Virtual spring: How UAA students transitioned from the classroom to online

Every morning at about 8 a.m., Caleigh Jensen, journalism and public communications major with a concentration in digital media and minor in Spanish, sits down at her tiny kitchen table in her apartment not far from UAA’s campus to start her day. She reviews her calendar which lays out her day from Zoom meetings for class to work calls.

She lives with her boyfriend and cousin and at this point, due to COVID-19, she is the only one in her household who is still employed. Jensen is currently the editor of The Northern Light, UAA’s student newspaper, interning at the Alaska Travelgram, a blog dedicated to giving Alaskans insider travel tips and was recently hired part time as a multimedia journalist with local television station KTVA to help cover the pandemic.

“I turned our very tiny kitchen table into my workstation,” said Jensen, who periodically reminds her roommates they need to be quieter when she’s on a Zoom call with her professor, class or boss. “It’s been interesting, we do our best to work with each other’s schedules, but it’s hard because when I’m at home, I’m in my ‘home mood’ and when I’m at school, I’m in my ‘school mood’ — and it’s been hard to put those two together.”

It’s not an uncommon sentiment from students and faculty across campus in every discipline — learning to adapt to this “new normal” where there is little to no separation between home, work and school life. 

For Eileen Moring, a senior in business management and the temporary assistant coordinator for student activities, she faces the extra challenge of occupying a busy toddler, while trying to wrap up classes for the semester, prepare for summer session and coordinating virtual events for students.

Luckily for Moring, the extended spring break allowed her just enough time to prepare and organize before classes shifted to alternate delivery and her daughter’s daycare temporarily closed due to the quickly escalating situation.

“I’m kind of in a weird position because I am still working 30 to 40 hours a week, still doing school and I have a child at home,” said Moring. “This is such an unprecedented time, but having all these people supporting me virtually has been really amazing. I don’t think I could ask for better teachers right now and the Student Life and Leadership staff has been amazing and helpful.”

In addition to feeling supported at school and through her job, Moring said she’s incredibly grateful for her parents, who despite being on the frontlines as essential workers, are willing to assist with childcare while she juggles end-of-the-semester projects, keeping up with work and virtual events through Student Life and Leadership. She said it’s a lot to handle but consistent communication with professors, classmates and colleagues has helped make the transition less stressful.

USUAA student body president Jamie Bagley and vice president Brooke Hansen, have been going nonstop since spring break, busy with committees they were involved with before the switch to alternate course delivery and now working with leadership at both the university and statewide levels to make sure students' voices are heard throughout the decision-making process, as the university moves forward with program reviews. Both Bagley and Hansen are grateful that students have had a voice throughout the process and that statewide president Jim Johnsen took student leadership recommendations seriously.

“For us, it never really slowed down, as student government representatives we were very busy,” said Bagley. “I wasn’t expecting anything like this to happen — but we continued to have meetings constantly so we could help students and find ways to provide feedback so the right decisions were made affecting students.”  

One of the mobilization efforts made to help make the transition easier for students came from UAA’s Office of the Provost, which sent out a survey soliciting student tips for successful online learning. Vice Provost for Student Success Claudia Lampman said that in less than two hours, she had more than 100 responses and was able to create a webpage dedicated to housing all the great student-to-student tips.

Some of the top tips included advice like setting up a dedicated workspace, creating and maintaining as normal a schedule as possible, as well as getting dressed for the day.

All four women expressed these sentiments, saying that setting up a dedicated workspace, maintaining a schedule, getting dressed for the day and trying to find a little separation between school, work and home has helped. Although sometimes it’s easier said than done and some days finding motivation is challenging.

“I still make myself a to-do list and put things on there that I normally wouldn’t, like eat breakfast, go for a walk because if I don’t schedule that in, I won’t make time for them,” said Jensen. “I’ve really been trying to keep my life structured. I’m not going to lie — I’ve been struggling with that — just like everyone else. It’s just hard when there are no consequences for not getting out of bed or out of your pajamas, but I’ve really been trying hard to keep those parts of my life as much the same as I can.”

But with finals coming up and the end of the semester wrapping up, there will be a little relief — at least school-wise. Mostly students are grateful for their professors extending a lot of support and understanding the challenges they’re facing. 

“This has felt like the longest semester of my life,” said Jensen. She said at this point she has finished most of her big projects and is in the homestretch and thinks she’ll finish the semester strong. “My professors have been really nice during this time and the journalism department has been really amazing about checking in and making sure everyone is doing okay and adapting. One of my professors has been checking in on Instagram and doing polls to see how everyone is doing, and it’s just really comforting to see her face.”