Items

• 2020-03-24

  From The Traditional to the Unknown: Moving from In-Person to Online Learning

  Much like other college students in the spring of 2020, I did not know how to react to the news that a virus called COVID-19 had begun infecting major cities, towns, and people. As an avid gamer, it appeared to me as though we started heading down the path of a zombie apocalypse or something similar to that, such as the ones you see in Call of Duty. I can still remember where I was as a sophomore in college when my school decided that it needed to shut down, sending students back to their homes and moving classes to the online world. At the start of what became pandemonium, I was with my friends in one of their dorm rooms, and we watched as the former president of the school, with a panel of other officials, answered questions about the pandemic and how the institution would respond. From my perspective, it seemed that no one knew what to do, and it was disconcerting to see that the leaders of the school were themselves in a state of flux. But who could blame them? In many ways, that spring of 2020 was unchartered waters, where everyone, including our leaders, did not know what to do or how to set forth a concrete plan. The lack of certainty, as I recall, led many students to become unsure of how the school would handle classes, graduation, plans for reimbursement for housing and dining costs, and, most importantly, the health and safety of the students and faculty. From that moment in spring 2020, it seemed that the college landscape would never be the same. With that said, this leads me to the point of my story. When the school decided that all classes would go online for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester and the entirety of the following school year, 2020 - 2021, it seemed entirely new and, in some ways, scary. Never before had I taken online classes, let alone know how to operate a program called Zoom. When I read the newsletter from my school saying that the 2020-2021 academic year would be online, it seemed, from my view, almost pointless to make students do schoolwork at a time when everyone was more concerned about their health and not getting other people sick. From that perspective, I felt angry, confused, and dismayed about how online classes would work. More importantly, I wanted to know how professors would respond to the situation, hopefully having them recognize that they should not assign a traditional amount of school work for a semester course given the extenuating circumstances beyond the classroom and college. I can still recall taking my first online class, and I felt utterly lost. I did not know how to operate Zoom, I did not know how to interact with my professors and classmates by staring into a camera on my computer, and I did not know, at the start, how challenging it would be to feel motivated to do the schoolwork. The latter was a difficult obstacle to overcome as being back at home and not in a classroom made it easier to forgo doing school work for a day, creating a lackadaisical mindset that negated my ability to do my assignments in a timely manner. On top of that, not being able to physically see my professors, either in class or in their office, made it even more difficult to ask questions. As someone who typically raises an abundance of questions, it seemed to me that that was no longer possible. Having to send several emails back and forth and then only have a few minutes to speak with a professor on Zoom after or before class made the process more cumbersome. The transition from the traditional classroom setting to the unknown world of online learning was a significant curve ball created by the pandemic that made the last part of my sophomore year and my entire junior year feel less important. The online medium essentially made the coursework seem less valuable to me. Even though I lived on campus in my junior year, 2021 - 2022, at the height of the pandemic, the educational side of my college experience became impacted to such a degree that I found myself not as engaged about the work or the course material. To that end, I share this story because it is one of many about how the pandemic took a substantial bite out of educational processes from 2020 into 2021. The classroom never felt the same during the pandemic and when I was on campus in 2021. Everywhere was a ghost town. In many ways, having to go from the traditional classroom into the expansive world of online learning was not something I thought I needed to think about as a college student. Of course, no one could have predicted what was going to happen, making the situation during that time all the more difficult to accept. I look back on it now and realize that I did lose a year and a half of my college experience. It is an unfortunate outcome of the pandemic, but I am thankful that no one in my family passed away from the disease, and all of my friends were safe as well. I wish I could relive my sophomore and junior years as a regular college student. However, having gone to college in the midst of the pandemic is historic, and I want to tell other generations about this experience. It will be challenging for future students to know what it was like to go to school at the same time a rampant disease spread across the globe. On the flip side, I think going to college during this time shows resiliency and courage on the part of many people. I hope this story is one that many can relate to as we move forward from these troubling years and continue to grapple with the legacy caused by the pandemic.
• 
  2024-05-07

  The Great Pause

  This story depicts my personal experience from the start of the pandemic up until the start of college. This narrative of this experience in my life was very important because the pandemic instilled a deeper appreciation for life's moments and a renewed sense of purpose, guiding the journey through college and beyond.
• 
  2021-12-01

