Academic Study Skills: Rise of Online Education System and Challenges Faced by Students and Teachers

This report discusses the rise of online education system due to Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by students and teachers. It evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of online learning and highlights the importance of academic study skills. The report also includes a reflective essay on the skills used while completing the report. Subject: Academic Study Skills, Course Code: N/A, Course Name: N/A, College/University: N/A.

ACADEMIC STUDY
SKILLS

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills can be defined as the attributes and the strategies which helps a student
to overcome the hurdles and become a better learner. They help a student stay focused towards
their goals and objectives and allows a student to get exposed to new creative thinking skills.
Academic skills such as writing skills, learning skills, communication skills and creative thinking
helps a student to absorb and retain all the information for the future use (Mason, 2019).
Academic skills also helps a student to acquire good grades and also helps in achieving a better
career. Academic Skills helps a student to stay focused for a longer period of time and also helps
in communicating their thoughts better to other students and the teachers. Academic skills are
also important as they help a individual in managing their activities by allocating the time needed
by them (Sera and McPherson, 2019). A student can enhance their academic skills by planning
their activities and projects and by using the feedbacks from their teachers to improve the skills.
For students one of the most important academic skills are researching skills, which helps a
student to complete their assignments and analyse the information. This report is giving a brief
description about the rise of online education system due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. Due to
Covid- 19 pandemic many institutions have adopted online education system as there medium to
provide knowledge to students. Further in this report a reflective essay is also included which
identifies the challenges faced by the students and the teachers while taking online classes, also
the skills used while completing this report have also been mentioned in the essay.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Online learning- Online learning is the product of the advancements in the technology which
helps the students to learn over internet from anywhere in the world. It allows the students learn
from their homes while still they can socialize with their friends and family. Online learning is a
technique which helps the students in becoming independent wile discovering many skills and
courses. There are some resources which are needed in online learning like e books, videos,
journals and recorded lectures (Davies, 2022). All these resources are provided by the
institutions according to the courses selected by the student. Online learning is a better source for
the students to manage their time better by properly allocating it to the desired activities. Online
learning offers a variety of courses and programs to the students, which helps them in choosing

the best course for them. The rise of online education system is at the time of Covid- 19 because
the students and teachers cannot move out from their houses. After Covid- 19 the education
system around the world has changed drastically with the rise of e- learning, as it has taken the
teaching at remote level on digital platforms (Chowdhury and Nizam, 2018). Online learning
helps the students to opt for the courses at affordable prices with better quality. There are some
advantages and disadvantages of online learning which have been discusses further in this report-
Advantages of online learning
 Career advancements- With the advancements in technology it is getting hard for the
students to get expertise knowledge in every field. Online learning helps the students to
get the skills and knowledge through different courses which can enhance their
professional skills. Researching skills, time management and speaking skills can helps a
student in building their professional career effectively (Sinfield and Burns, 2022). Most
individuals are doing jobs while attending their colleges, so it is hard for them to go to
classrooms daily. These individuals can opt for online learning, where they do not have to
quit their job to gain new skills. Online learning is also cost saving as the individuals do
not have to pay for the transportation and the infrastructures fees. Students can utilize this
money to learn new courses and enhance their skills.
 Flexibility- Online learning is more flexible than offline learning as it allows students to
learn remotely from anywhere in the world. Online learning allows the students to
understand the concepts at their own place according to their interests. Online learning
provides recorded videos and e- notes which can be used later by the students to retain
better. Online learning also allows the students and teachers to set their own schedule
which adds flexibility in their agenda. Using online learning as the medium of education
the students and teachers can maintain better work life balance in their studies and work.
 Increased retention rates- Institutions work enormously to attract students to join their
universities due to the increased competition in education systems. Once the students are
enrolled the institutions feel difficulty to retain the students (Ebadi and Rahimi, 2018).
The institutions lack the focus on retaining the students which affects the financial
stability of the institutions. Rise in the online learning have helped the institutions to
retain the customers as the fees offered by the institutions for online courses are

