Sophie Defaix
Staff Writer

Everybody probably experienced the big transition from high school to college. It can be a fun, but very difficult time. Students get a lot more freedom in many aspects. The biggest difference is probably the freedom in studying. You can plan your entire semester or not plan at all. During this transition, it is essential for students that the communication between staff and student is optimal.

Last semester, I was surprised by the great communication between staff and student. I would send an e-mail and get a response within two days. I could even text some of my teachers with questions over homework or exams. Furthermore, all my professors were on Desire2Learn. They had all their stencils, grades, assignments and messages on D2L. That was really easy for all of us, because almost everything we needed to know for the class was on D2L. I thought, being that naïve freshman, that every professors was on D2L.

elearningThis changed a little this semester. When I went on my D2L account for the first time in the semester, I expected to see five classes listed on the main menu. Unfortunately, this is not case; this semester only two of my professors use D2L in class. This makes my studying unnecessarily difficult sometimes. It is really nice to have all the PowerPoints, stencils, syllabi and projects on one account.

Professors often argue that we, absent or present, are responsible for all the paperwork that gets handed out. I won’t argue against this. I just want to say that we do miss something once in a while and that it would save us a lot of trouble if everything is on D2L. It is a small effort from the professors’ side and it will save their students a lot of stress.

It is also very convenient to have all your grades on D2L. Many students have a lot of stress about their grades and with the end of the semester coming up, they want to know how they are doing in class. The final often has a big influence on your grade and it can make the difference between passing or failing. It is very nice for the students to have all the grades together and updated, so we can calculate what our current grade is.

The last thing I want to discuss is e-mailing. I know some students are really active on their Millersville e-mail, but come on: who actually checks his or her e-mail daily? I can honestly tell you that I don’t. The students are not the only ones who are guilty of this though. There are too many professors that don’t check their e-mail often enough and that can be very stressful in certain situations.

I want to end by saying that communication between student and staff is essential in college. I think that if we all put a little more effort in the communication that it would be very helpful in a stressful situation. Let’s be honest, no one wants to wait three days for a response during finals week.