One university student gives a glimpse into the strange reality of online learning
Rather than getting to class we’re learning on Teams – sometimes Zoom – and have been for a year now. It’s rubbish and students want a discount on their tuition fees.
But what’s really happening behind the students’ webcams? What’s a lesson like delivered on Microsoft Teams from the student perspective?
It generally goes like this: first tap-in to confirm attendance – you get monitored. Then camera off, and usually mute audio for the whole lesson.
Morning lectures start by rolling out of bed to desk, usually five minutes before start-time but sometimes five minutes after.
Occasionally your name is called, a lecturer is discussing coursework. They want examples even answers. Everyone is waiting for the long silent pause while the student finds the click to unmute. Or rather, the student is heading back to their desk from lying down.
Don’t panic – confusion is expected, the lecturer will say the question again to fill the silence. You’ll cobble something together. The 15 to 30 seconds wait seems like a very, very, long time. Occasionally no student appears. Next.
Sometimes the loo is where the student is resting. One student at the start of the year forgot to mute while peeing – for three splashing minutes. A urinary tract infection, perhaps?
But where the camera is off for one, it really gets tedious and frustrating when everyone has their camera off the whole lesson.
On Teams, this means staring at circles. The poor lecturer talks to the void for two to three hours, mocked by rows of silent coloured circles with initials.
One horror story went like this: a lecturer asked students to turn cameras on so that they could interact with them. No response. They then asked each student what they have been up to on the weekend and what they have been watching on tv. No response.
Snapping, the lecturer then made it mandatory for all students to turn their cameras on or interact for the remainder of the lesson. Refuse and you would be marked absent. To no surprise, almost everyone immediately turned their cameras on, and it stayed like this for the rest of the lesson.
So do students respond to the human touch? It seems not! But general threats that might carry disciplinary consequences at some time in the future. That works. On the other hand, maybe we’re just exhibiting herd-like behaviour.
Many of us pretend to be online and even have cameras on, but who knows what’s happening off screen. Well I do. It starts as you zone out. It then continues scrolling on the phone – for a good 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, the lecturer asked us to take a 20 minute break and to come back with some ideas to discuss in class. Er… that was 25 minutes ago. Now your name is being called to talk. This prompts the “online learning freeze”, followed by online learning panic bullshit…
So minimise contact seems to be the order of the day. You will hear plenty of ‘my camera isn’t working’, ‘sorry but I seem to be having problems with my microphone’, even ‘I look terrible today’. Occasionally ‘I don’t want to’. These are good excuses to be fair, but I would have to say my favourite one is when they say ‘I’m getting a poor connection’. Everyone knows you’re not paying attention. To these bullshit excuses the lecturer is thinking ‘do you take me for a dummy?’.
The most important thing is universities across the country have tried their best to provide the best resources for all students to be able to attend lectures online and to be able to complete the work required.
But it still sucks.
Years from now I look forward to telling future generations how lucky they are when they are learning in virtual reality, represented by silent balls – spheres – instead of our crappy circles.
I never thought that I would be doing my final year of University from my home. One thing I am grateful about is that I’m glad this is my last year, because I could never do this again.
