low grade as long I’m passing.
Emery, Seattle Central College
“This has been so challenging especially for science courses because we don't have labs and moreover, sometimes internet connections at my place are bad. One thing that I like about it is that I don't have to commute from my place to school.”
Gloria, UW Seattle
“Learning during COVID-19 has been hard to focus on assignments because being around my house is distracting. It has been challenging because it is hard to talk to others about assignments and connecting with my teachers. I had an easier time to think because I was able to go to the library freely. The one thing that I do like about learning remotely is that all my assignments are formatted and I can quickly go and see.”
Joseph, UW Tacoma
"Like many people, the pandemic has forced me to transition from in-person to a fully online curriculum. Most of my classes became easier to access. Of course, that’s really only a luxury if you have stable access to the internet; more than a few classes have been stalled because someone had software or internet issues.
However, I’ve been lucky enough to have accommodating professors. Some online classes were restructured to be more self-paced, getting rid of requirements like attending a live lecture and replacing them with pre-recorded material.
All in all, the best advice I’d give is to be patient with yourself. It gets pretty mind-numbing spending a majority of your day staring at a computer screen and you’re going to deal with day-to-day technical issues. Giving yourself some mental breaks and time away from the screen will make the online education experience that much easier."