Online classes from home are currently part of daily life for millions of students due to the coronavirus crisis, but many miss social contact and feel lonely. Due to the intense workload assigned, they’re also feeling stressed and anxious. Because of the sudden change in our learning system, a lot of students have been left unmotivated and feeling physically and emotionally drained; sadly the never-ending cycle of missing assignments doesn’t help with that.Not to mention that online school students spend more than the recommended hours in front of a computer screen. It has come to the point where it’s counterproductive because most of them just do their work to meet the deadline and do not retain any of the information taught.
Because of this, schools like ‘Lux Mundi’ have been trying to lessen the amount of stress and pressure on the students by adding an online homework board where teachers can write down their plan for the week, and there’s a limited amount of work they can assign per day. Although this has been helpful to some, it hasn’t reached the result they wanted to achieve. Some of the work put in the online board are big projects, so the intense workload is still there, making students feel like they’re drowning in tasks to the point where weekends are spent chained to their desks instead of being able to breathe a little and relax for at least two days of a work-filled week.
I spoke with some students to get their take on this and asked them if they had any suggestions to help find the right balance between school and their social life. Some of the tips that most of them mentioned were for teachers to engage with their students and complete assignments with them in class instead of assigning them for homework; this way, they can help students strengthen their work ethic and creativity. Another recommendation was to start using other tools to make work more fun and dynamic, making students more interested in class.
This learning method is new to most, but we must adapt to this change as quickly as possible so that our future members of society get a proper education now.