  Graduate Clinicians and Teletherapy

  I am currently a senior majoring in communication sciences and disorders. Last year, student clinicians provided services entirely online through teletherapy. For clinicians, the transition to online was very difficult. It required relearning how to implement services that were just as engaging and effective as in-person therapy. For clients, some struggled immensely. Furthermore, sometimes the clients had trouble staying focused and supports could not be implemented the same way they normally would be in person. Some clients excelled online and have chosen to continue teletherapy even after in-person therapy was offered. For the future, I think SLPs and student clinicians will have to view the way they provide therapy differently. It is now expected that any clinician can successfully provide therapy in multiple different modes.
• 
  2021-11-29

  Rattler Retention

  This is an oral interview with two employees of the Office of Students retention at St. Mary's University. This showcases how the office of student retention played its part in guiding the transition from in-person to online and back to in-person classes throughout the pandemic. Their dedication to supporting students throughout the pandemic enriched the student experience for rattlers coming back to campus after an all online semester.
• 
  2021-11-16

  Hermit HERALD, ISSUE 132

  Wokeness, big Democrat problem
• 
  2021-10-15

  HIST30060: From Year 12 to First-Year University

  I interviewed my younger sibling, 'F', and transcribed the audio. They completed Year 12 in 2020 and then began university in 2021, which I believe is a significant transitionary time especially in the context of Covid to document. Their experiences in using different media forms for online classes is insightful and provides an interesting comparison. Additionally they provide insights into changing interests, socialising online, and reflecting on the world around them. They reflect on how they believe the nature of people has changed in relation to each other in an isolated but connected world, which I believe will be an interesting and informative insight for the future to gain an indepth understanding of the Covd-19 era from the perspective of the youth.
• 
  -2021-01-02

  Changing traditions

  Covid has changed family traditions, including the way we celebrate kids' birthdays. This picture is of my youngest niece on her birthday. We had a 'drive-by' birthday celebration where friends and family drive past the house and honk to acknowledge her special day. This development of the Covid age has been a difficult transition for all of my family members as social distancing has changed the way we handle even the most ordinary of events. How has Covid changed your family's traditions?
• 
  2021-09-22

  Jennifer Harris and Kevin Xin Oral History, 2021/09/22

  The object of this story was for us to tell our unique experiences living through the COVID-19 pandemic. We think that our interview is a good representation of what life could be like during the pandemic for two average teenagers.
• 
  2021-09-21

  Haig and Tia Oral History, 2021/09/21

  I think it's really important to document everyday life during the pandemic because soon everyone will forget what it was like.
• 
  2020-03

  Life of a College Student During a Pandemic

  The COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many people all across the globe in many different ways. One of the big groups of people that have been affected in the United States is college students. I was a semester and a half into my freshman year here at Duquesne when everything began to take a turn for the worse. Looking back to then, I was still finding my way and learning what it was like to be a college student at the time, just beginning to become familiar with the lifestyle. The past year and a half as a college student has been a long and hard process of transitioning into life as a college student during a global pandemic. Simple things like going to class in person, to eating with my friends in the dining hall were not as simple as they once seemed. Many students, like myself, struggled with being as involved in online classes like we were during in person classes. Along with that, I struggled with retaining a lot of the information given to me by my professors during class time, communication between student and professor was not as easy as it used to be. But not only has the education aspect of college changed drastically, there has been a huge change in the social aspect of college as well. Simple things like meeting with some friends to go get dinner after a long week of classes was not as easy as it once was. Looking back, freshman year now feels like an eternity ago, a lot about my life as a college student has changed due to this pandemic. Certainly, things are becoming better, and we are getting closer to normality, but the pandemic still affects me as a college student till this day. Still having to wear masks on campus as well as getting a COVID test when feeling a little bit sick are some things I have had to deal with recently. Life as a college student is ever changing during the pandemic, it has been very hard at times, but it is certainly something I will never forget.
• 
  2021-06-02

  Family Life During COVID-19

  The experience of how life changed during COVID-19 was a rather pleasant change of pace from how life had traditionally functioned. As soon as the pandemic happened and the transition to remote work and school took place I realized how little the amount of time was that we spent with the people we live with. Instead of heading out the door to an office before everyone was even awake everyday I was able to see me family every morning before we went off to our respective work spaces for school or work. Having three teenagers usually means kids disappear from the house but for the last year I have been home with them every day and it has made for relationships as close as when they were small children. My partner and I are able to see each other much more often and spend time together we never would have had outside of quarantine. While it appears the change to remote school will be going away my transition to working from home will be permanent for the foreseeable future. While I do find there are way more advantages than disadvantages for me in working from home it would definitely be better for the kids to be in physical school rather than distance learning. They will all be vaccinated by the fall and return to in person school leaving me home by myself during the day. While I am excited for many of the aspects of the eventual return to normalcy I will miss the time I had spending the days with my family. While I will miss the kids I sincerely doubt there will ever come a time where I look forward to going back to an office.
• 
  2021-03-24

