When it comes to the dreaded topic of online classes, there is no denying where the opinions of most people lie. The people who truly enjoy and look forward to online instruction are very few and far in between. Phrases such as “I can’t concentrate when the class is online” or “I miss so many deadlines” can be heard from miles away as the start of our classes begin. However, as much as online classes can be a pain, there are some positives that come from the sacrifices that we are all making.
First, there are the obvious cons of online classes. The lack of in-person lectures and learning bring about a multitude of issues in regard to our education. Many students say that online learning makes it harder for them to focus on the topic at hand and that they feel as if they have less time or feel pressured to complete tasks. Let’s face it, Zoom lectures are much harder to pay attention to than an in-person lecture and prerecorded lectures are even more of a challenge to understand and take information from. The lack of face-to-face instruction completely cuts out most of the learning tools that you may not even know you used. For example, say you are in a face-to-face lecture and someone asks a question that you later see on an exam. You may have never thought about pondering that question if it wasn’t for your classmate. As students, we all bounce off of each other’s ideas and personal knowledge more than we know, and now that we are on online instruction, it can feel as if we are left to find all the answers on our own. Also, not being able to interact with other students on an in-person basis can be very hard for students in an educational way as well as an emotional way.
However, as much as we can all gripe on the negatives of the situation we are in with online instruction, we can also spend just as much time thinking about the potential positives. For starters, think about how much time there is for other activities besides school since no one is physically going to class. Your schedule may have a whole lot more leeway especially if you have more asynchronous classes making this the perfect time for a part-time job or taking up a hobby that interests you. Another aspect of online instruction that will benefit all of us in the future is the way that students have had to learn how to adapt to their surrounding circumstances. While this doesn’t necessarily make our lives easier now, in the future with whatever jobs or life changes we all face, we will find it much easier to adapt to sudden changes in circumstances due to what we are now facing. Also, there are the simpler pros to online classes such as being able to eat off camera, lay in bed and of course spend time with your animals in the middle of a lecture! I mean come on…who doesn’t want the ease of lounging on the couch next to their favorite furry friend while participating in a lecture?
While most would agree that we all would much rather have the opportunity to participate in face-to-face classes, there are plenty of positive aspects to online learning too. These are definitely not the most ideal times that we are going through, but by making the best of our current situation the time will fly by, and before we know it, we will be back to complaining about our 8 a.m.’s and the long walks to class in no time!