“On Mar. 2, all SISU students are going to learn online.” The moment I received the notice, I was upset and anxious. The truth is, online learning was not my cup of tea. I could still remember my terrible performance in online classes when I was minoring Finance last semester — every time I clicked the video, I ditched it in five minutes and turned on my smartphone. Seriously, online teaching seemed to be a monodrama of teachers while I was just silent, passive audience; but in a brick-and-mortar classroom, I was an actress under the guidance of my teacher. One thing I love most about traditional learning, which is also its irreplaceable feature, is in-class interaction — I can have eye contact with teachers and respond quickly to them. Now that the charm of interaction was to be overshadowed by online teaching, how could I avoid the story of my minor course?

Harboring this passive attitude, I logged into Blackboard on my first day “at school” in 2020. The first thing was, I did not know where to find Classin, the live streaming platform. I had been clicking on Blackboard for five minutes and still could not find where ClassIn was. Luckily, with my friend’s help, I entered the virtual classroom before the class began. Unluckily, I did not notice my camera was on. After I saw myself eating fried chicken on the screen, I screamed out. When I managed to get over the embarrassment, my network failed. For ten minutes, I kept listening to a weird sound hissing from my laptop. When the course was finished, my ears ached and my eyes were tired.

In the next few days, I struggled to learn how to cope with the capricious network and mastered the new way of communication in class—typing or speaking through the mic. The good news was: my minor story did not happen. I began to be immersed in the learning atmosphere of the e-classroom that I seldom checked my smartphone during classes. Though blocked by the screen, my teacher’s passion could reach me. My classmates were also active, either raising questions or responding to teachers.

Although technology is sometimes unreliable and frustrates people from time to time, teachers, with the cooperation of students, have tried their best to make online courses as lively as physical ones. Though teachers and students cannot gather on campus, their help and guidance are not blocked. I remember I encountered many troubles in downloading the electronic dictionary professor Zhu Lei recommended. I kept bothering him and he patiently guided me. Many teachers are as kind as professor Zhu and their help is within my hand’s reach.

To speak frankly, online learning is not perfect due to technological setbacks. However, the dedication and professionalism of my teachers have brilliantly enriched my learning experience. They help me get over my worries and troubles. People matter most, but not tools.

This is one of the featured articles by SES Writing Workshop. The author is an undergraduate student of the School of English Studies, Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).