The impacts of MERS-CoV on how the college courses are being currently, held! Translated…
Back then, our generation, if we’d not done well enough on our college entrance and wanted to retake the entrance exams, in the days we hit the books hard, studying at home, we’d made fun of how we’re, going to school at home, from then, it had that joking tone to it, but now, this is, what’s happening to the college students in America right now.
The sudden outbreaks of MERS-CoV that refused to slow down, it’d made the university campuses shut their doors, some school even stated clear, that before the spring semester of 2022, they’re going to, remain closed, and they may not open the lecture halls for the students to sit in at the professors’ lectures either, and the students can only, keep locking up at home, to finish their college education from online.
like this???
The schools stopped holding their sessions but the learning hadn’t halted yet, my two college students usually didn’t get up until five minutes before classes started, and it wouldn’t matter if you’re, unkempt, hadn’t brushed your teeth, with a head of messy hair. My son and his peers all, shut their cameras down, but kept the sound on, and other than the professors’ screens being active, all the other screens are, black. I’d asked him why he’d not, turned on his webcam to interact with his fellow classmates? He’d told me that he’d not turned on the webcam, to keep his own comfort of attending his classes at home. Later on, as I watched my daughter in her online classes, I’d finally, understood what my son, meant.
There was a male student in my daughter’s class who was taking the class sessions, and making the lunches at the same time, and, other than the professor’s lectures on the classes, they all watched the male student cooking his own meals, kneading the dough, and, it’d, made the rest of the class too curious, wondered what sort of an amazing lunch he would, prepare for himself.
Then, my son told me, that it didn’t matter if he’d not turned on his webcam during his regular lectures, but on exam days, every student will have their cameras on them, sitting in front of their stations, to take their exams, so the professors can watch them take the exams from the other side of the screens. The exams were administered, as if they were, attending their courses in the lecture halls of the universities.
And, although it’s, relaxing for the classroom sessions to be held online, my children still hoped that they can, return to school soon, to have the face-to-face interactions with the rest of their fellow classmates and professors. It’s just, that the MERS-CoV outbreaks don’t seem to be slowing down, and, the schools are still, very conservative in whether or not the campuses would, reopen by next semester. This meant, that if the outbreaks didn’t slow or come to a halt, my children are going to have to, continue their college education from home.
illustration from UDN.com
Toward how my children couldn’t return back to campus to school, I was happy, and I wasn’t, happy, because since my kids went off to college, I thought that it would only be my husband and I, living together with each other, but this time, the kids were, forced to come back home to stay, and, we’d, gotten this, hard-to-come-by chance to spend more time together, it’s, truly, precious. But on the other hand, I’d not want to see my kids, longing to return back to school to study, but couldn’t!
For my daughter, she’d, just started college, is in the discovery stages of her learning, and her life as a freshman, halted by the outbreaks. This didn’t matter, I just don’t want someone else asking her, “Where did you go to school?”, and her answer was, “at home!” This would be, something quite, awful. After all, the college years of someone’s life should be full of experiences, with endless opportunities for learning, for experiences, and shouldn’t just be about the academics. And now, I can only hope, that the vaccine for MERS-CoV gets out soon, so the entire society can get, back on track again, so the students can return back to school soon.
My children are lucky, with the chances of, picking up on their campus life, the graduates of this year lacked this good luck. As the seniors, rushed off from graduation this spring, nobody predicted this huge outbreak, and, it’d, taken the graduation ceremonies away from them, they’d, rushed through their, graduation processes, and panickily, entered, into, the next stage of, their lives now.
Squatting at home for university, it’d, barely, kept the students’ right to get an education intact, but I’d, hoped, that this methods of learning and teaching could, end soon, for all the students to return back to the university campuses, so they can, live out their college careers, in full color, and fully experience it.
And so, MERS-CoV had impacted not just the way we interact, but also, the way we are learning in school, and these students are unlucky, because they’re, kept away from their schools, but they’re, lucky too, to experience this sort of a long-distance education, but I’m more than certain, that most of them would, much rather sit in the lecture halls with a ton of other of their classmates by their side, listening to the professors YAP, instead of, sitting in front of their laptops, and attending the courses through the webcam, interactive internet course sessions.