Tag: online classes

From Room 27 to Lab 9

Quarantined

College classes are about to resume. Online. Well, at least that’s what the latest notice from Delhi University states. The efficiency of online classes has now been debated upon for long with the only conclusion being that they are the best option during this time. Keeping the academic factor aside (I usually do), what will happen to the whispers and comments I am used to in a classroom setting? These are as essential in my learning process as the notes. That is how I remember stuff. I correlate the content with what happened in the class at that time or what comment was made.

To illustrate my point, I remember my Linear Algebra Professor hell bent on explaining dimension of a vector space while the three of us were hell bent on deciphering the accent behind the messages sent by a certain individual. The concept I remember the most from Mathematical Modelling is of ‘per-capita’. I will not elaborate on this further. Even though I should. But no. Now, don’t get me wrong. It is not a mockery of the teachers. Absolutely not. It is just the circumstances or the ambiance that makes one chuckle.

Half the fun in attending Statistics classes was the adrenaline rush we got from rushing from Room 27 to Lab 9 in time, fearing been thrown out of class for turning up a couple minutes late. It just won’t be the same switching from one Zoom meeting to a Google Meet. Also, what about lab lessons? The best part of a college day? The potential to wreak havoc in a practical class is humongous. Where’s the amusement in having an entire 3 course meal behind a switched off camera in an online class, if I don’t have to slyly hide my steaming hot maggi under my desk, taking mouthfuls when sir was busy deriving another Real Analysis theorem.

Notice the stark contrast. In a regular classroom setting, the teacher repeatedly asks us to keep quiet. On Zoom classes, the teacher repeatedly asks us to speak up. Even if its just to provide confirmation that we can indeed hear them. More importantly, how will I coordinate my pen twirling shenanigans? Howwww? How will I gesture a fire with my fingers right in front of my friend’s face, that even makes the teacher laugh? No more of that. No more of taking the long route to the Tut Block to avoid society work. Will there be society work now?

The only good think out of this entire situation will be the WhatsApp sticker collections I’ll end up with. WhatsApp stickers do have the ability to magically turn a bad day around. Here’s hoping I can learn a thing or two in the virtual set up.

Rant #123

Quarantined

Last night I went to sleep as a second-year college student whose examination had been cancelled. Today, I woke up in a frenzy feeling like a 6th grade student, who has missed her chemistry zoom meeting among several others, haven’t been responding to several Google Classroom and WhatsApp group messages, have copious amount of pending project work and am overall a complete package of carelessness and ignorance. Never having been in this situation, I gave the feeling a few minutes to settle in. Lo and behold I realise it was Maa, on the phone, desperately trying to get her students to attend the online classes. If these students felt even 1/3rd the panic I did, they better get their proceedings in order and more importantly by the end of the day.

Sadly, students today are cut from a different cloth altogether. The students fail to realise the astronomical amounts of efforts being put in by their teachers to ensure they do not lose out on their academic front. It definitely isn’t easy. Trust me. I, myself took an unreasonable amount of time to figure out all the different teaching tool that teachers were expected to master overnight. Right from the simplest of things like copy-paste to actually conducting daily video classes that require media incorporation from completely different software. And don’t even get me started on the amount of settings that need alteration in Google Quizzes. This is just to put into perspective, how troublesome it must have been for your teachers, some of whom have never even saved a Word document successfully. Please do not make their already bad jobs, worse.

Put up an understanding front if you receive a notice with at least 7 separately identifiable fonts. Understand if you are asked to submit the same assignment thrice. Even in the same format. Also, do not be that irritating individual who personal messages even after all the instructions are posted on the class group. Instead of dialling your teacher at odd hours, dial your comrade. Shoot your repetitive questions to them. Because, trust me, your teacher will always say your calls are welcomed, but please have enough sense and decency to not ring them up for obvious facts. Your teachers are already juggling tremendous amounts of work, you have no idea of. Right from day long seminars to administrative work that has fallen upon them during this catastrophe. If you think college professors, have it any easier, you are wrong my friend. Respect the professor who is diligent enough to take online classes when they could have just been working on their research paper.

Bottom line: Don’t be a prick.

P.S. 123 isn’t a random number. I have actually published 122 posts before this one 🙂