  #JOTPYLesson from Clinton Roberts

  I’ve worked from home for the past year. In the past I’ve always worked in the public, but never expected to have to make this transition. I’ve learned to accept what life throws at you.
• 
  2020-03-20

  COVID kicked me off of my campus

  Around mid-March, all of the students of my college received an email that on-ground instruction had been suspended and that we all had 48 hours to leave campus.
• 
  2020-01-20

  Deep Clean the White House

  A cartoon shows a masked President Biden and Vice President Harris in front of the White House with a clean up crew of sorts.
• 2020-05-05

  A Tough College Year

  Life was hard for me for the last two years. As 2020 comes close to an end, I am almost wrapped up with my first year in college, though barely. Last year, due to some family issue, my grade was failing in high school, so I could not enter the college I was applied to, while in this year, the transition to college was still extremely tough due to the COVID pandemic. I had little to no social interactions with others, lives in complete isolation, while had to deal with college workloads. It was tough as I felt that my life was not in my control, and became increasingly frustrated. I had an extremely respiratory system as well, coughing and wheezing constantly, so I had to be careful at managing myself to not contain COVID. I felt like I was a burden on my family, who supports me financially right now, as well as a burden on the society. However, as I took a long walk across the city street during the night, I realized that this was out of my control. It was not my fault that the pandemic happened, and I am doing my part to prevent further spread of the disease. I am no burden of the society - no more than people who are not properly quarantining themselves, at least.
• 
  2020-11-06

  College VS. Pandemic

  Being a college students is seemingly easy and hard enough at the same time. We go to class we start taking notes and we transition those notes into a study sheet or even into a paper. The important part of that is the going to class part. One thing that I have personally learned is that it was not easy to transition to online classes. I am a visual learner and it is a lot easier to ask questions on something you did not understand. The transition to emailing and hoping you get a response buy the time the assignment is due is something new to a lot of people. and this is not just for the schooling side of the pandemic this is also for the culture of a college campus. There is jsut something about being on a campus and knowing that every other person that you are seeing is going through the exact same thing as you are and you are in this fight together. Also, you create friendships in these environments that could ultimately help you with an assignment. It is hard to transition to being alone and trying to do these things by yourself.
• 
  2020-09-18

  Metamorphosis

  This is a story why Online education is not the same as in-Person education that COVID took AWAY FROM US
• 
  2020-08-20

  Transitions During a Still World: My Time as a TA

  The world stopped. Everything about our daily lives that we loved (even the things we hated) became abnormal. After being sent home abruptly from my study abroad experience, I was aching for something academically stimulating to do with my summer. Internships were cancelled, and the world only seemed to be doing their daily doses of reading through social media. The position to become a Teaching Assistant for a newly created Politics of the Pandemic course fell into my lap. This blessing of a position gave me the chance to not only help a professor teach the national and global problems that COVID-19 brought into the world, but gave me the chance to truly influence the newest class of Suffolk Rams. A year ago, becoming a TA had given me a true, tangible connection to Suffolk, and this summer I got to aid 38 students in finding their own reasons to love the school. Even during a pandemic, when the world seems still, transitions are happening. I consider myself lucky to be a part of so many individual lives and transitions.
• 
  03/31/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #11 … Heidi A. Strobel, Ph.D., University of Evansville

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  2020-06-12

  Face Masks are Everywhere

  People are growing exasperated with the mercurial nature of the safety guidelines that are being provided by both state and local governments. Combined with a reopening plan that is different in every state, the average citizen is frustrated about what they can, and can not do. What will be safe, and what won't be safe moving forward? When should we wear masks and when do we not need to?
• 
  05/15/2020

  Academic Analysis of Federalism during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  #PSC401D #mlphelps #UNLV
• 
  2020-05-13

  The Life of an Essential Worker

  A personal allegory about my experiences working as an assistant manger at Jamba Juice. This talks about the rapid change in the workforce and how lit changed as I became an essential worker.
• 
  2020-05-09

