Govs has adjusted surprisingly well to the coronavirus. That’s not to say there isn’t a divide between online, day, and boarding students, but it’s not as drastic as I expected it to be. However, the Govs online experience definitely leaves a lot to be desired. To make sure that I wasn’t alone in my online misery, I spoke to a group of other Govs students about their experiences.

Let’s start with The Owl. The thing looks cute, sure, but how functional is it? For smaller classrooms, it works great. But in larger, longer classrooms, it’s basically useless. Those classes are absolute hell to attend online because you can hear the teacher, the first row (always the same people, and they talk a lot), and nothing else. A student I interviewed shared their experience with The Owl, saying, “Sometimes I can’t really hear what people are saying in class, especially with hybrid because The Owl kinda sucks.”

I understand that this is an issue that is easy to complain about, but not as easy to solve. A potential solution used by some of my teachers is to reiterate what people sitting towards the back have said. Sometimes, my classmates also speak up (which takes guts when you’re online, bless them) and inform the teacher when they are unable to hear what a person said. I tend to shrug it off and move on, and pray that it wasn’t something important. 

That leads me to my next point: engagement. If you’ve ever been online (which I’m sure everyone reading this has) it’s harder to speak in class. An important factor that I think contributes to this is the potential to interrupt someone in-person. It’s the worst feeling. And then they give you the stink-eye. (No they don’t, but I feel like they want to.) A student who has experience as a boarder and an online student says, “When I’m in the classroom there’s certain social cues that can be naturally picked up, and then you can sort of ‘tell’ who’s going to speak [but] when I’m on Zoom I always feel a lot more pressured and concerned about unmuting.”

A completely online student voices the same frustration, saying, “Every time you are ready to unmute yourself, the teacher just moves on to the second topic. Or you and your classmate unmute at the same time and both of you are like ‘you go,’ ‘no it’s fine you can go.’”

A different online student shares the same frustration: “It feels a bit weird participating in discussions because I’m nervous I’ll cut somebody off without knowing.”

I really don’t have any real solution to this problem (sorry), but I completely understand their frustrations. Some of my teachers will look to the whiteboard and see if anyone online is raising their hands (having our faces plastered on the whiteboard is another thing that bugs me) and call on the people, but that would not work in situations like a Harkness discussion. 

Online school has also made some people feel left out in their classes. Remember when I said during the beginning of the article that there wasn’t too big of a divide? Yeah, I was just trying to find a good way to start this. I’m not sure how much I actually agree with that statement (I do agree a little with it though, don’t get me wrong). It’s hard being in a class where everyone’s surname begins with an M-Z (not their fault) and I’m the only one online. One student says that they feel left out despite knowing people from previous years, because “some classes literally just have a laptop [and a] webcam and call it a day.”

Another shares, “Teachers do a good job of not ignoring people online, but sometimes I sincerely want to be ignored since I’m off-task. [But] it’s pretty weird to be in a Zoom with two other online people and hear 10 other people in the classroom when you only see the teacher’s face.”

A practical solution to this issue would simply be to have all students log onto Zoom, because it helps people feel included. A fully online student says, “I really like how [amazing Govs teacher] makes everyone log on to Zoom.” However, another “feel[s] fine because I can’t hear them either way.” 

Govs has made it possible for boarders, day students, and students in completely different countries to attend school at the same time, which is pretty amazing. That being said, I believe that online lessons can be improved. Obviously, I can’t speak for everyone attending online, but these are just some observations I have picked up from my friends attending online and my own online experience. Govs has been extremely flexible and accommodating so students can attend online, and they seem to be comfortable with that. But, their work is not complete, because there is still great room for improvement. 

Some other student replies I found amusing and am supplying for your entertainment: 

Q: Is it hard to make friends in breakout rooms as an online student? 

A: *enters breakout room*

*3 other people are muted*

*you mute yourself awkwardly*

*all 4 stay muted for one minute*

Q: Have you been doing stuff for your afternoon program, or have no idea what that is? 

A: HA NO

Q: Do you feel more motivated to do schoolwork on campus? 

A: No, I never feel motivated to do schoolwork on and off-campus. That hasn’t really changed. But it changed [my] motivation on actually being in classes because there are other people.

Q: How often do you have connection issues? Are they super frustrating, or only mildly frustrating? 

A: I never have connection issues. But sometimes I tell the teachers that I have ‘connection issues.’ Zoom’s pretty good, but Kahoots don’t work well. Sometimes you hear the “someone answered this question” pop sound like 10 times, and your question still hasn’t loaded. Kahoot is fine, Zoom screen sharing is so not fine. 

Q: Do you feel more motivated to do schoolwork on campus? Do you think transitioning online has negatively or positively impacted your studies at all?

A: (This person wrote me a whole paragraph but here’s their conclusion, which they wrote in caps. They sound tired). SO IN CONCLUSION- I STILL THINK THIS IS A VERY VALUABLE EXPERIENCE BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH MY GRADES MAY HAVE DROPPED IN THE BEGINNING (YES, IT DID HAPPEN), I ALSO GAINED A LOT FROM THIS ‘GROWING PROCESS’ THAT WILL HELP ME IN THE FUTURE 🙂