When Durham University first announced they would be hosting their lectures online, I cannot say I was too pleased. Of course, I agree that this will be the safest and the most rational thing to do and I certainly am glad that Durham University is doing their all to protect their students and staff.
My concerns, however, stem from the amount of money I will be paying, for most of my contact hours will be spent online. As a Philosophy student in third year, my contact hours will be significantly reduced to around seven hours per week. Considering that I am still paying £9,250 for hardly any face-to-face teaching, it truly makes me question: what is my money going towards?
Is online learning worth the money?
Our lectures – even before the pandemic – were published online. However, we were always told that watching lectures online was never a substitute for learning and that attending lectures were compulsory. Their views were based on the idea that learning should be interactive. Of course, online lectures dramatically stunt this. How can they expect us to achieve our full potential when the interaction element of learning has been taken away? Online lectures are merely incomparable to regular, face-to-face lectures.
The ambience of the lecture theatre, the hungover people around you, the sounds of people furiously tapping away – this is what makes university education memorable. Sitting at your computer, or even your laptop still in bed, allows for many distractions. A quick nap or binge of a Netflix show is always possible when studying in a bedroom.
Learning has now become enclosed within our bedrooms.
Hopefully, lectures and examiners will keep in mind the added pressure placed on students when it comes to relearning good studying habits. As someone who can only study in libraries, I am not filled with glee at the prospect of studying somewhere else.
How will the transition online impact other parts of university life?
It seems that not only will our lectures be impacted, but also our learning outside of classes. With the closure of libraries, students will have minimal study spaces. Durham University has provided libraries within our different colleges, but many of these are small and will, of course, have a decreased amount of seating available due to social distancing.
Not only are we paying for our learning, but also the facilities in which our university provides.
The closure of these facilities is stunting our education and prospects. We cannot attend our lectures now or even attend the library. This will also impact clubs and societies. The extracurricular side of university will heavily change. Contact sports will be postponed. The number of people allowed to attend social events will decreased.
I can only sympathise with students starting their first year in September. The small things like visiting the Freshers Fair, or clubbing on a Friday night, have been snatched away from them. The prospect that ‘university is one of the best experiences ever’ is now a dwindling thought.
I do agree that there are cons and benefits to every decision made. However, it is safe to say: I am glad I am in my last year of university now, rather than my first.
Madeleine Rosie Strom
Image by Nikolay Georgiev from Pixabay
Madeleine Rosie Strom
Hi! My name is Madeleine Rosie Strom and I am a 20 year Philosophy student studying at Durham University.