What’s Your Opinion on Remote Learning? Here’s What Your Fellow Classmates Think!

 

            Remote Learning in the Spring of 2020 at MSLAW was an experience that was forced upon us by Covid-19. It was an unexpected situation we were all confronted with after our spring break. I wanted to know how such a change affected the students of MSLAW. After asking around, I received a balance of responses to the concept of remote learning. While one student stated, “I did not like remote learning at all” another student stated, “I liked how informative the school was during the process.” Remote learning is a method to which both students and faculty and staff have to work together to make it work.

            Personally, being an out-of-state student, I believe switching the second half of the spring semester to remote learning was a smart choice to make by MSLAW. I would much rather distance myself from my fellow classmates and professors for their safety and mine, than being in class with them when Covid-19 was a high risk and spreading fast. Though, the one thing I wish happened was for the school to inform us earlier about the high possibility of having remote classes once spring break was over. The reason being is because I am an out-of-state student and so I go home to IL for spring break, leaving behind my law books in my apartment here in Massachusetts. If the school had warned me about the possibility of having remote classes upon the end of break, I would have definitely brought my law books with me just in case classes were indeed online. Unfortunately, that was not the case, so I still had to fly back to MA from IL since all my books were here and by then, it was too dangerous to fly back home to IL due to Covid-19 so I was forced to stay back in MA, away from home. While that was saddening, one good thing was that I had plenty of time and peace of quiet to study and prepare for my final exams! If I were home with my dog, Stevie, guaranteed I would be interrupted while studying from his cute face and his untimely request of wanting to play ball or go outside!

            Below are some thoughts of our MSLAW students on their experiences. “They updated us constantly on the plan. What I didn’t like is that every professor had a different approach so it was confusing at first.” (Anonymous student). “I like the efficiency of how swiftly the school’s ‘technology department’ (i.e. Mick and Dan) took action and were able to get online classes running via zoom and accepting assignments via TWEN. At first I was super hesitant and worried about remote learning because I am a student who hand wrote all of my law school exams…luckily I was able to acclimate.” (Solonge El-Hachem). “I liked being able to go through the recorded audio material at my own pace. I think the Professors took extra care in explaining the material, as we didn’t have the opportunity to ask live questions.” (Eddie Street). “I enjoyed how some professors (Malaguti) provided an abundance of material and offered extra help sessions. This was crucial in order to be able to handle and actually accomplish learning the subject. As for other professors, I found it very counterproductive to reduce the material provided, yet still hold the expectation of students to learn the subject as if we were still in the classroom. Often times, I found myself reaching out via email only to never hear a response or feedback.” (Anonymous student).  

I want to shed light on the great effort and planning the MSLAW faculty and staff went through to make this whole remote learning experience go as smooth as possible. Student’s access to a laptop/computer, their access to the professors, faculty, and staff, their personal schedule with kids, scheduling for summer classes, how final exams would be taken, what assignments would be due, etc. are all concerns which MSLAW had to consider when deciding the best way to implement remote learning. Personally, I believe they did a great job, truly admirable. We cannot forget that Covid-19 came into all of our lives as a surprise. When was the last time we had to deal with a pandemic like this? It’s a challenging time, but MSLAW did a great job in making the transition as functional, easy, and with as little confusion and hardship as possible. From extending the final exam times for students to take it even early in the morning when their kids are asleep, to posting lecture videos and recordings of classes and having zoom review sessions, MSLAW kept students their number one priority during such a difficult time. Thank You to all MSLAW faculty, staff, and all those who spent their valuable time to plan and make this whole remote learning experience a great one for our MSLAW students.

 

                            What part of Remote Learning Did You Like/Did Not Like?