The Jamworks team sat down with Amber, a Master’s student at Nottingham Trent University who recently graduated with a 1st in BA Accounting and Finance.
Amber flourished during the first year-and-a-half of her BA. She kept up with her studies, participated in lots of society events, spent time at the gym and took part in lots of sports sessions.
However, her studies and her overall university experience took a massive hit halfway through second year, when the pandemic struck and her entire course was moved online.
“For the remainder of the course, I didn’t step foot into university once. This was a huge change for me and I struggled tremendously at first.”
Amber found it difficult and upsetting to finish her studies cooped up in her bedroom, full of distractions that meant she missed out on important information and with little social interaction.
“Working from my bed without even a desk to sit at wasn’t exactly my ideal view of what I wanted my university experience to look like.”
“I found it incredibly difficult to get through seminars, as I didn’t know anybody in the seminar groups that I was placed in and nobody would turn their camera on. Sometimes people wouldn’t even talk when we were put in breakout rooms.”
80% of undergraduate students said their online courses lacked the engagement of in-person classes. (Deloitte 2020)
She also struggled with note-taking and the lack of note-sharing among classmates.
“I had to write all of my notes on paper because my seminars were taking place on Microsoft Teams on my laptop. These handwritten notes took much longer than typing on a keyboard, meaning I often missed out on large chunks of important information.”
“Usually, I would speak to coursemates and get them to share notes, but because I hadn’t met anyone in person I didn’t really know how to contact anyone to help.”
79% of students said there was a lack of collaboration between classmates during online lectures and seminars. (Jamworks 2021)
Although her lectures were recorded, the university did not record her seminars.
“When the class was over, that was it, I was not able to hear what we said again. This made my revision process a whole lot harder when it came to my Christmas exams.”
39% of students reported not being able to access their lecture recordings quickly after they are delivered. (Jamworks 2021)
“With Jamworks I was able to track back if I missed an important part of the lecture or seminar. And the recording function was especially helpful if I only wanted to record a specific, key section to look back on later.”
“The most useful function for me was the fact that it made notes for me. My seminars were recorded and every word that was spoken was written down for me.”
“This inevitably made the revision process much easier.”
While using Jamworks as her educational companion, Amber found a way to thrive under the testing circumstances of digital learning.
“Jamworks made my life so much easier.”
“It allowed me to record my lectures and seminars, it took notes for me and it proved a great tool to help me revise.”
Recorded lectures were students’ hands down #1 favourite tool during the pandemic. (EDUCASE 2020)
Take digital learning to a whole new level with a university-wide licence and book a demo of Jamworks today.
Enter your name and email address below and you’ll have an access link straight in your inbox.
