By: Harvin Bhathal, News Writer
Disclaimer: For the purpose of job security, The Peak has granted anonymity to SFU faculty members who have commented
SFU’s transition to online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic has affected students and faculty alike. Though much of SFU’s public communications has focused on the effect on students, SFU’s teaching staff are experiencing uncertainty as well. With many students and their accompanying assignments, essays, and emails to respond to and account for, educators are facing the task of reconfiguring their syllabi to fit the constraints of the global pandemic.
The Peak contacted faculty and students at SFU to get a sense of how they’re transitioning their courses online and how that process was going. Students responded to The Peak’s post in the SFU Must Knows for Courses Facebook group on March 21.
One professor responded to let The Peak know that they are unable to give feedback due to the increased duties as a result of this transition. Many others did not respond at all.
According to one SFU professor, the transition to online classes “happened far too slowly,” compared to the dozens of universities that had already done so by the time SFU announced the switch. “It should have been very obvious to SFU [ . . . ] that we needed to be proactive.”
Another professor stated that SFU handled the transition “as well as could be expected.” On the topic of the increased workload related to shifting to online teaching, they stated: “Much of the labour of course delivery is now focused on the basic problem of how we will all make contact and interact, taking away time and energy that could be spent on learning.”
They added, “Not all students have the same digital access or the same bandwidth, and many see remote/digital meeting alternatives as very thin in comparison [to] the actual, in-person course that they thought they were enrolled in.”
Several professors stated that they have shifted to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (a virtual classroom feature on Canvas), Zoom (a video conferencing and webinar app), and pre-recorded lectures.
For others, the shift has simply been students doing the readings and looking over the slides or a professor’s hand-written notes on their own time, which requires more focus than lectures, said SFU student Sharon Lam.
“I have one class with recorded lectures. I’ve noticed that’s the only class where I can pay attention and process the material,” she added.
Lam continued, “Most of my [professors] aren’t doing video or recorded lectures [ . . . ] I have one class with recorded lectures [and] I’ve noticed that’s the only class where I can pay attention and actually process the material.”
Another SFU student, Rubab Ahluwalia, asked: “Are we here to learn, or simply give exams for courses that we pay for?”
Other changes include one SFU professor creating an optional discussion forum for students to post COVID-19-related memes and content for a one-point bonus to their final grade. In a similarly lighthearted manner, another professor is offering their students a five-minute dance party during the break of their class to keep spirits up.
In spite of these attempts to rectify the awkward transition, students still have complaints about the impact the shift has had on their learning.
“The obviously understandable unpreparedness of professors to shift completely online has resulted in the semester seeming slowed,” said SFU student Travis McLellan on Facebook.
Students referenced a lack of motivation and focus for their classes, as well as being overwhelmed by their loss of income due to workplaces shutting down. Furthermore, students with children are facing issues of balancing their child’s home-school education and their own.
While students may have their complaints, many have acknowledged the difficulties that the decision to transition to online courses placed onto faculty as well.
SFU student Chris Mitchell said, “[Faculty] are trying so hard but how are they supposed to keep focused if [students] cannot. This is a bad time for everyone and it shows.”
“I do sympathize with professors though because they’ve had to make a transition they weren’t planned on and I imagine they’re also stressed,” added SFU student Brianna Malott.
Similarly, a professor who responded to The Peak’s email inquiry noted that their experience has been easier due to their course load this semester, but admitted: “It’’s harder for my colleagues who teach huge classes, or who teach dance, theatre, visual art, etc.”
In response to The Peak’s interview request, one of the professors wanted to convey a message to students:
“Please don’t feel like you have to produce your best work as if the pandemic didn’t exist. This isn’t on you,” they said. “If you are in a situation where it’s hard to get work done, reach out to your professors — we try but we don’t always know what it’s like for thousands of different students. Bring your pets to the webcam.”
They reiterated, “Many professors and admins have never done this before. This
will be a wake up call on just how complicated online learning is, and how it does not work for many kinds of people and many kinds of learning.”
Another stated, “This is a great chance for us to find out how adaptable we can be in the face of difficult circumstances, and to learn how to work in fundamentally new ways [ . . . ] Some advice I’d give is to try to manage your schedule the same way as you would in regular classes, and to figure out a place in your home where you can be relatively productive and set aside a few hours each day to get work done from that space.
That same professor added, “I am particularly sad that my most recent in-person class [was] my last opportunity to see my students in person, but that I didn’t know it at the time. Teaching brings me a lot of joy and I regret not being able to say goodbye. It’s been an emotional transition, to say the least.”
