Tips for coping with uni online

[IndigoApple]

DD is in 3rd year of a 4 year science degree. In a flat with nice flatmates, has a part time job, and not had to self isolate or anything, but she is really struggling with uni being online.

She should be spending a lot of time in labs this year but will only have 2 lab sessions between now and Christmas. The rest is online - either watching someone doing something on video or doing some sort of web-based simulation from what I can gather. Lectures all online and she doesn't seem to have tutorials or 1:1s or anything. DD is an extrovert and loves being around people and enjoys lab work best.

I have tried to come up with a few suggestions e.g. setting up regular Zoom/Facetime catch ups with people on her course, making more use of the class group chat, trying to book slots in the library (she says it's really difficult) and trying to set a routine even just stuff like getting a Starbucks on a Monday morning or a M&S sandwich on a Friday etc.

Anyone got any suggestions? She sounded so defeated when we spoke yesterday.

My son is 100% online (not a fresher) and his bedroom is too small to fit a desk! He says he is working okay on the bed or when it is free the table in the small living room. The library was open to bookings for a short period but then closed so that's out. He could come home but wants to be with his friends.

The things they do as well as work is every night he cooks from scratch so probably daily trips to the super market to buy good foods (he used to spend most on nights out and night clubs so says he has never spent so little!); also friends (they keep to rule of 6) come round for dinner parties - he is not in a tier 2 area as we are here in London now. He gets out for a walk every day.

I am sorry about the lab work and also lots of people are hit by the restrictions in different ways so even though your daughter has the part time job etc things are getting her down.

@corythatwas At my uni we are running a mixture of f2f and online, with online seminars of 15-16. I am trying to get my students to engage with each other outside of this by setting up discussion boards, but uptake seems very limited so far.

That's probably because they're already inundated with discussion boards, chat rooms, etc. I spent the afternoon with my DS yesterday. His phone was constantly "pinging". He said he's already has something like 30+ "discussions" in progress, including the facebook & twitter accounts for the Uni itself, student union, the college, sports centre, and a couple of societies, plus chatroom/discussions for his flat mates, his building, his college, and then he has loads for his subjects. Double honours, so in groups for both majors, then groups for each of the 4 modules he's currently doing, then he has subsidiary teaching groups, then he has groups where smaller numbers are doing collaborative/group work. He said it's exhausting keeping up with all the notifications and trying not to miss anything. That's on top of several hours per day sat on his computer doing the online lectures, online tutorials, online seminars, etc. And daily email updates from the uni itself on latest news re covid, etc etc.

I don't think Uni staff actually appreciate how hard it is for them being stuck inside all day, staring at their computers/phones, and being bombarded with chat room/discussion board messages/emails. My son said there was one day last week where he just had to turn it all off as he just couldn't make any progress on anything due to constant interruptions. He's since "left" a number of the groups/SM accounts to try to get it under control, as, of course, he can't temporarily disable the internet to give him peace as he needs internet access for the online text books, lectures, etc., few of which can be downloaded.

@ramblingsonthego The problem we have is students are not engaging with us. We can put on hundreds of events but if the students don't reach out and join in, they will get lonely and not meet anyone new.

Speaking for my son, he's bombarded with emails, SM notifications, etc. from the Uni, the SU, his dept, his college, etc.,, so I'd imagine things are easy to miss or forget. From what he's said, there's been virtually nothing that he's noticed "in person" at his Uni (Lancaster). He's noticed a few online events but he says he's spending so long on his computer already doing the studying (he's had no face to face teaching at all), that he's "past it" when it comes to downtime and prefers to just chill and read a book or watch TV.

One thing that would help would be reducing the amount of on line stuff. Eg my son due to eyes (despite just seein the optician again for slightly changed glasses) cannot be on a screen for long.

So if every university course for students not in a group that is locked down had say 4 face to face things a week even if it is meet the lecturer in the park in the rain at huge distances to discuss the subject it would be really good.

Are there restrictions which mean she can’t meet people indoors for a coffee or lunch etc? If there are a takeaway coffee and a walk in a park would be possible (unless in Tier 3). My son did a virtual escapee room with work colleagues the other day - said it was great fun, they all bought in ready made cocktails beforehand so it ended up being a convivial evening! Yes it’s a bit crap that the learning is online but that’s only a few hours a week - in the most part cafes, cinemas, gyms etc are still open and she must have a group of friends all feeling equally pissed off and wanting some face to face interaction?

