How are your online classes going for you?

[TrueSloth]

Because I can't focus at all.

I normally take one or two online courses a term, but since campus is closed and classes are relegated to online platforms, I'm at home all the time. And it sucks. I have no sense of daily rhythm or focus. I need to be on campus to keep me focused on my work. I feel like I need to break up my day by moving around to keep me engaged in my work. It's way too easy to fall into a lull of laziness now that I'm home all the time.

How are you guys surviving this term?

 

[diakyu]

The wait till the day it's due strategy seems to be working well until I had two essays due on the same day. I pulled it off but damn did it suck.

I will learn nothing from this and continue to do it till the end of the semester.

 

[Deleted member 1476]

They're going like garbage.

--

We had a couple of those threads already.

 

[TrueSloth]

They're going like garbage.

--

We had a couple of those threads already.

Click to shrink...

I didn't realize. I really just wanted confirmation that I wasn't alone in my feeling.

 

[hwarang]

I'm actually preferring the recorded lectures as I can study at my own pace. MS finance here.
I skip the live lectures. I can't focus for 3 hours straight. That's madness.

I think it's going badly for the classes reliant on the socratic method though.

Group projects are more or less the same. People still procrastinate. I guess it's just in the nature of most people.

 

[Chubnasty]

Fluid mechanics and Dynamics are going terribly.

Sign Language 2, Linear Algebra, and CAD 2 are fine.

Two classes are keeping me up at night, causing major stress issues, and over all ruining my life or my outlook.

 

[Rosebud]

I freakin' hate to go to classes, so to me it's better than before.

But tbh this college depresses me and I'm not even trying, it must suck for good students.

 

[Cenauru]

I was already taking zero classes, only one class away from graduating with my certificate but burning out super hard and need therapy to continue, so that's completely on hold right now while I'm still dealing with trying to get therapy through the autism therapy program my insurance covers. One of my issues was that I just can't keep up with online classes on top of my college's shitty CIS department, so I'm shit out of luck right now.

 

[Cantaim]

In some MIS classes and they are not going well. They were almost all project based which had us partner with small businesses to build them systems or databases that they need. But the projects were all cancelled 10 weeks in because of everything going on. So instead I got given triple the amount of online work to make up for the grades we will miss based on what's left of the project.

 

[Squarehard]

They're good on my end, but my students are half and half freaking out for the most part.

Definitely a weird time...

 

[Blue Skies]

bad until I realized how easy it is to cheat now

 

[Chubnasty]

It's one thing to take a class designed to be online.

It's a completely different animal taking a once in person class and trying to force it online halfway through.

Almost none of my professors have the same delivery of content. Some require zoom live classes, some have zoom live but the videos are recorded for later, some have long videos posted that expire in x amount of days, some upload a bunch of 5 minute videos three times a week.

I wish there was a consistent way the university could force instructors to follow but we all know there was never a plan or procedure for this type of transition regardless of how much money students throw at higher education.

 

[Kientin]

It's going to bury me. Not doing well at all.

 

[Rosebud]

bad until I realized how easy it is to cheat now

Click to shrink...

Professors anti-cheating measures are worse than Warzone

 

[Pau]

My semesters are usually really tough around this time anyways so it's hard to gauge how much an effect moving online has had. In general I'm doing better (emotionally) than I was last semester since I'm not talking a theoretical computer science course. Ironically, my grades are (slightly) worse, but thankfully we moved to mandatory pass/fail. Some of the courses were already held as online courses for extension schools students, so the infrastructure was there to move everyone online.

But it's still hard. I'm much less likely to go to office hours. I no longer just hang out in the library or lobbies doing homework with other students. My anxiety about school hasn't gone down; instead I get extra anxiety about COVID-19. My sleep schedule is fucked. I lost my internship. Everyone else in my social circle has less stuff to do now and wants to spend time socializing with me virtually, but I'm still swamped.

Other issues aren't related to the move to online, but they don't help. The hard drive I was using for my data science course straight up died so now I'm stuck using JupyterHub where the kernel seems to die once or twice an hour. Now I'm just ranting...

I'm trying to take it one deadline at a time. I just need to survive until Tuesday. Then I'll let myself think about the next deadline.

 

[Blue Skies]

Professors anti-cheating measures are worse than Warzone

Click to shrink...

It's funny cause my school definitely has used the "online test with webcam and browser lockdown" before, but not during this for some reason lol

 

[DragonSJG]

My profs just ended class and gave us assignments for take home

 

[Quantum Leap]

One of my classes got canceled super last minute and we only had a few weeks left. What kind of bullshit is this 😤

 

[Rellodex]

I'm old enough that "online class" meant that it had an "online option" in the form of recorded lectures or video content.

But in those cases I actually went to the classroom rather than watching the pre-recorded footage. I even remember times where I'd show up to class to be greeted with a projected documentary or whatever that was literally the video available online.