  College Student Has to Move Out of the Dorms

  I first heard about Coronavirus during my spring break freshman year of college. I didn't think anything of it and definitely did not predict how the rest of the semester would go. I was talking about it with one my friends from back home in Scottsdale and heard that her university had cancelled in-person classes and was transitioning to online for the rest of the semester. This was extremely shocking to me, and I couldn't even fathom staying home past spring break, let alone the rest of the school year. A couple days later, my college, the University of Arizona, did the same. We had a couple days after spring break with no classes for the university to make the transition to online classes. After that, it was time for online learning. These times were extremely unpredictable, and no one knew what was coming next. No one, especially I, never thought that we would have to move out of the dorms and finish the rest of the semester completely online. That was what came next. I was devastated. I mean, I would be missing out on my first-year college experience that I would never be able to make up. I would lose my complete freedom. I would lose the ability to make new friends. I would lose the ability to spend time with the friends I had already made. I was so upset, and at the same time I had to adapt to this new normal. It was definitely not easy. My friends and I set up a date that we would come back to campus to hang out one last time and move out. This day was so depressing, but we tried to make the most of it. Pictured is us on that day. From left to right, Val, Anna, me, and Kiera. I miss them so much right now. I'm writing this at the end of the semester, just having finished the majority of my finals. And I was right, this semester was definitely not easy. I faced an extreme lack of motivation and depression topped by loads of assignments to complete. But what I can say is that while quarantine is still not over and probably will not be over for a while, I'm proud to have finished the school year remotely. I had to adapt to such a unique situation, and I did. I'm sure this story is similar to many college students out there, but I'm glad I was able to share mine, and I hope to look back on this in the future.
• 
  2020-05-04

  Transition to Online Classes

  As a Junior in college, the transition to online classes have been what I expected. They started off really difficult but as the semester comes to an end, it seems like we are getting used to them now. We were exactly halfway through our semester when we were told to shift to online format. That was quite the disruption. All my belongings were left in my apartment and I had to drive 6 hours to go and move out, since there were no flights. Along with classes still giving a full workload, this was not easy. I found it quite difficult to focus with online classes since it was so easy to drift off while listening to a zoom lecture. Normally, I don’t use a laptop in lecture halls because it is to distracting. And I was right, it is very distracting. Nevertheless, midterms were also a fiasco. Only one was proctored and that was a mess. It was through zoom and it was quite distracting. The average ended up being in the 50’s leading to a big curve given to us. My exams that weren’t proctored were still difficult since learning the material was a challenge. I am studying computer science so the material in my Junior year is quite challenging. Nevertheless, everyone has made their best effort to the transition. One thing that is the hardest with the transition were projects. My classes had group projects and working online like this with a group is difficult. We often couldn’t get a time to work because we are in different time zones. In addition, we had to screen share and give remote access to each others computers to complete basic tasks. Often I found it better to just work alone and then collaborate for email. Losing the interaction of groups was the most difficult. However, the professor was considerate and gave extensions and a lot of extra credit. He added upward of 40 bonus points to help us. This shows that professors do understand the hardship to transfer to remote learning, because even they must be facing hardships during these times. If this has to continue in the Fall it wont be as bad because I would only be taking electives in my final year. I would miss the interactions that I have on campus but it is unfortunate situation we are all in and we are making the best of this situation.
• 
  2020-05-03

  My Transition

  This is a short record of the changes in my life that took place due to the pandemic.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Journal of The Plague Year entry 5-Logan Bellos

  Thankful for the smooth transition to online learning.
• 
  2020-04-18

  TIme at Home

  A college student's transition to taking classes from home while spending time with their family.
• 
  2020-04-13

  Remote Learning

  As a college student, my academic career continues even this epidemic hits hard. During the first two week of transitioning to the remote learning, I felt lost and everything was out of control. I had to set up a schedule by myself to keep up with all the deadlines and make sure not missing any lecture that could be on the test. It was a complete novel experience for me, because I was so used to running between classes and let the schedule catch me instead of following the fixed schedule. Luckily, all my professors were supportive and are patient in guiding us through all the modules and send out reminders about the deadlines.
• 
  2020-04-07

  Daily Schedule during Quarantine March

  My daughter is a HS freshman and has been at home since March 16. This was her very early on schedule for her day. School was just transitioning to remote learning and the days were more free-form. We have 8 pets of various sizes and varieties so the 'pet hour' is a very important way to stay relaxed. Photo taken April 7, 2020. Document created late March 2020 just when schools closed.