Q: What is your typical school day like?

So I'm an athlete so I train a lot, but after that, I just come back home. You have to really have a lot of organization in terms of your time because usually we go to class and that typically will be scheduled for you, but now it's open to interpretation. You kind of have to set it out for yourself so I try to have my day figured out in terms of what I'll be working on and what we're going to be doing and things like that.

Q: How has it been like being a student-athlete and doing everything online?

It's really nice just because it's exhausting going to practice and then coming back and having to go to class and stuff. So it's really nice to be able to work with your own schedule. You know the weekends are really flexible for us because we don't have practice, so being able to do those things on our own time is really nice.

Q: So are you still keeping up with your training regimen?

Yeah, we do train fully now so it's a whole thing.

Q: Since everything is online, are your classes live or pre-recorded?

Right now only one of them is live, the rest are pre-recorded.

Q: Do you find your pre-recorded lectures at all understandable and engaging?

Yeah absolutely. I am one of those people that doesn’t really ask many questions in class so I don't mind having a pre-recorded lecture just because you can pause as you need to. It’s just really convenient being able to do it on your own time.

Q: Since you told me that you don't really ask a lot of questions in class, do you feel that studying online kind of took away the anxiety that in-person lectures sometimes have?

Absolutely yeah, because there's not a teacher staring at you expecting you to answer something.

Q: I know an issue a lot of people have with in-person lectures are group assignments or in-class discussions with other students. Are you at all relieved that you don't have to participate in those anymore?

Yes, I am. I'm not really a people person. I really don't mind doing things alone and I'm not a huge fan of group projects either. I'd rather just do my own thing and get it done.

Q: Do your professors have you participate in those breakout rooms?

No, I haven't had teachers who want us to do that. I do have live lectures but he doesn't split us up to go talk about anything.

Q: So going off that idea, I'm assuming that you don't have the need to reach out to your classmates and befriend any of them?

Actually I have for one of my classes. It's Greek and Roman myth. The only hard thing about it being asynchronous is that it's difficult to get in touch with your professor and ask him questions. Sometimes they don't reply to emails and so it's sometimes a little unclear as far as when he assigned something. Sometimes you don't really know what's going on and sometimes you have to turn to your classmates to ask what's going on but yeah that's the only problem I'd say.

"The only hard thing about it being a synchronous is that it's difficult to get in touch with your professor and ask him questions. Sometimes they don't reply to emails and so it's sometimes a little unclear as far as when he assigned something. Sometimes you don't really know what's going on and sometimes you have to turn to your classmates."

Q: Have you noticed that it’s difficult for you to get in contact with your professors when you do have a question?

Yes some of them are great at replying, some of them don't answer for a few days and you can’t just go up and ask them after class and be like ‘hey I was wondering if blah blah blah’ so that is definitely a huge disadvantage. It's something that we have to deal with, unfortunately.

Q: Have you noticed that your emails are getting flooded with a lot of syllabi information and assignments?

I have but I don't mind. I prefer them to be emailing us and be like ‘hey you have this due tonight’ or ‘you have it due tomorrow’ just so that it's a reminder. But I actually prefer it that way as long as I stay on top of it.

Q: How have you been as far as organizing your online classes?

I know a few people are worried about everything getting out of control. Yeah I'm actually worried about everything snowballing out of control because I took summer classes, and I only took two, so it wasn't a very big workload. But now I'm taking four or five classes so you have to really organize your day to figure out when you are going to do what. It's really easy to get carried away and be like ‘I'll do this later” and procrastinate so that's definitely something I'm worried about and something that I want to take care of right now. It's like the first two weeks so I'm kind of trying to figure out the workload of each class and how I should go about it. It's kind of like an experiment right now but yeah I've definitely got to work on that.

"I took summer classes, and I only took two, so it wasn't a very big workload. But now I'm taking four or five classes so you have to really organize your day to figure out when you are going to do what. It's really easy to get carried away and be like ‘I'll do this later” and procrastinate so that's definitely something I'm worried about."

Q: Have you noticed that any of your professors are having trouble transitioning to this online learning environment?

Maybe. Some of them aren't as technologically advanced but some of them do have a little bit of trouble figuring out Zoom or trying to put lectures up. But for the most part, they've been pretty good and they've also been really understanding. Knowing that online lectures are not easy, they've been trying to show us some slack, maybe letting us do open book tests and things like that, so professors have been pretty good.

Q: Have they provided any outside resources for you?

None that I know of. There is for math, we do have student tutors online so you can use that resource when you need to, but other than that no. It's really just getting in touch with your professors if you're having a problem through office hours.

Q: Has your university provided any additional help as far as Wi-Fi or laptop access?

No, they haven't provided any. I mean I wouldn't need any help so I haven't contacted anybody about it, but I haven't come across anybody offering any help.

Q: Is there anything you wish your teachers would implement in order to help you out as a student?

Yeah, I mean I guess for most professors, I think they need to understand that learning on an online platform isn't the easiest thing. I do really appreciate professors who allow open book tests or tests that are more comprehensive. A lot of professors just assign a bunch of reading because we're doing an online class. I'd rather they don't do that and just kind of turn it into lectures instead of bombarding us with things to read. So that's definitely something I wish they'd change.