University experience is awful at the moment

[Cupcakke]

DD moved into university on Saturday. The rules are very stringent, both campus bars are closed, the university library has very little capacity and the restaurant is take away only. There are virtually no freshers events in person.

Her flat mates are very shy and not very social and she is in a small flat.

Large gatherings keep occurring but the penalty for this is very severe so DD very cautious not to attend these.

She is essentially watching Netflix in her room. I fear for the loneliness. The online events she has attended are poorly attended and just very boring.

Teaching starts next week and her In person contact hours are just 4 hours a week.

Anyone else’s dc thinking this years university experience is non existent.

(The above is England, not the other nations)

My DD is due to start at the beginning of Octiber and she can't wait to go. She's spent the last 6 months building up contact with those on her course and those in her accommodation. She's not been naive enough to think that she would be entering party-central, as she's realised how the world has changed this year. Yes, she could defer or stay at home, but that would destroy her far more than having a different uni experience to the one she would have had last year.

I just hope that those idiots who have ignored the guidelines and shared the virus haven't ruined it for those still to start, by forcing the government or universities to make difficult decisions. Luckily many if those still waiting to go are heading to the universities leading the Covid response, so hopefully they won't be forced to delay starts.

I’m so sorry to hear about students who are struggling and are finding it hard to make friends. I hope they meet like-minded people as quickly as possible. I remember how excruciating it is when you first start and have to introduce yourself to people in a bid to make connections. There is also nothing worse than worrying about your children/loved ones and feeling powerless to help. 💐
For those still to go, I’d just like to say that I have two ‘children’ at uni this year, one returning for the second year and one a fresher and they have both thoroughly enjoyed their first couple of weeks.
My DD, the fresher, definitely had reservations about going this year, especially as she wants to get good value for the loans she’s taking out. However, she has been loving the whole experience, including her course, even though at the moment a lot of it is online. She has been really lucky with her flat mates and has found nearly everyone has been friendly, perhaps partly because of the limitations of these crazy times.
We were all worried about how it could work this year but so far so good!

@Hoghgyni I'm intrigued as to how your DD could have known six months ago who was on her course and in her accommodation? An unconditional offer from Oxbridge perhaps? In which case, surely you understand that isn't the common experience of freshers in UK universities. Many are simply trying to build friendships and connections in the six days of welcome week.
And "students" are an easy and convenient target. Perhaps the blame lies more fairly with their government who have failed to plan appropriately and implement an adequate test, track and trace system. Amongst other shortfalls.

My baby goes to his Uni tomorrow.
I am nervous for him but I know he'll have a better time there than here.
I've read the pages his Uni has published and am VERY impressed by the level of support they are offering.
But I'm still sad that students are being charged so much for so little
and scapegoated by a Government who seem to want to gaslight the whole country.

[quote Getoveryerself]@Hoghgyni I'm intrigued as to how your DD could have known six months ago who was on her course and in her accommodation? An unconditional offer from Oxbridge perhaps? In which case, surely you understand that isn't the common experience of freshers in UK universities. Many are simply trying to build friendships and connections in the six days of welcome week.
And "students" are an easy and convenient target. Perhaps the blame lies more fairly with their government who have failed to plan appropriately and implement an adequate test, track and trace system. Amongst other shortfalls.[/quote]
Where I work we set up a freshers Facebook group about March time. From this most people will set up a splinter Facebook/WhatsApp group for their course and accommodation. They just post "anyone doing xyz course?" And they start a group chat and then a private group from there.

This is standard at a lot of unis I think. Get the freshers checking the uni and SU facebook groups, it will help.

I have to say once my daughter decided to come and study from home, at least for one term, everyone has been super helpful. Her tutor has several students doing the same thing and is doing his best to accommodate it. She says the online academic course content is really good.
We’re certainly not cross.
I do think the accomodation halls have taken the social distancing rules much too far and may regret it, but they’re doing it for a reason.

@MrsMcMuffins

It’s not a teacher bashing thread as I doubt the lecturers have been involved in the decision to welcome students to halls. The universities should have been up front about most of the courses being online before start of term. Many students might have chosen to defer or study online from home and we could have saved on the cost. There is no doubt in my mind this was a financial decision by the universities only. Thousands of young adults isolated in their rooms for long periods of time is not great.

You obviously missed all the discussion earlier in the year where we were all supposed to take redundancy because the universities were supposed to suspend everything for a year.

There are quite a few upset freshers on the discussion board for the course I'm going to tutor. We've just been told it's online until future notice, but for an awful lot of them it was going to be the only in person teaching across all their courses. An hour every fortnight.

I feel very sorry for them, even though I know why it's been changed. I'm going to have a read back over this thread for some ideas to help run online. I'm also doing handwriting practice with a graphics tablet (so I can annotate notes/have a virtual whiteboard) because it currently looks like a three year old is doing the writing!

The universities should have been up front about most of the courses being online before start of term

Well, I was aware of that, and my dd was aware of that and all of my dd's friends were aware of that, in so far as anyone could predict. Yes, in March we all started out with a general hope and optimistic view that we could 'reschedule events until the Autumn' (weddings and the like), but as the months have gone one, wherever you get your news feed from, and however rarely you read / listen to the news, surely the whole population has grasped that this pandemic is still around and the more people that can remain socially distance the better for everyone ? "Universities" have had no more of a crystal ball than anyone else. In the Summer Term they were told to prepare for 3 possible scenarios - i) all back as normal ii) a mix of on-line and f2f, iii) all on-line as, of course, no-one knew for certain where we would 'be' in September, or October, and, as we still don't know what life will be like in December or in January.

