The COVID-19 pandemic has brought severe changes in the lives of many individuals. Like many individuals, students have been affected in their daily routines alternating with in-person learning to online learning. Students have been affected in many aspects during their time learning online including their engagement, socialization, and personal time.
During online school, many students were found to engage and focus less. This is due to the circumstances that have changed. Students may or may not have been in families, facing financial loss, homelessness, food insecurity, and other issues putting students in vulnerable positions. They may also be facing internal conflict, feel anxious, depressed, as well as many other psychological effects of isolation. Out of all the reasons, the main reason why lots of students have not been engaging online is due to the change in using limited material and frequently doing independent work. The use of following repetitive material and independently working causes students to become tedious, thus being engaged less compared to in-person learning, where students could collaborate with peers, ask questions, and use a variety of material to learn. Even though learning online has made students’ engagement decrease there are still several steps teachers can follow to make online learning engaging. Teachers can use a variety of online applications, websites, and other tools to assess their students online. Some of the applications or websites can incorporate online quizzes and competitions where students can participate and test their knowledge at the same time.
Students’ social skills have also changed during online school. Many students have been isolated and lost many social skills necessary to communicate with peers and teachers. The lack of, or decreased socialization could cause many issues for a student and their academic performance. Not only can it cause issues for academic performance but it can also cause students to feel isolated and can cause mental illnesses like depression. This could be an ongoing issue and can cause issues for students in their adulthood. As a solution teachers and other figures should encourage students to work and communicate with peers by putting them in collaborative assignments or class discussions.
Online school additionally has made changes in the personal lives of students. Spending more than 7 hours looking at a screen not only doing school but also completing the assignments and daily homework is an excessive amount of time that requires a lot of motivation and consistency which can cause students to not deliver the best work they can. Not only does it make students deliver unsatisfactory work, students don’t often have breaks, which is neither mentally nor physically good. As a solution, teachers could give their students work according to their circumstances where students won’t procrastinate or be likely to have work burnout.
There are several changes that have been brought upon students to negatively affect them, which includes their engagement, socialization, and personal lives. However, there are still ways teachers can support their students to make their learning better.
Sources:
DeFuria, C. (2021, February 2). Make online learning more engaging and effective. NASSP. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.nassp.org/publication/principal-leadership/volume-21-2020-2021/principal-leadership-february-2021/make-online-learning-more-engaging-and-effective/.
Morin, A. (2022, March 4). 5 reasons students aren't engaging in distance learning. Understood. Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.understood.org/articles/en/5-reasons-students-arent-engaging-in-distance-learning.
Kajabi. (2022, February 11). 20 benefits of learning online: Kajabi. RSS. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://kajabi.com/blog/top-20-advantages-of-online-learning-and-digital-courses.
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