Novel coronavirus pandemic had made us witness a global shift towards online learning when schools and colleges decided to close down overnight. It started as a temporary measure to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, but online learning has come up as a reliable way of studying after almost a year. Even if the situations become normal again, some schools consider continuing online learning as a supporting learning method and offline classes. Now that situations are on the way to becoming normal, and schools or colleges are thinking of reopening, you can guess that it’s going to be hard to go back to the “ new normal” life. However, the academic challenges after a pandemic are still unknown, here are things you can expect:
Lack of infrastructure
The schools, colleges, or universities around the world were not prepared for a situation like this, and therefore, many schools didn’t have the infrastructure for online learning. Hardly a few private schools could keep online learning portals open to students, and the others who didn’t have funds had to close down. The trustees and school or college authorities have understood the importance of online learning during uncertain times, and thus now they will consider providing online courses along with traditional classes. The online websites of schools and colleges will not be used for admissions, but they should give a campus tour-like experience to the virtual learners. Besides, there is no way to track a student’s progress continuously, and it is hard to understand if a student’s performance has deteriorated during the pandemic or has improved. Hence, then infrastructure in schools and colleges will become more online learning-centric from now.
Effects of increasing socioeconomic disparities
School children are affected greatly due to the coronavirus situation. It is not about low cashflow or a career setback for children, and it is a disruption in their learning curve. Lockdown has also aggravated the social disparities between public and private schools because not every school worldwide has the infrastructure to start and continue online learning. Students and teachers now will depend on technology, and the use of emails, chats, and video conferencing has increased to enhance their learning experience. But, when it comes to children below eight years, it is hard for them to do anything without their parents’ help. On the other hand, there is more than enough data that suggests that online learning can be beneficial for students of all age groups, but it can’t be taken as an alternative to traditional schooling.
Online learning can overburden parents
All students don’t come from the same financial background, and not all schools have the proper infrastructure to motivate the students from lower economic classes towards online learning. Therefore, for those parents who can barely save money for their children’s schooling after managing their day-to-day expenses, it can be hard to cope with their child’s online educational needs.
Online learning is cheaper in the long run. Still, initially, you will need to invest in proper technical tools such as a computer, laptop, adequate internet connection, and then buy online course materials. Let’s imagine for a moment that all amenities are provided for online learning. Still, a child below eight years can not perform all the tasks of online school by himself. So, he is becoming dependent on him partially for doing his simple everyday homework.
Increased use of online class assistance
With the increase of online learning opportunities, online assignment help services or assistance services were rising. But, after the pandemic, online academic assistance has become a must-have for some students.
Why? Due to learning online, the only way to judge a student’s progress was through homework, assessments, projects, etc. Using these services, online students could multitask better, submit their assignments on time, and also manage to have free time for themselves. Even if the situation gets normal, students will hardly get over this comfort of using help for academics. Thus, we can expect online academic assistance to become a persistent part of the change.
Lack of readiness for authorities
The lockdown in schools and colleges was announced overnight, which means there was no prepping time for both teachers and students. Teachers’ biggest issue was developing ways to continue teaching their students where face-to-face learning was no longer an option.
Again, economic and social divides played a major role in deciding how successfully the teachers can cope with this issue. Teachers working in the premier institutions or IVY league colleges have the proper infrastructure at home to create and share the required course material. But it is not the case in third-world countries. Not every teacher has the appropriate infrastructure. Even in some rural areas, one in five schools, the teacher’s position is vacant or mostly run by a single teacher.
Opportunities to study abroad
Many students move to different countries every year, like the USA, Australia, Canada, UK, and China. But, last year, when international travel was shut down, many students were stuck and failed to return. Thus, declined preference for internal learning can be expected in the post-pandemic situation. If the demand for international learning is deceased, the premier colleges will start offering more online. Their cost of the architecture of college, games, student activities on campus might reduce if they start investing more in partial online-centric learning.
Unclear strategy for the educational sector
The governments worldwide have done a commendable job in containing the spread of coronavirus, and till now, they have come up with different measures to continue students to learn. There is an effort noticed among every government to stop the hiking of fees in the post-pandemic situation. But, the plan for school owners’ and educators’ survival is lacking. On the other hand, the institutions that had only the infrastructure for face-to-face interaction and practice-based learning have faced the most losses. Lastly, it is hard for both educators and students to follow the new learn at home situation. If the government comes up with a strategy for the educational sector, there can be hope. Due to the pandemic’s effects, many sectors have faced losses, and many people become the victim of underemployment and unemployment. Additionally, the educational sector was significantly devastated, which is not good news because its economic growth depends on education. However, nothing much has changed in the education sector since the last two centuries, which can be perceived as a wake-up call. If the educational sector rose and re-engineered in the right direction, all the stakeholders will be benefited.