I have a greater appreciation for the world, and of the different people around me."
Aaron, Academic Explorations student
After regularly attending in-person One Day @ UBC courses at the UBC Vancouver campus for the past decade, Aaron Posehn was delighted to discover online UBC Academic Explorations at the start of the pandemic lockdown. Here's what these online courses have meant for him.
How would you describe your Academic Explorations experiences?
My experience has been excellent. I liked the fact that it was a multi-week program so that I could learn things over a longer period of time. I especially liked that the classes were recorded since I wasn't always able to watch them live due to other commitments. I could go back to view the recordings at my leisure, which I appreciated.
The professors for the courses I took were all generally very engaging and I would certainly take another class from them again if it was offered.
What was it like learning online?
The online Zoom environment was new for everyone in the last year, but I think that most people (both students and instructors) were able to do a good job navigating this change and make the courses fun.
The UBC staff members present during the classes really did a good job of managing student expectations, but also did everything they could to explain how to get the most out of the course and the online environment, and I think this was key to making the courses run as smoothly as they did.
What was your favourite part of attending the UBC Academic Explorations courses?
I appreciated the diverse content and was able to find a lot of different interesting subjects to learn about. I liked that the instructors were so engaging and that they took time to answer student questions.
I also liked that some of the courses included up-to-the-minute topics on COVID-19 from experts in various fields, such as in Perspectives on Canadian and World News. I consistently learned new and very interesting things each time I attended a class.
Did you have a favourite course or instructor?
I tend to most enjoy the history, science, human civilization and politics courses. Some of my favourite courses included:
- Six Great Cities of the Pre-Modern World
- The Workshops of Geniuses - From the Renaissance to the 21st Century
- Food in Human Culture
- Continuity and Change in Global Politics
- Perspectives on Canadian and World News
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