The give and take of online learning during the pandemic

Written by Nancy Tran

When we start the Fall 2020 semester, the majority of classes, labs, lectures, and tutorials will be online. Students will have difficulty learning and also connecting with each other. We will no longer be bonding over a bowl of cereal or a cup of coffee at the breakfast club or having short conversations while waiting in line at Tim Hortons for coffee to keep our energy up despite our class having started 8 minutes ago. But these are things we must sacrifice. There are lives at stake and while many are complaining about tuition rising while we are receiving a lower quality of education; our instructors are doing their best to adapt and teach us. They have had months to prepare for virtual instruction. It is best to take things with the silver lining and appreciate the things our instructors are trying to do in an effort to help us learn while working to adapt and improve our learning ourselves.

As we prepare for online learning, I would like to encourage everyone to sign up the seminars hosted by Student Learning Services as they can help us prepare for learning online. Some of the ones targeted towards online learning are “Time Management for Online Learning”, “Adapting to Online Learning” and “Taking Online Tests”. I believe these will be useful as not everybody is accustomed to learning online and it can help to learn new tools that can work to improve our learning experience.

As for connecting with others, we can do so through clubs and online activities. We won’t get to experience face-to-face interactions with others but we have the opportunity for communication and support from peers. We can also make online study groups to keep each other on track and motivated to learn. While the Fall 2020 semester may seem disappointing, taking action and working to adapt and connect can make it into a great semester.