Waseda Insight No. 1 (March 2021)

WASEDA

I N S I G H T 1st Edition

Lessons from the Pandemic Online Education in the Pandemic Helpful Tips To Ease Your Life at Waseda

Editorial Team Chief Editor

Head of Design

Ghafi Reyhan (GPE, '24)

Gervas Wiratama (Economics, '24)

Writers & Contributors Amanda Ma (Economics,'24) Ashley Lee (Economics, '23) Christine Park (Economics, '23) Emi Takeuchi (Economics '24) Orun Altintas (Economics '24) Peter Chai (Economics '21)

Design Team Noah Myers (GPE, '24)

Foreword: Lessons from the Pandemic

As the start of the spring semester is approaching, it is difficult to not reminisce how much the world has changed since the start of the pandemic.

The drastic change in human behavior and society as countries raced to create the best policy response to the pandemic, strengthened the notion on how fragile our current way of life is to disruptions. Nevertheless, it has been one of humanity’s best qualities to continuously adapt and respond to change. Our responsiveness to change is now much more important.

Recent events demonstrated how the life we are living in, is based on a fragile foundation. Behaviors that we have perceived as normal for a long period of time, can be easily replaced by new routines in less than a year.

However, change can only bring positive impacts if accompanied with persistence and innovation with an aim to help others and bring the best qualities among each other. In regards to this, the SPSE-EDP student council has tried its best in the past few months to provide assistance for SPSE-EDP students and help them to maximize their Waseda experience. Hence, if you need any help or have some inquiries, don’t hesitate to contact the SPSEEDP student council through email at spseedp.studentcouncil@gmail.com or Instagram at spse_edp_student_council.

Ghafi Reyhan SPSE-EDP Student Council Vice President

“The amount of excitement before my first week in Waseda was indescribable. However, I quickly realised during my first week that during a pandemic and online lectures, it was certainly difficult to build relationships and know each other better. Despite the new online learning environment that I found challenging, for me classes in Waseda are personally engaging and fulfilling. Additionally, everyone I met during class was very helpful and encouraging which created a fun learning environment and eased the difficulty of the classes.

My favourite class so far is Academic Writing and Discussion in English. I found the class very interactive and provides students with multiple chances to talk to each other to know our classmates better.

I am hoping to meet everyone very soon and have fun with you all! Stay safe!”

- Gervas Adi, Economics, 24'

“I’m Orun and I’m a first-year Economics major, currently joining classes and this student council from California. I did not expect to experience at least half of my first semester online so it is a disappointment for me to be unable to meet new folks, but we’re all in this together. I liked my Intro to Microeconomics course and AWADE course. I like other classes, too, but those two stood out mainly because they had more opportunities for students to see the professors and their peers than other classes during normal class time and office hours. I’m honored to be a part of this student council to bring new ideas and help make EDP students feel comfortable to be a part of the Waseda community.

Mask up and stay safe y’all!

- Orun Altintas, Economics 24'

To me, last semester was a mixture of good and bad. I think while I got much more used to taking online classes, it was still sad that we couldn’t get back on campus yet.

Still though, academically, it was meaningful in that I got to choose many classes that I was always interested in (from Global Economic History to Shakespeare Tragedy). Outside of school, I was able to spend more time with family. Also, I got to explore new hobbies such as boxing and learned (sort of) how to manage stress in the midst of this pandemic. I hope I’ll continue to be able to do it this year. :,) haha Overall, I’m very excited to join the student council and am hoping to see you all on- and off-line soon :) please stay tuned for our future events!

