Students share thoughts about the transition to online classes

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On March 18, Utah State University transitioned to online classes in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus— garnering mixed reactions from students.

“All of our classes have been transferred online and it’s terrible,” said Kayla Wills, a deaf education and elementary education major at USU. “It’s definitely harder to be online because you don’t get that interaction with your professors that you need to learn.”

USU’s main Logan campus took a hard hit too. Many students left for home, creating empty quads and paths usually bustling with activity.

“It’s so weird. It’s so dead,” said Sarah Thompson, a business school hopeful. “Sometimes when it’s sunny I’ll see people outside on the quad social distancing.”

On-campus residents especially were encouraged to go home by the university administration. Students were offer prorated refunds for housing, dining contracts and parking permits.

“Being an RA [resident assistant], that has been really affected,” Thompson said. “I had to check out probably four or five people a day from my building … I was not expecting that so quick.”

Thompson’s building, Reeder Hall, began the semester with 70 residents and now currently only houses 17.

“I do think it’s better that they went home especially because mostly all of them are freshmen,” Thompson said. “I think that they would have gotten really, really anxious.”

Social work undergrad Adam Smart said he wished all classes would be made pass/fail because of the ramifications COVID-19 has had on students’ ability to learn and work effectively.  

“We’re trying to gauge students’ understanding of the material and they need to know the material in order to get a good grade in the class,” said Eric McKinney, a Ph.D. student and instructor at USU. “You can’t just award good grades because of the pandemic.”

USU changed policy to allow students to see their final grades and then decide if they want a pass or fail grade instead of the traditional letter grade. However, some departments do not allow students to have pass/fail grades on their transcripts in order to graduate or acquire certain licenses. 

“Everyone across the organization is really trying to help each other in making this change,” McKinney said. “Not only instructor-to-instructor but also instructor -to-students.”

Despite the pandemic, students are remaining positive.

“We’ll make it through,” Wills said.

—william.bultez@aggiemail.usu.edu

@willistheginger