Impact of COVID-19 on Education: An E-Learning Analysis (Essay)

This essay examines the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education system, specifically focusing on the shift to e-learning. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages associated with online education. The essay explores the increased efficiency and accessibility of online lectures, the affordability of reduced fees, and the flexibility afforded to students. However, it also delves into the drawbacks, such as the lack of individualized attention, potential technological issues, and the absence of face-to-face social interaction. Furthermore, the essay addresses the challenges of maintaining student engagement and the importance of addressing issues like focus deficits. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of online learning and enhance its effectiveness, ensuring that students remain engaged and focused in this evolving educational landscape. The essay draws on various research sources to support its arguments and provide a well-rounded perspective on the topic.

Individual essay
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
Covid 19 Pandemic has lead to a complete different way in which there have been changes
in the functioning of different industries. Covid-19 pandemic has not only affected as a health
issue but has also several impacts on the social and human life including sectors of agriculture
education employment and other different spheres of world economy. With the situations of
social distancing and the scenario of government making plans to avoid gatherings has resulted
into a complete shift of education system (Mayer, 2017). It is taking place through different
online mediums rather than physical appearances. Present report is based on making an analysis
of the pros and cons that are associated with the process of e learning that has been taking place
with the outbreak of this covid virus. This type of analysis is very helpful in evaluating the
overall current scenario with the perspective of education system is going to affect the future of
children in coming time period.
MAIN BODY
For the purpose of analysing the benefits associated with the online delivering of lectures are
the e-Learning classes. There is need to understand several perspectives that are related with the
way these lectures are delivered. One aspect is related to efficiency there is a situation that
efficiency has been increased in case of online lectures (Ebner and et. al 2020). There are large
numbers of students that can attend a particular online lecture at the same time in comparison
with a physical lecture because there is a limited capacity of and company specific number of
students. Online test and examinations are also taking place very effectively the way online
lectures are being delivered by taking proper measures so that students are not able to focus on
any type of cheating activities. For this there has been use of web cam is as one of the tools.
One of the benefits associated with online lectures is related to the aspect of
affordability. Many different schools have reduced their fees so that there can be no high
amount of financial burden on parents because there has been a loss of jobs and earning for many
families in this situation. Government has also supported the situation by reducing a certain fix
percentage of fees for all the schools and colleges. Online delivering of lectures is surely related
with lower cost as compared to the normal lectures. Many coaching institutes and tuition centres
have also decrease their fees because online delivering is related with higher cost effectiveness.
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This is one such positive benefit for people who are not able to afford quality education because
of their financial situations.
One of the major benefits that have been experienced by students in this situation of e
learning and online classes is that they are able to easily attend the classes at any point of time
and from anywhere. The high amount of flexibility in this situation has resulted in two students
not missing their classes for any sort of reason even if they are not well they can easily attend the
lectures from the comfort of their home (Aboagye, Yawson, . and Appiah, 2021).
So, it has been one of the key benefits which are leading to higher amount of attendance for
students in case of online delivery of lectures. This was not the situation earlier as a many times
negligible reasons resulted into a high amount of absenteeism from schools and colleges that lead
to lower concentration of students on studies.
Another benefit of online delivering of lecture is associated with higher engagement of
students because they can attend those lectures from anywhere. This situation has resulted into
increasing the overall accessibility towards search delivering of lectures because students are
able to attend their classes regularly (Jalali and et. al 2018). There is requirement of only a
portable device and proper internet connection that is required for the purpose of attending online
lectures.
This situation has promoted the remote learning that is a first step towards experimental in the
longer journey to offer online education as it leads to ensuring effective student engagement and
teacher training.
There are some of the disadvantages also that are associated with the scenario of e
learning one such demerit includes that not every student is same and each has a different
learning style (Vitoria, Mislinawati and Nurmasyitah, 2018). Some posses an auditory style of
learning and some kinesthic but in case of online learning there is no individual attention that is
provided to each student by the teacher. This may result into students loosing interest and it
being able to pay attention as they could have done in case of offline teaching style. There can be
also instances where there is no proper development of communication skills for students during
the online lessons. The lack of direct form of face to face communication may result into weak
theoretical knowledge being imparted to students in online learning.