- Christine, Economics ‘23

Peter Chai, Economics ‘21 Last semester was busy for me because I finished nearly all my credits left required for graduation, I delivered my last individual presentation in my Advanced Seminar IV, and I finished writing my undergraduate thesis which was around 8000 words. Although I tried my best, I still felt like the final quality of the thesis was not as satisfactory as I originally imagined it to be. Nevertheless, this experience from the last semester has given me the motivation to polish my quantitative skills further before I undertake more independent studies in the near future. Two questions that are probably worthy for the new undergraduate students to think about: How to keep a complementary balance of taking history courses in economic and political thoughts with methodology courses in empirical and data analytics and how far should we go in taking advanced Japanese language courses as foreign students living in Japan? Time management is the key and only by carefully considering questions like these, can we always keep our future career goals and sets of priorities in mind. In conclusion, course registration is in no way an easy or unimportant process, it needs careful schedule planning and reflections upon what we actually want to learn from our college education here.

Online Education in the Pandemic

By Amanda Ma & Emi Takeuchi

On September 25th, 2020, students opened their laptops to finally meet their classmates and professors. The new normal induced by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a significant change for education: classes, which used to be only face-to-face, were now entirely held online. Students and professors have various thoughts on this new online learning environment depending on their distinct learning and teaching styles, and the personal circumstances they have faced.

Before the pandemic, Japan was relatively sluggish in creating an online educational environment.

According to the survey from OECD PISA educational achievement test in 2019, about 80 percent of student respondents replied that they don't have any experience of using digital means for education.

On the bright side, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) reported an increase in education-related budgets by 3 billion yen in its 2020 budget highlights. By encouraging better ways to employ “cutting-edge technology”, MEXT aimed to improve society’s adaptation to the pandemic situation.

Student Perspectives in Online Education

The SPSE student council conducted a student survey (targeting students in SPSE) regarding their thoughts and experiences on online learning in Waseda. The results suggest that students highly praised online learning in terms of “time-saving”. Students believed that recorded classes enabled them to choose their convenient study locations and have schedule flexibility, hence allowing them to seek extracurricular opportunities—acquiring new hobbies and work experiences.

As expected, the most challenging portion of the online learning environment was the lack of opportunities to communicate with other students followed by procrastination, poor motivation, and difficulties caused by an unstable network connection. Due to the isolated circumstances, there were limited opportunities for students to receive help from each other. This actively demonstrates that students used YouTube videos (43.8%), Google search, Waseda library, and other non-Internet sources to complement the materials provided by the teacher in the past semester.

Overall, the survey found that SPSE students prefer spending their leisure time outdoors. The most popular hobby among students during last semester is physical workout (50%), such as going to fitness, dancing, jogging, mountain climbing, and playing sports, followed by watching movies, reading books, cooking, and shopping. Some unparalleled activities were embroidering and gazing into the distance (Mount Fuji’s faint silhouette). A substantial number of students chose tutoring (28.6%) as a part-time job, surpassing any other part-time job options.

Although students have diverse perspectives on online learning, the survey responses displayed ways on how students can manage to maximize their experience. Students strongly recommend adhering to a planned schedule. As an example, one can follow Moodles’s timetable and set weekly study goals and priorities to prevent procrastination. Students can also form study groups to acquire ingrained forces of motivation. Surely, students are always welcomed to choose their preferred study method. .

In addition to the students’ opinions, the professors in SPSE also commented on the new teaching environment.

Prof. Marisa Kellam (Political Science):

“Although online education works well when “rise to the occasion” and make it work well, I am very much looking forward to meeting with students in the classroom at Waseda once again.”

Students should be self-motivated to learn—after all that is the point of going to university—and the material would appear on a final exam, provides extrinsic motivation for those who need it. I’m glad that I could incorporate the “live” Zoom session into the second semester, even in a class of over 100 students. Considering the importance of student interaction, discussion and friendship, I used Zoom breakout rooms and created forums on Moodle to give students the opportunity to get to know each other as much as possible. I tried to reduce to some extent the burden and the collective screen time unlike the first semester.

Prof. Kohei Kawamura (Economics):

“As an avid lover of chit-chat, I deeply miss informal interactions with students on campus. I really miss going for dinner with my seminar students as well. I really hope we can all get together on campus soon!”

