Photo Credit: Javell Sheppard
With Spring Registration recently beginning, students across campus are worried the community will be negatively affected by the increase in online classes.
Saint Xavier’s community is built on in-person events. With more people online, there will be a less likely chance that students will socialize or even come to campus altogether.
“Unfortunately in my instance,” a member of Saint Xavier’s editorial board stated, “I just moved to a new home, and I have only two classes next semester that are in person. I don’t know what to do, since I’ll be here 5 days a week and it’s almost a two hour long drive.”
However, there are benefits of both in-person and online courses. Although, not every student is going to have in person classes, and not every student will have online classes.
When it comes to in-person classes and events, this is where the community can be found.
“Sometimes,” an editorial board member stated, “the strongest connections you can have are the classmates who share the same experiences as you.”
Having someone you know in a course alongside you is quite beneficial.
You can potentially study together, and it gets rid of the sense of loneliness. “Many friendships I have made during my time here at SXU would not have been made if the course was not in person,” another editorial board member stated.
In person courses allow students to do many things together. The sense of community cannot be found when one is staring at a screen, doing work without being surrounded by others.
Events held on campus have ranged from simple study sessions to trips to Six Flags. “The university’s community is so diverse and the events RSO’s host reflect that,” another member stated.
However, being involved in the community is something that is up to students themselves. Not everyone is interested in attending events, or even interested in taking classes that are offered in-person.
Time management is one of the biggest benefits of online courses. If one has all online classes, then they have the opportunity to spend one day doing all of their work for the week to have the rest of their time to themself.
“Online courses push me to continuously stay on top of my work, while my time management skills allow me to take online courses without much issue, it still can be difficult to find time to do the work,” said another member of the editorial board.
Additionally, taking online courses tend to be beneficial towards students that are currently in sports.
“As an athlete, it can be difficult to schedule 5+ classes that work around your schedule and still leave room for free time,” second year student Ben Morrey stated.
Those in sports need to carefully plan their schedules, and online courses can relieve the stresses of having to plan around the times of practices and potentially even games.
Online courses can also be possibly beneficial towards students’ futures. Currently there is an exponential increase in jobs that allow people to work from home. Online courses can be seen similarly to these jobs.
This is because they are done at one’s pace, and are done asynchronously.
Overall, the in-person community of Saint Xavier is something that can never be replaced no matter how many courses switch to online. Yes, there may be some changes along the way, but events will still bring students together to enjoy their time.