Online classes during the COVID-19 prove difficult for CATS alumna Lesly Gomez

_{By Cindy R.}

Lesly Gomez is a current Freshman attending Cal State Dominguez Hills during the pandemic. She goes to school while working and taking care of her family so she is someone who would have been affected drastically due to the circumstances. I asked her five questions about her experiences learning online:

1. What is something that bothers you from your professors’ online teaching?

It’s really difficult to have a voice in class since the professors tend to ignore most questions said during some of the lectures. There was this one time in my Linguistics class, my professor was teaching us about syntax and I had trouble morphology so I kept typing in the chat but I got no response. I then unmuted my mic to ask her but talked over me. Although the teacher seems very distant, my classmates get really close to help each other out. We made a group chat named “Linguistics class” where we send questions and wait for someone to help or give advice since we can’t rely on our professor to answer. I wouldn’t say it’s the worst transition but it does make it extremely difficult to learn when no one responds to your questions.

2. How has the Environment of “going to College” changed for you?

Going to College every week was very time consuming since I had to drive everywhere and be in many crowds that blocked my way. Now that the pandemic has shut down our campus, I don’t have to be anywhere other than my Laptop and work. I don’t feel like I have to be constantly running around and worrying if I would make it to class on time so in a way, it’s a bit relaxing and it lets me have more time to prepare for class without having much to think about as a college student and as an actual person. For example, I can take care of my little brother while still being in class without worrying about finding someone to look after him. I understand that many other college students are very devastated in this new environment but I personally see it as a little cool down in my schedule. 

3. How has COVID-19 affected your academic life?

Well for starters, I can’t go to campus for usual resources like the library so studying is a bit harder. The library is like my sacred place of knowledge that I go to almost everyday but now that the college has shut down, I have to resort on the sheets I am given in my classes. Secondly, it has made assignments way more complicated and doubled in amount. I’m not sure if the professors assume we don’t do anything with our lives now that COVID-19 has made us stay at home but they assign way more work than I remember having ever! It bothers me very much since I still have many responsibilities as the oldest in my family and first generation to go to college. Due to the amount of assignments added to my courses, it has been harder to maintain good grades and I’m actually worried it might affect my GPA. I might set up a meeting with a counselor to see what I can do about it. Overall, my grades have taken a huge critical hit from the pandemic but hopefully, I can find a solution to fix it.

4. What is your opinion on the possibility of campuses reopening next year?

I’m not sure how I feel about that because I would say that I would want to go back for academic purposes but I would also say no to going back because the pandemic is getting worse. Based on the news, more people have been tested positive and have been way more effective than before. For everyone’s safety and health, I would really suggest not going back. On the other hand, it has been difficult to actually study online because of the drastic changes to what I am used to and there are too many issues with learning with zoom that would be avoidable in the actual in-person class like bad connection or having the professor ignore you. I really don’t see any situation where we could have both pros of being safe and studying in person.    

5. What do you think colleges could have done differently?

I honestly think that there was no other choice in the matter and addressed it with the best possible solution. I care so much about my education and classes but let’s be honest with ourselves, no one wants to get the Coronavirus. I have a family I want to keep safe more than anything and I wouldn’t want to risk their lives for my own benefit. I honestly think going online was a pretty good solution since it gives us the option in taking classes while being in lockdown. Whether we like this option or not shouldn’t matter because it gives us a chance to keep going with our classes. The safety of my family and anyone I am in contact with will always be a priority and I believe that’s what Dominguez Hills is doing. Therefore, I wouldn’t have done anything differently other than probably making the professors who don’t know how to use the internet well not teach so the classes would be less complicated.