Learning from Home is the New Normal

By: Samayeeta Maitra

​Learning from home is now the new normal. But are the students even learning anything? Is it as interactive and fun like offline classes or school? Being a student, I would say the answer is no. In online education, most of the teachers aren’t that tech-savvy and thus take time to adapt to the online education system. It’s hard for them to make the classes or courses fun. Teachers can focus only on the theory part but performing practicals are nearly impossible. Usually, teachers can easily discipline students in offline class but here they have negligible control. So if a student is not severely self motivated, he or she misses out a lot.

​Since the classes aren’t that interesting most students turn off their videos while studying. With their microphone or camera off, students wander off,sleep or eat while being present in the class. There is limited interaction and negligible feedback hence it damages the communication skills of students. So to improve the education situation right now, the main goal is to attract the student’s attention and make studies a bit more fun. And teachers can do that if they follow a few of these steps:

● Regardless of the online platform one should take time to learn how to use it properly and know the tool well enough to support students in case they have any doubts. (Some applications are Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams!)
● Teachers must make sure to know all participants in the room, password-protect their meetings and not share the meeting information in other forums. This helps to avoid random people to join the classes.
● One should make their content interactive. With the classes being interactive, the student has no choice but to participate and be more active!
● Conducting weekly quizzes or small exams can also help students review the lessons they have learnt. Other interactive activities like puzzles, brainstorm sessions can also be conducted!
​● Teachers should start recording the meetings. This is really important because a child might be unable to attend the class. It will also help the teacher to keep a track of the topics they taught.
● Most important of all, teachers should keep asking students for their feedback.

Amidst this pandemic, it’s really difficult to keep all of these steps in mind. But slowly, we all will be able to adapt to this new mode of learning and make the online education platform even better! Until then, happy teaching and happy learning!