More night classes should be held online

While there are plenty of positive connections to the number seven, classes at 7:00 p.m. is definitely not one of them.

I recently wrote an article about a class I had at 7:00 pm and how I ended up dozing off thinking about where else I could be at the time. There are just so many more ways I could spend my night than sitting in a classroom.

It didn’t help that the class was in person, if readers haven’t figured that out yet. This means I had to travel back home at 10:00 pm, sometimes witnessing other night-time activities I could’ve been experiencing instead. 

I’ve had almost all of my in-person classes at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus, and the night-time experiences I’ve had are something I could go on about. One time, one of my buses randomly changed routes on the fly with no notice, and I almost got lost in the city. 

Considering my less than desirable night-class experiences, I think more 7:00 pm classes should be online only. While I’d prefer those classes to be asynchronous instead, they might as well no longer be happening at 7:00 pm at that point.

I’ve taken a few classes at 7:00 pm before and find it difficult to get invested in the course material. Once, I had one night class with no other classes that day, and another night class with two other classes the same day. In both instances, I had this constant feeling of wanting to be anywhere else and doing anything else.

I wish I could say I made a bad judgement call by taking those classes and had other options, but my circumstances weren’t that lucky. I had to take those classes because they were required for my credential, and I didn’t want to continue delaying my graduation. So I just had to suck it up, and, as a lot of my friends like to tell me, figure it out myself. 

This basically meant I had to survive and hardly figure it out. But this doesn’t mean I can’t hope for something better, even if those options become available after I’ve graduated from KPU.

As someone who’s taken a 7:00 pm class online before, it was a lot more convenient for me and I felt more engaged with the content. Not having to worry about travelling back home from campus during questionable hours of the night was really helpful. 

While I would like to see more asynchronous class options, having 7:00 pm online courses is the next best option. 

I know online classes aren’t for everyone, but considering this was the case during the pandemic for a considerable amount of time, I wouldn’t mind if more of them were available. 

As I approach graduation, this isn’t really an option for me anymore at this point in my post-secondary career. However, I hope this change can happen in the future for people like me to take on the full opportunity.