Ph.D. student Jackie Liu had just returned from China when he found out the news that KU was closing for the rest of the spring semester. He had traveled back into the United States with his mother successfully, just before travel bans were put in place. At that point, nobody thought the coronavirus was a big deal, but things went downhill significantly after that. 

One of the biggest challenges Liu has faced while adapting to the changes on campus is teaching online. He feels it’s difficult to know whether or not his students are learning the material. Since the pandemic, his workload has increased significantly because of the need to accommodate all of his students, including those abroad and the ones who have contracted the virus.