University student frustrated by return to virtual learning

Emily Massicotte-Finch feels as though her post-secondary education is becoming one big question mark as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to leave students in Ontario at a disadvantage. 

She is now in her third year of studying psychology in the research stream at Brock University, and should be preparing to write her thesis paper in the fourth year by getting hands-on learning now. 

“Usually, you would have experience performing research with a professor prior to that, so during my third year, I would be a research assistant helping out in the labs - so I would have that knowledge when I go to my fourth year and do it on my own,” she told SooToday earlier this week. “But during this year, the pandemic has obviously made it difficult for a lot of the research professors to do their studies.”

Ontario announced a pause on in-person learning at all publicly-funded and private schools from Jan. 5 until at least Jan. 17, but Massicotte-Finch says students at Brock University were informed Dec. 16 that in-person learning will be put on hold on campus until Jan. 31.    

“It just puts me at a large disadvantage, as I’ll have to go in there without any hands-on knowledge of what happens in a lab, whereas people in years previous to me would have that. Maybe I won’t even be able to do my research next year,” she said. “It’s all just this big question mark right now.”

Massicotte-Finch returns to remote learning at Brock University Jan. 10. She says that learning virtually has a large impact upon her quality of education. 

“I notice that a lot of the professors, they’ll record a 30-minute video, put it on there and then tell you to read the textbook to get the rest of the information,” she said. “That’s teaching myself through a textbook. I feel like it’s impacting my learning a lot.” 

The third-year student is now mulling the possibility of taking a year off because of the uncertainty that comes with the pandemic. 

“I’m thinking about taking a gap year next year if the pandemic is still happening, because with the research I wouldn’t want to complete it through virtual [learning], I want to have that hands-on knowledge for when I go do my Master’s and my PhD,” said Massicotte-Finch. “So, I think I will have to add some extra years on to there.”