Basic Statistics and ICT Skills: COVID-19 Impact Report Analysis

This report, submitted as part of the Basic Statistics and ICT skills module (BMAF006-20) at the university level, analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on daily life in the UK. The report focuses on the pandemic's effects on health, the economy, and social care, adhering to a structured format including an introduction, main body with statistical data representation using a line chart, and a conclusion. The essay is approximately 1000 words, and it also contains an introduction to online learning, its positive and negative impacts and a conclusion. The report highlights key statistics and uses ICT skills to present and interpret data, demonstrating an understanding of how data informs decision-making. This assignment showcases the student's ability to apply basic ICT packages, identify and apply data, and interpret the impact of a significant global event through data analysis.

ONLINE LEARNINIG

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Introduction of the online learning
 Positive impact of online learning
 Negative impact of online learning
 Conclusion
 References

Definition of Online Learning
Education that comes about entirely through the
internet as a platform irrespective of the physical
location of the students and the educator is referred
to as online learning also known as e-learning (Singh
and Thurman, 2019). In the online learning setup, the
students acquire knowledge and learn in a virtual
scenario, unlike the traditional schoolroom setup.
Education and learning occur with the assistance of
electronic applications, technologies, and gadgets
that connect students and teachers.

Positive impacts of online
learning
 Online classes provide flexibility: Online learning provides a
great benefit to people who aim to acquire further learning and
education while working. Since in a traditional setup, there are
some specific timings which constraints the learning process of
people who are working or employed. Hence online learning
comes as a huge advantage for these individuals (Castro, and
Tumibay, 2021).
 Online classes reduce costs: Online classes come as a great help
to people who don't plan to attend expensive classroom setup
education. As online learning provides education at comparatively
low costs along with utilising virtual resources which means lesser
costs for textbooks and hence are available to be attained by many
individuals who can not take traditional education.

Negative impact of online
learning
 Online classes creates sense of isolation: Online learning generates an
isolated environment where individuals learning do not have any groups or
communities where they could learn with many others. This becomes a
disadvantage for those students who like to earn with fellow learners (Baber,
2020).
 Online classes increases screen time: The amount of screen time spend in an
online class is massive and is dangerous to the students in many ways. This
excessive screen time brings many other issues such as physical ailments, bad
postures, headaches. All of this tends to make online learning a disadvantage
for many.

Conclusion
From this, it can be concluded that online learning as a new
age concept has came a breakthrough concept which will
advance the education and learning sector in many ways.
It has came as a huge support to eliminate the physical
location constraint in education sector(Dhital, 2018). But
with all these advantages, it does comes with few
drawbacks which many prove it to be of not of a good
help to many.

References
 Singh, V. and Thurman, A., 2019. How many ways can we define online
learning? A systematic literature review of definitions of online learning
(1988-2018). American Journal of Distance Education, 33(4). pp.289-306.
 Castro, M.D.B. and Tumibay, G.M., 2021. A literature review: efficacy of
online learning courses for higher education institution using meta-analysis.
Education and Information Technologies, 26(2). pp.1367-1385.
 Baber, H., 2020. Determinants of students’ perceived learning outcome and
satisfaction in online learning during the pandemic of COVID-19. Journal of
Education and e-learning Research, 7(3). pp.285-292.
 Moawad, R.A., 2020. Online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and
academic stress in university students. Revista Românească pentru Educaţie
Multidimensională, 12(1 Sup2). pp.100-107.