As March 2022 is just around the corner, COVID-19 approaches its second year as a global pandemic. I was a senior when the pandemic started and now I am in my second year of college. I interviewed two Hardin-Simmons University students about their experience with school and COVID-19.
Faith Holbert, sophomore theater education major from Quanah, said that over the past two years she has had about 50 percent of her classes online. At first, Holbert was worried about COVID-19 causing all schools to move online, but she ended up excelling in her senior year of high school. Online classes allowed her to do her school work on a schedule that worked for her. In her second semester at HSU, she only had one in-person class.
“It made my social, work, and homework schedule very easy to figure out,” Holbert said. She is currently taking all in-person classes but wishes she still had the option to take her courses online.
Kaylen Washington, a junior psychology major from Abilene, has had almost all of her classes online over the past two years. Washington said 85 percent of her classes have been taught remotely. She remembered that she was not too worried about school when the pandemic started because she thought that everything would go back to normal after two weeks.
Washington enjoyed having classes online because it allowed her to do her work on her own time, but she did notice that she did not learn as much. Washington said that she feels like she has missed out on a lot of learning opportunities because of online classes, but now she is back to in-person learning experiences.
COVID-19 has affected the world in a lot of different ways, but I believe that it has permanently changed academics. Students learned that there is a way for schools to work for their schedules and not against them. The two students that I interviewed had their likes and dislikes about online school, but both enjoyed the freedom of virtual learning. I believe that academics are making a move to be more accessible and accommodating for students.