Returning to Campus After Studying Virtually Overseas

March 2020

With the sudden news of our University closing – in response to the global pandemic – and countries slowly beginning to restrict travel, I found myself back home in India in a matter of days. When the University announced that classes would be conducted virtually for the remainder of the year, I decided to stay home with my family in Bangalore, India. During this time, I got to spend more time with my close friends and family. I also picked up many new hobbies, like learning to actually cook and playing basketball.

While I was grateful the University decided to record lectures, making it easier to accommodate students in all time zones, I decided to attend the live lectures so I could ask questions directly (and live) and feel more connected to my campus. Sure, the 4:00am and 5:00am classes felt weird at first. But I soon made it a routine, and it wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it would be. After some trial and error on how to set my schedule, I found something that worked. I would usually wake up quite late in the day, complete some course work, get a workout in, have dinner, and play some video games until my lecture time. In fact, the video games and an iced coffee were often the main reasons I could stay awake!

Since we were all experiencing a global pandemic, our professors were very understanding and accommodating of the different learning environments students were in. But there were definitely a few advantages to studying virtually:

• All lectures were recorded (great to go back to if you needed a refresher).
• Professors provided more opportunities for students to connect with them.
• Submission deadlines for assignments and course work were more lenient.
• Seeing and spending time with friends and family that I normally would have only seen during holiday trips back home.

September 2021

2021 was the start of my senior year so I decided to fly back to Canada. Not to mention, I needed to get serious about starting to look for jobs. While my original plan was to stay in Canada after graduation to work, I am not fixed on this since careers as a Data Analyst exist around the world.

Although the courses in my program area (Applied Statistics) were still online during the fall, a few other programs on campus resumed in-person courses. But after being away for more than a year, I missed the energy of being on campus with so many other students and the busy-ness of it all. I enjoy having the flexibility of coming to campus to study and work, but also the convenience of watching my lectures online.

For students who have experienced online learning for the past few years and will be making the transition to on-campus learning, I say be excited and get ready to take advantage of all the opportunities available here – have fun!