Editor’s note: This is part of a contributed collection of students and faculty experience with COVID-19.

Since the pandemic arrived and Iowa State had moved the remaining course work online, students have shared their methods of adjustment. 

Tyler Vogel, senior in industrial engineering, was disheartened to move out of Ames when the Iowa State University semester closure was announced. 

Vogel had plans socially and academically for the remaining spring semester on campus, but those got swept under the rug when Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen sent out a mass email outlining plans for online instruction. 

Vogel said his main issue with the online instruction transition was in his project-based industrial engineering class.

Vogel and his group members were working with the HVAC heating and cooling company Lennox, located in Marshalltown, Iowa, to provide the company with feedback on measured parts produced by a new machine versus parts produced by an old machine.

“We had a contract with them, but now we can’t really go to the plant to get more parts for the project that we were going to do,” Vogel said. “So that kind of had a setback, and then not being able to be with our group has been pretty difficult.”

Luckily, before social distancing became an issue, he was able to get the necessary parts to complete his project at his home in Illinois. Although he is the only one with access to the parts, Vogel doesn’t feel as if the group project pressure is all on him.

“We are just scaling back our project and tweaking it so we can do what we can with what we have,” he said. “I’m at home so I have all the parts, but everyone is doing as much as they can.”