When coming into this school year, I was relieved to have my classes online. I thought, “This will be perfect because I don’t have to actually go to class and I can work on homework at my own pace.”

Now, almost four months into the semester, I despise online classes. If you are a hands-on learner like I am, I’m sure you know the struggle I’m speaking of. Having classes online does not access everyone’s learning style which causes so many problems. Online classes forces students to learn on their own to do the homework and further, retain this information on their own. With professors who lack at providing good examples of assignments, not uploading information or minimal information, this learning experience is altered.

Lest we forget, the lack of a student-professor relationship. If you don’t already know the professor and are solely online, there is not much of a relationship there other than your name and theirs. So, the trust between the two people is not established and what is any kind of relationship without trust?

Also, miscommunications are way more likely because you can’t go to all of your professors’ offices or even call their office, so you have to resort to email. Email tag seems to be the biggest game right now. Professors emails are flooded with more emails now while students need their professors’ attention that may be hard to get. Also, if an assignment isn’t explained well and a student makes a mistake without realizing, this can make things more complicated.

Now, realizing that it is safer to be online than in class at this time, I will say that there aren’t many other options and I am sure everyone is doing everything they can to adjust.

But I ask if there is truly an understanding of this? We all are in the same boat but there seems to be an imbalance of understanding and sympathy. Things should definitely be made easier on students and of course, on professors. We all should understand that we have lives outside of school and that life likes to get in the way. That is something 2020 has taught us all.

Here is to hoping that next school year, things might be better and we won’t have to deal with all of these inconveniences.

Gillian Eubanks junior health communications major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or gdeubanks@eiu.edu.