Just want to reach out to people that are maybe at college or university.
How are things?
Are you still motivated and are you ok with remote learning?
I've now got a rediculous pile of work and revision to do tomorrow. It's mostly due to the fact that I was on a big pause today and hit a brick wall with a particular subject. I got through it in the end, just took a while.
I plan to get up at 6am tomorrow and shove in all the things I've been planning to do within the last 4 days.
Partially due to the fact that I have to work Wednesday. Shot myself in the foot with that one.
It's now a likely possibility everyone will be returning mid March??
I think
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Now doing a postgraduate degree and the remote learning isn't great. Feeling pretty isolated without the normal interaction you'd get with teaching staff, and really struggle to stay focused when watching lectures on Zoom (don't mind not having to physically go in so much though).
The take home exams are certainly easier than having to travel to the exam centre and deal with that whole process, which I can appreciate.
I'd agree with MattF's comments about the recorded lectures- its like watching a very poorly made presentation with no real interaction, lecturers that still seemingly have no grasp on how to use Teams whilst telling us we're still recieving the 'same high quality tuition'.
The University has already said they aren't returning even if allowed to in March, the internal mental health services are snowed under with a 4+ week wait for initial consultation (that's just to acknowledge the referral exists and see what you need). The isolation is really beginning to get to people - its pretty soul destroying day in day out not seeing anyone whilst the university insist they're prioritising student welfare and providing ample opportunity for socialising.
Motivation's been pretty poor but I think that's to be expected. Its hard to focus on and get excited for stuff that is often quite abstract when you're being confronted with a very strange reality each day.
Planning on being a school teacher?
Yeh it probably helps when you can at least talk about things face to face with people who are in the same position.
I miss attending at 9am and enjoying the day.
I now struggle to even be awake by 9.
Then just get mildly depressed and start the day in a slow manner.
Remind myself to fight against it though. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Can completely relate to that mentality.
The most recent assignment I sent in was piss poor. I can alter it and resend it.
It's probable that everyone else in my class feels in a similar way.
The tutors do well on the teams remote learning. I feel bad if there is a vague silence when it sounds like they are putting effort in and trying to keep everyone focused.
Horrific is the best word to describe it. Although the universities are of course in a very hard position, there’s been very little support offered outside ‘we care about you and want to help’ platitudes, which is meaningless. I had one online meeting in the first week with my academic tutor and nothing since. Lectures are either pre recorded (sometimes just recycled recordings from 5 or 6 years ago) or ‘live’, but with none to very little interaction within it and technical problems throughout.
The fact of the matter is that universities are woefully unprepared for online learning, even at this stage. Large amounts of the reading list for example aren’t digitised and available online. One of my textbooks has an online version, but can only be accessed by one person at a time - this is for a module with just shy of 200 people on it, so you can imagine the chances of doing that.
Government have offered no support in any way, perhaps because they know students won’t vote for them anyway so why bother? Tuition fees are the same. There is no ‘no detriment’ policy to protect students who may struggle under these conditions. Motivation is rock bottom across the board.
Some may say ‘why go to uni this year?’. Most people my age had spent 6 months twiddling their thumbs at home before September. Travelling, apprenticeships and work were all largely non options. Sitting at home for another year was not appealing, and unis promised a ‘blended learning experience’, which most took to mean at least some decent level of in person teaching. This hasn’t happened.
Sorry for the rant, but it’s an almost universal opinion among students that we’ve been completely ignored at all stages of the pandemic.
Sorry to hear this and the rant is welcome.
Keep your chin up.
Keep your chin up guys, hopefully it won’t be long now.
Nice touch.
I feel for those at college, university etc right now. It must be very difficult.
Throw in the university on a number of occasions only providing promised food parcels to students who were isolating in accomodation about a week after they'd finished isolating, and I'm not going to be shocked if this year's National Student Survey makes pretty grim reading for what is supposedly a top university.
Possibly discuss things if you'd like
Got loads to do but a long walk and fresh air sounds a lot more appealing.
The fact of the matter is the government royally screwed up when it came to unis, as they did in so many areas. They told students not to return to their halls after Christmas, while offering no rent rebate for those locked into expensive contracts. Most unis did end up bowing to pressure and offering some sort of partial refund in late January and early February, but by that point anyone who wanted to return had done so. Most of my mates from back home have gone back to their respective unis, and I'd say my halls is around 50/60% full atm.
The media seems to love to blame students for parties and so forth, and I do understand the frustration of seeing reports of big parties at halls. But from a students point of view, if you'd followed the rules strictly from September you would have met no one except your flatmates, and some flats consist of just 2 people this year. That is not healthy. (And remember, we were told we had to go to campus in September for a 'blended learning experience'). I have a mate at a different uni who told me a girl in the flat opposite herself had a mental health crisis, and her and 2 other people in her flat had to go across and physically restrain her from injuring herself for 6 hours while they waited for an ambulance. They were in quarantine due to a coronavirus case at this point bear in mind, but the uni staff were nowhere to be seen so there was no other option really.
All this while talk continues of 'vaccine passports' as a requirement for entry to hospitality, to go on holiday, knowing full we will be the very last people to get a jab (rightly so, of course).
This frustration is largely aimed at the government and uni administrators though. Lecturers have really tried their best in the circumstances they've been given, and I think it is unfair to blame them for these mistakes.
my youngest is due to go in September but am talking to her about taking a year out and going in 2022 or even 2023 if necessary.
Must be horrible for first years especially if they're on their own, at least with his cohort they are used to going to labs and out on placement so they've got a good bubble who are sensible(ish) as they've seen it all up close and personal. Still strange when you ask 'how was your Friday night?' and the answer is 'Couple of bottles of Aldi wine and played Monopoly...'
Like they would actually forget about students needs. Of course they haven't.
They just don't care....
A friend of hers had the police round after a friend in a group chat tipped off the police about a house party that got organised. The police were calm and polite and just had a quiet word.
This virus has permanently altered a lot of things.
I just can't imagine there being an announcement to suggest house parties are now legal. You can now officially do whatever you want in this sense...again.
A relative government power struggle has risen due to the virus. I doubt they will suddenly be able to let everything return to normal in this sense.
Any student is not getting value for money. £9,250 for tuition fees per annum is wildly excessive for a few poorly produced lectures.
It is also about time that the interest charged on student loans is addressed. Charging just under 6% from day one is a National disgrace. As a Country we should not be looking to make a profit from individual students.