Interview: UCL students on distance learning

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Three UCL students share their online university experience, in an interview with Gabriel Roberts.

The Coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly one of the most disruptive crises of our time and due to its extremely contagious nature, universities across the country have been forced to shut down their campuses in order to prevent further spread of the disease. Although University College London (UCL) has offset this disruption with its No Detriment policy, which rules that students’ grades will only be calculated based on the highest 50% of their scores, students have largely been expected to continue as normal, with classes moving online and libraries closing down. When headlines are filled with figures in the hundreds and thousands, it can be easy to forget about the effects of this pandemic on a personal level and therefore I’ve spoken to three UCL students to shed light on their university experience during this difficult time, and explore their expectations for the future, whether it’s classes online next academic year or their post-degree plans. The students that I spoke to were: Emma, a second-year student on the Ancient World programme within the Greek and Latin department; a European Social & Political Studies (ESPS) student (who wishes to remain anonymous) specialised in Law with a major in Spanish, who has been studying abroad in Spain this year; and Tanya, who has just finished her final year at UCL studying English Literature and French.

UCL cancelled all of its teaching on campus on 13 March and recalled all of its Year Abroad students, how was your teaching handled online after that point?

Emma: I found that the teaching for Latin was a little bit difficult to do through a computer screen and it wasn’t the best experience I’ve had. I think they hadn’t yet had enough time to adapt to how to teach Latin online rather than in person. Apart from that, I think all my other courses were relatively smooth online; I was quite impressed at how the teachers still gave it their all and really tried to make sure that we still contributed and were able to have a discussion.

Anonymous: It wasn't very fun. I think that if I had been at UCL then maybe I would have been fine with it because I like the classes there more. But I already wasn’t a fan of the Spanish style of teaching. There was so much homework to do and they were demanding a lot whilst it was already a hard time to go through. 

Tanya: I’ve definitely heard some people say that they’ve found the classes very awkward, like when the teacher asks something and no-one responds. But overall, I think the online teaching was really great. We’ve had a really good turnout for the classes as well but I think that is mainly because we’re fourth-years, I think that if this was the end of first year and the classes had gone online, the participation would have maybe been a quarter of a class.

How did your living situation change after the announcement?

E: Compared to others, I didn’t have the problems of having to move back home because I was already living at home.

A: I had already left because I saw that things were starting to close in Spain. On the 9th of March there were rumours that they were going to close, but we didn't know if it was fake or real. We were just waiting and when it was confirmed on the 10th, I just said, "Okay I don't want to say here if lockdown happens because it's not going to be fun." I just booked the flight, took 80% of my stuff and left on the 12th.

T: I moved back home for the first month and a half because both of my flatmates’ family homes are in France, and they basically left the second they made the announcement. As my deadlines started to get nearer, I moved back to London because I thought that would motivate me a lot more because when I’m in London, I’m in the work mindset, and I think that’s been a really good decision for my mental health. We are still paying rent, unfortunately, and our contract is ending in a month so I will be moving out because I won’t be able to afford rent over the summer as it’s obviously not the best time to be looking for a job.

Did you find that not being able to go to the library or public spaces on campus affected how well you were able to study?

E: Yes, that definitely made me realise how much I didn’t appreciate enough having the library beforehand. When I had to do my alternative assessments, it was really difficult because I found that Classics is very much books-based and that there weren’t as many papers online. You really do need to access physical copies.

A: No, I prefer to study at home, so it wasn’t really a problem for me. 

T: I never used to study in the library at all because that’s not a place I like to work in at all, but I used to study in the cafes. I think that other people’s presence really motivates me to work, so when I used to study with friends, or if a friend came by when I was studying, we would go and get a coffee to take a quick break.

How has the lack of a social aspect on campus affected your university experience?

E: Since I’ve been living at home in London, I really relied on going to campus to have my university life separated from my home life; I quite liked having them in two separate spheres. Now having everything at home in the same space was definitely something that I wasn’t used to and definitely didn’t have as much fun doing. None of my friends lived in London before, so they all moved back home, whether it was to other countries or to other places in the UK, and I definitely missed them a lot.

A: Having the social side would have been nice to just continue speaking, but I feel that my level [of Spanish] hasn't really improved just being in Spain. Maybe I'm at the level where just being in the country is not really enough anymore, so I don't think it would have made a difference academically to be honest.

T: Very, very jarring I think, and it has taken a lot of time to get used to, but by now I think I’m okay with it. Fortunately, I’ve had a friend move in with me so I’m no longer alone. I think the lack of social life has been really jarring because I’m a super social person through the nature of the stuff that I do and being president of a pretty big society [UCL Film & TV Society]. I’m used to being surrounded by people every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. or later. This is such a cliché but obviously it gives you a lot more time to focus on yourself, more introspection. 

How has your assessment in term three been moved online? 

E: All of my alternative assessments became coursework. I was quite lucky in the sense that I never had a 24 hour timed-pressured assessment, I just had everything extended and so I had quite a while to be able to research and prepare.

A: Now I’ve had my exams, almost all of them. And now I just have two resits left for modules from the first term and I'm done. 

T: “Use of French” was replaced by a 24 hour exam, which was great for me because it completely removed the stressful aspect of doing a timed exam, and my other modules were essay based already. Then in the English department, it has been pretty horrible because each exam has been replaced by two essays. For some people who do just English, if they had four exams to do, they suddenly found that they had eight essays to do, which is very, very daunting. I think it depends massively on how you like to be assessed, whether you’re someone who likes and needs the pressure of an exam on the day, or whether you’re someone who likes spending two weeks writing an essay.