I also remember that in college pretty much all my exams were open-book but so time constrained that if you actually had to open the book to solve an exam problem you were already screwed.

 

[Deleted member 50540]

I got lucky, finished my credit requirements as of last quarter so don't need to take any classes now. Of course I was planning to work now but that got canned. Now I'm auditing one class that uses discussion board posts instead of Zoom meetings, so I guess its just really longform Era posting

 

[Ryuhza]

I've done a fair few online courses before this, so probably better than most. Still, not easy having to largely teach myself electromagnetism, discrete mathematics, and linear algebra. But having take home exams is a sweet relief from the suffocating in-class exam environment and all the nerve-wracking uncertainty of the days leading up to that. I legitimately had something of a mental breakdown last year during my Calculus II final because the testing environment and study materials seemed to be designed to maximize stress. I spent the weekend studying, then just started forgetting everything in the hours before the test.

 

[HammerFace]

Terribly. Stats MS student here. I have one professor who has a thick accent and bad handwriting so its hard to understand him. He's also really bad at responding to questions. He either doesn't understand them, gives you the wrong answer, or just ignores your question. Its incredibly frustrating. A good number of the class relied on meeting up with each other to discuss things and help fill in any gaps in the learning, and now we're all kind of screwed.

 

[TheCthultist]

They've been weird, but I can't say I'm not enjoying the way they're set up so far. Plenty of work, but very little time that we actually have to put into being present in class (In front of a camera, essentially).

 

[bangai-o]

I have completely lost track of what is going on in my coursework. Although, it is mostly because work has pushed so much on work-from-home that I lost focus of my classes.

 

[almutama]

I'm not sure what to do. It's optional for my uni and lasts till june 13th, like if you don't sign up, you can continue in august, but I'm afraid i'll be late. I tried 2 classes and honestly, it was kind of awkward. Not sure if it's worth the mental stress to continue, or just wait until the pandemic is over, which seems a long time from now.

 

[arcadepc]

Both of my parents are high school principals that occasionally do online classes but because they could not attend school they carried the school's phone number to their mobile phones. What ensued was a chaos of phone calls every few minutes by teachers and parents.
In this day and age there are teachers with no laptops or desktops or any idea of basic Internet technology.

 

[Zelenogorsk]

Programming classes? Going fine.
Math classes? Not good!

 

[Rae]

Not great, I feel tired all the time.

 

[nampad]

Doing some prep courses for a certificate and have to sit through courses from 9-5.

It's mostly fine, some technical issues that can get annoying though (disconnects, bad mics/audio quality) and I think the course atmosphere would help calm me down a bit when I can see that the others don't understand what is meant, too 🤪

It is also more difficult to ask the teacher something and the lack of visual feedback makes the teacher speed through some things too quick (e.g. we have to look up certain law paragraphs in several books and it does take some time).

I enjoy not having to leave my apartment though as it saves some time I can use for learning.

 

[Thwomp]

Not great, I feel tired all the time.

Click to shrink...

Lack of vitamin D maybe?

 

[Lord Moriarty007]

I was already doing online classes before the pandemic. But I have a hard time doing my research paper that is due this weekend because I can't go to the library and get sources. The professor told me to try by going and using online journal articles. Fuck that I'm just going to make this paper a fluff piece. This is the first time I'm writing an essay in my grad program. Most of the time, they have been projects. (My program is in Museum Studies)

 

[Blackie]

Struggling harddd. Not progressing at the same pace, too distracted, had bouts of S.A.D, anxiety, etc. I need to pick up the pace and get back into the groove, my course is almost over and the power to finish it is largely in my control.

Silver lining, though? Being at home all day has helped me get back into playing videogames again :D

 

[Deleted member 18360]

They've functionally ceased. Part of it was timing (I handed in my term paper a few days ago), the other part is that it's functionally impossible to lead a philosophy seminar incentivizing student preparation and engagement through online bulletin board.

 

[GeminiX7]

I'm at the end of my first year of my Masters and I even though it was purely online to begin with, I'm more or less over the idea of completing the program. Between my new job as a Sysadmin, proposing to my fiancee, planning for the future and the world coming to an end it's hard to keep any energy for my classwork. I dont know if the date to register for the fall came and went already but I'm genuinely tempted to take a semester or even the next year off.

 

[Funkybee]

Annoying af. Some professors think that we should be spending most of our time exclusively to do the unnecessary workload of hw with stuff that they dont even bother to teach in any way and forget that there are other classes to take care of. My patience is reaching its limits.

 

[Deleted member 65068]

Because I can't focus at all.

I normally take one or two online courses a term, but since campus is closed and classes are relegated to online platforms, I'm at home all the time. And it sucks. I have no sense of daily rhythm or focus. I need to be on campus to keep me focused on my work. I feel like I need to break up my day by moving around to keep me engaged in my work. It's way too easy to fall into a lull of laziness now that I'm home all the time.