affordable. Affordable fees and variety of courses offered by the institutions attract the
students and helps in retaining them.
 Wider range of courses and programs- Learners have a great advantage through online
learning as they have a wide variety of courses and programs available with them.
Students can best find the courses which meet their needs in enhancing their career (Felea
and Stanca, 2019). The students which are studying offline have access to limited variety
of courses than the students who have opt for offline courses. There are many prestigious
institutions who are offering online classes which help the students with a greater span of
options in achieving their goals and objectives.
Disadvantages of online learning
 Lack of motivation- Online learning does not involve face- to- face communication
between the teachers and the students thus it is difficult to motivate students to attend
classes. Virtual classes increases nervousness among the students as they do not get
proper time to their faculty and classmates (Rasheed and et. al., 2020). It is important for
the students to interact with their teachers and the classmates to express their thoughts. In
online learning there are no reward structure and no classmates which can create a
positive environment for studying.
 Create a sense of isolation- Online does not allow the students to interact with each
other as the classes are held digitally. This is creating a sense of isolation in the students
as they are not interacting with their friends. It is important for the students to engage in
other social activities besides studying (Gray and et. al., 2019). Doing different activities
will relieve stress and help in focussing on studies. In online learning the students are not
able to share their ideas and thoughts with the teachers and friends thus they feel isolated.
In traditional learning there is face- to- face interaction between the students and the
teachers which helps the students in understanding the concepts better.
 Feedback is limited- Online learning does not allow students to get immediate feedback
from their teachers thus the students face problem in enhancing their skills. If students
will not get proper feedback they will not be able to correct their mistakes. In online
learning teachers provide a limited feedback but it is important for the students to get
personalized feedbacks so that they can correct their mistakes immediately (Beagon and
Bowe, 2018). In traditional learning students can get immediate feedbacks as the

teachers pay attention to each every student in the class. This helps the students to
immediately analyse their mistakes and build specific strategies to enhance their skills
which are lacking.
 Cheating prevention- It is normal for the students to do cheating in online exams as
there is no one to monitor them while doing the assignments (Negreiros and et. al., 2018).
Students can use revision materials or appoint third party to do cheating during their
examinations. Institutions find it difficult to prevent cheating, so it is important for them
to reduce the frauds by using anti- cheating tools and strategies. Institutions can use
advanced plagiarism detection software for all the assignments and also use automated ID
verification which helps the teachers in detecting whether the results are true or not.
 Lacks face- to- face communication- Online learning does not allow students and
teachers to interact face- to- face with each other. Thus the students cannot get timely
feedbacks from the teachers and less interaction causes social isolation among the
students. In online learning teachers are not able to put pressure on the students thus they
fell free to isolate their studies (Hysaj and Hamam, 2020). Face- to- face communication
is important so that teachers can help the students with their problems. In online lectures
teachers can use discussion board and video lectures as a medium to reduce the negative
effects of the social isolation on the students.
TASK 2
SELF REFLECTION
It is important for every individual to plan their activities and make strategies before they
start a project. Planning is the essential step before implementing the project to accomplish the
desired goals and objectives. This report is on the rise of online education system after the
Covid- 19 pandemic. The whole world is isolated during the pandemic and do not have access to
the necessities, this had created a lot chaos in the lives of the people. Many people had lost their
lives due to the disease and many people have lost their jobs. The pandemic has also hit the
education system very hard and vulnerably. During the pandemic the schools have been closed
and the learners are not able to attend their schools and meet their friends. Due to the Covid- 19
pandemic the rise in the online education has taken place, which had helped students to get their

