NEW COLLEGE TRY
For a Rice music major, the process has unique problems
College students in Houston and across the state adjust to challenges of learning online.
When Rice University senior music major and opera singer Georgia Belmont heard that the private Houston university closed its campus and would resume classes online for the remainder of the semester, she cried.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and guidelines to social distance in aims to curb the spread of the virus, Belmont’s senior year had drastically changed.
Graduation seemed up in the air. Performances and her solo recital — major parts of her final grade — were canceled and replaced with projects and analyses of opera characters, and her weekly voice lesson is now done a Capella through video chat.
Like Belmont, students around Texas are still adjusting to the transition to online courses.
“It’s one thing to hear someone speak over Skype. It’s another thing to sing,” Belmont said, especially if the connection isn’t good. “It’s hard to get a clear understanding of tone or what a person’s voice sounds like. … It’s definitely going to be a weird transition.”
The K-12 system, in particular, has seen the most difficulty with online and remote learning. Aside from technological glitches or issues, a switch to online learning has upended family routines, requiring many parents and guardians to homeschool their children while balancing their own work responsibilities. It’s also revealed inequities within the secondary education system, with some students not having access to laptops and WiFi needed for online learning.
Higher education faces its own set of challenges.
Schools, including University of Houston, Texas Southern University, Texas A&M University, University of St. Thomas, Prairie View A&M University, Baylor University, and Lone Star College kicked off their online classes for the first time at the end of March, while colleges, including the University of Texas at Austin and Houston Community College begin remote learning this past week. And some colleges including, the University of Houston, will host online courses through the summer.
Inequities or lack of access to technology has prompted some universities to allow students to reside on campus despite social distancing rules. Many faculty and students are participating in online learning for the first time, and some classes just don’t translate well online.
As a result, college students are seeing aspects of their classes change as professors adapt coursework for the online realm.
For example, Lone Star College has resumed classes, but courses that have a crucial physical element won’t resume until midApril, which is still subject to change, according to college spokesman Bill Van Rysdam. For some, this means aspects of their courses have disappeared all together.
“It’s weird how different everything is,” said Abbie Martinez, a junior art history and studio art minor at the University of Houston. “It’s kind of anxiety inducing.”
Art studios on campus are closed, and at least two projects Martinez was expected to do for her ceramics course have instead been replaced with assigned papers. Lectures are streamed or uploaded online, often with a professor speaking over slides, which can feel less engaging, she said.
“I make myself go and listen to them, but sometimes I think I could do that or I could play Animal Crossing or something,” Martinez said with a laugh. But she was adamant: “I need to do well in school.”
But, Martinez notes, her professors are trying.
One professor hosts live stream art sessions for students who want to connect with classmates, chat or hang out while making art over Zoom. Another professor called all students directly, inquiring about the challenges they faced during the week and how she could help.
Many colleges, including Rice, UT, UH, Baylor, Prairie View, Texas Southern and Texas A&M, have also offered the option of a pass/ fail grading system rather than letter grades for students, which will not be factored into their GPAs.
For visual learners, it can be difficult to stay engaged over Zoom, said Quinton Bolling, a senior studying business management at Prairie View A&M. And for hands-on courses like engineering, it’s been difficult, he said.
But “it’s going to get better from now, said JoJo MillGraves, who is also enrolled at Prairie View. “I think we just have to get used to it and actually let it happen to learn how to process it.”
Princess Ojuolape, a senior biology major and president of Prairie View’s Student Government Association, says the abrupt transition to remote learning has brought into question how students will virtually utilize typical campus resources, like tutoring and disability services.
“How are we going to take advantage of that?” Ojuolape said. “I challenge the university on that, and I would tell any person who advocates on campus to do the same. Just because we change how we do instruction, it shouldn’t change any resources that we have to pay for,” especially as students put more energy into their courses.
“You have to really take advantage of your education even more now,” Ojuolape said.
Prairie View A&M spokeswoman Candace Johnson said in addition to the college’s tutoring center offering online Zoom tutoring support, students receive 500 hours of tutoring from the Tutors.com website, and have the option of extending those hours should they run out.
Belmont said taking online classes at Rice can also be a struggle in terms of mental health.
During her first week of digital classes , she said she felt negative, but seeing her professors and classmates in her Zoom classes and hosting a Zoom happy hour with friends at Rice made her feel better.
“It was really great to just see them and talk,” said Belmont, who is still unsure of when she’ll see her Rice family again in person.
Despite all of the chaos amid the pandemic, Belmont said she feels lucky to be a student at this time.
“As much as I would love to have no work, I know it’s keeping me busy and keeping me afloat,” she said. “People are fortunate to have health. If I have to be stuck in this house for two months to help people and not spread this virus. I’m going to do that.”
“It’s one thing to hear someone speak over Skype. It’s another thing to sing. It’s hard to get a clear understanding of tone or what a person’s voice sounds like. … It’s definitely going to be a weird transition.” Georgia Belmont, Rice University senior music major