Online vs. In Person

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko (Pexels)

Since last week I wrote about how the corona pandemic ruined my perfectly planned university start, I decided to write a little bit more about the reasons why. In last week’s article I did touch upon a few reasons for that train wreck happening in slow motion but this time I want to go into more detail and focus on the differences between online and in-person classes.

In my last article, I mentioned that I am glad that all my classes are in person since I could not concentrate during online classes. Well, that is only half the truth. My lack of concentration was not the only blame leading up to my imminent failure.

Another reason was the pacing of the lectures. During online classes, everything the professors said just seemed incredibly fast. I barely had time to write it down before the professors moved on to the next slide. Frankly, the professors aren´t the blame either because no one dared to speak up and they can´t see our rather confused and lost faces through their computer screens with the hundreds of students in attendance otherwise the internet will suffer greatly.

Technically one can say that I can just write down everything after the lecture since the professors’ upload everything and I would agree since that is a legitimate point. Even now in person, I prefer to spend my time and slowly write everything down properly, since my fast catch-up-with-the-professor handwriting is unreadable nicely put.

Nevertheless, my problem is the concentration issue I mentioned earlier. I have a tendency to postpone (or procrastinate) certain tasks which include learning since I have difficulty concentrating. It is not because I am lazy, but it is just demotivating trying to learn and always getting distracted by something so irrelevant, which prevents one from learning. Just trying and failing so many times… it is not encouraging a healthy learning habit.

Besides that, online learning has another major downside in comparison to in-person lectures. That disadvantage being psychology. I already established that I have a great tendency of overthinking everything. If you never experienced overthinking before, I got two things to say. First. Lucky you. Second. Overthinking is not necessarily all positive and worst-case scenario prevention.

Over the one year of online courses I had, I managed to convince myself that I am not smart enough and never will be good enough for a chemistry degree. Luckily, before I entered that dark tunnel, I put my life into perspective by observing who managed to graduate from university. Turns out they were just human and not some genius. Everyone can graduate if only they put their heads into the game so that’s what I plan to do. Play hard and study harder.

Frankly, that severe self-doubt probably wouldn’t have happened if I was not isolated and alone. From experience I can confirm that it is easier to dig oneself further into a pit one cannot get out of and shouldn’t be in if there is no one around to take the shovel away.

Besides the mental side-effects online classes have on my health there are also the physical side-effects. No lie, online classes made me lazy in the most drastic way possible. From one class to another, one does not need to pack up, stand up and leave. One just has to exit one meeting and enter another. My non-existent exercise regimen is suffering from this lack of movement.

Even though I can exercise outside of my online classes, I don´t. Before anyone accuses me of being lethargic, I prefer sport as in fencing or dodgeball and I don’t do fitness nor athletics. All I am trying to say is that my idea of sports is not ideal for lockdown scenarios. However, if one considers walking down the stairs to the kitchen as exercise then I am golden.

My lack of pandemic exercise aside, there are also upsides to online classes. For instance, one does not have to leave the house and get stuck in traffic early in the morning. One can just wake up and take the class from the comfort of one’s own home. Lecturers are not grumpy because they must take the morning train and oneself is not in a foul mood either because one did not miss that morning bus.

Another thing online classes are good for is the carrying load. It is no secret that university books are comparable to literal bricks. Luckily most books are downloadable pdf files. However, I have no idea why I still prefer the physical book. Maybe there is a sense of accomplishment when one finishes that brick of a book. Or I just really like the feel of paper. I don’t know.

During the online semester, there is no sense of hurry when one is studying at home. Everything (besides live meetings) is at one´s own pace. One does not have to hurry and pack one´s bags to get to the next class. No need to drag around that bag and no need for fear of losing items because everything is at home.

However, this just leads to procrastination if one does everything at one´s own pace. The trick to overcoming that problem is to have a studying schedule. Deadlines are threatening and make people work, use that to one own´s advantage. This trick, however, I learnt a tad too late.

Even though I am glad that all my lectures are in person, I am not so glad about when they are. The time they occupy my schedule. All my classes are morning classes and sadly I am not that kind of early bird. I try to have a healthy sleeping schedule but that is certainly not one way to attain that goal.

