Washington University professors and students, now spread across the globe after an extended spring break, are grappling with shifted expectations, mismatched time zones and a lack of childcare as they delve into online instruction.

This major switch in learning has proved to be difficult for some.

“At Wash. U., I’ve always felt very supported by the faculty and all the different student resources available,” sophomore Dina Pekelis said. “This transition to online classes hasn’t had that, which has been difficult.”

All of Pekelis’ classes are now providing pre-recorded lectures for students to watch at their own convenience, causing a loss of both daily structure and peer-to-peer interaction.

But pre-recorded lectures at least avoid the problem of time zones; Mia Harris, a Sam Fox sophomore who lives on the west coast, had to wake up for her 8:30 a.m. CDT studio class two hours earlier than usual. As students logged onto Zoom, she and others on the west coast pointed to still-dark windows in their homes.

Moving forward, many of Harris’ three-hour studio classes will be split up into smaller groups to allow students to participate in the Zoom classroom at a time that makes sense for their geographic location.

“It’s different not being able to see everybody’s work in a studio setting, because that’s how I get a lot of inspiration,” Harris said. “It feels a lot more isolated now…but everyone’s doing the best they can.”

Sophomore Anne He said that she was surprised by how many of her classes were significantly shorter than they had been on campus.

“They used to be filled with material because we were able to discuss and work on problems during class, but now that’s not really the case anymore,” He said. “One of my classes today literally got out within 40 minutes of the class starting—all of the slides were shorter and I feel like we’re doing less example problems.”

Although some of her professors are holding office hours over Zoom, Pekelis said that these sessions are being framed as a last resort for questions that can’t be answered any other way.

“Before, they were a lot more direct and approachable, but now I have to question what’s important enough to ask about,” Pekelis said. “I still want to form connections with professors and have meaningful interactions—I feel like there’s been a big cultural shift.”

In-person TA hours are an essential component of many computer science courses, Pekelis added, and so far their virtual replacement has left much to be desired, due in part to the difficulty of reading tiny lines of code over Zoom’s screen sharing feature

“It really takes away from a lot of educational experience,” He said. “But I think that faculty members are working really, really hard to transition from what it used to be and I think that they’re doing their best to try to maintain a sense of normalcy, so I would thank all faculty members for that.”

Some professors are faced with complications beyond learning new technologies and adjusting course expectations.

“To be honest, the biggest challenge is that I have a baby at home, and teaching with a one year old is hard,” Sam Fox professor Rebecca Leffell Koren said.

“Many of us are being asked to convert our homes into full-time offices at the same time that we are being forced to convert our homes into full-time child care facilities,” philosophy professor Allan Hazlett wrote in a statement to Student Life. “But it’s not actually possible for many of our homes to be both of these things. It’s not clear to me that the University can function well, if at all, in the absence of the social context that normally sustains it.”

St. Louis public schools and nonessential businesses will remain closed until at least April 22, in line with the ‘stay-at-home’ order currently in place at the city and county levels.

“Institutions like Wash. U. don’t operate independently; they depend on other institutions to function,” Hazlett wrote. “Local daycare centers and schools, in particular, provide vital services that enable Wash. U.’s employees to do their jobs. It strikes me as not merely challenging but, in many cases and for many of Wash. U.’s employees, impossible to continue with business as usual—even an online version of business as usual—when these supporting institutions are shuttered.”

Writing lecturer Heather McPherson said although she hoped her continued classes could provide some stability and comfort for students, she knew that priorities had shifted.

“It was immediately apparent to me that there were other things that were more important, period,” McPherson said. “Once those other things are sorted out, we’ll figure it out together and we’ll make it okay, but what we’re learning via our life circumstances is more important at the moment than what you’re going to learn from me via this classroom—that just seems very obvious…There’s a hierarchy of needs and we all need to be safe and taken care of before we worry about our continued learning.”

Although she didn’t know exactly what to expect from her first Zoom classes, McPherson said she had been surprised by how quiet students were.

“Our class is one where normally when we’re in the classroom together people are pretty comfortable, and there wasn’t a lot of chatting—I don’t know whether it’s the technology or just the weirdness that we haven’t been together for a couple of weeks,” McPherson said.

Visual arts classes face unique challenges as they transition to remote learning, but Leffell Koren said that her first few classes had gone very well.

“As designers, our instincts are to meet a challenge or a question with excitement,” Leffell Koren said. “Behind the scenes, I hear faculty talking all the time about how to make this as workable and productive and meaningful for students as possible, and that touches on the designers’ process—we’re always looking to solve a problem and we’re excited by the opportunity to discover new tools and new methods.”

According to Leffell Koren, the faculty is taking special care to make sure that adjusted courses still meet the learning objectives to prepare students for the next course in the sequence.

In spite of the challenges presented by online instruction, McPherson emphasized that students haven’t lost their chance of having a rewarding and valuable semester.

“It’s the same as an in-person class—you can slouch in, sit at the back, doodle in the margins, look at your phone on your lap and not actually engage…but the average Wash. U. student doesn’t do that,” McPherson said.

Leffell Koren believes that the care that teachers always have for the well being of their students is amplified by the challenges of the present situation.

“We’re trying to communicate to our students that we’re here for you. We know this is hard. We’re trying to be flexible to accommodate that,” Leffell Koren said. “That’s always one of the driving forces behind our pedagogy, whether it’s felt or not…Maybe it’s more visible now, but that is always a part of our thinking.”