Ever since we have been online for the last several months, finding new ways to make online learning easy and reliable has been a must. This year, there have been a few mishaps that have led to a new level of security that has special features to support the online learning experience.

According to the Director of Instructional Technology, Christopher Stanley, within the first couple of weeks, numerous zoom calls were interrupted by non-GPS students.

“I don’t believe they (these students) were invited into the classroom and so they were just kind of jumping in because of the fact that they were able to rename themselves immediately,” Stanley said. “That did tend to become an issue and so we did want to add one extra layer of security to make sure that students could authenticate.”

According to student Katherine Bsharah ‘21, when one student joined her synchronous zoom class, the student was being very disruptive and making inappropriate and unnecessary comments.

“It affected my learning because it distracted me from the lesson we were learning in class and the comments he made also distracted me,” Bsharah ‘21 said. “All of the students in the class were very confused and it just made online learning harder than it already is.”

According to Stanley, with extra zoom security, there are additional features that are helpful for teachers and students.

“One of the new features is pre-assigned breakout rooms. Now, because of the fact that teachers can see your official account is being used, they are able to pull that from the start,” Stanley said. “Along with that, we’re just always looking to make sure that the right people are in the right classes.”

As reported by Bsharah ‘21, getting back on online learning from last year has been really hard but there is no way to change that.

“Teachers are being very helpful which is great and they will always make sure we are on top of our work,” Bsharah ‘21 said. “It is just really hard to not be in school doing all of the fun activities that the fall has to offer, but hopefully we can get back to it soon with the new plan that just came out.”