Macikole Mbungcha
Modern College, Kohima
With the outbreak of this COVID -19 pandemic, schools and colleges in Nagaland have been closed since March 16, 2020 which has brought a great impact on the students as well as in our academic studies. The introduction of online classes has gained immense popularity to pursue learning even during this time. It has helped us to stay in touch with our books in spite of not being able to attend direct classes. But are these online classes really helping us?
A short survey was conducted recently in which a small group of students participated and suggested their opinions, their experiences and the benefits they get from online classes. Out of 100 percent, 41 percent were class 11 students, 55 percent were class 12 students and 4 percent were under graduates.
The mass surely believe home as a classroom with the start of online classes. But according to the survey, the students strongly disagreed with this belief. On the other hand, few students agreed that they indeed find their home as a classroom but most of the students have disagreed.Before online classes started, people must have thought it to be really good. However, students personal suggestions during the survey created a vivid picture of how online class is actually away from our expectations.
After intense scrutiny of the students’ opinions on online class, it is understood that students face a lot of problems every day. On one hand, we see one group of students finds it to be good, on the other hand, another group find it to be inconvenient and ineffective. It is fun learning online but not all the time. Concentration in home environment is really hard sometimes. Online class is not found to be much appealing as all the students are not served with good internet connection every time. Now, we are packed with a lot of works and challenges, more than when we had offline classes.
It is not only my personal experience but also experience of many other students of being tighten down with many different works. It has reduced the time we spend with our family. Schedules are very tight and responsibilities have increased with additional pressure for our academic results. Despite teachers' immense efforts in preparing explanation videos, the gap between us have resulted many problems in our learning. As for some students, online classes have encouraged self study which helped them identify their abilities. The most common problems, however, for all the students are: bad internet connection and tons of notes and assignments on the line that have to be completed on time which have disturbed study plans.
As per the survey it was found that the problems seems to be increasing and that, online classes do not have much benefit upon students. As a student, we are made to catch up with all other responsibilities while running the race towards our dream. When some did not receive much benefit except pressure, some students received benefits such as completion of notes and the advantage of reviewing explanation videos when needed. Online classes require more efforts and motivation than the traditional classes and so, many students mentioned about their fear of not performing well in their studies. Due to lack of time, going back to the chapters which have already completed during online classes will be difficult thereby inducing trepidation in our mind.
Though teachers are giving a lot of effort in teaching tirelessly, explanations through online classes are like taking crash course coaching. In general, online classes explanations are short as it is not possible to comfortably elaborate or explain everything in detail like it is done in school, yet, the 'To Do' activities are more. One among the many problems we face due to lack of proper explanation is - writing assignments without really understanding the concept of the topics assigned by our teachers.
Preference is still given to offline classes where there is interaction between teachers and students in person as it is more comfortable to learn. The learning mood is abundantly available in our classroom environment which we deeply miss. The teacher - student bond shared in the classroom is stronger and so learning is much better and fun.
The current situation has compelled online classes to be conducted which are quite a great opportunity for us to learn even during this lockdown with the fact that 'something is better than nothing’.
