To Be, or Not To Be (Online): That is the Question

By BRYNNA WILLIAMSON and MELODY WILSON

In the first week of the Spring 2022 semester, President Kirk Calhoun sent out an important email that said that due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in East Texas, UT Tyler would again be switching to online courses.

Professors were given a choice whether to continue to hold classes in person or go online until Feb. 4, when in-person classes would resume. The  time for returning to in-class meetings was then moved to Feb. 11.

Faced with this choice, many professors switched their classes to online.

Although faculty and staff received the email outlining expectations and guidelines for the change, many students, especially those who do not work for the University, were not told of the switch until the day it happened. 

Megan Jameson, resident assistant for Patriot Village and mechanical engineering major, was one of the students as University staff, to receive the email. In contrast, Chandler Dark, a biochemistry student in his junior year, was not aware of the switch before his professor’s announcement.

“I get some emails from the president, like… the newsletter… all the time, but I did not get the email about the COVID update,” he said of the situation. 

Dark said that in one of his classes the professor asked who had received the email. Only a few students raised their hands. The majority showed they had not encountered it.

“Students should’ve been made aware of [the situation]… ‘cause some people, like that’s a thing that you need to mentally prepare for, especially if you know that your best learning isn’t coming from an online setting,” Jameson said.

Perhaps because very few of UT Tyler’s 10,000 students got the email regarding what happened, most students were left without the full details of how the school was handling the switch. 

Senior criminal justice major Peyton Lamb explained how the lack of communication affected his understanding of what happened and what the administration was doing about it. 

“I don’t understand how [the situation] is being handled at the faculty level, but I assume it affects them similarly to how it affects [students],” Lamb said.

And that’s what many students seem to have been left with – assumptions. Most students only had the dates that professors told them class would return to normal and the assumption that the spike in COVID-19 cases was the driving force behind the sudden change.

 Marissa Scarbrough, a junior with a double major in psychology and biochemistry, learned of the switch prior to her instructor informing the class.

“I was preparing an in-person activity for SI when my boss had informed me she was going to be making an announcement about moving all sessions, office hours, and tutoring to online only,” she said. “I don’t know very much [about the situation] besides rises in [COVID-19] cases”

Regardless of their lack of warning, some students were not surprised by the switch to online.

“As far as this semester, it really didn’t surprise me,” Dark said. “In a way… [having online classes] almost seems like it’s becoming normal now.” 

Scarbrough agreed, but was a bit surprised with how sudden everything happened. “I was surprised that we switched to online with little warning, but not surprised that we needed to.” 

• For the latest on COVID-19 at UT Tyler click here. 

Some students have opposing opinions regarding the switch from in-person to online.

Lamb said that he prefers working from the comfort of his home. In his case, he explained, his lectures had been moved to an online format and his assignments were now being turned in via Canvas. 

“Honestly, with the amount of online to in-person classes that I have this semester, I wouldn’t mind either way. But I do have a slight preference to it staying online,” Lamb said.

Jameson said there are simply too many kinds of students, each of whom have differing needs, to make everyone learn in the same manner. 

“I feel like it’s not as accessible to be able to receive an education that you’re paying for, if they kind of box you up into ‘Oh, this is your only option,’” Jameson said. “Classes shouldn’t be geared towards a certain type of learner, because it discourages those that don’t learn well that way.” 

She said students who have to go online are prone to having trouble concentrating and participating in class. 

“You are kept accountable in a classroom setting, but when it’s on Zoom, they can’t really do anything, ‘cause… they can’t see you or hear you,” Jameson said.

Clay Stewart, a business management student, summed up his feelings by sending the following:

Scarbrough agreed more heartily on the side of liking online classes. 

“Many classes have gone hybrid and given students the option of rather or not to attend in person… I think [the change] gives students who know their learning style or have a busy schedule [the opportunity to] adapt,” Scarbrough said.

Scarbrough pointed out that only some classes were affected by the switch, showing that professors were indeed given a choice. “[The switch to online] didn’t affect my lab science or math classes,” she said. 

She suggested the professors being given a choice in the matter may not have been for the best, saying, “I do have concerns that our class is too big for the safety guidelines and room size.”

According to Dark, he as a biochemistry major and those others majoring in a more science-based field, had been “robbed of the opportunity to learn [when] they’re not in lab, in-person.”  He said taking a lab online is counterintuitive to the whole point of a lab– to touch, see, and try doing things oneself. 

 

“It makes it a lot harder because you don’t have that kinesthetic aspect, which in my opinion is what labs are grounded on,” Dark said. 

Dark went on to agree with Jameson’s point: “Not everyone is a kinesthetic learner,” he said. 

Students tended to be fairly understanding of what they would have done differently had they been in charge.

Jameson pointed out that having classes meet on alternate days would be an option to keep classes in-person and yet reduce the number of students in a room.

Dark said the university should “make a decision and stick to it rather than leaving it up in the air.”

Lamb suggested sending out notices prior to the semester starting in order to give students time to rearrange their schedules.

Scarbrough said, “I think everyone did the best they could.”