As restaurants and bars are opening, as mask mandates and six-feet-apart regulations are being lifted, as families are planning summer vacations for the first time in nearly two years, one thing looks like it’s going away, too: online lectures. While there are definitely disadvantages we are more than happy to get rid of, like the reduced ability to focus on the material presented due to not being in a physical classroom, or the much-dreaded awkward silences in breakout rooms (one person on TikTok referred to the experience as “being left on heard”), there are upsides we are reluctant to give up. Watching lectures comfortably in bed, still in your pajamas, and having saved the time you would have spent getting ready and commuting, seemed too good to be true, but it wasn’t – snoozing your alarm and rolling over to open your laptop to log on to Zoom was part of your morning routine. Or perhaps you liked cracking jokes in the chat best, a wave of pride rushing over you when at least one person replied “lol”. Maybe it was the professor and students displaying their cats and dogs that would make you miss online school. Whatever it was, there is no denying that virtual learning had its special moments, and for me, that was the ability to rewatch recorded lectures at my own pace.
I have always had trouble focusing, and while it did not severely impact my grades, it has been a nuisance. I would occasionally zone out during lectures, and miss what the professor was saying. Though the obvious solution seemed to ask a peer for their notes, my timidity prevented me from doing so, and I did not like relying on other people for success, anyway. Oftentimes I wished I could slightly rewind time, like Max Caulfield in Life is Strange, just so I can catch what the professor said earlier. Much to my chagrin, all of my professors prohibited recordings, explaining that they don’t want any of their lectures shared and that the students do not consent to be recorded. Then COVID shattered preconceived ideas we held about society, such as the uselessness of essential workers, the widely held corporate opinion that working from home is disruptive, and that—you guessed it—recording lectures is dangerous.
The ability to watch lectures at my own pace helped me tremendously. If I lost focus for a moment, I’d just have to rewind a little. It felt oddly relaxing, like watching a movie. I no longer had to fret and scramble to jot down that thing the professor said just now—no, not that, the thing before it. What did they say again?
Recorded lectures revitalized my learning. Never did I feel more confident before taking a quiz or test, as all of the necessary information was at my fingertips. As we gradually revert back towards fully in-person learning, I am a little disappointed to lose this luxury. I understand the concerns of recording an in-person session, but I imagine that it would help so many students. If you miss a class, you can simply watch it, without having to deal with the hassle of finding someone to lend you their notes. Besides, getting a thorough explanation of something, directly from the mouth of your professor, is better than the diluted version in someone’s notes, which may not be wholly accurate.
So, I kindly ask faculty and all professors to consider archiving some in-person content.