How The Coronavirus Pandemic Affected The Learning Process

23rd February 2021

The covid-19 pandemic outbreak resulted in a global catastrophe that the major economy still suffers today. While this may have struck the world unexpectedly, not many sectors had contingency plans to handle such a rational scenario.

Thankfully, the educational sector already had online learning in place, which came in handy during these times. However, virtual learning, even when helpful, has affected the learning process drastically, causing major challenges daily. Both the students and teachers face major setbacks in having to adjust to the new normal. Let’s read through a few of them to get you briefed.

Months of Delay

The coronavirus pandemic outbreak caused an extended delay on what many students thought to be a few days off schoolwork. Now, students have spent months at home having to readjust to the new method of education: online learning. While the effectiveness of online learning could not be neglected, the majority of students never expected to stay at home for this long. At least, students can now get online writing services like SupremeStudy for their writing needs from their home.

School closures due to the mandatory lockdown protocols resulted in months of not having physical classes. We now have delays in standardized testing and prolonged admissions across universities in the country. Many schools have settled for an extension of the school year, which affects the graduation of undergraduates. Although effective, class sessions now move so slow with teachers and facilitators trying to adjust to distance learning.

Major Challenges For Students & Staff

Agreed, the pandemic has changed education like we used to know before the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. As though having to teach multiple students traditionally wasn’t enough tasks for the teachers. Since the coronavirus pandemic, teachers have had to double their efforts to make learning available and stress-free on online platforms. It’s been a lot of challenging for the teachers with the sudden change. Struggling to reach every child remotely poses a daily challenge.

On the other hand, the students face the most challenges as they find it difficult to communicate. Communication with their peers and teachers helps to improve the quality of the education process in many ways. Switching from physically hanging out with friends on campus to online breakout sessions is just too much under a short period. Many scholars still struggle with technological difficulties when accessing the platforms used in learning today.

Challenges On Low-Income Families

Having reliable internet access has been one of the major challenges affecting the learning process since the COVID-19 pandemic. Undergraduates in rural areas struggle with having a reliable internet connection strong enough for video conferencing. As a result of this, these scholars spend extra cash daily, having to travel long distances, sometimes for access to a good connection. With the majority of families relying on “free education,” the change hasn’t been favorable one bit.

These homes rely on the public system to educate their children and provide basic amenities like feeding. With the current COVID -19 development, all of these have been put on hold, causing major concerns to these families. Not having access to a computer or the Internet proves to be a major challenge for low-income families. Parents of students in public schools especially find it difficult to buy these gadgets for their kids. Let alone bear the cost of subscribing to the Internet frequently.

Concentration Difficulties

The impact of covid-19 on the learning process has affected the concentration of students in their virtual classrooms. With the scholars spending so much alone without adult supervision, they could lose concentration at any time. Physical schooling warrants that the teachers evaluate their progress in class daily on every task. Distance learning, however, makes it extremely difficult for the teachers to make a daily evaluation of their pupils. This results in concentration difficulties.

The changed education process like we have it today gives little or no room for students with special needs. Most scholars with special needs require present assistance from their tutors to carry them along. They also need constant help navigating their way around the educational tools on the distance learning platforms. Without a doubt, switching to online platforms has been helpful during the pandemic. However, it’s affected the learning process of students across the globe greatly.

Conclusion

Since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the first quarter of 2020, the educational sector faces a huge change in its operations. Unlike what we used to know, education moved from the four walls of the classroom to remote learning in a few months.

Although distance learning helped a lot during such catastrophic times, it’s affected the education process in the above ways. We now have students craving to return to school more than ever before. A feeling we’d agree isn’t normal among children who despise the idea of schooling in the first place.