DD is in an area where she can't have any visitors to the flat, but she does have nice flatmates, like @Xenia's son she is into cooking so it's been a good distraction.

She can meet friends from 1 other household for coffee and food. Alcohol only outside!

I'm not too worried about her mental health over all. It's more that her course has become such a small part of her life. I guess my worry is it means she won't do enough work to get through. She would definitely be more focused if she surrounded herself with others on same course, as should have happened with her labs, lectures etc if it weren't for Covid 😒.

One thing she might be able to pass to her lecturers and ours have done as it was minimal fuss for a gain... we have a few virtual classrooms (our uni uses Blackboard) left permanently open named things like "the cafe" and the "virtual coffee lounge" so we can arrange to meet up in there and work on stuff together or just sit and drink coffee and chat for a while.

They've been really well used since implemented

I don't think Uni staff actually appreciate how hard it is for them being stuck inside all day, staring at their computers/phones, and being bombarded with chat room/discussion board messages/emails.

Really? You describe my life - while my teaching hours have trebled, I also have to keep all the other things I do as a senior academic going - publication contractual commitments, a research project with postdocs who need me, writing further funding applications to keep said postdocs employed, engagement in a national organisation I help to run, references and reviews, supervising PhD students.

My son said there was one day last week where he just had to turn it all off as he just couldn't make any progress on anything due to constant interruptions

An important lesson for him to have learned - we all have to do this at some point.

Would you prefer those of us in universities didn't try to keep up contact and a sense of community with our students? Should we go silent and just let them get on with it?

As someone with age & underlying health issues which make me particularly vulnerable to a bad dose of C-19, I'm not prepared to sacrifice my health to the possibility of infection - students at my place of work have caused local transmission rates to double - mostly by their irresponsibility in not following the 'rule of six' mask wearing or social distancing in their student houses & halls of residence.

So I will keep on teaching online, using all my personality & skill to try to keep these fragile groups together, including sending a weekly email to encourage them and feedback how well they're doing. I'm not sure why parents of undergrads seem to think that somehow their DC are immune from following the rules & restrictions within which we are all living.

@MissMarplesGlove

Difference is it's your job and you're being paid for it. Students, however, are paying a small fortune for a very poor experience at the moment. See the difference?

Re student behaviour, it's sad you have such a poor opinion of students given you're Uni staff. As I'm sure you will know, it's a small proportion of students who've been breaking rules, partying, etc., yet they're all having to suffer for it.

I do very much sympathise with both Xenia's and Badbadbunny's dc.
It is easy to get overwhelmed and zoom seminars are exhausting (and no doubt very bad for the eyesight). And isolation is soul destroying, particularly if you are new in a place, and then the fears for the future... no, it really is a horrible time!

I wonder how many students would turn up for a seminar in the pouring rain in late November, though. Chances are, I would be travelling in (meaning I can't give any online teaching the same afternoon) to find at most one or two students there: then I would have to find time to give an extra seminar (for which I don't get paid) for the ones that can't or won't stand in the rain.

As for overkill on the blackboard discussions etc., the difficulty lies in finding a right balance for everyone: you have students complain you don't do enough- and then that there is too much. Tricky.

These are not easy times, and it is also not always easy for young people with no experience to tell the difference between a readily fulfillable request and one that would have staff working all weekend for no extra pay. How could they know? Just written a long reply to a student who contacted me earlier with suggestions for my seminars. Some of them were possible, some of them definitely not workable in terms of a) resources b) 20 years experience of how to kill a seminar dead (or not). But at the same time, I was glad he did contact me.

My faculty is aiming at a minimum of 25% f2f, which I must admit I enjoy (always happy to see students), but which of course puts any isolating or shielding student at a disadvantage, so then I have to arrange another seminar for them. For which there is no money to pay me. It is also getting quite difficult to find staff who are not either shielding or isolating but can actually teach those seminars in the right specialist area.

"You get paid" doesn't actually cover most of what I do at the moment. As I mentioned previously, I recently had my contract cut in half. To support my family I would need another pt job: the problem is, I was still working 13 hours on Friday, 2 days after my paid work for the week had stopped. But I also have a university-aged child who needs my financial support: I would need to use my unpaid time to try to bring in another half salary.

I want to do the best by my students, but I also recognise that the way I'm working at the moment is not sustainable and is not fair in the precedent it sets for my colleagues.

Sorry, that came across as if I didn't sympathise with the OPs dd Not what I meant to say.

