Online school discussion thread

[Solaros & Lunaris]

As most of you know, the coronavirus has caused most of the schools in the US (my knowledge of other countries is kinda eh right now, please inform me if you have online school outside of the US) to shift into an at-home setting. Since I was discussing it with some NatDex people, as well as some irl friends, I thought I would make a thread here to discuss thoughts, experiences, trials, and such for online learners. As someone who has used many online courses for things in and out of school, I was actually super hyped for this. Come the first week of school, and that hype.....jumped off several cliffs. Alot of the freedom given by the online learning I know (Khan Academy and CrashCourse, for example) feels taken away for the arbitrary reason of “trying to make online classes replicate face-to-face learning.” It feels very restrictive to not be able to eat or move around without being noticed and promptly scolded for it. On the bright side, online connection has honestly been great—I personally have not had huge connection problems, but that may be a result of me having good internet. Another thing I like about online school is that resources (homework, lesson plans, notes, etc) are now easily accessible through online systems, which is honestly a godsend for anyone.

Those are my thoughts about online learning, but what are yours? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Is there something you would want to change? If given the choice, would you rather do face-to-face or stay at home? I would love to see your guy’s thoughts on the matter, because while I do sound negative in the above paragraph, I really think this has the potential to be the full future of education.

 

[ImperialGamer517]

In my country (not US), we also do online classes. Our classes are 4 days a week (Monday to Thursday) for around 4 - 4 1/2 hours a day. It is honestly more enjoyable since I do not need to wake up early and there is a shorter schedule.

How about you guys?

 

[ShionShadows]

Currently we have a system.
Green is basically normal school but with extra safety precautions.
Yellow is when cases are starting to rise so only half the school goes at a time.
Red is an emergency and online school is there. Forgetting to mention the half of people that dont go to school in yellow do online school.
At any rate I hate online school.and much prefer the face to face. I'm too easily distracted and demotivated at home to do anything and I can't really connect with my teachers the way I want to if we arent face to face.

 

[Darkinium]

In my school board (in Canada), most students have two options: stay at home exclusively, or take the "hybrid" option. Most people at my school including myself are enrolled in a program that mandates in-person attendance, so I have to take this hybrid option. Everyone who takes the hybrid option is split into 2 groups, based on their last name. The two groups are split up so that only 1 group is at school on a given day. Masks are mandatory and everyone has to have their own bottle of hand sanitizer.

Each week students only take one subject with a class of around 15 people. A few subjects/extracurriculars/clubs were cancelled this year, due to it being unreasonable to try to run them under COVID. The students are all socially distanced and the seats are marked so you don't sit in the same seat as someone who was in yesterday's group. Once you pick a spot you're expected to use the same one in the future to avoid spreading COVID. You spend the entire day (9:30 to 1:00, shorter than usual) in the classroom; lunch is eaten inside, with masks off. On the days you're not at school in person, you stay at home and do online work, and sometimes a video call with the other group who is attending school.

So far my experiences haven't been too bad. Last week I had one online class and one in-person class (The school week started on Thursday to have time to finish up planning, hence only 2 school days.) The first online day we got some pretty easy tasks, we did them at home (at least I did), but we never ended up correcting it or anything. In-person we kinda chilled, had some discussions, no homework and not much actual work at all. Masks and socially distancing was alright. Before school people started mingling because no one had talked to one another since we shut down in March. But the teachers called it out pretty quickly. During class time it felt pretty safe, but during the lunch break with the masks off some people started to talk to one another with less than two meters, or even one meter between them. Teacher didn't really say anything. Then we headed outside for some fresh air and we got to take our masks off because we were still spaced out, most of the time at least. There was still some gathering that wasn't really called out. Our cases aren't awful (about 36/million) but as time goes on things will probably get worse. I think our cases are slowly going up again, so it's possible we might get recalled and changed back to online learning exclusively.

 

[roxie]

I feel like online school is safe but from a personal point of view, I can pretty much study on my own. Its just weird sitting in a zoom call and it's a little hard to process information, do projects, and just generally understanding the topic. Last year school year in my district (semester 2) we've been completing assignments and teaching ourselves and it was very manageable than doing Zoom.

