Why I Miss Online Classes

When our global pandemic hit the world and schools and universities had to adjust quickly my Uni was probably as lost as everyone else. As a student who is also aiming for a teacher's degree, I was worried to no end how the upcoming semester would look like.

Fortunately, they did great overall and I became accustomed to this new way of teaching rather fast. More so, my grades suddenly went up and it felt like I had to work less.

The moment my University declared they want to go back to teaching in class, I became a bit worried. Would I be able to readjust as easily again as I did before? In the end, I should already be used to this way of teaching– it was only returning to its former style…

Three months into this it turns out no, I cannot adjust at all and I hate it. Here is why:

1) Leaving the house is exhausting

Maybe this just applies to people who have to deal with rather unfortunate living conditions like living miles away or just living on the highest hill of high hills (like me) but actually leaving the house and dragging my body to the university takes so much energy out of me. Especially now, during wintertime, it is always dark outside no matter what time I look out of the window. Doesn’t really evoke “wanna go out” energy…

Furthermore, I forgot just how much time is lost by having to be somewhere on time. I depend on public transportation or my own two feet so I either have to comply with the timetable of the bus or leave super early to make it in time. I also have to go back home again — which leaves me with around one to two hours a day I lose just for transportation. Time I could already sit at my desk and work again.

While I immediately turned to my exercises after online classes, still in the right mind space, now I need extra time to rest after arriving at home although I already finished class an hour ago.

What brings me to my next point…

2) Why do I have to work at home I just came from university

I am sure this point is rather specific and does not apply to many, but I need to mention it nonetheless. Corona made me realize that I am just built for home office. While others may have trouble concentrating at home I flourish in my personal environment. And if the place I attend classes and the place I have to read or work through texts and exercises are the same, there is no forced feeling of being “done”.

What I mean by that is, I do not have to deal with the mindset of “bringing work home with me” — because my home is my workplace! To me, it feels terrible to have spent 4 to 6 hours at university only to come home and have to continue to work there. Because no matter how much you work, there is always more to be done…

3) I was my own boss and I miss it

The most single great thing about online classes definitely was working at my own pace. As I said, there will always be something to do, some text to read, some exercise to look at, but online classes allowed me to be completely independent and free in my time schedule. I had the freedom to not do anything on Mondays or work through the whole weekend, to work in advance, or skip a week completely. In the end, it only mattered that I had my stuff done by a certain deadline.

You could say that this didn’t change that much as University still grants you a lot of autonomy, but I think we can all agree that it isn’t the same as during the highs of the pandemic.

Way more discipline is needed to get something done in a home office — that’s why so many people struggle with it — and it is almost frustrating how the professors look over us while continuing to bombard us with homework and expect us to show up every week to their class. Even on bad days…

4) I have a bad day but I still have to power through it somehow now

Having bad days wasn’t that big of a problem in a home office. You could just take a day off or, if a zoom meeting is inevitable, just don’t turn on the camera, lay in bed, and follow class like a podcast. There was a possibility to stay in the background and get as much rest as possible while still having access to the needed information. Not so with in-class teaching.

Being physically there comes with things like social interactions (with peers and the Professor), keeping a somewhat acceptable outer appearance, and being ready to be asked a question at any moment — things that can easily become hard challenges on bad days. The only other option now is to skip class altogether but lose potentially important information by doing so. No more hiding in the background possible.

I know that I stand pretty alone with these feelings and observations and I am happy for you all that you got your physical classes back.

I just realized that they are not for me. Unfortunately, I am too deep into my studies now to change something about that — but oh boy, if I could enroll in an online university I totally would!