Overall, the quality of the academic interaction I have had with students seems pretty much the same as classes on campus. I set a deadline of the final essay assignment on Law and Economics earlier, at the end of the winter vacation, but it couldn’t cover the important topics I taught in the last few lectures of the course, which is rather unfortunate. I optimistically believe that, if students and professors make enough effort, we can make online learning experience as effective as classes on campus.

Prof. Shuige Liu (Seminar):

"Online communication can never replace offline communication… What I can do is to make them lose or miss as few things as possible.”

In general, I feel sorry for students, especially for the first-year international students. I had imagined what if I faced such a situation when I was a freshman. Learning is but a (perhaps rather small) part of college life; making friends, joining various communities, and talking/confronting with college mates are much more important, and all of these should be unified. I believe that students can obtain the knowledge and comprehensive understanding through the process of convincing others and being convinced by others. Thus, I prepared small quizzes and discussion time to encourage students’ creative and critical thinking. I hope that I built and maintained a connection with students and helped students to build networks of their own.

Prof. Marcus Bridle (Academic Writing and Discussions)

"As this was primarily a writing focused course I was lucky because I also get a sense of connection as soon as I start reading student submissions. This takes more time to develop, though, and I think that students are less aware of me as a 'person' rather than an 'instructor'/'feedback provider."

Some aspects of academic writing instruction (e.g., referencing/using the library for searches/group editing for paraphrasing and summarizing) were actually well suited for an online environment.

Conclusion

Generally, online learning bears considerable advantages and disadvantages. Even though it does not guarantee the same degree of interaction as in-person situations, there still exists a remarkable virtue—students are able to secure their private time. As long as we, the students and professors in SPSE, keep broadening perspectives in a positive way along with building trust and respect, there is no doubt that we can make online learning a constructive force of Waseda education

Helpful Tips To Ease Your Life at Waseda

By Ashley Lee 1. Making use of Wasedatime Wasedatime is a non-profit online application developed by talented engineering and computer science students of Waseda University. Since its creation, the team has been striving to make the lives of Waseda students easier by providing a plethora of tools that support students’ academic activities. On their web syllabus, you will be able to see details of all SPSE courses, including difficulty level, evaluation methods, and even reviews from other students. Once you select the course you plan to take, the site will automatically generate a timetable for you, so that you won't have to manually draw one yourself. This will save you a great deal of time in course planning. The application also provides global COVID-19 statistics and Waseda-Nishi Waseda bus schedules.

For more information, go check out their site and Instagram!

2. Seeking help at the Writing Center The Writing Center, established by Waseda University, devotes to improving the writing skills of students and helping them polish their academic papers. They provide free one-on-one support for papers including but not limited to, final essays, presentation scripts, and graduation theses. If you are stuck and don't know what to write, you might be able to come up with new ideas under the guidance of tutors with abundant writing experience. The tutoring sessions can be conducted in English or Japanese, and online sessions are also available at the moment. The Writing Center is located on the second floor of Building 3 (SPSE building), in the main campus. Learn more about the Writing Center and how to make a reservation through https://www.waseda.jp/inst/aw/en/about/using!

3. Utilizing WINE WINE is a search interface of the Waseda University Library, where you can search various academic resources such as books, videos, dissertations, and etc, owned by the university’s library. The site indicates whether the material is currently available and its exact location within the library. It displays materials located in libraries of other Japanese universities as well. If the material is accessible online, it will provide you with a link you can access it on. WINE prevents you from heading to the library only to be disappointed that the material you are looking for is not available. It also allows you to easily gather the materials you need to refer to for writing academic papers even at home. Check out the User’s Guide in https://wasedajp.libguides.com/winehelp_en!

4. Printing at Building 22 Forgot to print out your assignment that you have to submit next period? No worries! The Computer Room located on the B1 floor in Building 22 (CJL building) allows students to use the printer for free if they bring their own A4 paper. It is also the only place on campus that is open 24 hours for students to study in. If you want to study here until late at night, make sure to come save your spot early as those seats fill up quite rapidly, especially during exam week!

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