After Penn State has put the new pass/fail rule into effect this year, I have been lenient on my studying and focusing on my schoolwork.  As finals are coming soon students realize the grade they need for a certain grade in their course.  For example, I need a 90% on my final to get a B in a class.  But, I am saying to myself I don’t really need to study because I am going to “pass” this class so it doesn’t affect my GPA.  Students realize that they don’t have to affect their GPA at all, and I believe this was a very bad idea for Penn State. Being a student, I love it, and I understand why the University did this.  It is a good option for students during this terrible time and it gives them the opportunity to not get bad grades since it may be harder to learn not being in class and learning on Zoom.

Many different schools have opted to do this for their school and it has gotten many different reviews by students, teachers, and parents.  Most of the parents and students believe this is a great idea because it is technically a lot harder to learn online and they are not getting the correct education that they paid for.  The dean of the College of Iowa says, “This benefits students at this moment by providing more agency and flexibility to students within an ever-shifting set of circumstances that few people saw coming” (Harris).  She is exactly right and this opens up many other opportunities for the students.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/coronavirus-prompts-colleges-to-offer-pass-fail-classes-what-to-know

As I go to the store for my family I look for food, drinks, and mainly cleaning supplies like hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes to keep myself and my house clean during these times.  Every week I go, there are no hand sanitizers left and no wipes to clean my house.  I have been asking many employees every time I go and if they have any and they have run out.  This has been a huge issue for mostly everybody as washing your hands and keeping yourself clean is the most important thing to do during these times.  I think these places need more of these products as it is very easy to make and very important right now.  The CDC says, “If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, and wash with soap
and water as soon as you can” (CDC).  If everybody washed their hands a lot of times during the day and stayed clean it would help a lot and make this virus go away faster.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/pdf/hand-sanitizer-factsheet.pdf

Being in college and taking the courses at school is already hard enough, but I believe it has been harder at home.  Yes, you can use your notes on exams, but the drive to learn has been very difficult for me and I am sure for others.  When I am at school, the first priority I have is to go to my classes, go do all fo my work and study.  When I am at home, I want to sleep in, play video games, and do nothing but lay in bed.  And by the time the exam or test comes up, I am underprepared for it.  I have slept through some of my classes and have missed a lot of information that I needed to know for an exam or test and at school, I would know to wake up.

The face to face interaction with my professors is something that helped me learn a lot, but now I can just be on my phone and doze off during a Zoom lecture.  There are many ugly truths about having online classes.  Jacqueline Myers says, When students take classes online they often feel it’s appropriate to wait to look at the assignment guidelines until the day of (or just a couple of hours before) the deadline”(Myers).  This is a very good point as I, as well as many other students, struggle with this and is definitely affecting them academically.