Jordan Holland’s uni-from-home story suggests you should be careful what you wish for.
How many times have you ever wished for an extra hour in bed – rising at 8:50pm to simply roll out ready to start work?
No travelling in rush hour on sweaty public transport – no daily fee for the displeasure. And maybe cut down on the grooming time?
Over the last year, chances are your wish has come true. Most of us have even had no choice.
Well, to be honest, the dream has gotten a little tired. Having listed the benefits, the downsides – especially in education – have really kicked in.
This, then, is my ‘Edu-stay-cation’ story – of finishing my final year at University from the bosom of my family home.
It started at the tail-end of my second year, mid-March 2020, with an email ping. Campus would close immediately, teaching would be online only, several final pieces of coursework cancelled. “Excellent! Cheers Covid!” I thought – and not in a sarcastic way.
What didn’t occur to me was that my family would be confined too. Easy for mum, who’s been working for home for a few years now. My sister too could easily adapt. For my Dad, it was a bit tougher.
My dad has always worked, sometimes up to 90 hours a week, for the last 20 years. Now, though, furloughed, sat at home, much needed rest – but undeniably bored. “Maybe I’ll buy another remote-controlled car”, says dad. Oh, oh. Bless him, I do love him dearly though.
But I see the second year out – not a lot to do – and hand in the last of the second year’s tasks. Easy! Woohoo!
Home distractions were even a relaxing distraction in those days and my attention quickly turned to exciting summer months ahead. But they were not so exiting in the end. We stayed home, protected the NHS and saved lives instead.
I awaited my return to campus in late September for the start of my third and final year of University. Restrictions did slowly ease, we were able to enjoy some days out, seeing previously separated friends and family.
Maybe it would return to normal. After all, how long can this last…?
September came, lectures loomed. Then we were welcomed to our third, final, vitally important year.
We were told about this new ‘dual delivery teaching.’
Basically, students who value face-to-face teaching could get it. For the rest – either unable, ill, worried, protecting themselves or others – or perhaps unwilling, pandemic – teaching could be online.
So I showed up in person. “After all, I’m still paying for this year,” I thought.
However, I quickly discovered that it just wasn’t enjoyable. I would turn up to my lecture, log on to one of the computers and join Teams from there. My online classmates, though, were on mute and I couldn’t converse in anything like the way we used to.
Only a few attended face-to-face lectures – three, four, five of us max. The long journey only to sit at a screen, in an eerily quiet campus. Not for me I’m afraid.
So – like my classmates – I stayed home, in my bedroom-campus. I perched on the bed, my room too small for a desk or chair.
However, communication was easier than the being on-site, and weirdly I felt less isolated working from home than on the sparsely populated campus.
Don’t get me wrong, though, I really did really miss the face-to-face interaction of education gone by. Especially when it comes to seeing my friends on the course, with whom I’d spent the best part of two years becoming buddies and co-workers in education. Online just hollows out those relationships. Education online is two-dimensional.
Eventually we went online only. But really that’s what the “dual delivery” had become anyway.
The third and final year of any University course is always the toughest. I couldn’t even begin to count just how many people have said that to me over the last couple of years since I’ve been at Uni.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in all of this, it’s that those people were right.
The workload has stepped up significantly and the quality of work expected of you has definitely gone up as well. It’s been a lot of pressure, even more so when you are told “there are no excuses.”
This hasn’t been helped, either, by the lack of separation between a workspace and relaxation space. Travelling to and from Uni helped me with this before – whether I realised it at the time or not.
But here I am, just under two weeks away from submitting my final piece of work and completing Uni. As much as I’ve probably moaned about it, I’ll know I’ll miss it.
What I won’t miss however is the philosophy of ‘edu-stay-cation-ing.’ The distractions, lack of face-to-face teaching and not being able to see friends have washed out the colour and depth from the experience.
Be careful what you wish for, I guess… I would have preferred a normal education to finish my University journey.
