Whether you call it distance, online, or remote learning, research about online classes shows that schools look different after the pandemic. While some learners thrive with this education, others face problems with online learning and do not seem to engage in it. Also, some learners may not be present at all. Other students may be in attendance, but they don’t turn in their assignments or are just doing the bare minimum. So, what’s stopping them from engaging in online education activities?
Moreover, students who are genuinely interested in learning persevere despite hurdles. Engaged learners are curious and attentive in the virtual classroom environment. However, for students struggling with online learning, here are the top eight reasons they find it difficult.
Reasons Why Students Struggling with Online Learning
Ineffective Time Management
Research suggests that successful “time management is linked with greater academic performance and lower anxiety levels in learners.” However, the same research shows that students struggle to balance their studies and day-to-day lives. Also, this ineffective time management was associated with poor sleep patterns and heightened stress levels. It becomes even more difficult in distance learning environments, where learners are challenged to pace themselves without any friends or peers’ support that might help them stay focused during lessons.
Lack of Instant Feedback
One of the most meaningful ways of engaging with students is providing feedback. Whereas, when feedback is delayed because of the virtual format, students face problems with online learning. They become confused and uncertain about teachers’ expectations and their progress and performance in the classroom.
Additionally, the lack of instant communication makes it hard for students to get answers and clarify confusion regarding the subject materials. Thus, the gap between teacher and student lets misunderstandings develop, allowing problems to snowball before they are addressed.
Minimal Human Contact
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused several disruptions and changes to the learning process. One limitation is the lack of human interaction and contact in distance education platforms. Research about online classes shows its adverse impacts on students’ mental health as they experience frustration from being unable to engage with their peers and instructors. In addition, this absence of social engagement and a sense of community makes students less engaged and less likely to complete their courses.
Unclear Expectations
Teachers might want to relax during online classes and are reluctant to set clear expectations. However, developing and reinforcing explicit expectations around participation and student behavior is still crucial. In addition, instructors must remember that engagement looks different in online classrooms than in traditional settings. Moreover, it’s likely to look different from learner to learner.
Lack of Self-Discipline
Many learners need the support and structure that in-person school offers. It helps them to stay on track with assignments and tasks. On the other hand, distance learning requires students to be more independent and responsible. Although parents try to help children with their studies at home, many have to juggle work and family responsibilities.
Consequently, these students struggling with online learning who lack self-discipline. For instance, if learners miss a few assignments, it may feel daunting to catch up, ultimately making them disengage altogether.
Information Overload
When teachers overload students with too much information in online classes, it becomes an undoable task. Too massive and complicated modules and assignments can scare learners away from the course. On the contrary, if you break down the projects into manageable and smaller tasks, they become more approachable and doable for students.
Poor Student Support
When students face problems in traditional classrooms, they ask their teachers immediately or seek help from their peers. However, in online learning, students feel overwhelmed and isolated in the absence of such opportunities, which is the reason they tend to give up when things get complicated.
Technologies like Zoom or Google Meet do not help these feelings of isolation because students find multimedia interactions in real-time in different places bizarre. In addition, when students and teachers have spent their entire lives interacting face-to-face, online interactions may seem foreign to them.
Inaccessible Content
It is challenging to make sure that learning materials are accessible. If learners are uncomfortable with the system you are using, they might want to avoid it. It takes effort and time to establish norms and practices with a new system, more importantly when it involves technology.
When content is presented in new ways, it may keep students from accessing it. For example, learners who struggle with auditory lessons may have difficulty with video lectures. Likewise, students who need visual support may struggle with text-heavy content.
Moreover, many students may find it hard because the content does not feel relevant to them. They might feel the materials you are providing have nothing to do with what’s happening in the world around them.
Conclusion
We live in times of abrupt changes where distance education might be foreign or difficult for learners. While they may face problems with online learning if it’s well-designed, evidence-informed, and combines ways to deliberately help students how to learn in virtual environments, online learning can provide opportunities that a traditional setting locked to fixed times and places cannot offer.
So, educators and institutions will have to look beyond the mundane and ordinary and find unique ways to help struggling students adjust to the new normal.
