Nutshell

The Nutshell: Transitioning to Online Classes

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MISHAWAK, IN – This week, we asked students through email, “How are you feeling about the new online classes and how is it affecting your college experience?” The students have asked to remain anonymous.  

“It sucks. To put it plainly and simply, that is the best word I have found to describe this entire [situation]. I want someone to blame--the institution, society, people in general, but at the end of the day, this is no one's fault and perhaps that is what makes it so incredibly frustrating. I didn't think I would ever be affected by Corona, and now we are living in a world where everyone has been touched by it. I want it to be over,” one student said. “I want to be back in my favorite classrooms. I even want DC food again because that would mean I would be in the home I have been building over the last couple of years. Being ripped away from everything so unexpectedly is difficult. Classes feel like busywork that never ends and honestly, I don't feel like I am learning much of anything. And again, it's the same thing in that it is no one's fault; this just isn't how it is supposed to be. Yet here we all are, respectively six feet apart and trying to make the best of a new ‘normal’ that is very much new and not at all normal.” 

“This new online schooling is tough on students as well as teachers,” a different student said. “Especially [considering] how urgently it was pushed on everyone. At the end of the day this is not the ideal learning environment for some students, and I didn’t pay tuition to do college like this. It’s been really stressful trying to get organized every day when I’m receiving 30 different alerts from my email and the Canvas app. Most of my teachers are inconsistent when it comes to where they put announcements and assignments. Some email, others use canvas, and one uses her own wiki page to try to direct everything. This whole thing is one big mess and I’m going to end up doing badly because of it. It has definitely had a major impact on my mental health and not in a positive way. I’m hoping Bethel figures out a way where nobody gets hurt in the end, but I don’t see that happening sadly.” 

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