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Notre Dame, IN

Oh my gosh “are there things I miss?”, of course there are things I miss! I miss literally everything! I miss my old personality and my usual self and the more energy I had rather than being a sloth and beating myself up for not having enough energy. I miss my friends and people most of all, and physical touch. I am oh so lonely, I barely see my roommate and haven’t carried out a conversation with a real life person since the first week of school. If I do talk to people, it’s over the phone or over Zoom or FaceTime. But I also have kind of avoided being in contact with people to the extent I usually was because they always want to know where I am or how I’m doing and I don’t enjoy explaining that I don’t have a good home situation and am therefore not at home. Like I like to pretend I’m fine and have resources and am happy. But that’s kind of hard so I haven’t been reaching out as much because I don’t want to expose myself and people to ask me questions.

Cincinnati, OH

My motivation is nearly non-existent. I really need a separation between my work space and home space, which I simply cannot have in my 1-bedroom apartment. And I hate meetings on Zoom. It is so weird to look directly at my classmates during class.

Wilmington, DE

My theater class was already a little weak to begin with. The professor would go on sometimes incoherent tangents and the class as a whole was bored and unengaged. Over Zoom I think the students are given a better setting to pay even less attention, and now some of the more physical elements of the class are totally void. It’s almost comically bad. We no longer have “warm-ups” (which involved some game or physical exercise we were supposed to do at the beginning of the class), we can no longer see the plays we were expected to attend (we were given movies to watch instead), and the monologues we were expected to memorize and recite were performed over Zoom instead, which allowed students to just read theirs off their screens.

New Haven, CT

My favorite class is much worse. I’m an Honors student and most of my classes are discussion-based, and discussion boards definitely do not generate the same level or depth of discussion. Also professors who were rather hands-on before the transition online are now taking a more hands-off approach which equals students being forced to teach themselves subjects instead. Ultimately, it typically becomes just a lecture after 20 minutes since students either aren’t as inclined to participate online or because they cannot due to environmental noise. It’s emotionally draining in a way that going to class isn’t. Honestly, Zoom calls go on for way too long and very little gets accomplished or talked about. It’s a waste of time and energy.

Seaside, CA

Zoom is hit or miss, as it is always disconnecting when I am attending online lectures. My wifi also disconnects when I am doing serious school work and/or online tech support. I share the internet with two others who are also working from home, so that is also an issue.

South Bend, IN

My professor has been going on fewer tangents during class. I don’t have to have my Zoom video on, so I can fidget as much as necessary during class without feeling like a distraction to others. Also, if the material starts to become dull, I can run to my kitchen to get a snack for some energy, or just stand up by my laptop to try to wake my system up.

South Bend, IN

I hate Zoom. It is controlling my life. I feel coerced by learning this way.

South Bend, IN

I hear the information and “learn” the information, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. 

Indiana, PA

I think that for classes where you are lecturing, Zoom can work really well because it’s just transmitting information from a PowerPoint or a paper like a typical class. However, in my experience, in-class discussion has been a disaster, everyone talks over one another and you can tell we aren’t as focused. Also, nobody really cares about discussion. We just want to get it over with.