by Tara Sottile
When it comes to doing school online, some college students are enjoying the change, while others are finding it a lot more difficult.
Jenna Sottile is in the Pre-Health program at Durham College (DC) where she has an accommodation plan, something that’s been a part of her life since she was little. At the age of nine was diagnosed with a learning disability and has had an individual education plan for most of her school life.
She’s in the final stretch of her program at DC but says the switch to online learning has made it more difficult for her to finish.
“Not being in class and in my labs is very difficult for me because I get distracted easily at home. So, having all my assignments on a computer is very difficult,” she says.
When the move to online classes first started, Sottile thought her professors would be giving online lectures, but that’s wasn’t the case.
“As soon as it started, I haven’t had one online lecture. They kind of just posted PowerPoints and I just teach myself. I struggle a lot, especially in math,” she explains. “So, teaching myself math and not knowing the topic is hard for me.”
E-Campus Ontario program manager, Brandon Carson, helped faculty all across Ontario prepare for the move online. He says what students are experiencing right now during the pandemic isn’t true online learning.
“We’re being forced into online learning for a few weeks to finish off the courses and to make sure that our students are able to achieve the learning outcomes within their courses. A true online course takes a lot more time to develop and put together,” he explains.
He says it is important for faculty to know that during this time students may have other things going on. So, doing online assessments may not be easy for everyone.
“I’ve been trying to really promote to our faculty to rethink how students are learning right now and the scenarios they may be in,” he says. “It could be a single mother who isn’t able to make class during normal class hours. So, we have to rethink how long we leave assessments open for.”
For Sottile, she never thought moving to online courses would be difficult, but she says the past few weeks have been extremely challenging for her.
“When I first started, I didn’t think it was going to be this hard. It’s been going for a couple weeks now and I’ve realized it’s harder than I thought, and people are not taking it seriously,” she says
“I thought it was going to be easy and I could fly through it, but it’s actually a struggle teaching myself,” she says. “The pandemic has taken a really huge toll on my ability to finish school.”
Carson wants students such as Sottile and others to know there are options available for them beyond their class notes.
“Faculty are putting together great learning resources for students, but you also have the world at your fingertips with the internet and there’s so many great things out there to learn a lot of this stuff,” he says.
He believes people are going to look at education in a different light because of the pandemic.
“I think this is going to change education in a positive way moving forward. More faculty are going to embrace technology and find different ways to use it within their courses, even if it’s a full face-to-face course,” he says.
Looking for more information regarding DC’s online support? Follow this link: https://durhamcollege.ca/cafe/educational-tech/linkedin-learning/
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