Behind the Story: How in-person classes and labs have changed during COVID-19

The idea for this story came up in a conversation I had with a friend. She was complaining about her study abroad classes when all of a sudden she mentions how her roommate, Chris Cheung, is taking two in-person lab classes this quarter. Interested to hear more about her roommate’s experience with in-person learning, I got connected to Chris and got the okay to work with her for this project. In the end, after discussing other ideas with Shelby, we chose to run with the in-person classes story.

Even though coming up with our story idea was smooth sailing, we did have some problems when it came to making the final product.

“I struggled the most making the info-graphic,” Shelby said, “There was so much information that I wanted to include, and I ended up creating a pretty overwhelming graphic for the first draft.” But she managed to make a more digestible graphic for the final version. She cut some text down and kept just the most important parts in order to make the info-graphic easier to read.

Other than the graphic, Shelby had a little bit of trouble editing the video. Some of the b-roll made editing rough. For example, sometimes there were harsh and quick pans that were trying to show the inside of Chris’s food science labs. However, Shelby made it work using slow motion so the viewer can see the images clearly.

It wasn’t only Shelby who had trouble with the video, Chris did too. As our inside source for in-person classes, she was the one who had to take the b-roll for us; it wasn’t possible for Shelby and I to do it ourselves because of the pandemic. Chris struggled getting b-roll inside her lab because some other members of her class weren’t comfortable being recorded. That’s why some b-roll, as I mentioned before, had quick pans because Chris was trying to get as much of the lab in a short amount of time.

As for me, my main challenge was finding the right quotes for the Q & A. After discussing the profile rough draft with Professor Bisheff, she noticed that our quotes weren’t specific enough. So after giving me some tips on interviewing, I set up another interview with Chris so I could ask the right questions for deeper, more specific answers for the story.

Overall, I think working on this project was a learning experience. Shelby, Chris and I each had our own little struggles to work through the few weeks and the experience reminded me of something that Chris had said.

“I definitely took [in-person classes] for granted.”

I think that I definitely took in-person reporting for granted. Reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic changed how journalists create content. Now, we have to rely more on other people and not ourselves. It’s kind of a nerve wracking feeling hoping that everything will work out, but I think the experience as a whole is a positive one.