@corythatwasi I didn't read it that way at all.

I spoke to DD again and she has been to the computer lab today to do a lab simulation and she said it felt so good to be on campus. She saw a couple of people from her course. They compared notes and are all feeling the same way. I've urged her to keep in contact with them and others. She sounded a bit more upbeat than last week. I've also given her a Starbucks voucher to encourage those coffee catch ups!

Virtual classrooms sounds good, I will ask DD

Really glad to hear she is feeling better, OP.

And the thing I keep thinking: this too shall pass. It really won't be forever.

I try to emphasise to my students the extra digital skills they are developing - they're becoming very adept at managing complex interactions online; they're getting extremely good at digital searching; they're learning how to manage an increase in the volume of electronic communications; they're learning how to focus intensely for 50 minutes.

That's just the stuff they're doing in order to attend my seminars online.

The assessment tasks I'm setting them - re-worked for COVID conditions - are asking them to develop familiarity with a wide range of collaborative digital communication tools. THey're making websites & blogs, and doing image searches, and thinking about presenting their work for assessment using a variety of methods and media.

These are HUmanities students who wouldn't think of themselves as particularly "good" at computers, but they are adapting fast & creatively!

There's some good in all of that!

And the thing I keep thinking: this too shall pass. It really won't be forever.

But students aren't students forever either. They'll never make up for missing freshers week, the clubs fair, etc. They'll never make up for missing a "normal" first year (as it's blatantly obvious F2F teaching won't return this academic year). If lecturers etc are still frightened next year, F2F probably won't even be back for next academic year either. For older people already established in their careers/lives etc., then yes, a year or two hiding away isn't a big deal. But for youngsters who only experience Uni once, then it's ruined it for them. And potentially their future careers if they drop out etc.

It isn't just lecturers being frightened: it is the risk that young people may also end up with longterm damage to their health. Death seems to spare young people but LongCovid does not.

I don't think I personally am particularly scared of dying but I am worried about unintentionally being the cause of some young person contracting long term heart or lung damage that they will then have to live with. I have a daughter of the same age as my student who is living with chronic health problems and disability: I know how much courage it costs her to get up every morning and carry on. I don't want that to happen to anybody else. I spoke to another young student at the start of term who was very worried because she had asthma but didn't feel she could tell anyone as everybody keeps talking about how important it is to get f2f teaching going. I got her the support she needed, she is getting taught, she will be fine. But others like her will have slipped under the radar and will be at risk, perhaps in my classes, because they are so anxious to show willing.

It is also the fact that if lecturers fall seriously ill, they will not be able to deliver any teaching, in person or online. And that will have a serious impact on the quality of education received by those students- and consequently on their futures. I currently know of at least 3 colleagues who have been off since March with LongCovid- their students are not able to benefit from their teaching.

We want to be there for our students. We want our students to be there and healthy. I already have students testing positive. Thankfully before they came to class, so this far my classes can carry on running. But it won't last forever. I already have to double up because so many of my students are either shielding (young people have asthma and diabetes too) or isolating because a housemate has Covid. At other unis colleagues are teaching to empty lecture theatres because so many students have either tested positive or been in contact with someone testing positive.

What I see is the infection spreading like wildfire. Much as I love seeing my students face to face, I feel very uncomfortable about any part I might play in this. And yes, I know I said in an earlier post that I was happy about the f2f. That wasn't a lie either. I'm ambivalent. I want whatever is best for my students. I haven't got a crystal ball.

I think they do need one point of contact for students. My twins are doing post grad and not the same as many others but when people complain there seems no one point of contact for any issue and lots of buck passing. Eg on their course although mine don't need this help, those who have extra time for disabilities checked in advance for the on line exams which end today they WOULD have extra time and were reassured. Yet in practice some were not given it Now that is currently just mock exams but even so that is not helpful.

Also I am not happy their current mock exams are not the same as the final exams for these modules online will be in December as it is not a proper mock. Doing an on line exam is very different from one in person in an exam hall. Eg there is a word count limit so students are having to spend a lot of exam time getting under the word count (not an issue for one of my sons who has been well under laughing as I type.....). Having no physical materials and no library open with a copier when you have exams that need information in front of you is hard. I have posted materials to one son. I spent £250 on printer ink 2 weeks ago and this week my son here at home's printer has a fault although it still prints. All this is new because of things being online.

Their institution has still not really explained why those in London are paying £2k more than those in other places (same institutions, same course) despite it all being on line.