Thousands of young adults isolated in their rooms for long periods of time is not great
Which is why they are better off in a university flat, mixing with 5,6,7 other young people in their own bubble, and interacting with them, than sitting alone in their bedrooms at home, surely ? Also, far more interesting to be able to go out and investigate a new area than to have another 6 months of walks from your home, which they might feel they have exhausted by now.

Lauraashley
If you are suddenly having to run materials online, scarily the guidance given to local councils might be of use
because they HAVE to make live meetings work for people of varying technical ability
www.nalc.gov.uk/coronavirus - click the activity tab

I haven’t read all the thread but if anyone is worried about their child in the north east and would like someone to check in with them and offer a family meal - could you PM me and we will do what we can. Busy household which will just absorb them and make them feel at home and support ❤️

Thanks @ramblingsonthego I don't really do Facebook and my DD definitely doesn't so will file that away for use with the next one...

@Teenageromance

I haven’t read all the thread but if anyone is worried about their child in the north east and would like someone to check in with them and offer a family meal - could you PM me and we will do what we can. Busy household which will just absorb them and make them feel at home and support ❤️

Surely you aren't allowed to mix households?

Can I offer some advice to Uni teachers on here planning to do online sessions?

Play some funky music while you are waiting for everyone to join the meeting.

I was on a webinar (hosted in California!) yesterday and the host was playing Queen for the few minutes while we were waiting for it to start. It just energises people and uplifts their mood.

@Getoveryerself

Thanks *@ramblingsonthego* I don't really do Facebook and my DD definitely doesn't so will file that away for use with the next one...

If you do not want FB and messenger then do whats app. Free phone calls, video calls, it is lovely to see their faces and you can assess things by talking face to face.

Thanks Listening, I'll have a look.

I might see if I can rope six friends into a practice tutorial, just so I have can work out how it'll look on the screen etc. and have a go at swapping between a whiteboard/ppt/word document.

And will definitely find some music — I can imagine deathly silence is a bit weird and uncomfortable.

DS lectures do not start till 5th October he moved in on 12th September, that really does not help. Hoping once they get into work mode things will be a bit better for them.

UntamedWisteria I like that idea! I got an idea off one of these threads the other day which was about putting your online tutor group into an email circle and encouraging them to socialize/study together in real life, I've just done that (with the ones that said yes anyway). They were really happy I offered. I feel like it's such a learning curve for us all- but I also think it's fine to be honest with students about the fact it's a learning curve, and so it may be I press the wrong button as much as them. I think it's the lack of honesty about what's feasible that's upsetting people.

Oh I love the music idea!

Stupid question: is the music kept low while people chat over it, or is it a bit louder and no one talks til start time?

If I put my stereo on nearby would that work or do I need to do some complicated thing to make it run on my laptop patched into the video or something that will drive me crazy :)

I'm going to try to do a virtual pub hour every couple weeks so a music intro would be great.

Re : effective live online sessions
YY to music at the start - the cheesier the better, in the background so that participants can talk about it but over it as they join
OR
Have a real talking point backdrop for your webcam so that everybody is engaging right away
AND
If you are running a hybrid session, use webcams and projectors to link the two groups

running a recorded session
If you can have a bit of live in amongst the recorded
(use screen share)
so that you can react to people - it will help both their and your MH

the main thing to remember is

• test it on your family first, ideally the most critical people
• remember your backdrop
• remember not to pick your nose

People tend to have the music at level where you can chat over it, ime. It’s best to run it from your laptop audio or the sound quality will be crap. I don’t know about other software, but in Teams you have to enable “share computer audio” (or something like that) in the share screen function.

Definitely music. I play 80s tunes while the students join my lectures, they really like it. My colleague polled them on favourite songs as an induction exercise then created class specific play lists. Absolutely raises the mood before you begin.

GCAcademic feel free to tell me to f off...

But your students are still learning something really valuable by attending seminars, even if they aren't the full-on discussions of the past. This generation is, and this board shows people still haven't fully accepted this, have different skills than in the past. One of those skills is going to be turn-taking and speaking with a mask on. I'm not joking, even if we get a vaccine, it's going to be years (IMO) before people are out and about without masks/face coverings if there's another outbreak, and also the shift to remote working is going to mean that animated interactive discussion is going to be replaced (because Zoom also encourages turn-taking in a formal way, you can't have everyone with mics on as there's too much noise, so switching one, saying your bit and switching off is the norm there too).

Oh, god, what a depressing thought. I keep telling myself that it won’t be like this forever, but you may well be right. I have to say, though, that online meetings have been a blessing, because of the 🤚 and turn taking. Certain colleagues are not able to talk over everyone else any more.

Ha, interesting point about zoom meeting protocol! But more generally, although I haven't rtft, sad and concerning situation, especially now in Manchester and Glasgow

Actually just popped on to flag up if anyone's dcs want to vent to the media, Newsnight reporter Lewis Goodall is asking students to get in touch via his Twitter:
twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1309580807640580099?s=20