All semester, I have had one in person class. It was my microbiology lab. I would go in on Tuesday and Thursday every other week. On November 1st, I got an email from my TA letting us know that for the remainder of the semester, class would be fully online.
When I got this email, I was definitely a little upset. Of course going to class is not my favorite thing to do, but I did enjoy the interactive nature of this lab- staining bacteria, learning to focus microscopes, plating bacteria, and learning the differences in bacteria based on how they grew when plated on different mediums. This has undoubtedly been my favorite lab throughout college (and I've taken too many labs to count), and I'm sad to see it end early.
Not only was this one of my more enjoyable classes for the semester, it also provided structure to my day. Most of my other classes are synchronous and have lectures live-streamed at a certain time each day, but it's easy for me to not watch the lecture and tell myself I'll rewatch it when I want. With lab, I have to show up or I won't be allowed to complete my assignment for the week. It was great to have that small amount of structure in my classes that I could easily ignore for my online classes.
I'm sad that all of my classes are now fully online. However, I am optimistic about next semester. My immunobiology class is set to be fully in person and I am hopeful that it will remain that way for the entirety of the semester. It is a 400-level graduate course that has limited the class size and chosen to use a large lecture hall in JSB. This semester might have been wildly different from the past 6 semesters, but I am remaining positive going into my final semester in the spring and using the lessons I've learned about online classes this semester to continue to pursue success.
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