Online learning has its limitations

Salalah: The online classes are forced new normal for the students and teachers after the spread of COVID-19, but it has its limitations as some students are complaining problem of understanding while teachers are overburdened with preparations for the online classes.

There are two types of students. Some students are enjoying the online model and others are just trying to cope up with the system for the sake of regularity and not lag.

In the first category, the students have a better technological edge over others in terms of taking notes and saving the lectures for future reference. The other category of students are struggling with the technology and are hard-pressed to cope up with the class schedule by giving extra time to understand what was taught in the previous class.

A Class XII student of Indian School admitted he was very comfortable with the online mode because he was able to go through the topic to be taught in the next class, took notes and simultaneously saving the content taught in the class.

“Initially I was having problems and was lost. I sat with my parents and discussed the difficulty. They suggested me to go prepared for the class and have a thorough look at the topic to be taught in the next class. It helped me a lot as my grasp improved and I was able to take better notes. After the class I revise which made me understand the lesson in a better way,” he said.

He, however, admitted that the effort to understand the lessons multiplied as he was not used to an online model and if he had any doubts, he would ask for time from the subject teacher to clarify the doubts.

Another student from the same school, but in the junior grade, admitted that it was very difficult for him to understand the lessons. “This is because neither I nor my parents are techno-savvy. Suppose I missed some steps in the online class, there is no scope to take help from my bench-mate. The link breaks and I end up confused and frustrated.”

Even though five months have passed since the teachers started thinking of online classes and got them implemented finally, it is a hard job for them to make every student understand. “Our work has multiplied but we feel that the delivery is not that perfect. May be due to our training of classroom interaction and the very bond that we develop while taking classes,” said a humanities teacher.

He admitted that in proper classroom teachers sometimes deviate from the syllabus to make the students understand. “But in the online mode, most of us are becoming conscious. Apart from the students, many others including parents, are watching us.”

For him, in terms of understanding, there is no alternative to classroom teaching, as apart from teaching a campus gives the students much more than the formal lessons. “It is a different matter that we have to adopt this online mode as a safety measure against the pandemic,” he said.