With the outbreak of COViD-19 pandemic, schools have adopted home based learning (HBL) in their curriculum where students have to attend online lesson once every two weeks. Not only schools are incorporating online lessons in their curriculum, tuition centres and tutors are also using online platforms such as zoom, google meet to conduct online lessons for students. Some are also doing hybrid lessons where tutors teach students on-site and online together in a class.
Many parents have concerns on whether online lessons are effective for their children. In this post, we examine the pros and cons of online lessons.
Pros
1.Flexibility
One of the main advantage of online learning is the flexibility. Students are no longer need to gather in a classroom at schools or learning centres. Instead, they have the flexibility to be at their own site and are still able to receive the same class.
Some online lessons are recorded and uploaded by teachers. This allows the students to start their lessons anytime and can even repeat the section that they require more help.
2. School-life balance
Without having to travel to school in the early morning, students can reduce the time taken to travel to use and get enough sleep and rest before starting their online lessons at home. This increase productivity and efficiency in their learning process.
3. Incorporate fun activities
To encourage more participation and attention from students, online lessons can be designed to include fun games and exercises that not only promote learning in a unique way instead of the traditional teaching method. For example, students may be given assignments that are designed to complete tasks and gain points. Along with graphics and sounds, this can help to catch students attention and encourage them to learn in the process.
Cons
1.Requires discipline
With no teacher monitoring the student in class, the responsibility lies on the student to be self disciplined and takes his online learning seriously. Students are encouraged to take down notes and complete the online lessons and homework.
Some students may be distracted by their phones or other websites on their laptops or tablets. This will hinder their learning as they do not pay attention in the online classes. Parents may need to play a part to ensure their child is paying full attention during the online lessons.
2. Technological problems
Despite being a useful tool to us, technology may fail us sometimes. The online lessons may face problems such as being laggy or sound problems. This will affect the learning process as students can’t catch what the teachers say during class. Students and teachers will have to expect that the technology may not work at any point of time.
3. Lack of individualised attention
Most online classes are in lecture style form or recorded lessons where teachers only teach but not engage with the class. With a big class size, it is more difficult for teachers to ask questions and get students to answer questions compared to at a classroom. Students may lose interest or zone out during the online class as they are fully engaged.
With the above points, online learning definitely provides both pros and cons to students these days. Parents will have to ensure that their child is self motivated to take up the online lessons. Otherwise, we encourage online lessons only in a small group so that each child will have a chance to participate and speak up.