Online Education

Thanks to Covid, schools have resorted to online learning. They had to start up the school year somehow and it was able to get done by moving to zoom lectures, videos, and lots of online files. The issue however, lies within students' abilities to learn remotely.

Let me rephrase: The issue lies within the students' abilities to pay attention and focus enough to continue learning effectively. I recently got asked if this new online learning we have become accustomed to has provided an equal opportunity for learning. I personally think it has. However, there are some aspects that are more difficult to deal with that I do not think are as equal.

The opportunity to learn is more than equal and fair. At first, in the end of the spring semester 2020, it was not as equal as teachers were scrambling to figure out how to finish the semester remotely when they've never had to deal with anything like this before. Most students did have to teach themselves at least a little bit of material from the lack of lectures or class time. And teachers also had to compensate for students who didn't have quick, reliable internet or computer access at home. 

But that was all unprepared, nobody was ready for anything like that to occur. Now we are in the fall semester of 2020 and professors and instructors had time to prepare their schedule and lay out their plan for students. This allowed all students to have the same opportunities to learn as teachers posted lecture videos, hosted regularly scheduled zoom meetings/lectures, and provided more than enough resources for students to learn. The online learning does not take into account the social or emotional aspect of being in a classroom with others, but the videos they provide for us to watch along with zoom classes and other material are the same videos and lectures we would see as if they were in person. Every student has access to the same resources and classwork even though the resources are online. 

For the spring semester, schools allowed students to drop classes or waive their final grades because of Covid's quick surge in the US. For this semester though, I don't believe schools should give any kind of extensions or lenience on the grading policies. I believe if students fail their classes and attempt to blame it on online learning, then they were simply being lazy. Students will still fail some classes don't get me wrong, but it won't be because of the remote teaching.

Schools and businesses and society in general will eventually get back to normal. We will be able to walk around without having a mask on, we can gather for parties and big events, and teachers will be able to host in person classes again. At that point we can get rid of all these issues that stem from remote education. A lot of countries in Europe and Asia are already doing it. The kids learning in these countries should have an advantage against people who are still learning online. Not an advantage with the material of their classes, but with labs and other classes that include some kind of hands on learning that you can't get from an online lecture. From a hiring perspective, depending on what kind of hands on teaching was acquired that an online-taught student didn't receive should be a competitive advantage. However, most labs and hands on type classes are the few classes still being taken in person or as a hybrid class so in the end I don't think people who are already back to learning in person won't have any sort of advantage in the job market.

So many questions have arose about the future and how much Covid could affect it, but we won't find out until we get there and that could be years. Hopefully it isn't too much longer, but for now, it doesn't seem like it'll be anytime soon.