How are you guys surviving this term? As a professor, I'm used to the classroom so this has been a big change. Get into a routine and follow it. Luckily, I teach both f2f and online classes so the transition hasn't been too much of a problem for me.

Click to shrink...

It's been tough, as you say. As a professor, I've been trying to keep to the routine. Luckily, I teach both f2f and online so the transition has not been too bad. I'm just trying to keep it to the normal daily requirements for my online classes and being available all day for the classes that moved online as they need the most help.

Almost none of my professors have the same delivery of content. Some require zoom live classes, some have zoom live but the videos are recorded for later, some have long videos posted that expire in x amount of days, some upload a bunch of 5 minute videos three times a week.

Click to shrink...

At my uni, admins have explicitly said that there is no uniform procedure to the transition, which is why every student is having different experiences. My department chair basically said to not attempt any synchronous instruction--students are all facing different situations that makes it difficult for a mandatory meetings. Office hours, however, can be both.

In my view, I'm trying to make it as easy as possible without descending into "busy work". Pared down lessons to the absolute basics, "homework" that tests the core concepts, summative assignments that get to the point without being redundant.

And believe me: Professors feel your pain, and we are trying to meet outcomes while being fair. Reach out! Tell us what is working and what isn't...

 

[Chubnasty]

It's been tough, as you say.


At my uni, admins have explicitly said that there is no uniform procedure to the transition, which is why every student is having different experiences. My department chair basically said to not attempt any synchronous instruction--students are all facing different situations that makes it difficult for a mandatory meetings. Office hours, however, can be both.

In my view, I'm trying to make it as easy as possible without descending into "busy work". Pared down lesson to the absolute basics, "homework" that tests the core concepts, summative assignments that get to the point without being redundant.

And believe me: Professors feel your pain, and we are trying to meet outcomes while being fair. Reach out! Tell us what is working and what isn't...

Click to shrink...

Thank you for this insight. Every professor I've communicated made to understandably believe that they are almost as lost as we are. A large majority of the professors I've spoken to have said that it's their first time trying to turn their in-person classes online and it's understandably difficult. The only thing I can say is that if a professor has growing pains adjusting they feel a -minor- impact but that ripple effect in the students cannot be calculated. It has me on my ends if I should just quit because I'm not sure Fall 2020 will be any better.

 

[KillLaCam]

Pretty much nonexistent. I only have 2 papers this month. No actual specific content to study, no quizzes no anything.

Very pointless

 

[Deleted member 65068]

Thank you for this insight. Every professor I've communicated made to understandably believe that they are almost as lost as we are. A large majority of the professors I've spoken to have said that it's their first time trying to turn their in-person classes online and it's understandably difficult. The only thing I can say is that if a professor has growing pains adjusting they feel a -minor- impact but that ripple effect in the students cannot be calculated. It has me on my ends if I should just quit because I'm not sure Fall 2020 will be any better.

Click to shrink...

I'm a younger, more tech-savvy professor, too. Some of these professors have been here forever and have no idea what to do with the tech side of things. The worst thing they could do it try to replicate the live class with the online one, though.

But, anyway, good luck! There is no prebaked game plan for this. We are all just trying to build the plane while it's in the air. The more you can give feedback to your professors or administrators the better as this is going to me the new normal for a few semesters.

 

[RainbowIslands]

Thankfully wrapped up with all the lectures! (Those zoom classes were seriously pretty hard to sit through.) But that also means final and project presentation/paper are coming up. Just need to hang on tight and focus for the next two weeks then I'm mostly free (for full time research!). I'm also glad that the class I TA'd ended two weeks ago, so I don't have to worry about grading and all that anymore.

It was a rough swap towards online for the TA class and my own classes (One professor literally said learn the material on your own, even with spring break's extended for one week). I guess school holidays are irrelevant for grad school, lol. I'm glad most of it is over... but I still have a ton to do for the next couple weeks...

 

[Gaf Zombie]

Still trying to learn Python for data analysis.

Still getting my ass kicked.

 

[mbpm]

As i said last time with one of these threads, they kinda aren't. It's like spring semester became a summer semester with less direction.

 

[evrythngwastakn]

I have a solid 24% of my students submitting work. So yeah. Pretty pretty preeeettty good. Sure makes me want to keep assigning more stuff that they'll fall further behind on that I'll have to harp on them to do before report cards in June.

 

[Cyrus_Saren]

Been doing online classes for a while so nothing different. Burnt out on it and desperately want it to be done. I've got 16 weeks left for my Bachelor's but I still don't feel like there's a "finish" line in sight. Just trying to power through and get it done.

 

[Nida]

Anyone else get the feeling that their teacher just kind of threw some stuff together for an online course?

Old thread, but Summer semester just started.