 

[TexanSansei]

I think it is way easier to move online a year into a school rather than enter, say high school during the pandemic. School is harder as I feel I learn less on the computer(although that'd probably be me playing NatDexAG and 1v1 between classes) and honestly the whole experience is just really awkward in general. Only one person will have their webcam on and the core classes feel really tense. It's also harder to learn a language and piano online.

 

[Martin]

I have enrolled in a distance learning course with NEC that should hopefully get me an A level in mathematics in one year. I was lucky to get onto the course at all because I enrolled late and was only able to get on because they had one unfilled slot. As such I've got to do about three weeks of work in the space of one to catch up in time for the first assignment's due date—this is gonna be a hectic week. A lot of this course is working from sheets and textbooks with a monthly tutorial and a monthly seminar that covers and clarifies certain things about the topics from the 3–4 weeks prior, so I guess I'll ask: what other people's experiences have been with remote tutorials?

I've also been studying Japanese in my spare time during lockdown, but I've not exactly been very disciplined about it (a problem that I can only see being exasparated and transferred onto the Maths unless I can figure something out), so I guess this is as good a place to ask as any: how do you lot maintain focus for daily revision/practice over the course of days and weeks? I've had a twice-weekly italki tutor that has meant I've not been going dry for any more than a few days at a time, but my drive to do the independent study is really hard to maintain (it was very good at the beginning of lockdown, but after around a month or so it dwindled and now it's pretty dire, with kanji flashcards building up and not being done, me putting off adding additional kanji that I've learned into my anki deck, not pushing through my Tae Kim or reviewing stuff I went over with my italki tutor between sessions, etc.

 

[Solaros & Lunaris]

In my country (not US), we also do online classes. Our classes are 4 days a week (Monday to Thursday) for around 4 - 4 1/2 hours a day. It is honestly more enjoyable since I do not need to wake up early and there is a shorter schedule.

How about you guys?

Very interesting actually. Remember when I mentioned the “replicate the classroom” portion in the OP? Due to the fact that students/parents could choose whether to do in-person ot online, that applies to school hours as well. I have to be ready for school by 7:15, 5 days a week, 7 and a half hours a day, and have loads of homework at the end. This is actually somewhat understandable imo; I don’t think teachers need to stress themselves more than they already do. It’s just something I wanted to compare with you.

Currently we have a system.
Green is basically normal school but with extra safety precautions.
Yellow is when cases are starting to rise so only half the school goes at a time.
Red is an emergency and online school is there. Forgetting to mention the half of people that dont go to school in yellow do online school.
At any rate I hate online school.and much prefer the face to face. I'm too easily distracted and demotivated at home to do anything and I can't really connect with my teachers the way I want to if we arent face to face.

That last portion really strikes a chord in me. Feeling boxed in your own home (even moreso with quarantine) while sitting in a chair listening to a teacher often makes my mind wander, which I don’t really think is very fun.

You spend the entire day (9:30 to 1:00, shorter than usual) in the classroom; lunch is eaten inside, with masks off. On the days you're not at school in person, you stay at home and do online work, and sometimes a video call with the other group who is attending school.

Just gonna note that your class is the shortest so far, at only 3 and a half hours. What’s your regular school time? With regards to outside gatherings, I think it’s kinda hard to narrow down and break apart every small circle of friends. Ido understand the frustration, as once other people start to think it’s ok to mingle, suddenly there’s a major issue at hand.

I feel like online school is safe but from a personal point of view, I can pretty much study on my own. Its just weird sitting in a zoom call and it's a little hard to process information, do projects, and just generally understanding the topic. Last year school year in my district (semester 2) we've been completing assignments and teaching ourselves and it was very manageable than doing Zoom.

I agree that it’s often easier to learn material on your own.....for some classes. For example, we covered Algebraic Recursion during Computer Science, which is imo a very complicated subject for most people (including myself). I think that doing assignments through Zoom is awkward, but my teachers usually circumvent this by letting you leave the Zoom call and return if you have questions.

