Students of all levels of education, be it grade school or college, have felt the online change across the globe. It has been a hassle to work in this new form of teaching without prior experience, and it is proving to have damaging results for students in their education pursuits.
Online teaching has been an option for schooling for many years. It has become quite common in many public schools and colleges to offer online courses as an alternative to physical classrooms. Benefits include the student being able to do classwork on their own schedule. This is helpful for students who are working jobs or taking care of family, allowing them to complete assignments and tests during hours that public schooling does not offer.
However, the online environment is not for everyone. Most especially is it not ready for teachers that have been exclusively teaching in physical classes for most of their careers.
During the spring semester of 2020, many of my professors were unprepared for the switch to online learning and struggled to adapt. Only one of my teachers managed the transition within the two week spring break that we were given when quarantine started. My other professors were still getting a grasp on it by the end of the semester.
While assignments and classroom layout have become much more suitable and comparable to other online classes, there is still the issue of online classes being mandated. In online environments, it is entirely too easy to become distracted and stray from your assignments.
The physical classroom environment provided a sense of pressure to keep to your work and to pay attention to your professors. Being in a room with other people that were also here to learn could even create some healthy competitiveness and add to the learning pressure.
But now that we are in our houses and free to do as we please during classroom hours, working has become more of a hassle than a natural occurrence in day-to-day life.
Students who live in crowded homes with lots of family have found their attention taken away from their work and struggled to meet deadlines.
For students with mental conditions like ADHD and autism, the motivation to work is difficult all on its own—not to mention how hard it is to get back on track after a small distraction like checking an email or a text.
There are continued reports about the decline in student success following the quarantine and enforced online learning. Most students agree that online learning has had a negative impact on their school careers.
Hopefully in the near future, online schooling will continue to develop and adapt to aid students in their educational pursuits.