Assignments, Quizzes and coping up with revised SEL policies!
With the striking of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, the human race has been deprived of normalcy. Going about our daily routines has become immensely difficult with the imposition of lockdowns in various areas and familiarizing oneself with the covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP’S). Adjusting to or rather even, just accepting this new normal has taken a toll on people’s mental health for various obvious reasons which calls for us to be empathetic, kind and helpful towards one another in these trying times. Now is the time to set the bar low and be patient with one another especially when it comes to the young members of our society who are still pursuing their education.
As the pandemic hit, students gradually stopped hanging out in groups, learned about protection against the virus along with the fear instilled in their young minds about it, lost access to campus and were eventually left restricted in their homes with workload making up for the loss of human interaction. Making it to zoom classes became a struggle for most due to reasons such as lack of privacy or an environment conducive to learning, poor internet connections, bad quality cameras and microphones etcetera.
Similar is the case for the student community at Habib University, Karachi. In a time where policies need to be devised and implemented that encourage students to take care of themselves and prioritize physical and mental health of themselves and their loved ones, the faculty’s notification of “raising the bar high” was met with conflicted reactions from the students to say the least. With multiple tabs of assignments being posted on Canvas, (The Learning Management System (LMS) employed by Habib University to continue the students’ education during the pandemic) students felt crushed under the stress from the workload and wrote several emails to the authorities raising this issue. A lot of students posted statuses on their private Facebook forum (HU Forum 2.0) expressing their concerns about the education and learning going on through this new normal. Many felt that education was now all about submitting assignments on time instead of actually learning or retaining any information whereas some counter argued that the new SEL policies are helpful in terms of focusing as well as participating in class.
Ajab Afsanay reached out to the student community of Habib to gain insight as to how their experience has been so far with the new normal and the new Student Engagement Level (SEL) policies they have to keep up with in every class.
1) How has the pandemic been for you in terms of mental health, emotional well-being etcetera?
“The Pandemic in terms of my mental health wasn’t the worst, I just completely shut down in regards to emotional understanding. At some point in September though, I started to grow really worried about not feeling anything - no loss of my life or anything of the sort. So I guess in terms of mental health, I was fine because I wasn’t feeling depressed or visibly emotional, but at the same time, I suppose not going out of my way to feel what was happening around me was not particularly good either.”
-Luluwa Lokhandwala
Communication & Design, 2021
“The pandemic really took a toll on my mental health, as it did on most people. Everything felt incredibly strange and taxing. I didn’t know how to navigate through my emotions and the lack of mobility really wasn’t helpful. So yeah, it wasn’t the best for my mental health.”
- Mahnoor Mahboob
Communication & Design, 2021
“In the starting the pandemic was a bit hard on me, I was like losing my mental health a lot and I had no other way to handle it but eventually I got hang of it, but then I started accepting it.”
-Anonymous
“At first I felt like it was a blessing in disguise but then now it’s become very tiring because it’s starting to negatively affect my physical and mental health.”
-Anonymous
“It started of really good for me as I love staying at home and doing my work and playing games online but now it's become a lot worse as the academics has gotten a lot worse now.”
-Anonymous
2) Do you think your workload has increased during the pandemic?
“Initially, I think my workload wasn’t as much. The instructors were very understanding and went really easy on us. Now it’s relatively more but that’s probably because I’m in my final semester. I still think that we do have too many expectations even now - I think the fact that we’re amidst a pandemic is really being ignored.”
- Mahnoor Mahboob
Communication & Design,
3) What do you think of the SEL policy adopted by Habib University?
-Luluwa Lokhandwala
Communication & Design, 2021
“Shouldn’t even exist at all in the first place”
-Anonymous
“SEL policy adopted by HU is better than before because teachers are now focused on wanting us to be in the class. It is fine maybe because my courses aren't that stressful. Yeah, it’s a bit extensive but as long as I am learning I'm fine with it.”
-Anonymous
4) What alternative engagement policy could the university have adopted to make sure students aren't overworked?
“Perhaps some short response papers when there’s an absence or a discussion post submission.”
- Mahnoor Mahboob
Communication & Design, 2021
“I feel like everybody tries to engage in the class because even though with all the stress around them the situation getting worse and having to study at home. It would have been better if they would have accepted that we are also trying very hard. Every student can’t be perfect. I remember during the pandemic I was at home and not at the hostel, it was very difficult for me to concentrate. That one semester was really difficult for me. But now that I’m back at the hostel, I’m in a different space and I can focus on my studies so it’s better. But I feel that Habib shouldn't be so hard on students because at the end of the day we are also trying our best to do better and to be able to achieve what we want. Because more than Habib we want to get good grades and secure a good GPA.”
-Anonymous
“There should be flexibility for the students in their learn-from-home approach. Not every kid is the same”
-Anonymous
Despite the many arguments each student may hold, it is evident that there are many other factors that play into a student’s learning process in the online medium. Access to technological equipment has been a great issue for many students in Pakistan where internet connection facilities may not be the best ones. Joint family systems may act as an obstacle to the student’s learning as their environment is not conducive to learning.
Overcoming these difficulties requires students to raise their concerns and authorities to listen to them with a kinder and rational attitude in accordance with the current situation we’re all going through.
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