With the fall semester being nearly entirely online, finals were given through online resources. Some students had better experiences than others.
“As much as I want to love it, I miss having interactions with people in class and I was worried throughout any exam or quiz that my internet would act up,” said Kaitlynn Birkle, an anthropology major.
Birkle said that throughout the semester she missed some lectures because she either had no internet or it was unreliable.
“My finals were definitely different. I did not have to cram like I usually do and had a more relaxed time since they were all online at my own home,” said Birkle.
“Although I will say they were almost as stressful as before because my professors seemed to be grading harder since all my exams were open note.”
Birkel said that for her, teachers were more lenient on attendance, but were stricter on grading all assignments, quizzes, and tests. She said that she thinks teachers were stricter because
“I think that with attendance they were more lenient because of internet issues but I believe with grading they were not since all of my assignments, quizzes, and exams were open note.” Birkel
Ashley Schlagel, an elementary education major with a minor in early childhood development, said she experienced difficulties with her finals.
“Some of my teachers struggled with teaching the content online without any zoom meetings, and this caused some of my finals to be a little rocky,” said Shlagel
This year, finals week started December 7th and officially ended on the 11th.
“All of my other classes changed the due dates to Friday at midnight so we would have as long as we needed to complete them. My teachers were very responsive through email, often replying outside of work hours,” said Schlagel.
Schlagel said one of her finals was a project assignment. The teacher assigned this project two weeks ahead of schedule to allow students to work at their own pace and have much time to work on the assignment.
Hannah Woster, a psychology major with a minor in sociology, said that she experienced teachers who were lenient, as well as one teacher who was not lenient with assignments.
“I would’ve liked to have had the option of emailing her and saying hey I’m not feeling well today may I turn it in tomorrow,” Woster said.
“I did have a friend that had passed away about mid-semester and I did email her asking to have an extension for my assignments that week and she said because he was not immediate family that I could not get an extension.”
Woster said that despite her friend not being immediate family, it still impacted her grades.
Schlagel said, “I think teachers should be encouraged to allow zoom conversations with students. This would have been helpful as sometimes miscommunication can happen regarding requirements for assignments or issues we may be having.”
