A Tale of 2 Online Students: A Transmedia Story
By: Alexis Bosworth
Tags: Online Education, California, College

Anastasia rolls over in bed, letting out a labored sigh as she reaches to turn the loud alarm off on her phone resting under the pillow she’s laying on. She groans a little, pulling the baby blue comforter back over her head in an attempt to block out the impending Zoom lecture she needs to be on camera for in a few minutes. “Sometimes it’s exhausting,” she admits, shrugging a little. “I appreciate that my teachers are actually hosting Zoom lectures and all, but why do they have to require me to have my camera on? I literally just rolled out of bed — no one needs to see that.”

After about three minutes, Anastasia finally finds the motivation to push the blankets off and get up. She stretches a little before walking around the side of her bed, taking a seat at the small desk in the corner of her room. She fires up her computer and slips her arms through a sweatshirt, attempting to hide her pajama shirt as she logs into her Cal State Monterey Bay Canvas account. “My grades are pretty good this semester,” Anastasia states, scrolling through them before opening the Zoom application. “Well, they’re usually pretty good, but considering all the classes are online they’re better than I expected them to be.”

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s the most exhausting day of the week for Anastasia. Her day starts bright and early with a Zoom lecture for her BUS 304 class at 8 am, followed immediately by her Zoom BUS 305 class at 10 am. She then has a few hours reprieve for lunch, then she needs to be back on Zoom for her BUS 302 class at 3 pm. After that, she quickly showers and changes into work-appropriate clothes in time to leave at 5:30 for her 6 pm shift at Costco Wholesale.

Anastasia grabs her notebook, double-checking that she has all of her notes and worksheets ready for her lecture. Her professor requires that they make at least two comments during class, but she’s already written down what she wants to interject when the time comes. “I hate thinking on the spot,” she admits. “I used to hate that during in-person classes too. My professors always expected us to talk, but didn’t always give us the time or opportunity to. I guess it’s just to make sure we’re actually paying attention because it’s really hard to tell on a computer screen. We could be looking at anything on our laptops.”

The lecture drags on and her hand flies across her notebook, writing down any piece of information that could be on the impending final exam. As soon as her professor logs off of the lecture, Anastasia switches her notebooks and waits to join her second Zoom lecture of the day. Sleep seems a distant memory as she endures her most intensive class, struggling to find the speed and the motivation to pay attention to the student-led discussion.

It’s 10 am now and just down the hall, Anastasia’s twin sister, Marianne, is just beginning to stir from a deep sleep. Unlike Anastasia, she has no Zoom lectures for any of her four classes this semester. Instead, she has until 11:59 pm to turn in her discussion posts and worksheets, which sum up the entirety of her education for the first half of the 2020–2021 academic year. Marianne attends Cal State East Bay, but both sisters are living at home due to the pandemic. “I was going to dorm this year,” Anastasia explained, closing her laptop and gathering it in her arms. “Obviously I would still love to do that, but I’m not too upset about it. It’s kind of nice to be at home with my sister and to be able to see my boyfriend whenever I have free time.”

Anastasia skips down the hall, pushing open the door to Marianne’s room, and happily joins her in bed. This is the norm for the two, who have grown very close during the pandemic quarantine. “She’s definitely become my best friend,” Marianne says, smiling a little as Anastasia takes a break by watching Tik Toks on her phone while curled up under Marianne’s light pink comforter. “It’s definitely weird being on such different schedules, though. I feel like she’s still gotten something out of her semester, whereas I don’t think I’ve learned a single thing.”

Anastasia Sohn (left) and Marianne Sohn (right) enjoy a rare outing at Smith Family Farm’s pumpkin patch during quarantine on October 30, 2020. Photo taken by Alexis Bosworth, JTC 326 Student.

Marianne gets to work on her discussion posts, writing her original post on the assigned reading (that she skimmed of course) and replying to two of her classmates. The replies are pretty superficial, as her intent is not really to have a conversation about the reading she didn’t really do. “I know it’s bad, but I think I skimmed the readings even more than I did when I actually had a lecture,” she laughs, shrugging a little as she posts her last reply. “I think I’m hurting myself with the readings, but to be honest I really miss class lectures. I feel like that’s the only way I learned anything.”

None of Marianne’s professors have the urgency to provide any sort of lecture to the students. Instead, they send emails, assign readings, and provide very minimal feedback on the heavy workload they require of them. “The amount of work is overwhelming at times,” Marianne sighs, rolling her eyes at the thought of how many major assignments she has due before finals. “It’s almost as if they think we magically have more than 24 hours in a day now that we’re all remote.”

Unlike her sister, Marianne does not have a job she needs to rush off to at the end of her school day. She will continue to push through her difficult workload, one assignment at a time, until around 8 or 9 pm. Anastasia returns home from work at 11 pm, finding Marianne playing Fortnite on her Playstation 4. They end their day in Marianne’s bed, scrolling mindlessly through their phones to clear their mind of all of their responsibilities for the day. They fall asleep late, ready to start it all over again when the sun rises.