Anyway my 2 are 21 and are doing fine. The one with the screen eye issue is trying to print what he can to read from paper and to take breaks to help his eyes. He could also come home if he wanted if his room too small to fit a desk becomes too much.

I think they do need one point of contact for students. My twins are doing post grad and not the same as many others but when people complain there seems no one point of contact for any issue and lots of buck passing.

Don't know how things work elsewhere, but at my uni, each undergrad has their own personal academic tutor, and then each department has a senior tutor who has overall responsibility for pastoral questions. Their emails are in the student handbook which is issued to all students at the start of the year. In this case, the tutor, the PAT, the Senior Tutor, the Director of Programmes (who is responsible for making sure I don't try to solve problems by taking on impossible commitments) all talked to each other (with the student's permission) until a sensible solution had been found. This seems the most essential thing we can do at the moment.

But even so (and this is in a department which is very well organised) people get stressed and make mistakes and forget things. I got into trouble yesterday for sending out an email without consulting a colleague who should have been involved. The fault was entirely mine, I apologised, and we sorted it without the student being affected- but it took a substantial part of the afternoon.

And from the pov of the student, I am sure it is very difficult to know exactly when you should mention something, when you should contact someone, when you can make a fuss about not feeling safe in class. Most of us are confused at this point, so no reason 18yos shouldn't be.

But for youngsters who only experience Uni once, then it's ruined it for them

I am trying very hard not to encourage this sort of catastrophic thinking. There is no point to it - we are where we are. We cannot, any of us, have a 'normal' year, and I think the best way to deal with it is to try to see the positives, and do things. A lot of good therapeutic advice re mild or reactive depression (note I'm saying mild) is about self-help: to have order in life, to have commitments to others, and things to do, to keep you going.

Students have their university days 'ruined' in all sorts of ways, all the time and always have.

As an educator, it's my job to try to nudge students in this situation, gently out of this catastrophic all or nothing thinking: it is not reasonable or realistic. That principle still applies, and I think all your DC might adjust better if they're not encouraged to see "ruin" around them. There are a couple of freshers in my family at the moment and they're still managing to have a great time apart from the police having to come several times over one week to break up gatherings of several hundred students (how my city's C-19 cases doubled in 1 week).

I'm usually a planner and should at the moment be planning travel & accommodation for a rather juicy one month Fellowship elsewhere at a very nice archive for next spring. I'm not doing it - it's too drab and tiring to think about the state we're in. I just about plan week to week - that's how I"m coping (and if I thought about it, I could bang on about my living circumstances - this has been very tough for single people with close family a day's travel by aeroplane away ...)

We will get through it. This is not forever. And on the way, my students will learn things they never thought they'd need to learn, and will do things they never thought they'd be able to do. I prefer to focus on this, rather than "ruin."

I don't think they are learning much they would not have done other than that the state has taken more powers to lock people in a room without even the one hour exercise a day prisoners get; that human rights have been stripped from us; that we favour the weak and old over the young; that organisations will lie in order to take your money and secure jobs for their staff.

I have one fourth year and one first year. Both are doing fine.

The fourth year is mostly dissertation, but she does have two face to face sessions a week. She also has zoom sessions with other students for mutual support. She makes sure she goes out for a walk every day, but is otherwise just in her flat with two flat mates, and all hospitality is shut down at the moment.

The first year has fallen into a great flat, and is happy with online lessons. She is on a campus and fairly free to walk around, and go to the on-site beach, even though her area is equivalent to Tier 3.

I'm actually quite enjoying the expanded content one lecturer in particular is able to provide with the online learning - he's expanded beyond the lecture+reading model and put in all the interesting side-notes that probably wouldn't have been covered.

Everyone else is bewailing the mountain of extra work but I'm the sort of strange character who reads a lot of these strange psychological case studies for fun anyway!

I'm a third year student too. Surprised your DD isn't getting online workshops/tutorials, the vast majority of my work is in small-ish groups of about 20 and then we are often split into smaller breakout rooms too

My DS is in first year. He is in halls and seems to have a nice set of flat mates. However, all his work was moved to online when he arrived ( was promised a mixture) and he hasn't met or talked with a single fellow student from his course. Neither has he seen or engaged with a tutor, lecturer or other leader. He is pretty shy and quiet and his one attempt at talking on the WhatsApp chat was not answered.
As a consequence I'm really worried about his work.
Also, no clubs or societies have opened.
It's rubbish.....but such is life at the moment.