Technological issue is one such problem that has been commonly faced by any students
during online lectures. The growth and development of internet penetration has resulted into
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difficulty in managing the overall infrastructure. Especially this situation is majorly affecting the
small towns here there is network issues & low amount of connectivity which further results into
higher server management issues. There is loss of data connectivity which might result into loss
of learning for students (Alqahtaniand Rajkhan, 2020). Other scenario of this issue cam take
place in form where if the student s not able to deal with the technological issues because of lack
of knowledge. Many students are also not offered with the facility of high bandwidth or a strong
internet connection that is required by online course and to catch up with their virtual classmate’s
weak monitors can results into difficulty in following the course management system which
further results into their overall learning experiences becoming highly problematic (Khamparia
and Pandey, 2020). One such solution for this issue can be identification of the exact
technological support that is required by the student so that they are able to properly equip
themselves with the required technological support so that there is no bearing of any education or
learning losses because of prevalence of such issues.
No presence of proper social interaction is also a one of the problems that is very common
in case of online learning (Alhabeeb and Rowley, 2018). In this situation there is no interaction
that is taking place between peers or other students those results into boredom. Human being
posses a tendency of learning a lot from by interacting with teachers or friends that means simply
being around with people. This is completely absent in case of online classes which may result
into no proper communication and absence of interactive learning in case of online classes. This
problem can further become more severe in case of student not being able to develop social
interaction and result into situation of social isolation that is because of contemplation, local of
interaction and remoteness (Cope and Kalantzis, 2017). It may lead to many teachers and
students spending much of their time in experiencing signs of social isolation case of lack of
human communication. Social isolation is coupled with lack of communication that can lead
towards mental health issues such as anxiety, negative thoughts and heightened stress. There can
be some effective solutions that can be used to deal with situation of loneliness that includes
promoting of interaction among online students. There can also be utilisation of blended learning
environment by monitoring the signs of social isolation among students.
Focus deficit is another demerit that is experienced by students in case of online learning.
Also this drawback of online earning can be addressed by evaluating the issue that is requirement
of more innovative learning platforms is that problem can be dealt in a more better way.
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Theoretical lectures are easier to implement in case of a online learning environment as
compared to practical environment. It is mainly because of lack of self motivating among
students that is one of the primary treason of student it being able to fail in case of online
courses. As compared to traditional classrooms there are numerous factors that is constantly
pushing students towards achievement of their learning goals (Fleming, Becker and Newton,
2017). This has resulted into situation where teachers have to be more attentive and make extra
efforts so that they are able to make their online lecture more crisp and interesting. It will result
in students not able to lose their focus and be more interested by not loosing of focus.
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Conclusion
It is concluded from the above mentioned aspects that the pandemic as resulted into a
complete shift in the way learning is taking place across schools and colleges. It is a situation
which has many benefits and demerits associated. For the purpose of reducing the demerits there
is requirement to focus on developing solutions so that the negative impact of online learning on
students can be managed. For this teachers and parents need to develop measures to enhance the
effectiveness by increasing focus of trident and preventing them from loosing their interest in the
process of online learning.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Aboagye, E., Yawson, J.A. and Appiah, K.N., 2021. COVID-19 and E-learning: The challenges
of students in tertiary institutions. Social Education Research, pp.1-8.
Alhabeeb, A. and Rowley, J., 2018. E-learning critical success factors: Comparing perspectives
from academic staff and students. Computers & Education, 127, pp.1-12.
Alqahtani, A.Y. and Rajkhan, A.A., 2020. E-learning critical success factors during the covid-19
pandemic: A comprehensive analysis of e-learning managerial perspectives. Education
Sciences, 10(9), p.216.
Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M., 2017. Conceptualizing e-learning. e-Learning Ecologies. Principles
for New Learning and Assessment, pp.1-45.
Ebner and et. al 2020. COVID-19 epidemic as E-learning boost? Chronological development and
effects at an Austrian university against the background of the concept of “E-Learning
Readiness”. Future Internet, 12(6), p.94.
Fleming, J., Becker, K. and Newton, C., 2017. Factors for successful e-learning: does age
matter?. Education+ Training.
Jalali and et. al 2018. Analytical assessment process of e-learning domain research between 1980
and 2014. International Journal of Management in Education, 12(1), pp.43-56.
Khamparia, A. and Pandey, B., 2020. Association of learning styles with different e-learning
problems: a systematic review and classification. Education and Information
Technologies, 25(2), pp.1303-1331.
Mayer, R.E., 2017. Using multimedia for e‐learning. Journal of Computer Assisted
Learning, 33(5), pp.403-423.
Vitoria, L., Mislinawati, M. and Nurmasyitah, N., 2018, September. Students’ perceptions on the
implementation of e-learning: Helpful or unhelpful?. In Journal of Physics: Conference
Series (Vol. 1088, No. 1, p. 012058). IOP Publishing.
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