Have you ever stopped to think that maybe online education is not helping and is instead hurting our mindsets? Although many feel that online education is beneficial, online education is having a tremendously negative effect on students. To further explain, many more students are losing motivation to succeed because the new curriculum they are using has a negative outcome on their grade and they are not being monitored. In today’s society, online education is the utmost concern due to external influencers. To put in perspective, this year every individual has been affected academically due to Covid-19. For example, all students were removed from in-person learning and placed in an online learning platform. Online education has drastically changed the way people are supposed to learn. Students are faced with many difficulties due to the lack of face-to-face learning and more screen time.
In an article “How Effective Is Online Learning,” by Susanna Loeb she identifies how students lose person to person interaction with others by not being able to socialize. Loeb states, “In comparisons of online and in-person classes, however, online classes aren’t as effective as in-person classes for most students.” Online classes are deemed to be the most harmful and least helpful to students because of the progression of students’ knowledge and the decrease in the communication mindset of the human brain. Many parents when their kids are growing up set a limited amount of screen time, because they do not want their mindsets to adapt to only watching a screen. But as education is changing nowadays all students are now having to adapt to screen time more often because all education is now online. That being said, given that students are watching a screen all day they are losing the traits needed for the real world outside of a screen. By students staring at the screen all day, it has been said that technology can shape the human brain in decreasing the intelligence the brain had from being controlled and being manipulated into a different view. Screen time is changing kids minds into thinking all they will see in their future is a screen and not face to face recognition. Especially the young childrens’ mindsets are being developed into not communicating with others besides family members, which is making more people socially awkward.
Although online education has its flaws, many believe that students are obtaining more information due to self teaching. Self teaching is a way to show the responsibility and independence a student/kid needs to teach and learn their own paths. Brandon Busteed states, “So real-time interactivity, rather than place, seems to be emerging as the defining factor behind student preferences.” A lot of students would rather not have to be told to be in a certain place at a certain time they would rather be in their own place of comfort studying and learning in an environment they feel comfortable and capable to learn in. Dynraski wrote, ”Online courses have the potential to improve instruction at every level of education. Adaptive online courses can allow students to learn at their own pace, with material adjusting to fit the needs of both advanced and remedial learners.”
That being said, online students do have the potential to learn and develop at their own pace, which does help them to learn how to grow in their own way and to challenge themselves to be responsible. But students learning at their own pace does not give them structure. By not having the structure that in-person learning provides, students feel as if they are able to procrastinate their work. Students who procrastinate may not have as much knowledge due to time constraints whereas others test better when they take the time to learn and develop.
Also, many people think that online versus in-person classes are two completely different learning environments and do not teach the same material or have the same effect. Loeb addresses’ in her article, “Most online courses, however, particularly those serving K-12 students, have a format much more similar to in-person courses. The teacher helps to run virtual discussion among the students, assigns homework, and follows up with individual students.” Even though in-person and online courses use the same type of strategy, online courses are not the way to help students develop, but it is the way to hurt their development. This is her point of view on the way the teachers run their classes and the similarities of the way they go after the outcome of it. For both online and in-person learning, the teachers follow a structure that they try to reflect on the students as well through guides themselves. Adair states, “Guidance for faculty to help them translate their teaching expertise into a different learning modality. Institutions that have invested in faculty training for online teaching/design, development of course templates and/or web-enhanced courses will be in a much better position.” Teachers do not teach themselves the curriculum that they are teaching students, they follow guidance given to them through a higher power that will guide the students the same way they are being guided whether it is online or in-person. Although teachers are being more prepared than the students for online education the students receive the best education the teachers can give, but it does not mean the students are retaining the Information. Despite the teachers trying to give them the best education, students are not taking the time to listen and take notes that will help them process more information. Preparing teachers is a good thing, but an even better would be to prepare the students as much as we did for the teachers. I feel as if it is unfair to the students that they did not get the same treatment as teachers did to prepare for what was about to come. Teachers had been mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared for what was about to come and how they expected the outcome for students to be, but they did not expect as many students to not contend with the new learning environment. Teachers and students had been prepared for the same things they had been doing, but what they have received is not in fact what anyone has signed up for. Maybe if students had been prepared more there would have been more of an increase in grades rather than a dramatic decrease.
Even though online learning is not really an option for any student because of the conditions our economy is in right now. Students can adapt a really great strategy in teaching themselves the curriculum. Personally I do not like the new online learning, but I feel it is safer for everyone so that there is less person to person contact. Other than the health of person to person contact the outcome of online learning is substantially worse for the outcome of a students education. Dynarski states, “Online students did substantially worse than students in the same face-to-face course: They earned lower grades, were less likely to succeed in subsequent courses, and more likely to drop out.” A lot of statistics show how students’ grades have decreased due to the new online curriculum showing that the outcome for students’ education will dramatically decrease. The online learning, in my opinion, is not doing well for students trying to learn and develop. I feel as if teachers should hold in person classes every other day with a limited amount of people to each room wearing a mask, 6 feet apart per desk, and sanitizing the desk after each use. The curriculum for students would have a much greater increase in grades if it was held back in-person even though there are alot of risks there would not be as much risk with less people per room or even per day.
A lot of people do not know how unfair it is to students that they have to adapt in the middle of the school year and try to develop into something new. Yes students do not have a choice into how the rest of their academic career is going to go, but the extent it goes to for students can be changed. Meaning the higher up personnel could rethink the new education into a better way for everyone to learn. Another way for teachers to teach could be an A and B day. Which could be an A day for half the students with a limit of 10-15 people per room 6 feet apart with masks on while the other half has a day off, and then the same goes for a B day. From personal experience, I have seen first hand a lot of kids procrastinating their online education. Because most of the online learning classes are videos a lot of students put classes off until later when they feel bored and have nothing to do so they study. I have seen a lot of my friends as well do that because they feel as if they can procrastinate up until it is time to turn something in or have an exam. Since students do not have a structured in-person class where the teacher can see what they are doing and if they are fully attending class they feel as if it is not important to pay attention because there is no one to check and make sure.
Works Cited:
Loeb, Susanna. “How Effective Is Online Learning? What the Research Does and Doesn’t Tell Us.” Education Week, 1 June 2020, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/03/23/how-effective-is-online-learning-what-the.html.
Busteed, Brandon. “Online Education: From Good To Better To Best?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 Mar. 2019, http://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2019/03/05/online-education-from-good-to-better-to-best/?sh=75b9c06c6912.
“Inside Higher Ed.” Most Teaching Is Going Remote. Will That Help or Hurt Online Learning?, http://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2020/03/18/most-teaching-going-remote-will-help-or-hurt-online-learning.
Cosner Rhetoric 