Online classes impact international students
by Alexis Briggs
edited by Paul Lambert
International students at FPU are struggling with the time difference switching to online courses.
(Photo: StudyInternational.com)
FPU currently has students enrolled from roughly 15 different countries across the world.
Students who live in different time zones have to adjust to waking up at odd times to complete assignments, participating in Zoom classes, and trying to communicate with classmates and professors.
Some professors have given extensions or later due dates for some assignments. The international schedule for classes operates roughly the same as the on-campus policy.
Alex Wakai, a freshman from Shonan, Japan stresses how, for him, every homework assignment is due a day before the actual due date in America. Wakai said, “…we go through a tough language barrier with English so that it gets more difficult to process and complete each task.”
Freshman Paul McLellan lives in Nairobi, Kenya.The time in Kenya is seven hours ahead of FPU in the summer and eight hours ahead in the winter. McLellan sometimes has assignments due at 4 a.m. but the professors have been understanding with late submissions. He said, “I had to speak to my microcomputer professor about late submission for some of my work.”
Hugo Arlabosse, a junior from Marseilles, France, explains how he has coped with the switch to online courses by studying on his own and giving himself free time to submit assignments early.
Arlabosse said, “The only difficulty is that no one can help me with assignments since my friends and professors are so far away so I have to heavily rely on my abilities to work efficiently.”
One obstacle that was emphasized by international students was the process of group work through the different time zones.
Wakai said, “Group work, this is one of the toughest problems too…time difference impacts that schedules to work together at the same time is difficult. Also the speed of the work productivity is not as sustained.”
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Alexis Briggs
“I am currently in a snowstorm but waiting for the days I can spend tanning by my pool.”
