Colleges and Universities in America vs Colleges in Sweden
Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, college students in America and in Sweden have been consistently subjected to the will of the virus. For some, this meant not going to college or university after high school, but for the majority this just meant a tougher college experience with online Zoom classes, more homework, Coronavirus restrictions, and a much more isolated experience on campus.
Many students during the summer of 2020 assumed that their college experience would be cancelled. However, St. Lawrence University was one of the few that made the decision to have students back on campus for the 2020-2021 school year, but it would not be a normal one.
When students arrived on campus they were asked to refrain from gathering in “groups less than 10, submit to random Coronavirus testing throughout the entirety of the semester, and also wear a mask on campus” according to an anonymous student source. The student source described an incident where he was sitting alone in a room in the library and was asked to “put a mask on.” In addition to the physical restrictions put in place, the university also mandated that all classes must be held on Zoom. Unless students were willing to wear masks, social distance, and divide up the class into groups, classes could not be held in person.
Many professors were disheartened by the online learning program that the university was trying to impose on professors and students, a handful of teachers offered an optional in person learning experience that was as reflective of the in person learning experience that students should have received during the pandemic. Professor Alan Draper, who
has been a professor of Government at St. Lawrence University for nearly 40 years, was one of those teachers.
Professor Draper offered an in person Introduction to Government class during the fall semester of 2020, and was quite successful. Professor Draper had taught all in person classes for almost four decades prior to when the pandemic hit. Due to his age, Draper considers himself to be at a disadvantage due to technology, and thus considered it to be relatively difficult to work with Zoom. As a result, he ultimately had to figure out how to offer in person classes while conforming to university protocols.
Draper refers to his decision to teach in person classes last fall as being one that was not reflective of his fear for the coronavirus pandemic, but rather because he had “a lack of confidence in using zoom.” Draper was very “confident in the protocols that the university had created and his ability to make decisions about what was a safe and unsafe environment.” Thus, Professor Draper chose to minimally use zoom, and ultimately provide a much more informative learning experience for his students, one that students were very thankful for. .
Prior to the start of in person classes last fall Professor Draper describes the St. Lawrence campus as having an extreme, “sense of emptiness.” Draper states that he “knew that there were some students on campus, but he didn’t know where they were.” The majority of the student
body during the coronavirus pandemic was not allowed to participate in any clubs or activities, and was forced to take almost 100 percent of their classes on zoom in their dormitory.
Thus, Professor Draper said that he noticed something very different in terms of students’ body language during the pandemic. Students were excited and ready to learn when they entered his classroom, “something that they took for granted before was now perceived as precious.” He began to notice that after every class he taught students had begun to say, “thank you” for teaching me, something very different from previous years. Professor Draper felt that an in person learning experience was something that was very important to his students, and it was something that he wanted to provide to them if they sought it out. Draper did offer zoom classes during the last two weeks of the first semester. However, when he did so he was “unable to check body language” of his students, and he “didn’t know if they were there behind the black screen.”
While many Students in the United States, especially at St. Lawrence, were forced to take online Zoom classes in place of the normal in person classes typically offered by their universities. Students in Sweden during the Pandemic were forced to endure the same covid restrictions but not to as great of a degree as American Students.
Issak Hemmingson a Swedish engineering student who goes to Thorildsplans school in central Stockholm described a similar experience to the one that most American students faced. Hemmingson mentions that at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic all Swedish students were forced to move to completely “online learning” for the remainder of the year. While colleges and universities in America followed suit, Swedish schools and universities practiced a relatively different approach to the pandemic in the Fall of 2020.
Hemmingson mentions, starting in the Fall of 2020 that “they had one week on and one week off” from school. However, because of this, the schools “put all the tests during the week that we were there and all other work was done at home during the week we were not there.” Thus, students were able to take in person tests and classes during their school year, and did not lose as much in terms of their education during the pandemic. Hemmingson did mention that during the pandemic there was no mask mandate, and students were not required to wear a mask inside the classroom. Masking was left up to the teachers and students discretion.
One commonality between American universities and Swedish universities is the resurgence of cheating in the classroom during the pandemic. In America, an extreme amount of cheating took place outside of the classroom. All students’ tests and quizzes were online, and with no teacher watching them to make sure that all their answers were authentic and their own, the majority cheated.
An anonymous Sophomore Government major at St. Lawrence University describes Zoom classes as, “extremely convenient, and it made it easier to not leave my room. However, it made it a lot easier to cheat, miss class, and get by on the bare minimum.” The majority of students at St. Lawrence looked up the majority of their answers for tests and homework during the year of the pandemic, which begs the question, was anyone really learning anything last year in America?
While it was extremely difficult for people in America to take advantage of their education last year, it also did prove a challenge in Sweden. Students in Sweden were able to take in person tests and classes for all of their classes, cheating almost did not exist, but they rarely did any work at home. During the week that they were home, Hemmingson states that, “no one did the work,” and that because he goes to Engineering school the subjects that he takes are “very technical subjects that you need to do the work for in order to know what you are talking about.” Thus, students in Sweden also missed out on a very large portion of their education as well.
This Fall, students in America have returned to an almost completely normal campus. Students are now required to go to in person classe which meant, no more Zoom or cheating. In addition, students now have the ability to join clubs and activities, which was something that was not accessible to them during the pandemic. However, on the St. Lawrence University Campus, students still have to wear masks when inside university owned buildings, and according to an anonymous student, students were required to, “submit to random testing” throughout the majority of the fall and share their vaccination status.
In Sweden, things have essentially “gone back to normal…like nothing happened,” according to Hemmingson. In Sweden, students do not have to wear masks or gloves in school, they have full in person classes, and they do not have to submit their vaccination status to anyone. American colleges and universities have been slowly moving in this direction as well.