The Pandemic Provides New Educational Opportunities

Polina Rogacheva and Fedor Shvets talk about new opportunities for students while pandemic.

Not so long ago, experts in the field of IT and education argued on the topic of digitalization of the educational process and discussed options for using electronic platforms and textbooks on an ongoing basis. But who could have imagined that people would resort to the widespread introduction of online education methods so soon? It is true, this abrupt transition is a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Everyone knows that the new virus has covered all areas of our daily lives: medicine, work, social interactions, and education. In this article, we want to show how the changes caused by the pandemic have affected the students of the “Sociology and Social Informatics” educational program in the aspects of obtaining education and implementing the educational process in the new realities.

Students of our educational program have been studying both offline and online during the last year. Of course, everyone has already adapted to the new format of blended learning and got a lot of advantages from it. The first thing that comes to mind is that now students have more free time, due to the lack of the need to attend the university full-time. However, do all of these benefits lie on the surface? To find it out, we decided to conduct a series of interviews with the students of our educational program.

About New Opportunities

The pandemic was marked by many restrictions and prohibitions. This caused inconvenience for a certain time for people, including students, to whom it was necessary to get used and adapt. However, any event has a downside, and the case of a pandemic is no exception. The self-isolation regime and distant learning have opened up new opportunities for students that we never thought about before. The students of the second and third year of the learning program "Sociology and Social Informatics" told us about these opportunities.

A pandemic is sitting at home and not going out, spending time with gadgets, and of course for a person who is not lazy, this is a chance to participate in all sorts of marathons, take several or many courses, learn something new.
- Yulia, a 3rd-year student

We were able to choose disciplines from other campuses, which was super convenient. In the first semester of the second year, I took the discipline "Information Technologies in the field of language teaching" at the Moscow Master's Program. It was very unusual and if it wasn't for the pandemic, I would never have had this opportunity. It helped me in my professional activities, that is, I work with children and they like all these computer technologies very much because they are interactive. It was super useful to learn something new there.
- Nina, 2nd-year student  

 

Pandemic turned out as a time saver. The time that I usually spent on the trip to the university, now I spend on many, many other things that I like. I have a lot of new hobbies: now I have time to study Spanish, I go to the Debate club, and I write articles for the HSE SPb web page. And another hobby of mine is participating in the events of the Center of Career Development”
- Dina, 3rd-year student

About Newly Discovered Platforms and Courses

Over the past few years, various online services have rapidly gained popularity. First of all, online cinemas, streaming platforms, and online schools come to mind. During the pandemic, some of these platforms provided free courses and discounts on subscriptions for various services. The field of education is no exception, and different educational services have also become more accessible, which students did not fail to take advantage of.  

When the pandemic started, I immediately received a lot of emails with news about subscriptions, such as Kinopoisk or Arzamas, that they had opened access to their services and I created a list of courses that I wanted to take on a piece of paper and immediately started taking them. I took courses in history and media marketing. At the beginning of the pandemic, I took a course in video editing and improved my skills. So far, it has not been useful to me, but the main thing is that I spend time and effort and completed the courses.
- Nina, 2nd-year student  

A new opportunity, especially at the peak of the pandemic, was the boom in learning about different online services, I remember when every site distributed free subscriptions and I believe that people, in this regard, began to explore the possibilities of the digitalized life, no matter if they watched movies or received knowledge. When the subjects related to programming were started on our educational program, I took a lot of additional courses at DataCamp, because I was interested in it.
- Ivan, 2nd-year student

A new discipline that we took in our second year, digital anthropology, discussed the platform called UCL-extend, this is a British platform. There I became interested in a course that aimed to explain why we publish something on social networks. The course was a little unfinished, but I still used it, it was interesting. And we also used all sorts of interactive-board platforms, such as the Miro board, I actively used it in my tutoring experience.
- Yulia, a 3rd-year student)

About the Advantages of Distant Education

Even though the transition to a new way of life in the context of the pandemic was not easy for anyone and was accompanied by certain difficulties, nevertheless, even under such circumstances, students were able to extract particular advantages for the educational process.

On the positive side: it frees up a lot of time, in terms of the fact that you just clicked on the button and you are already on the lesson, it is very easy to communicate with everyone, communication with teachers is also simplified, you can write and quickly get an answer because everyone in online during the day. Also one of the advantages is that all things are organized in GoogleClassroom or MC Teams, where everything is in one place and you know what your deadlines are, where you take your work - it is very convenient.
- Nina, 2nd-year student 

On the one hand, it is much easier for you not to miss a lesson if you are ill, and I think this is a huge advantage. I would very much like the possibility of distance learning to stay with us. It would be suitable for people who suddenly fall ill and so they will not fall out of the educational process.
- Ivan, 2nd-year student

Of course, it's much more convenient to study online - you don't have to wake up early in the morning for lessons. I'm also an introvert and I like to stay at home and study alone, when no one distracts me. Probably, for me, all the disadvantages of the pandemic (sitting at home, not seeing people), are rather benefits than drawbacks! Just studying at my own pace in the free time.
- Yulia, 3rd-year student

While studying the subject of Data Analysis, it was much easier for us to do group projects. We just shared the screen with someone and all together wrote code, discussed problems, and did not need to go somewhere and meet up or stay late after lessons. And I also liked that you could not go to full-time physical education, but rather complete an online test that covered the topics of the PE online course!                - Dina, 3rd-year student

In any situation, certain advantages can be found, and even such an unpleasant period as the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to the rule. The self-isolation mode and distance learning, with all its crucial features, made it possible for students of our educational program to expand their educational horizons, spend more time studying, and learn a lot of new and useful things.

Polina Rogacheva

Sociology and Social Informatics student

Fedor Shvets

Sociology and Social Informatics student