lives back on track. This report is the evaluation about the rise of online learning due to the
Covid- 19 pandemic. In this report I have discusses about online learning and how it is done.
While doing this report I have gone through many difficulties as the report requires critical
analysis on the topics involving online earning. Various skills like researching skills, time
management and reading skills are involved in doing this report. While doing this report I have
analysed that I am slightly lacking at these skills. The main challenging factor while doing this
report is to manage the time of every activity. The main task is to collect the accurate data and
merge them in a way that they make sense to the reader. I have read a lot of books and journals
which had helped me in collecting a lot of resourceful data for the report. Buying books and
journals had cost me a lot of money but they are worth for it. The major time is allocated to the
research and collection of the data. Collection of data is the primary activity of this report as this
report is all about the research on the online learning. I had given the major time on collecting
the data thus it is difficult for me cope up with the other activities of the project. I had faced a lot
of difficulties during this project as I am lacking in time management skills. This project was
lengthy and it is challenging to meet the deadline of the project. Lengthiness of this projected
had resulted in missing the deadline which had made me demotivated and frustrated. I was not
able to manage the activities in accordance with the time, thus the time management was
becoming a great hurdle for me to complete my project.
Every project is having a certain criteria and a goal which has to be achieved while doing the
project so that the person involved in doing it will get satisfied. The main aim of this project is to
get the critical analysis on the online education system and also to enhance some study skills.
While starting this project I was very enthusiastic and motivated as there are many topics in this
report which I have experience personally. So mentioning those topics is easy for me as I have
also share my personal experience in this report. This project requires me to do research and do
analysis on online learning. I had enjoyed a lot while doing this project as my analytical skills are
good and I have utilized them to the fullest in this report. I have done a deep research and
provide intense critical thoughts on my views while completing this project. While doing this
report I have read a lot of reports, journals, books and gone through a lot of online websites
which had helped me in assembling this report. I had learned a lot of things and enhanced many
skills which will help me in my future. While completing this project I have improved my
communication skills as well as reading skills. This project requires a lot of reading and

researching of the facts which had helped me in the critical analysis of the points of online
learning. I had interacted with many people which had helped me in improving my
communication skills, also I got to know about different thoughts and beliefs of different people
which I have used in my report. Different minds have different thoughts and ideas so it is
important for individuals to keep interacting with new people to improve the thinking skills. This
project also requires the knowledge about the outside world, thus I have read a lot of newspapers
to analyse the affect of Covid- 19 on different countries and people. This project has helped me
with my writing skills as I have mentioned my thoughts and viewpoints which I personally feel
on online learning. I had got appreciation for my writing skills as I have mentioned appropriate
data and facts in this project which are effective for the reader in many ways. While doing this
project I have learned that there are many advantages and disadvantages of online learning which
are faced by the students and the teachers. Online learning is providing a variety of courses to the
students which helps in enhancing various skills and allows a student to become independent.
Learning through online mode saves time and reduces cost as the students do not have to pay for
the rent, transportation and infrastructure fees of the institutions. Besides having advantages
there are various disadvantages of online learning like lack of motivation. In online learning
there is no face- to- face interaction between the students and the teachers, thus it is difficult for
the teachers to motivate the students to do better in their studies. Students do not get proper
feedback from the teachers as it is difficult for the teachers to provide personalised feedbacks to
each and every student. So online learning has both pros and cons, but in the critical evaluation it
can be said that it is important for the students. It is also time saving and many skills can be
developed, so I also recommend that students should use online learning as a medium to gain
knowledge. Online learning is an easy way to learn new things while sitting at home with full
comfortably. This helps in understand my weakness where I need to work on it like my research
skills were not that much good before but online learning helped me in improving my research
skills . Online learning helped me in many ways to improve my weaknesses. There are many
things which create an major impact on the individual personality. As mentioned above there are
lot of disadvantages while learning online , this is what I experienced online learning required lot
of screen time which is creating an bad impact on the eye sight of an individual .Everything has
both impact positive as well as negative this depends on the person that how they will adapt it.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that online learning plays an very important
role in today' era . During the pandemic, online learning was the online source of education.
There are many advantages and disadvantages of online learning. Online learning is very flexible
it allows students to learn things according to their comfort and there are many advantages of
online learning . But as mentioned in the report there are also many disadvantages which create
an bad impact on the life of individual. While learning online , it is very difficult to feel
motivated and due to lack of communication and internet barrier it is very difficult to understand
the things properly. And in last this report states about the self reflection of an individual while
doing this project.

REFERENCES
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