Getting Sick Of The Pandemic Campus: Chronicles of Virtual Higher Education.

Undergraduate students are now into their 5th virtual semester online.  Profs regularly complain about online learning, and so do students.  What has worked well with online learning, and what has not?  What are students really missing when it comes to campus life?  In this episode of GDP we hear from 3 global students in global health about the pros and cons of taking a degree mostly online.  How has it changed their perspective on higher education?  How have they managed to stay engaged?  What do they plan to do next? Sophie Geernaert is a second year studying Health Promotion at Dalhousie University. She is in this program's Research and Policy stream and conducting her honors thesis in Environmental Epidemiology. She studied online for four semesters of University while living in Washington D.C. but have finally moved to Halifax in hopes of an in-person semester. To feel a part of Dalhousie University, she became the President of the Health Promotion Society and the Trip Coordinator for Dalhousie University's branch of the MEDLIFE Movement. Allie Luscombe, is in second year of the BSc Health Promotion program at Dalhousie University, with a focus on Research Policy. She is passionate about youth mental health advocacy, psychology, politics and, of course, health promotion! She is currently the secretary of the Health Promotion Society. This semester unfortunately marks her fifth semester online, and she has not had a single in-person class thus far in her post-secondary education. She attended  online classes from her hometown in rural Newfoundland last year and has been back and forth from Newfoundland and Halifax these past two semesters. She has worked in a walk-in clinic during the pandemic while attending my classes online and offered administrative support for several mass vaccination clinics in my hometown. While she is glad she got to spend an extra year at home, she is hopeful that she will have a chance to attend in-person classes in the coming fall semester Urmi Sheth is a  second year student of the global health program at York University with a specialization in global health policy, management, and systems. She is passionate about advocacy and created a virtual global health magazine to promote equity-centred dialogue around global health issues. She also started a volunteer-led organization called Our Sustainable Vision to educate youth and raise awareness about the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as provide a platform for involvement. She has done almost all of university online! Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @Professor Huish