Q: What does your typical school day look like now that everything's online?

My classes aren't until like 2 so I guess I work more now than I would be before. Since my classes are all online, I don't have to get ready or anything like that and I really just have to crawl out of bed and go to my classes which is nice. But it also makes it a lot harder if you need help.

Q: Can you explain a little bit how online classes make it harder for you as a student?

Yeah so if you have a question you know right then and there, the professor is not always able to respond as fast as in the classroom so it just makes communication a little harder just because there are so many people doing the exact same thing. So the professor has so many other people to help out and look for all online, emails, and such, so it takes a little bit longer to get some help. You don't make as many friends I feel because you're not in class. That makes it harder if you're new here or if you're new in town, a freshman coming in, and I mean other than that it's not that bad.

Q: Now that you have to balance your work life and school load, is that a little more difficult for you?

No, I'd actually say that it's easier because it's all online mostly. All of the classes that I'm doing are online so it is more lenient as to when you have to be there. When you have in-person classes you have to take off from work, but now you can get on your phone, or if you have a break you can go in your car and do something then. It just makes it a little more convenient.

Q: Do you find your online lectures understandable and engaging?

In class is definitely more understandable and it does make more sense. Yeah, I'd say it was easier to understand when we were in class, but now there are so many buttons and pages and links to download. It's a lot now.

Q: Are you being bombarded with a lot of emails?

Yeah. I mean so far the professors have done pretty good, but it's just harder with the older professors that obviously before weren't forced to use technology. It just makes it difficult because like they are now just learning with us but they’re supposed to be teaching us, not making it difficult that we're learning at the same speed.

Q: Do you feel like with the material you're learning you're teaching yourself?

Oh yeah, I think that with anybody who takes online classes just in general. I agree with that because some professors will have a lecture that you can go back to and rewatch, but not all professors have that. So yeah sometimes you have to just go back and read or look at the notes that you wrote and I’ll be like ‘I just have no clue what's going on but here we go’.

Q: It sounds like a really stressful time for everyone at the moment.

It's stressful. It wasn't that bad when you were taking one online class or two, but when it's all five of them, it makes it just really hectic and frustrating at times. And the internet doesn't always work or there are so many people on Zoom, so it crashes

"I mean so far the professors have done pretty good, but it's just harder with the older professors that obviously before weren't forced to use technology. It just makes it difficult because like they are now just learning with us but they’re supposed to be teaching us, not making it difficult that we're learning at the same speed"

Q: Oh I didn't know Zoom could crash. Have you experienced that so far?

I wasn't on it, but I got an email the day I had one of my classes saying that classes were paused, that they were having some technical difficulties. I guess it was too crowded or whatever and I guess they fixed it fast. It did happen on the first few days of school.

Q: Do you see yourself having trouble keeping up with your classes?

Oh yeah. I feel like when we started this week, the first few days felt like I was still in summer. I felt like I didn't have to go to class so at times I would forget to keep up with my Zoom lectures and that I physically had to be on the screen. It just feels way more relaxed now that everything's online, so it is going to be hard to get up and you know make yourself visible for a camera or sit down and just focus on doing it. It’s hard when you're in your own apartment with your roommates and they don't always have the same schedule. Some of them are in class and some of them aren't. Some of them are in the house and you can hear them, so it makes it a little difficult to concentrate with all the noises. I don't know, but I think once I get the hang of it, I guess it'll be fine.

Q: Have any of your teachers provided resources to help you?

Yeah, some professors have. Within one class, there's like three hundred kids and it makes it hard for my professor sometimes. He uses his graduate assistants to help him out and he breaks us up into groups online where there's like a hundred of us in one group. It makes it easier to communicate versus 300 people. Some of my professors have realized that with taking classes online, you don't get as good of grades and they've seen it just from teaching classes online vs in-person. One professor is giving us a grading scale where the curve is higher, so normally teachers put it as a C and a D, but he's putting it as a C and a B, so yeah this semester he'll help you out a letter grade.

Q: Would you say that your professors are bombarding you with a little more work?

No, I think all of my professors are feeling the same way where this is new and frustrating. They're giving us more discussion posts and written things but I think it's to keep us involved more because you do slack off when it's online. I think they're just giving us more discussion to participate but workload no, it's not hard work that they're overloading us with. I feel like they're in the same boat kind of. We're learning as we go and they’re understanding, but they're also realizing that since it is online, we're not going to learn as much. So they are giving us everything that we need to do good in the end, so that we learn something, but trying not to bombard us with so much. They know their class is not the only one that we have.