How do you feel about the response of your department to the crisis? Apart from the no-detriment policy, have you received any other concessions from your department to help? 

E: Basically, my assignments became 1000-word short essays with no footnotes or bibliographies required, which was very kind of them. Our essays would normally be 2500-words, so the 1000-words was meant to help us to not have to research and gather as much information because they knew that we had reduced access to resources. 

A: The thing is that you have the Study Abroad team on one side who says, "You can feel free to drop out. It's your choice if you continue;" and you have the ESPS department who's like [sic], "The requirement hasn't changed, but we'll consider this." But then there’s the no detriment policy, where do I stand between those three lines of argument? Navigating this has been really frustrating.

T: The start of lockdown was an especially stressful time, so I did really appreciate the fact that you could self-certify for extenuating circumstances. Especially because it’s our final year and the pressure is on, if you can have more time, you might as well. For English, it was not as good I’d say, but SELCS [School of European Languages, Culture and Society] was mainly really fantastic actually, Marie [Fournier] in the French department was really fantastic; we had so much communication, which was at times confusing and contradictory. There were times when I just wished that they had held back, maybe not said anything, and then released a large chunk of information which was confirmed. We were all spending more time stressing out about what was happening with the assessment than actually working towards the assessment, which was so counterproductive. Just to clarify: not necessarily the department's fault, but I think that was really hard to cope with.

How do you feel about the way this year has ended?

E: I definitely felt that I hadn’t seen anyone since mid-March and it made me feel that I wasn’t really going to university anymore, it really didn’t feel the same. It’s such a shame that the term did end the way that it did and that we weren’t able to properly say goodbye to people.

A: UCL was so unclear about everything so we were really in limbo for two/three months; I didn't really know what to do, so I just kept studying. Obviously, they might have been overwhelmed but they could have done more things to support students, like proper mental health [support]. Them being so unclear and just imprecise with everything just put a further strain on my mental health because I was already trying to navigate everything and having to fight them for any piece of information was extra frustrating. 

T: It just was an anti-climax. It's like, "Okay, I've handed this in. I've sent off this thing on TurnItIn. Great, now what? Nothing has changed." I think it's just the fact that graduation brings everyone together and it feels like you've got this one big end that you all share together. Especially in SELCS, so much of the student body is international and so many people were forced to go home back in March; I don't want to seem dramatic and say I'll never see them again, but I'm not going to see them anytime in the near future. The arts and sports balls obviously had to be cancelled which was pretty heart-breaking, but the [Students’] Union put in loads of work into an online awards ceremony and I did really appreciate the amount of time and effort that they put into at least doing something. We won an arts award for Best Bloomsbury Production for the play that we produced this year, Clockwork Orange, so that was really lovely. I got to go to the live stream and give a little one-minute speech about the show, which wasn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but at least it was something; it was a lot better than just posting a list of the awards online.

On 2 June, the email was sent out that describes the teaching conditions for next year. How has the disruption this term changed your expectations for next year? 

E: It has impacted the way I look forward to my final year so much that I actually had a conversation with my parents considering deferral, but I was encouraged by the fact that UCL said it was only term one. We did just receive a department email on Friday that basically explained that our department will be moving all teaching online because they found that it’s actually a timetabling issue. Even though there might be large rooms in the department in which we could socially distance with no problem, where would we all go in order to attend online lectures straight afterwards? I think it’s not the most ideal situation, but hopefully by 2021, things will be a little bit better and I might be able to end the year on a more normal university experience.

A: We've done pretty much three-quarters of our studies so we're almost at the end. It's not like I'm an offer holder going into my first year, so it's not that life changing. Objectively we have Lecturecast, we have already all of those resources and our Moodle is pretty good, so there’s already so much that we do by ourselves. Our department reached out and said that basically it would be good for us to be in London for term one, but if we can't, we don't have to. I think I was really concerned before about how the situation was being handled by the [UK] Government. But now I feel like it's fine, I feel like the peak is behind us so hopefully things will get better.

T: To put it very bluntly, the pandemic has ruined all of my post-degree plans [laughs]. I’m involved in a small theatre production company with some friends and we were meant to be taking a show to the Edinburgh fringe this summer, but the fringe was cancelled. Even though I know that I’m not going to get hired just like that, it’s given me more time to focus on my own freelance stuff, like write pitches for things that I want to be doing post-lockdown. I was so set on exactly what I wanted to do, but lockdown has made me really broaden my horizons, consider options that I wouldn't have considered otherwise. 

Tuition fees are quite a contentious issue for students, do you think that the online alternative for term one is worth the tuition fee? 

E: I think it’s unfair to be charging the same amount because we won’t be having the same education. I’m very much into having face-to-face teaching and I’ve found that I find it harder to concentrate online and that I’m not getting the same experience with my classmates. I think that they should consider concessions, but I can understand that because they’ve been severely impacted financially, this won’t be the case.

A: I think I just want to finish my degree and move on. If it probably has to be online, then it will be like that. For Spanish, it might be a bit of a problem, but I feel like I could still do it without [classes in person] if I can have contact with a tutor or supervisor. But for the law side, it’s really research-based with independent study, so I don’t mind as long as I have access to the content. 

T: When I kind of realised all my career plans were getting scrapped, I was at one point leaning towards the idea of a panic master’s, but then obviously now with teaching going online, I think it's made me re-evaluate everything again. The postgrad experience can definitely be a lot less social and alienating, and if you add the lack of in-person teaching to that, then it just feels like, "Well, is this master’s going to be worth it at all if it’s only online lectures?"

Many thanks to Emma, the ESPS student and Tanya for answering my questions. Interview answers have been edited for length and clarity.