Westlake Word

Since the start of quarantine, schools all over the world have moved from face-to-face learning to at home online learning. The massive change of education has greatly affected many students, some for better and for worse. Every student works differently and students are finding ways that work best for them.

 

For instance, some students during quarantine have discovered that they enjoy working at their own pace and not have a stressful schedule from 7:45 AM to 2:17 PM every day; these students would rather work at their own pace, regardless of whether that begins in the early morning or ends late at night. 

 

However, there are students who are struggling during this time due to being easily distracted and struggling to understand assignments without a teacher there to explain it to them. Moreover, it is also important to note that many students do not have a reliable internet connection and that alone brings much unnecessary stress to the student due to what they can not control. Others find that they simply miss the interaction with both teachers and peers, finding that learning in person just fits their style. 

 

According to the article, "5 Reasons Why Online Learning Is More Effective,” from the Dexway Team, a distance learning company, online learning actually benefits students because it gives students full control over their learning and allows them to learn more content in a short period of time that the student is able to manage independently. Additionally, due to online learning promoting learning at your own pace, it is more time efficient.

 

Nonetheless, with all the benefits of online learning, there are problems along with it. Many students during this challenging time experienced a lack of self-motivation due to being home 24/7 and not having a teacher to remind them of deadlines; therefore, their sense of urgency was completely gone. 

 

To add on, some students also had to cope with a death in the family due to the coronavirus, which made many students lose their motivation to continue doing work while trying to figure out how to cope with the loss of a loved one. 

 

A Westlake student who wishes to remain anonymous, said, “After the death in my family, it was hard for me to even think about working; every time I would try, I would stare at my own work unable to think, and I would just walk away in my own self-pity. I have mostly come to peace with what happened, but there are days where I don’t have the willpower to work and just want to reflect on what happened, but I tried my hardest to hand in the work and admittedly not all of it was to my best ability.”

 

Furthermore, there are many students who dislike online school for what it is. As seen from the perspective of another student who wishes to remain anonymous, “Online school has been absolutely terrible. I spend over twenty hours on the computer which hurts my eyesight and gives me constant headaches and the problem is teachers keep adding work thinking that we are home all day and have nothing to do. I can’t spend time with my family because I have to write another essay.”

 

Although some students may have had a negative experience because of time management issues, many students have grown to enjoy online learning due to the newfound freedom. Unfortunately, others struggle with completing all of their assignments because they suffer from a lack of motivation, which then leads to online school being extremely difficult for many students to fully adapt. 

 

In the end, every student has adapted differently towards digital learning, so now we are simply left wondering: what will September bring?

 

Works Cited

 

"5 Reasons Why Online Learning Is More Effective." Dexway,

     www.dexway.com/5-reasons-why-online-learning-is-more-effective/ #:~:text=%231.&text=IBM%20have%20found%20that%20participants,work%20at%20their%20     own%20speed. Accessed 16 June 2020. 

 

Anonymous. Interview. 15 June 2020. 

 

Anonymous. Interview. 16 June 2020.