I think it is way easier to move online a year into a school rather than enter, say high school during the pandemic. School is harder as I feel I learn less on the computer(although that'd probably be me playing NatDexAG and 1v1 between classes) and honestly the whole experience is just really awkward in general. Only one person will have their webcam on and the core classes feel really tense. It's also harder to learn a language and piano online.

Interesting. Are you a freshman? I was definitely expecting them to get hit hardest by this change. In our school, all of our cameras have to be turned on, but we can be muted, so that’s an interesting comparison.

how do you lot maintain focus for daily revision/practice over the course of days and weeks? I've had a twice-weekly italki tutor that has meant I've not been going dry for any more than a few days at a time, but my drive to do the independent study is really hard to maintain (it was very good at the beginning of lockdown, but after around a month or so it dwindled and now it's pretty dire, with kanji flashcards building up and not being done, me putting off adding additional kanji that I've learned into my anki deck, not pushing through my Tae Kim or reviewing stuff I went over with my italki tutor between sessions, etc.

In a similar case to you, I’m learning Spanish through Duolingo daily now. I find that oftentimes having schedule blocks in your day helps to keep you foing tasks consistently. However, I do not assign these blocks with any specific item, I merely have a start and end time. This makes my “routine” super flexible and easy to use for me.

 

[ImperialGamer517]

I have to be ready for school by 7:15

Same here. Monday’s and Thursday’s school starts at 730. The rest start at 8

 

[Darkinium]

Just gonna note that your class is the shortest so far, at only 3 and a half hours. What’s your regular school time? With regards to outside gatherings, I think it’s kinda hard to narrow down and break apart every small circle of friends. Ido understand the frustration, as once other people start to think it’s ok to mingle, suddenly there’s a major issue at hand.

Normally my school would be running from 9:15 to 3:15, if I remember correctly. "Normal" school has been around 6 months ago since we closed in March and reopened this month. I asked my teachers, and they said that this school year had to be dumbed down a bit since they couldn't cover all the stuff that they would in a normal school year. We're still going to cover all parts of the curriculum, but just not going as deep into each section as we would have.

This week the gatherings of people before and after school continued. I do agree it's hard to break up every group. Even if you could by announcing it over the speakers or something, eventually it would just lose meaning because of how often it would be repeated, and people would just gather anyway. At least that's what I think would happen. Although it does happen exclusively outside which is a silver lining because at least the virus would just be blown away by the wind. It's hard not to gather because socialization 2 meters apart while wearing a mask is not easy. Most of the time people can at least keep 1 meter, which is not great but not awful.

 

[TexanSansei]

Very interesting actually. Remember when I mentioned the “replicate the classroom” portion in the OP? Due to the fact that students/parents could choose whether to do in-person ot online, that applies to school hours as well. I have to be ready for school by 7:15, 5 days a week, 7 and a half hours a day, and have loads of homework at the end. This is actually somewhat understandable imo; I don’t think teachers need to stress themselves more than they already do. It’s just something I wanted to compare with you.



That last portion really strikes a chord in me. Feeling boxed in your own home (even moreso with quarantine) while sitting in a chair listening to a teacher often makes my mind wander, which I don’t really think is very fun.



Just gonna note that your class is the shortest so far, at only 3 and a half hours. What’s your regular school time? With regards to outside gatherings, I think it’s kinda hard to narrow down and break apart every small circle of friends. Ido understand the frustration, as once other people start to think it’s ok to mingle, suddenly there’s a major issue at hand.



I agree that it’s often easier to learn material on your own.....for some classes. For example, we covered Algebraic Recursion during Computer Science, which is imo a very complicated subject for most people (including myself). I think that doing assignments through Zoom is awkward, but my teachers usually circumvent this by letting you leave the Zoom call and return if you have questions.



Interesting. Are you a freshman? I was definitely expecting them to get hit hardest by this change. In our school, all of our cameras have to be turned on, but we can be muted, so that’s an interesting comparison.




In a similar case to you, I’m learning Spanish through Duolingo daily now. I find that oftentimes having schedule blocks in your day helps to keep you foing tasks consistently. However, I do not assign these blocks with any specific item, I merely have a start and end time. This makes my “routine” super flexible and easy to use for me.

