By Aseel Aloraine
Freshman, Media Arts and Science, IUPUI
On March 6 of this year, I, a freshman college student at IUPUI heard of the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in the state of Indiana. This was a week before Spring Break, which was supposed to last only a week. Little did I know that week was the last week for me to be on campus. Nearing the end of Spring Break, before I even had the chance to comprehend what was happening, I was told to not come back to campus and that I am getting an extension on Spring Break and that my classes had been turned into online instead of face-face.
It was a shock to most of us college students, especially people who do not have any other place to go like international students who live in campus dorms. For me personally, although I was shocked too, I was living in an apartment complex near campus. I was also fortunate enough to have my parents who lived only half an hour away.
I did not want to feel alone in this situation, so I asked IUPUI students in a Facebook group about the effect of the sudden switch to online school on their academics and if they felt the same. About 271 of the students I surveyed said that the sudden switch affected them academically. Out of these students, 48 said that they lost motivation and structure in their academics to which I relate to.
Also, I felt like there was an increase in the workload and many students agree. This is not abnormal because this situation caused so much change in our lives, not just academically but also socially. Personally, my sleep schedule became a mess, I was stress eating, and I procrastinated way more than I have ever done in my life. Because of the loss of motivation, my way to feel okay about the situation was to ignore everything until its due date. I also had to move out from my apartment in downtown Indy to my parent’s house is Fishers. The sole reason I moved out was because the cases in Marion County had a rapid increase versus in Hamilton County. The change stressed me out because I felt like I lost my sense of independence and my time was not all mine anymore. With my mom being in her 32 week of pregnancy, having so many assignments overlap with each other, and group projects, it was easy to forget myself in the mix and get lost.
One problem that many students including I are facing is the loss of motivation. This happens because we are not used to this extreme change and are also at home all the time with the lockdown order. There a few ways to figure out our motivation; one of which is reflecting on why we are in college and what we want to get out of it. That’s what I did personally though this pandemic to help stay motivated and to understand the purpose of why I am attending college. Another way we can figure out our motivation is by using this tool that allows you to find what motivates you and helps you to make it grow.
Loss of motivation makes it hard to follow through with goals. As a person who always struggled with setting goals, SMART goals helped me accomplish more and follow through with my goals better. According to the Bepko Learning Center, goal setting must be smart. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. The goal first must be specific or narrowed down, an example for that would be ‘I want to get an A on this assignment.’ Secondly, the goal must be measurable, which means setting goals that you can keep track of such as breaking your bigger goals ‘getting an A in a course for example’ to smaller pieces such as ‘getting an A on this exam.’ Achievable is setting your goal to be realistic and logical such as ‘getting an A on this assignment’ versus ‘getting all As for your whole academic career.’ The R is for relevant which means that your goal is as relevant to your long-term goals as much as possible. One example for a long term goal is ‘graduating with a 3.5 GPA,’ so your smaller relevant goal would be ‘getting As and Bs on all classes for this semester.’ Finally, having your goal to be timely or time-bound meaning it is bound by a time which can be an hour, a day, a week, a month or even a year. An example for this could be ‘Getting an A by the end of the semester.’ It all depends on your preference.
Another thing that many students including me struggled with is time management. There are many ways to manage time, one of which is by setting a schedule. IU’s Keep Learning website is a resource for IUPUI students to help us through this pandemic and the switch to online courses. According to Keep Learning, we should make sure we have a schedule that will put us ahead of deadlines because we will not have the same sense of accountability as we did with having regular classes. Personally, what I found helpful was using a weekly schedule. This is a table which is used to break down time and setting study blocks. Another thing that could be helpful is using the Pomodoro Technique, which is a technique to use to break down a task into 25 minutes with 10 minutes breaks in between. I have also noticed that many students also use a rewarding system, which is once they finish a task, they reward themselves with something they enjoy to help them stay motivated. There are limitless ways to manage time; it all depends on personal preference.
According to the students I have talked to, other than the loss of motivation and structure, there are other things that are happening in their life. These things make it hard to study and finish all the workload for school while also engaging in other aspects of their life which I find difficult as well. While still working, taking care of my siblings, and having to do chores, studying becomes less of a priority than it was before. Specifically, for me, I have been struggling with managing time, being there for my friends and family, and turning in work on time. Also, I found that not only in my experience, but other students struggle too with staying on track also. According to IUPUI’s Division of Student Affairs, this is completely normal because it is a new environment and new routine that we as students need to get into in a short amount of time.
IUPUI also has made a list of tips for online learning, one of which is communicating with your professors. Another bit of advice is to be organized by not procrastinating, taking time to do work, and to prioritize due dates. A few other pieces of advice are taking care of yourself, managing your environment, and asking for help when you need it during this time. Additionally, the university provided resources that can be helpful at this time, such as the Counseling and Psychological services, and other resources for your financial situation and well being.
In conclusion, it is okay to be worried and it’s okay to take things in your pace with this hard time. Communicating with your professors and letting them know that you’re struggling is very important. These are tips that could be helpful to improve your learning or enhance your study skills.