Area college students adjust to online classes

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI) – The coronavirus is changing our daily routines including how students go to school.

Ole Miss just finished its first week of transitioning to online classes after an extended spring break.

For some students, it’s a struggle that they are trying to get the hang of.

On any other day, Erin would be fighting to get to a parking spot on campus for her 8 a.m. class.

“I hated that part but now I kind of miss it now because you know every Tuesday and Thursday I was stressed out trying to find a parking spot now look at me,” said Pennington.

Now COVID-19 social distance rules have her taking all of those classes online.

She said what helps her the most is sticking to a routine.

“I get up in the morning I pray. I listen to a little Kirk Franklin, brighter days to get my day started,” said Pennington.

She plans out her day by carving out time do her homework and exercising.

Many students like Hannah Sanders have a full course load she prefers to take in person, but now she like many others is finding that online classes are a new reality.

“It’s awful. One class, in particular, is a phonetics class so it’s based on word of mouth. My teacher isn’t really tech-savvy so it’s a struggle to figure out what she means by certain things based off of her assignments that are uploaded,” said Sanders.

Now she’s just trying to figure it out.

“Before this whole thing went down I used to go to the library from this hour to this hour. Work on this, this, and this, but now I just force myself to get up and put two hours for this class. Two hours for this class take a break. Try again tomorrow,” said Sanders.

She wants other students to know it’s o.k. to take things day by day.

“It’s o.k. to be in the stage where you’re figuring it out. There is room for us to transition into this. That we don’t have to stress ourselves,” said Sanders.