Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Editors note: This is the first of a 10 part series by Amber Williams.

By Amber Williams

The Coronavirus has affected every person differently. It has disrupted lives, families, jobs, businesses and schools. Most universities have closed down for the rest of the school year and have shifted all of their instruction online. I myself am a student at Virginia Tech and was interested in how students at other institutions were adjusting to the changes. I first spoke to Sarah Smith, a freshman at Camp Community College who graduated from Windsor High school in 2019.

Smith stated that Camp used online classes and content for some courses before the pandemic occurred and believes this helped with the transfer to being a completely online college.

“They were more prepared to switch online than the bigger campuses.”

Smith pointed out that students at larger universities may have a harder time adjusting to the change because students are used to attending classes in person more often.

The online classes were slightly difficult for Smith to adjust to at first because of the distractions that can occur as a result of being at home instead of in the classroom.

“I miss the face to face discussion about what we are learning and seeing my teacher explain the class in person [so that] I can have a better understanding of the course.”

Although she is anxious about the current situation and its effect on people’s lives, she is not letting it interfere with her classes. She noted that Camp professors spoke about the virus during the beginning of online instruction and commented on the changes that would be taking place for classes and what the college would be doing to help them. Otherwise, the virus was not a topic of discussion during class.

Smith is hopeful that colleges understand that these changes impacted students.

“I hope colleges will see how much this will affect grades.”