Ever since she accepted her offer of admission, Hannah Elmallakh, a current first-year life sciences student, has been excited about the biology labs that she would dive into during university. But she did not expect she would be doing them alone, on her dorm room’s wooden desk without any equipment. “It just [feels] like a lecture with extra work,” she told The Strand. “I was expecting they’d still have some online classes… But stuff like my bio class, that was supposed to be fully in-person—and then a week before I came here, they were like, ‘it’s asynchronous now.’”
Across campus, many students face similar challenges. Lissy Hutchinson, a first-year studying social sciences, wishes she could be spending more time poring over her psychology and criminology readings and less time combing through her teachers’ various online interfaces. “I have multiple textbooks that are on completely different platforms,” she vented. “A few days ago I tried getting into a tutorial and the password just was not working and this is such a stupid issue, because if they were in-person I would be there. I’m on top of that type of stuff.”
Elmallakh and Hutchinson are only two of the hundreds of University of Toronto students who are finding their way through the University’s second hybrid-online year. Though the administration has already had a full year of experience with virtual learning, challenges remain for everyone, such as a lack of social interaction and having last-minute course changes made.
A frequent complaint from the students who spoke to The Strand was not about the online or in-person classes themselves, but about classes being swapped around at the last minute. One student, Luca, told The Strand that he chose his courses based on whether they would be in-person or not. He said, “I had specifically taken the more difficult chemistry class because I thought it was going to be in-person. So I thought it would be easier to study with people, but then they decided to make it go fully online. So now, I’m kind of stuck.”
There were also many comments among students about the University’s choice to not lower tuition costs to make up for a partially online school year. Patrick O’Brien, a third-year studying history, international relations, and religious studies, remarked, “With most institutions I’m fine with paying more for a pandemic. My favourite local restaurants have hiked prices, which is fine—they need the cash to keep doors open. That being said, there is a difference between a family restaurant and the richest school in Canada.”
Alongside the academic challenges associated with online school, many students brought up issues they face with socialization. Natalie Domegan, a first-year student studying international relations and education, said, “I think a lot of the networking opportunities are lost with online stuff. A lot of what university is for is meeting people that will help you get jobs, and you kind of miss out on that when stuff goes online.” Gittel Markman, a first-year economics student, added, “I think one of the worst things, though, is that it’s really hard to connect with professors.”
Nonetheless, many students recognize the need to look past these challenges. Eric Fishback, a third-year philosophy major, said that compared to last year’s online schooling, this year “feels a lot more engaged. Not only in terms of the class, but with the University. I’ve been receiving more emails from the University, there are more notifications about things happening.” Dante Crispino, a first-year studying humanities, told The Strand, “there are things I like about online school… I expected more of the online classes to be in-person. But I honestly don’t really mind, I’m just rolling with the punches.” Philip Amitan, a first-year in social sciences also echoed the sentiment, saying, “I definitely did feel a little ripped off when I found out that a couple of my classes were online… But I don’t feel like I’m getting ripped off too badly. That’s the best way of putting it.”