Yes I am a freshman, the cameras only need to be turned on at the start but after that it's pretty silent. Like Martin I am also studying Japanese as well as piano and I have the same problems as him as well, I'd say it is a bit easier because i'm only learning katakana. Usually the teacher is just doing the lecture and I am ahead of the class so I play a round on Showdown right, well when I come back i'm behind and so I have to catch up again and the cycle continues, the same usually goes for homework.

 

[Cold Apple Soda]

I spoke to Solaros about this in the NatDex discord but I actually had a single day on zoom classes before I said "yeah no this shit ain't it." I have a question to anyone who takes Zoom classes. Were they telling you guys what to do 24/7? Like telling you what to wear, that you can't eat, can't mute your mic, etc? Cause when I took my one and only zoom class they had a field day telling me that I couldn't wear a hoodie, couldn't wear a durag, etc.

 

[earl]

I spoke to Solaros about this in the NatDex discord but I actually had a single day on zoom classes before I said "yeah no this shit ain't it." I have a question to anyone who takes Zoom classes. Were they telling you guys what to do 24/7? Like telling you what to wear, that you can't eat, can't mute your mic, etc? Cause when I took my one and only zoom class they had a field day telling me that I couldn't wear a hoodie, couldn't wear a durag, etc.

I'm in college but no, I'm usually eating obnoxiously and I never get called out on my zoom calls

 

[toaster04]

It's great working at home because you can interact with your family every morning but adjusting to a new schedule is difficult. I like it so far because the classes go fast like a bullet train, but one thing is that I need to square up because I get distracted easily. Great experience rn, not too bad doing remote learning

 

[Ren]

I'm not a fan of online learning. At my university, two of my professors this semester have made it clear that they have no intention of being understanding. The assessments that we're being asked to do are very taxing and require a lot of time, and our professor announced a 20 hour final exam the other day held over three days (this is close to the time you'd be expected to work in a full time job). My TA held students overtime to be assessed for a code demo yesterday (we're only scheduled for three minute sessions between 4 and 5) and changed the way the demo would be held on us suddenly. My other two professors, thankfully, have been absolute angels and I'd love to be taught by them again.

It's also a struggle to participate in Zoom lectures. When you're behind a screen, there's a ton that can distract you. You're responsible for holding yourself accountable, and that's also the case in college, but it's a lot more difficult to be distracted in face to face classes because you have the option of the only thing in front of you being a notebook.

Examinations are also a struggle. People are gonna cheat (obviously), so some of the exams are made tougher to compensate and it's a mess in general because you're not supposed to cheat. It's a real struggle.

I'm privileged to attend university, and I really enjoy what I major in, but the online system really isn't a good fit for me personally. In addition to everything I've listed, I just miss being able to hang out with people and work together. It's not the same behind a screen, and the difference isn't good for me.

 

[Ironmage]

So apparently the software my current university was going to use for its midterms had its servers crash and it'll take up to 10 days for them to fix it, and then more to be able to schedule new stuff. For reference, the midterm in the course I'm TAing for had its midterm scheduled for this Saturday.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[Wigglytuff]

Now that the end of the semester's coming up (my school elected not to end before Thanksgiving so this might be late for other people), there's been clamoring from some members of the student government for there to be a pass/fail option offered to students this semester. P/F was not promised when we registered for this semester's courses, and the proposed implementation would be the same as last semester's (when COVID hit America midsemester) where any student can choose any course to have any passing grade turned into a P instead of whatever it was.

The optimal way to game this system is to focus all effort into classes that you can get a high grade in and just fuck around in harder classes. And that is exactly what I did last semester, I bagged an A+ in Introductory Spanish and played gen 8 ou during Human Biology. Didn't show up to the last 2 tests or the final and ended with a D-, and turned that into a nice P.

As far as I know, my school and the other big schools in my state are not planning on offering P/F. Have you all heard similar efforts in your schools? What do you think about P/F?

 

[BP]

Its hard to do My injury prevention and treatment class because I'm too afraid to ask my roomates if I can tape their ankles because the requires me touching their feet.

