After an elongated winter break, Penn State professors and students alike are returning to the classroom Zoom University to begin classes in 2021.

While many have ironed out the kinks of online learning, there are still bound to be many unforeseen struggles during the first day of classes on Tuesday that we have included in our unofficial prop bets for the start of the spring semester.

For those unfamiliar with prop bets, Onward State co-founder Evan Kalikow illustrated the concept well: “A prop bet is short for proposition bet. Basically, it’s a bet on something not commonly betted upon. For example, lots of people bet on the score of the Super Bowl, but how many people bet on how many times the winning coach will say ‘humbled’ in the post-game press conference? That’s a prop bet.”

Please remember that these odds are *completely* made up and Onward State is not a gambling site. Although you may find yourself wanting to place a wager or two now that the NFL season is nearing its end, Onward State does not condone betting, especially if it is on Zoom University.

Prop Bets

• Someone forgets to mute their mic — 3/2
• You hear something you wish you hadn’t when someone forgets to mute their mic — 5/1
• Your Wi-Fi cuts out — 30/1
• Professor’s Wi-Fi cuts out — 18/1
• Someone drops a class GroupMe link in Zoom chat — 8/1
• A student asks a question in the chat that the professor literally just answered — 33/2
• Your professor says, “OK, I’m going to share my screen now.” — 7/1
• The professor mentions working from home — 45/1
• Someone’s family member or roommate passes by in their camera shot — 27/1
• Your professor asks for their tech TA for help — 24/7
• A professor shows a photo of Joe Paterno — 409/1

Over/Under

• Times your professor mentions “crazy” or “uncertain” times — 3.5
• Mentions of the coronavirus or COVID-19 — 11.5
• Number of classes you decide to skip — 0.5
• Times the professor says, “I’ve enabled the chat, so if anyone has a question, you can type it there.” — 4.5
• The number of people wearing headphones in a 20-person class — 9.5
• The number of times people type “thank you” in the chat at the end of a 20-person class — 12.5
• Number of shirtless students in your class — 0.5
• Percentage of people in your class who actually have their cameras on — 18.5%* (*unless the professor specifically requires all cameras be on!)