On Aug. 21, 2021, students received an email from the University of Guelph Humber about returning to campus in response to the Ontario government moving forward with Step Three of their Roadmap to Reopen on July 16, 2021.
In the email, it stated:
- As of Aug. 30, students would receive an email from Humber College to complete a Vaccination Status Declaration and Return to Campus Acknowledgment form via DocuSign.
- Students must complete the Return to Campus form by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 6 2021
Students were also required with these means of return:
- Fully vaccinated
- Not yet fully vaccinated but intending to become fully vaccinated by Oct.18, 2021
- Not intending to become vaccinated, and are requesting an exemption or will be studying completely online for the Fall 2021 and have no plans to access campus facilities
Khang Dang, a second-year business student was, excited to finally enter Fall 2021 in person, after having a difficult first year completing group assignments online due to the lack of in-person socializing that online created.
“My whole first year of university was online and coming back to school to learn in class is a very different feeling compared to being inside your room taking notes,” said Dang
“The biggest difficulty was that I didn’t know who my classmates were… when we were assigned group work it was hard to connect my work to my group because our only means of communication were online so I didn’t know how they worked.”
University of Guelph Humber students returned to class on Sept. 8 after several months of attending classes online during the Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 semesters.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a stay-at-home order announced by the Ontario government back in March 2020, students and faculty had to switch to remote learning.
Business program Prof. Charles Janthur discussed his experience and says he is thrilled to teach in the classroom this year.
“The transition was smoother than what I expected… I did not like online, it was not effective in teaching the material, it was effective at delivery of material,” said Janthur, “at least when you’re in-person you express your passion which then usually rubs off of the students.”
For 1st-year students entering university, on-campus was a different type of experience as they were a new learning environment. Anthony Marsala, a first-year business student, and Myah Langen, a first-year nursing student, explained their challenges of adjusting to post-secondary after being online in high school.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been to class in person and I feel like I’ve missed out on the in-person opportunities… I attended the online orientation, but I heard that the in-person (orientation) was well done which is where I feel I missed out on,” said Marsala.
“When I registered for classes some of them were in-person and some of them were online and one of my nursing classes were changed from online to in-person,” said Langen.
HyFlex has been an effective format, it allows students to enter one class with the option of entering online or in-person and has effected students and faculty differently.
“A majority of my classes are HyFlex…I choose to come to campus because that’s what I prefer… it’s very convenient because if I don’t feel like driving to school I can just hop onto the computer and listen to the lecture,” said Kang
“The HyFlex model, which I teach, has had its challenges but overall it’s been smoother than I thought,” said Janthur, “it is effective in that there is a schedule where they can show up at a set time, hear the instructor, and ask questions.”
Anthony Marsala takes the bus to campus and emphasized that HyFlex has made it easier for him with transportation fees.
“There have been times where I could not meet the in-person part so I just manage to go online and get the same learning experience as I would in the classroom… there are some days where I take public transportation and it usually takes me 30 to 45 minutes to get here [Guelph Humber],” said Marsala.
With students finding time to return to class, HyFlex may just be the new normal for learning.