 

[Snowjy]

My school system has been all virtual since late August when we went back to school.
The “plan” is for groups to go back to school starting January 26th, I’m 90% sure this will not happen. I’m doing awful this year and I’ve had lower grades than I’ve ever had before. I already had to drop out of Honors Pre-Calc. Me and 3 others in my family are immune compromised so if school does start opening back up in phases, I’ll be one of the last groups to go. I just hope things get better and idiots stop being idiots :/

 

[SOMALIA]

Looking at this from a high school teacher's point of view, I absolutely hate teaching online lessons; not only is it much harder to engage the students compared to in a classroom but it also is harder to assess students as well as you can in the classroom. Students also are going to be WAY more disengaged due to having a million other things to do while "listening" to their teacher ramble. the Government keeps talking about trying to combat the obvious issue with children from poorer backgrounds lacking the material to make the most of online lessons compared to their more well-off peers but nothing is being done in practise. The gap is only getting larger between the high and low attainers. it's getting to the point that when the students came back after the summer break, I've been running extra small group science sessions to help any students who feel they've missed far too much work and frankly, it's not sustainable for teacher's to be spending 4/5 lunch times and several hours everyday after school helping students due to the incompetency of the government.

In the UK, particularly London, we have alot of students self-isolating and thus we're teaching blended lessons which is really stupid. The students who are in the classroom physically have to put up with the lesson moving alot slower due to a million different technical issues that will arise while you're making sure students at home can partake in the lesson and most of the students at home won't meet the same lesson objectives as those in class so they might as well not even be attending online in the first place.

Be honest, how much of your online lessons can you even recall if asked about in 2 days time? Compare this to traditional in-person lessons and I find that (speaking to lots of other teachers as well) that the students have much better outcomes compared to on-line teaching.

 

[Snowjy]

Looking at this from a high school teacher's point of view, I absolutely hate teaching online lessons; not only is it much harder to engage the students compared to in a classroom but it also is harder to assess students as well as you can in the classroom. Students also are going to be WAY more disengaged due to having a million other things to do while "listening" to their teacher ramble. the Government keeps talking about trying to combat the obvious issue with children from poorer backgrounds lacking the material to make the most of online lessons compared to their more well-off peers but nothing is being done in practise. The gap is only getting larger between the high and low attainers. it's getting to the point that when the students came back after the summer break, I've been running extra small group science sessions to help any students who feel they've missed far too much work and frankly, it's not sustainable for teacher's to be spending 4/5 lunch times and several hours everyday after school helping students due to the incompetency of the government.

In the UK, particularly London, we have alot of students self-isolating and thus we're teaching blended lessons which is really stupid. The students who are in the classroom physically have to put up with the lesson moving alot slower due to a million different technical issues that will arise while you're making sure students at home can partake in the lesson and most of the students at home won't meet the same lesson objectives as those in class so they might as well not even be attending online in the first place.

Be honest, how much of your online lessons can you even recall if asked about in 2 days time? Compare this to traditional in-person lessons and I find that (speaking to lots of other teachers as well) that the students have much better outcomes compared to on-line teaching.

I’ve been thinking the same. My father is a 4th grade teacher and the way he talks about his daily classes is so much different than what I, a high schooler, experience. Almost no one in any of my classes turn on their microphone/camera and only use the chat function. I can’t imagine the stress this puts on teachers.

 

[darkie]

it seems like most of the experiences here are from high school. i'm doing grad school online (masters in CS), which was already online in the before times.

my program was designed from the ground-up to be online-only, which means it runs a lot differently. each course runs slightly differently, but for the most part, all lectures are prerecorded and can be watched whenever you want. you can skip ahead if you want, or just watch the bare minimum as outlined in the schedule.

there are two main avenues for class discussion, message board (Piazza in our case), and Slack. announcements of project information, assignments, etc, are posted there.

this format works well for a grad school class. I think it would work well for college, too, but I don't think it would work for grade school, even high school. a lot of kids need to be pushed into learning. I don't think I would have taken any initiative to watch lectures on my own time when I was in high school. I'd be writing articles for Smogon instead lol