By Alona Fiandaca

It does not matter if you are in elementary school, high school, post-secondary or even at a full-time job; online learning can (and mostly has) been applied to almost every field of study. It can be frustrating, especially when you are just getting introduced to the online world for academic reasons. There is so much more to this situation than what meets the eye. In this article, you will learn some of the pros and cons of online learning, the facts, and why it shouldn’t persist.

COVID-19 has brought many cons into our lives. Now it’s being fused into our academic lives as the school year is only beginning…

PROS

Comfort: You can learn in the comfort of your own home. Maybe even sleep in ten minutes longer and use the excuse “my computer was slow”, or “I had trouble logging on”.  During this time, I think it is okay to be a little late or slow to the game. Also, you won’t have teachers or administrators telling you how to do your work, instead you do it at your own pace and the way that you are most comfortable.

Affordability: Another pro is the affordability of learning online. When learning online, you don’t have to worry as much about filling your car’s gas tank again, or filling you public transportation card again.

CONS

Flexibility: It’s easy to think that if you are learning from home simply by staring at a screen, you have more time on your hands. Think again. Just because you are learning remotely does not mean that you will get a lighter workload or not receive many deadlines in some cases. All of this on top of any regular house-hold chores or events, it requires a lot of balance.

Social Interactions: It is in our human nature to connect with other people. If you think about it, one of the first things that really bummed people out when this pandemic started was the social distancing and not being able to make plans with your friends or family over the summer. Now take that and put it into an academic stand point. Online learning limits the human interaction that we naturally crave. Due to this the endorphins we get will be lost since we won’t have that tangible connection.

Inaccurate Learning: Even in the year 2020, there are still many institutions that are unsure of how to offer online learning in a strategic and supportive way.

Communication, flexibility and patience are three skills that everyone has and learns to maintain. Without flexibility, routine will be uneasy and hard to manage. Without communication, it can be hard to think and participate regularly, and without patience, it will only increase the frustration that technology already gives us. Online learning can easily limit the amount of each skill that students should only learn on an increased scale, not the opposite.

Let’s say, metaphorically, the entire school year from September 2020 to June 2021 remains online. What would happen? First, take into account that not every household can even consider online schooling because roughly 28% cannot afford internet service and 19% cannot afford internet equipment. Also, it is shown that about 65% of students are visual learners. 30% of students are auditory learners and 5% of students are kinesthetic learners. These students, no matter which way they learn best, with online schooling, they lack communication skills, tangible interaction with numerous tasks, and will not experience proper visual analysis in their lessons.

With online learning, students will most likely lose the ability to connect soulfully with others, and the ability to stay calm while planning and adjusting to a new daily schedule. Online learning will allow students to lose the money that they sent out to pay for their education, as it was not initially meant to be spent towards online learning at all. Students will lose confidence in their future careers due to the lack of hands-on experience and working with mentors.

Unfortunately, we will notice more things that we will lose only if online learning persists over the course of the next couple of months. Hopefully, it will not come to the point where anymore confinements will be made.