As Cabrini begins a new semester, students and faculty are faced with the continuing challenge of how to create the best college experience during an ongoing global pandemic. In the fall the Cabrini community returned to campus on time with several policies in place to try and keep everyone safe. Some of those policies included masks everywhere on campus, stickers on desks telling students where to sit to maintain social distancing and the option for students to take classes in person or online.
However with the new semester comes new challenges, the choice was made to start the semester following an all online schedule for the first three weeks. Students will be allowed to come back to campus after those three weeks but must have a negative COVID-19 test before they will be allowed to return to living on campus or taking classes on campus. There is a divide between teachers and students on what they plan to do this coming semester.
“I think it will be safe as long as the university follows the appropriate guidelines in place for a campus setting,” Thomas Albrecht, an adjunct professor, in the computer science department said. “The availability of a vaccine, social distancing and other measures should prove to be effective.” This seems to be common among teachers especially those who chose to hold in-person classes in the fall but some teachers are choosing to hold classes only online.
Courtney Kovatch, a sophomore education major, said “Yes I plan to come back to campus because I want to live with my best friend and be on school grounds to do better this semester.” The decision on whether or not to return to campus seems to be widely spread amongst the student body, with some of the biggest factors being the restrictions, academic success and the number of their friends that are on campus. Students’ ability to succeed in classes seems to be the largest driving force in who chooses to return to campus. Some students feel that they are set up to fail in the online learning environment for a number of factors and others are taking to online learning just fine and even enjoying it.
Jason Colandonto, an English and writing major, said, ” I’m enjoying online learning. It has its difficulties and annoyances at times though.”
Students are not the only ones deciding if they should attend classes in person online-only, professors are met with the same challenges on how to best teach their courses and get students engaged in the class.
Albrecht said, “I taught an in-person class in the Fall and everything worked out fine. I was in a classroom where I could give students the option of in-person or remote, real-time instruction via Collaborate. We started off mainly in-person but by the Thanksgiving break, most students had transitioned to remote.” This seems to be what a large number of teachers are choosing to do this semester with a large amount of them having the knowledge of the fall to build on.
The big looming question for everyone in the college world is how much longer will this online learning continue. Many students and staff are burnt out and feel like they are not providing or receiving the education they should be. With the current numbers and trajectory of this pandemic, it does not look like an end is in sight.
Theodora Dini, a sophomore biology major, said ” I think online learning will continue probably into the spring next year, but hopefully it will be more in-person in fall 2021.”
Albrecht said, “Online learning is here to stay. Higher education was trending in this direction before COVID-19 hit us.”
