The stress is being attributed to the pandemic and online classes. If only real life worked like this.
Campus Reform reports:
Syracuse University professors cancel midterms because students are stressedProfessors at Syracuse University are canceling or redesigning midterm exams this semester.The change comes due to the challenges of online learning and the current Covid-19 pandemic, which some professors believe has placed mounting stress on students who are still adjusting to online learning.Many Syracuse faculty members saw canceling or redesigning midterms as a way to create an online testing strategy that could facilitate students’ balancing of academic integrity.Others took it as an opportunity to alleviate stress and anxiety for students.The Daily Orange, the student newspaper of Syracuse, interviewed Julie Hasenwinkel, a biomedical and chemical engineering professor who decided to cut her classes’ midterm exams.When classes were in-person, Hasenwinkel usually gave two midterm exams and a final exam in her upper-level class. However, this year, she decided to call them off and in lieu of them, assigned weekly 20-minute quizzes that students complete during class.“[The quizzes were] an adaptation that I made so that we didn’t have to manage long exams with some students online and some students in the classroom,” Hasenwinkel told The Daily Orange.She also plans to cancel her final exam this fall as well, opting to have her students present their semester-long research projects.Hasenwinkel believes that redesigning her course’s testing schedule was a practical choice, especially since it has alleviated some of the burdens that her students are struggling with this semester.“I’ve been teaching for a long time, and I do really feel the sense that everyone is more stressed this semester,” she said. “It’s palpable in the classroom, and for students and faculty.”
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