On a brighter note, in-person classes with people. In-person classes, people can ask questions and won’t feel so isolated nor alienated. One is not at a disadvantage when one does not have the best internet that can support online video meetings at home and where the only obstacle in one´s way to the university is the morning rush hour traffic and personal health.

Personally, I like in-person classes even though they are as mentioned ridiculously early since in the lecture halls one can see that one is not the only one trying to attain the goal of a degree. It is not just a name and a profile picture anymore like during the online meetings.

In all honesty, I even found it easier to talk to people in person at the university, since there is no social schoolyard hierarchy at the university. In school, one will only hang out with one or at most two squads. One can only travel within close circles without hostile conversations. If one ever wanders beyond those squads, there will be a feeling of betrayal going around and nothing is the same afterwards.

Middle school is a time where you have an obligation to hang out in a certain group with certain members even though you might not even like some of the members of that group. If you point out that someone in your squad is dreadful, then the squad will either pick sides or split up completely.

If they pick your side, then nothing is lost but it will be one heck of a popularity contest. However, if your squad picks the person, you have just offended then you will probably be expelled from your squad, and you are left alone. It is unlikely that you find another squad accepting you with open arms.

If the squad splits up there will be a tiny squad-a-war. Avoiding each other in the halls. Fighting for the usual hangout space. Hurt feelings going around. Therefore, it is best to keep one´s mouth shut or have a backup plan if things go south. Schoolyard social hierarchy is complicated and my version may be outdated since new rules come and go.

In the university, on the other hand, there is no social hierarchy since there are no classes. There are only lectures which everyone can attend regardless of one´s major or semester. There might be a friendship group or two, but they are just generally more welcome and open for new members even temporary ones than the squads in middle school.

Generally, people are more open for a chat since that awkward antisocial teenager phase passed for most of us. That obligatory belonging feeling or the urge to fit in faded and no matter who you ask, you will get the advice or help you need.

Besides that, in-person just felt like a safe alternative to online when it comes to meeting new people since one cannot deny that one will meet a lot of new people at uni wherever one goes. One might just start chatting with the random stranger sitting in the same row as you every day.

Call me old fashioned but I prefer meeting people in real life rather than online. There won’t be random off-putting texts from unknown strangers and no one will be catfished since when one is online it is easier to deceive because there is little to no verification of one’s true identity.

To be honest, I am not the only one who thinks like that. Many of my similar-aged peers agreed with me on the cyber-friendship subject even though I believe part of the reason for this mutual agreement is that we are born in a time where social media was not widespread like it is today and we remember a childhood where we would play on the playground and meet think-alike playmates on that playground without any kind of technology.

However, there are also downsides to in-person lectures. Even though I did not experience or observe it at the university, there still could be the possibility of bullying considering how many immature people are studying at a university just itching to pick a fight.

There could also be people who are still shy even with that difficult teenager phase over. For them, online lectures might be more comfortable since there will not be any run-ins with people especially the unknown ones. However, this might lead to the feeling of isolation I mentioned earlier, and I would discourage anyone to go down that rabbit hole.

This may even sound presumptuous, but I try to talk to people who seem alone since I remember how awkward it felt for me standing there alone or sitting alone at lunch. Most of the people I talked to wanted to be approached. Now it is even fair to say that we are great acquaintances who help each other out.

There are still people I want to talk to but oddly enough I don’t seem to have the courage to talk to them since there is something intimidating about them. Knowingly, I overthink this since I made myself believe that they like to be alone (even though no one truly likes to be alone no matter how much they hate to admit it) or I believe my current study group would be offended if I did talk to others. My middle school mentality is still alive and well no matter how much I hate it.

Of course, I cannot forget to mention the disadvantage, which does not impact the majority of students. Accessibility. I hate to point this out but my uni just seems incredibly inaccessible even with the handicapped parking spots. Lecture halls don’t seem accessible, and so are the entrances to the rooms.

Maybe I might be cherry-picking on this topic since I didn’t see all the lecture halls and rooms but the students who want to study chemistry are out of luck because chemistry students tend to spend most of their time in those lecture halls and rooms.

I guess there are good and bad for both online and in-person (and I shouldn’t be surprised since that is always the case) but I just wrote down the ones that impacted or stood out to me the most. Right now, I am just hoping that the situation doesn’t worsen so it would go back to online classes. However, even if it does, I am confident that I have a great support network to help me cope with the ramifications this time around.