LEC052016. Christy Mariya Joy. Impacts of E-learning on Students and Faculty.

 Impacts of E-learning on Students and Faculty

When the pandemic struck hard over the agricultural and business sectors, the education sector moved forward through the e-learning platform. It brought the students from different parts of the world into a single platform virtually. Undoubtedly, this helped to keep the students away from the virus but it increased workloads and other associated effects, not only among the students but also among the staff and faculty members. The sudden shift from outdoor activities to long hours of inactivity in front of the computers or mobiles will only aid in developing a futile generation. The mental and physical health are interrelated and should be considered together.

The mental and emotional pressures experienced by the students and faculty result in deterioration of physical health. Anxiety and stress can lower immunity, subjecting people to various diseases. It can also cause heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, etc. The e-learning platform increased the hours of learning and amount of works which pressurizes the students and compels them to spend more time in front of the screen. As a result of the long exposure to blue light, some direct health issues occur that are life altering and destructive.

Squinting at computer screens in suboptimum ambient lighting brings about irritation in eyes which results in digital eyestrain and continued exposure to these lights over time could lead to damaged retinal cells. In addition to this, it also has negative impacts on the sleep habits. A sleep scientist, Mathew Walker, in his research article wrote that sleep deprivation causes deficits in the prefrontal cortex, which normally keeps our amygdala, the emotional and impulse region of the brain, in check. Altering sleep patterns can affects the body’s internal biological clock. The director of psychology and neuropsychology at a Hopkin’s hospital, Jennifer Katzenstein, has observed the effects of online learning and said: “Increased screen time usage, especially for non-academic activities, has been found to be linked with increase in depression, anxiety and perceived attention problems.” The physical inactivity during the class also give rise to obesity among the students. Apart from this, the e-learning platform furthermore creates a negative impact on the students’ soft skills.

E-learning platform provides solely content-based knowledge, denying students the opportunity to practice and develop their social intelligence. Soft skills usually involve communication, social ability, problem solving and other personal traits which employers are mainly looking for. Even though the students excel in technical skills, they are left behind for lacking soft skills particularly communication skills.  Students are taught in an isolated environment deprived of communication among friends, teachers, etc. Thus, they are hindered from their mental growth as well. This may affect their personality development too.

The education institutes are not only supposed to pass knowledge based on their curriculum, but also impart personality building and other skills development in students which could be done effectively in a classroom. They achieve this through the reciprocity with the teachers, students and classroom environment. Students’ sociability level is higher in classroom than the e-learning environment. Hence, classroom-based students are high on personality traits such as extroversion and openness to experience. This makes them a social animal who are sympathetic, caring and considerate. They are furthermore well-prepared to accept the challenges in front of them. These are what e-learning students deprived of. Online learning, on the other hand, develops a generation of introversion and neuroticism. This makes them difficult to succeed in their life. The faculty members and staffs are also affected with the new mode of learning.

The e-learning has not only put the students in trouble but also the teachers. It has increased their workloads to remake their classes into effective digital forms. This only adds anxiety and stress to them who are already assigned with multifaceted responsibilities. Amy Bintliff, a professor at University of Cambridge, said:

“One big reason all teachers philosophically go into the craft is because they love forming those personal connections with students. The work now is really alienating for all of us now as professors as well.”

The teachers who were living on the edge of burnout in meeting the teaching, research and publication expectations, found composure in the interaction with the students at the campus. But now, they are facing an emotional letdown. Consequently, these challenges and threats must be addressed as soon as possible.

          Although the e-learning platform played a vital role during the pandemic, it is not always a perfect solution. Both old and new methods of learning are viable and hence online learning should not become an alternative for classroom learning. What is the need of the age is to combine the best aspects of both e-learning and classroom learning to provide a blended learning which may help us to tackle the present difficulty. It will help to develop interpersonal skills among the students and reduce their stress as well. Thus, a generation would be saved from downfall.  

 

WORKS CITED

Balram, Amrita. “How Online Learning Can Affect Student Health.” News-Letter, April    

     20, 2020. https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/04/how-online-learning-can-

     affect-student-health. Accessed 25 February 2021.

 

Burke, Lilah. “Moving Into the Long Term.” Inside Higher Ed, October 27, 2020.

   https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2020/10/27/long-term-

   online-learning-pandemic-may-impact-students-well. Accessed 25 February 2021.

 

Torun, Fatma. From e-learning to blended learning, e-book, GRIN Verlag, 2003, GRIN.

   https://www.grin.com/document/32962.