The pandemic of the COVID-19 virus has affected almost everyone’s day to day human experience along with the prospect to affect future standings in societies like the economy and in the education system. As a student, I have found this topic interesting, as I am living with this new way of education. All universities have moved onto online classes, something nobody was expecting at the beginning of the 2020 spring semester. Tuitions were already paid, along with housing and meal plans for the students. If anyone could have predicted they could get their respected degree from online courses, I highly doubt any student would be spending the money they have already paid the school for this semester. Finances aside, the universities have founded their grading systems and unit participation from an in-person experience. This same standard for learning was not changed in response to the move to online classes until recently when most universities allowed their students to finally make the move to pass/fail on all of the courses the student is enrolled in, rather than a letter grade. The thing about pass/fail classes is that it does not affect your GPA once recorded, but some students need the ability to have a fair letter grade in order to improve their overall standings with the school. This is all unchartered territory, and I expect big announcements from all of the universities still about finances and grading systems but so far all of this is very controversial among the students and parents affected. There is no clear solution that I can see, yet there are improvements to be made. Many journalists have commented on the topic, Lilah Burke from Inside Higher ED explains some students’ concerns going into the rest of the semester with online classes:
In many cases, especially personally, universities will include their on campus resources as such that students can count on especially to relieve some financial burden. At the University of Southern California, they have closed computer labs and all in person computer resources leaving students, who had previously relied on those given programs for years, almost helpless. Now how is a student expected to perform at the same standard with this kind of sudden change? Think about the students who are studying for degrees that require the use of paid-for computer programs like Adobe Suite, and modeling software that can charge up to $200 a month. These students now have nowhere to find these programs and even after asking about any solution to this problem, the university remains silent and probably confused.
This pandemic has forced changed onto so many aspects of life and has certainly made education disorganized and in some cases quite ineffective. On the defense of universities, they were forced to transform all of their classes into online formats in a matter of weeks which is quite a difficult task. Financial burdens have become even greater but what I fear is how universities will change after the pandemic ends. I think universities see the cost benefits of having entirely online or hybrid formats and may implement these in as many courses that they deem reasonable. In my opinion, some classes may work in hybrid formats but students still lose the in-person connectivity that traditional classes have. And how often…
This is something I am currently struggling with. As far as finances, I pay for an apartment at gateway and pay for parking as well. I have tried to see if they will be giving any money back because I will not be living there and they will not. I think this is very unfair because included in our rent is the ability to use the computer lab and gym which is all closed. I am also not parking there so I am unsure why I need to pay for this. Electricity bills are going to go down greatly for them so I do not see why they would not give us some sort of money back. I think it…