My First Semester Experience at University: Online Classes Impact

This report provides a reflective account of a student's first semester experience at university, which was significantly shaped by the shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The student describes the initial challenges of adjusting to online classes, including a large syllabus covered in a short time, and difficulties in seeking clarifications. Despite these hurdles, the student highlights the positive aspects of online learning, such as the opportunity to continue education during the pandemic and the development of essential skills like improved communication, listening, and understanding. The report also identifies personal achievements, including enhanced communication skills and the ability to meet deadlines, while acknowledging the need to improve time management. The student emphasizes the importance of time management for future career success and concludes that online classes can be a valuable tool for acquiring this skill. The report references relevant academic sources to support the observations and reflections made throughout the semester.

MY FIRST SEMESTER
EXPERIENCE AT
UNIVERSITY

TABLE OF CONTENT
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

MAIN BODY
My first semester in the university as a student has been a pretty online experience thanks
to Covid 19. The online classes of my universities were held twice a week on Monday and
Tuesday. This made gave me totally new experience of studies which I was not used to
previously. I felt a little overwhelmed from the online classes of my university. The reason I was
overwhelmed was that we had a huge syllabus which was covered by the universities in two days
of online classes (Mishra, Gupta and Shree, 2020). These classes do have trained professional
teachers but for the students understanding through an online class is much more difficult. Two
days are not enough for understanding the topic itself therefore the students could not get their
doubts cleared. Personally speaking I was not able to give proper attention to the online classes
of the university. That being said I do think online classes are the best ways of doing the studies
during the Covid 19 pandemic. With the help of online classes students are able to continue there
careers without wasting any time in Covid 19.
Online classes have helped me learn and understand certain skills which can be said as
my personal achievements. I have seen that I have improved my communication skills specially
on online conversations in which I was not good at prior to Covid 19. Along with the
communication I have developed the skill of listening and understanding. This happened because
I had to carefully listen to what the teacher is saying in online class. This has to considered as an
achievement for me. The most key thing I think any student can learn from online class is that
everything that is taught in the class in carefully listened and then noted for learning later. This
skill have developed my knowledge about the topics in the semester. I also think that my I have
learned to meet deadlines because the teachers gave the student a lot of home work because we
had 5 days gap between the classes. I think one of my personal achievement is that know I can
handle deadlines better than before (Nilson and Goodson, 2017).
By attending the online classes I have determined that only skill in need to work on is
time management. Yes, time management is something I have not been successful at. I was
always late while signing in on online classes. This was happening because I want to perform
every task with perfection as a result of which I sometime forget about the time that has passed. I
need to work on this skill as it will be very important for my future career. Time-management is
some you learn from experience, this is why I want to keep my schedule very tight so that I
constantly have to perform a task in a given time. Time management will improve the

professionalism in my career which will be a road to success for me (Trammell, and et.al., 2018).
The online classes of my university can be a way for me to learn this skill effectively and also
improve my career.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Mishra, L., Gupta, T. and Shree, A., 2020. Online teaching-learning in higher education during
lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Educational
Research Open. 1, p.100012.
Nilson, L.B. and Goodson, L.A., 2017. Online teaching at its best: Merging instructional design
with teaching and learning research. John Wiley & Sons.
Trammell, B.A., and et.al., 2018. Creating an online course shell: Strategies to mitigate
frustration and increase student success across multiple campuses. Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning in Psychology. 4(3). p.164.