Finishing my Erasmus+ mobility during the coronavirus pandemic has proved challenging in many aspects, but has brought many new and exciting opportunities.
The unexpected goodbye
Just like many of you, I travelled home in December 2019 to spend some time with my family during Christmas. I managed to pass some of my exams using the pre-term (pre-appelli) timeslots some lecturers offer (this is a brilliant thing to do!) and returned to Padua in January 2020 to take the rest of my exams. All my courses were scheduled to start on 3 March 2020 and I therefore decided to visit my friends in Lincoln. It was a lovely trip and I really enjoyed my friends and casually spending time in Lincoln.
I decided to stay busy during my term break; I arranged an internship in a special educational needs centre in the Czech Republic, I met many of my friends and I managed to do some independent learning online. It wasn’t until February that we started to learn more of Covid-19 and its spread. I did not really pay much attention to the news and I thought that, at most, the start of the semester would be delayed. It was then that travel operators started cancelling planes and buses to Italy.
A new way of studying
The semester was indeed delayed several times as the University believed it would eventually return to face-to-face teaching. That was unfortunately not the case and UniPd was forced to switch to distance teaching.
All of our lectures in the second semester were online and asynchronous. I have to admit that I did not like the idea as I was not really motivated to get up and attend lectures, especially because I was staying at home and I did not have to do much. On the other hand, the pre-recorded lectures allowed me to work independently at my own pace.
The most problematic aspect was all the reading that we were supposed to do; the University was not counting on us being all around the world and assumed that we would be able to get the compulsory textbooks. These were quite expensive and often unavailable in my country. It was then that I really appreciated the UoL Library services as most of the textbooks (or similar ones) were available as eBooks through our library.
As I already mentioned, time management was essential. I personally prefer working at night and watching recordings, reading, and taking notes after midnight proved very efficient. I believe that everyone is different and should try to find what works for them. My study schedule was certainly inconvenient when it came to getting up in the morning and doing housework or going shopping.
Exams: Eyes everywhere
Exams are normally quite stressful, and the same goes for online exams. To be quite frank, the University’s exams were quite confusing during the pandemic as lecturers kept changing the assessment formats. In the end, I had to complete four different types of assessments:
- Quizzes (MCQs) – the most common type of assessments. They were delivered through Moodle (the University’s eLearning platform) and supervised over Zoom. Before starting any exam, everyone’s student or national ID was inspected. We had to have our microphones and webcams on throughout the exams and some lecturers asked for two cameras – one capturing our face when working and one monitoring our background. This was quite difficult to set up sometimes and I am certain that some students found ways to cheat. The exams were also recoded so that everyone’s work could be reviewed later.
- Essays – I only had to write one essay during my study abroad in Padua; it covered the theoretical models of female sexuality on the Human Sexuality module. I would say that the essay was quite easy to write as there are far more lenient requirements for writing essays at UniPd, especially when it comes to length, references, and content.
- Oral exams – This is something I dreaded. I have always hated oral exams, especially because some of my high school teachers liked them and I always found them to anything but objective. Unfortunately, I still feel the same way after taking the exam. Perhaps it is because the questions of my only oral exam did not seem to follow any direction and the proportion of information covered by different questions varied greatly.
- Coursework – Health Psychology, a very interesting module that I recommend to everyone interesting in the role of Psychology in healthcare, had weekly lectures that came with regular ‘homework’. It often focused on reading something and responding to follow-up questions, dealing with simulated scenarios, or trying to apply theoretical concepts in practice. I really liked this type of coursework and I appreciated that it contributed to our final grade.
Overall, I would say that the way were assessed was very different compared to in-person assessments I had taken in the first semester.
A rocky road to success
Looking back, I am quite happy to say that I did well. I managed to do all the essential reading, complete all required coursework, and pass all my exams on the first attempt. I formally finished my Erasmus+ study abroad on 6 July 2020, much earlier than I had originally planned to. I was very happy to have achieved a mean grade of 96.7%. What I regretted was not being able to use the extra time in between exams that I had planned to use for discovering Italy. I very much hope that I will be able to go back to Padua at some point to have some more fun and say goodbye to the University.
Using the extra time
I was very fortunate as the situation in the Czech Republic was quite good at the beginning of the pandemic. I was able to socialise, meet new people, make new friends, and get more work experience. I attended some very interesting meetings and talks in Brno, Czech Republic, and I managed to get a job as a research assistant – I supported a PhD candidate administratively and helped with data analysis, which is my big passion.
tl;dr
To conclude, I am sad that my study abroad was influenced by the pandemic and that I did not manage to physically finish my study abroad in Italy. The learning and assessment had to be adjusted to the situation and many changes have been introduced, however I managed to complete all my modules and pass all my exams. I managed to make good use of the extra time by socialising and finding subject-relevant work. I hope that I will be able to go back to Padua at some point to ‘conclude’ the stay I never got to finish.