Online Fall Term vs Online Winter Term.
By: Maria Garcia Manzano, AEIC of The Quill
Having achieved the first full week back to school for the winter term I cannot help but compare my experience to the past fall term. While both terms are online, I feel as though something has changed this winter term. Perhaps I have now grown accustomed to what is required of me as I navigate through an online learning environment. Last term due dates and deadlines crept up on me and I felt more stressed than I felt during my first year at BU. During the fall term, I went in with the mentality that it would be easier as it was online and on my own terms. However, I quickly found that not all of my professors would be recording their lectures, therefore, making attendance mandatory, and even if they recorded and posted their lectures, I was behind in schoolwork and would not be able to re-watch them.
This past fall term taught me that in order to keep up on schoolwork, every zoom meeting would have to be attended and paid attention to. I would log on to the zoom meeting and try to listen and take notes. However, more times than not I would use my phone during class. Whenever I did this, I realized that studying was more difficult as I had not fully paid attention and class and had to read a lot more than I would have if I had simply paid attention to the lecture and taken notes in the first place. During the Fall term, I also left a lot of assignments right to the last minute. I handed in everything on time, but I would procrastinate in beginning the assignment to the point of leaving them the night before and doing them. This worked for some assignments and not others as a lot of my assignments revolved around writing 5–10-page papers. Which is not an easy task to accomplish in one night. Overall, as a result of how I chose to go about the fall term, my stress levels were high. This winter term, however, I am committed to changing the bad habits I formed.
Throughout the fall term I never turned on my camera nor did I participate when the professors asked questions in class. I refused to use my mic and never spoke. This term I have turned on my camera and have begun speaking in class. This has made me pay more attention during class as while I engage, I find I hold myself more accountable if I do not pay attention. I have also made myself listen to all lectures and only re-watch them if absolutely necessary. Furthermore, I am trying to take notes as I follow through with the lecture. I have not had any tests yet, but I do think this will help as I study for them. Since less material will feel unknown. This term I will also try to start assignments earlier, so I do not end up having to work on four assignments over a single weekend.
