Soumya Singhal Routery, undergraduate student of French Studies, shares about her experiences with adapting to the online learning environment.
“Being able to adapt to a rapidly changing and an unfamiliar environment while maintaining a positive attitude is an incredible skill to have. I know that it's not easy, but you can use this skill for any new experience—a future job, relocating to a new country, a curveball that life will eventually throw at you.”
Building the skill of adapting to new situations
The transition to online classes was challenging because it happened mid-term, and overnight. I had to reorient myself and quickly adapt to the new changes, while maintaining my coursework and grades. I discovered that I needed to find a new routine to stay focused, and this took a lot of experimenting!
Being able to adapt to a rapidly changing and an unfamiliar environment while maintaining a positive attitude is an incredible skill to have. I know that it’s not easy, but you can use this skill for any new experience—a future job, relocating to a new country, a curveball that life will eventually throw at you. You might have to spend a lot of time and effort in developing this skill, but experiment as much as you can. Try to figure out what’s not working, and find creative solutions for it. Who knows? You might surprise yourself and be better off than you were before!
Fostering a sense of community online
The biggest challenge for me was the lack of in-person interaction. Most of my courses required groupwork, and it was surprisingly difficult to get people to unmute themselves or share their videos and engage in conversation. I think a lot of people liked to “hide behind their keyboards”. This was demotivating, and it created a sense of lack of community; I felt alone in my learning!
To overcome this, I started modelling—by being the first to unmute and talk, or by sharing my video. I would also suggest meeting outside of Collaborate Ultra or Zoom, like on Messenger or Instagram, to create a more relaxed and fun environment for conversation.
I would really like to see a greater sense of community, so that myself and others don’t feel alone in their learning. Of course, this does not necessarily translate to “more groupwork”—not everyone is or will be comfortable engaging in conversation online with strangers (if they don’t know their classmates already).
Relishing the advantages of online learning
Despite these challenges, I think the biggest advantage of online courses is that you save a lot of time! Since I didn’t have to go to campus for lectures anymore, I could just roll out of bed and log into class, make and eat lunch during lectures, and much more! This meant that I had several extra hours of spare time that I didn’t have before, which I filled with exercise, more frequent calls with friends, and of course, movie nights.
