Coping with COVID-19: UGA Professors and Students Struggle to Adjust to Online Learning

By Ally Gray

With hundreds of colleges and universities across the U.S. transitioning to online instruction to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, students and faculty of the University of Georgia were not surprised when they were informed they would virtually finish the remainder of the spring semester beginning on March 30th.

Many UGA faculty members have never taught an online course before, and this transition was a major adjustment for both faculty and students.

John Soloski, a journalism professor at UGA and the former dean of Grady College, said the transition was confusing and that the university provided minimal support on how to use online teaching technologies like Zoom.

“The logistics of it were not handled particularly well and we were getting a lot of contradictory information,” said Soloski.

“None of us have used Zoom before,” he said. “I certainly haven’t.”

Dr. Soloski said UGA did not provide any guidance on how to use Zoom. He found tutorials created by the Harvard Business School but still struggled with learning how to manage the technology.

“I was watching Zoom presentations about how to use Zoom and how to teach with it,” he said. The technology is tricky, and “it would take me at least two and a half days to prepare one class.”

Soloski was particularly concerned about students who may not have access to the internet and explained the poor connection in the rural areas of Georgia.

“You’d be surprised how little internet access there is out there,” he said. “It’s a huge problem.”

Online courses taught using Zoom require a strong internet connection, and Soloski is afraid that the University is not providing enough support to students who may not have this convenience.

“The University System said we will provide ‘support for these students,’” said Dr. Soloski. “To this day, I have no idea what they mean by support.”

Kelsey Strott, a junior at UGA majoring in finance and marketing, explained that she feels supported by many of her professors, “not because UGA has ramped up their student services during this time” but because she was proactive in building lasting relationships with her professors over her past three years at the university.

“Those professors have reached out and said that they’ll be there because of our existing relationships,” said Strott. “Not because of the pandemic and the university pushing them to show students resources that they have to make sure that they’re okay.”

Professors at UGA have taken it upon themselves to show support to their students during these challenging times.

Jaron Longo, a junior majoring in pharmaceutical sciences, said his professors have been very lenient and understanding while attempting to get settled with online-instruction.

Longo said there are only 28 students in his major.

“We’re a tight community, and our professors know that this is a complete transition and that we’ve never used Zoom before,” he said. “They’re understanding about that, so they’re really open to communicating and changing things.”

While the transition to online-instruction has been tricky, the UGA community has come together to show each other support during these uncertain times and professors are working hard to ensure that they’re students feel supported and have the materials they need to successfully continue their education.