We all know that one of the main sector in our government that has been impacted by this pandemic is our school. In the early stage of pandemic (March 2020), school have been forced to finish their school year early when the government mandated the lockdown for those areas where the local transmission of the virus has been identified and confirmed.

When the school year 2020-2021 started, most of the schools from the civilized area preferred to have the online schooling.

What is Virtual Learning?

Virtual Learning is a distance learning where the teacher and students uses digital technologies (cell phones, laptop, computer, or tablet) and internet as their primary means of communication. They are physically away from each other.

Two types of Virtual Learning or Distance Learning.

Synchronous Learning

This is the type of learning where the teacher and students are interactively doing their lessons via live video conference.

The set-up is very similar to face to face, but the only difference is that the teacher and students are physically from different locations.

Asynchronous Learning

As opposed to the synchronous learning, in this type of distance learning, the teacher just provide the reading materials to its students, give them instructions and then provide them the list of questions they needed to submit within the provided deadline.

Good Side of Virtual Learning

1. Enhanced Digital/Technological Skill on both Teacher and Students.

I have personally witnessed this with my two kids.

Prior to the online schooling, they are not that confident navigating mobile cell phones and gadgets.

But as they go on with their online classroom, day by day, their digital skills have improved. They even learned how to use the messenger and zoom. On their second year of being in an online classroom set-up. they no longer require any assistance from me at all.

2. Ability to access school courses anytime and anywhere.

As for my kid's school, they managed to build a portal where a student can access their learning courses, assignments, and activities anytime and anywhere. All they need is a cell phone or computer and an internet.

Submission of their assignments and activities are also done online.

This is also very helpful with the parents during the review before the students' major exams. Parents will be able to help review their kids as long as they know the exam coverage since the reviewers are just one click away.

3. Helps with time management.

Since students are no longer required to go to school, it saves time and effort for both the parents and the students.

Let's say for example, instead of having 2 hours preparation time (1 hour for fixing themselves and 1 hour for commute/travel, they can definitely save 1 hour from the travel time.

4. Offers more flexibility

This applies on Asynchronous type of distance learning. Students have more flexibility of their time. They can take a break whenever they feel overwhelmed with all the knowledge they are trying to digest and then go back once they are on mood again. This help lessen their stress as they are not time pressured. It gives them opportunity to understand their lessons well.

5. Teachers are just one chat away

Since teachers are required to make themselves available at all times whenever their students needs assistance, reaching out to them is not a problem anymore. They can simply post a question on their group chats and their teachers are always ready to help.

5. Risk Reduction

Of course during pandemic, there is a high risk of catching the covid-19 virus specially on those areas where number of positive cases are very high. Online learning reduces risk from the virus and hence it is very beneficial nowadays.

Bad Side of Virtual Learning

1. Extensive time of exposure to radiation

Of course we know that this is the number one disadvantage of online learning. Students tends to stare on their screen for their entire school hours and hence exposing their eyes to radiation.

2. Prone to Online "Kopyahan" or "Cheating"

Since teacher are not able to see their students while answering their quizzes or exams, this gives students the opportunity to cheat specially with the asynchronous distance learning.

But in my kids' case where they are enrolled with synchronous distance learning, their exams are done live where the teacher will ask the question online and students are just given specific time to answer online as well (orally). It's like an online recitation. Only disadvantage of this is, we know being a student, we have strong and weak area in each and every lessons per subject. If the question that was asked to you is with your weak area, then you'll have an unfortunate score. But if the question is within your strong area, a perfect score can be expected.

3. Reduced Concentration or Engagement with the Teacher

I believe it's undeniable that some of the teens attending online classroom are actually playing online games while pretending to be listening to the teacher. There are also some who eats on their desk during their class. And, there are also some who play toys while their teachers are talking. They are tempted to do such thing cause the teachers are not around and not able to see what they're doing in the background, specially when they are bored with their lessons.

4. Technical Issues

This is one of the BIG challenges of the distance learning. Some students struggle to catch-up with the topic or lessons due to weak network coverage in their area.

It also happened multiple times that my kids teachers are forced to suspend their classes whenever there are network outage in the teachers' place.

I believe there are few more good and bad side of virtual learnings that I haven't mentioned yet. But I just wanted to say as well that regardless of the current set-up of learning, it is important that parents should still give their full support to their kids. They must always guide their child and remind them how important learning is.

Lead image source: Unsplash