LEC052013 ARDRA A.P Online education and Mental health of the students.

Online education and Mental health of students.

The Mental health of students should be consider during online classes as they all are stuck in their own houses without any social interaction.

         COVID 19 made a serious impact on many aspects of everyday life. The world saw a paradigm shift in the education system favouring online learning during the constrains of pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new ways of learning. All around the world, educational institutions are looking toward online learning platforms to continue with the process of educating students. The new normal now is a transformed concept of education with online learning at the core of this transformation. OToday, digital learning has emerged as a necessary resource for students and schools all over the world. For many educational institutes, this is an entirely new way of education that they have had to adopt. Online learning is now applicable not just to learn academics but it also extends to learning extracurricular activities for students as well. In recent months, the demand for online learning has risen significantly, and it will continue doing so in the future. Yet, the effects and efficacy of online education and the capacity to successfully teach digitally is questionable. This sudden and rapid transformation from an environment of conventional learning to virtual learning has made a great impact on the attitude of the students towards learning. Educational institutions (schools, colleges, and universities) in India are  based only on traditional methods of learning, that is, they follow the traditional set up of face-to-face lectures in a classroom. But there is an unexpected change during this pandemic.

                         The sudden outbreak of Covid19  challenged the education system across the world and forced educators to shift to an online mode of teaching overnight. Many academic institutions that were earlier reluctant to change their traditional pedagogical approach had no option but to shift entirely to online teaching–learning.  The deadly and infectious disease Corona Virus also known as Covid-19 has deeply affected the global economy. This tragedy has also shaken up the education sector, and this fear is likely to resonate across the education sector globally. The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak forced many schools and colleges to remain closed temporarily. Various schools, colleges, and universities have discontinued in-person teaching. As social distancing is important at this stage, this will have negative effects on learning opportunities. Educational units are struggling to find options to deal with this challenging situation.  This is a situation that demands humanity and unity.

                      Several arguments are associated with e-learning. Accessibility, affordability, flexibility, learning pedagogy, life-long learning, and policy are some of the arguments related to online pedagogy. It is said that online mode of learning is easily accessible and can even reach to rural and remote areas. It is considered to be a relatively cheaper mode of education in terms of the lower cost of transportation, accommodation, and the overall cost of institution-based learning. Flexibility is another interesting aspect of online learning; a learner can schedule or plan their time for completion of courses available online. Combining face-to-face lectures with technology gives rise to blended learning and flipped classrooms; this type of learning environment can increase the learning potential of the students. Students can learn anytime and anywhere, thereby developing new skills in the process leading to life-long learning. The government also recognizes the increasing importance of online learning in this dynamic world. The severe explosion of Corona Virus disease can make us add one more argument in terms of online learning, that is, online learning serves as a panacea in the time of crisis.

                           During online education the mental health of the students should be considered because most of the students want a social interaction. But unfortunately social interaction is not possible due to this deadly virus. No one in this world is have same attitude in facing a problem. The intelligence of the students are also different. Not everyone is good with their IT skills too. Some of them are not much aware of these kind of technologies. For those who are good in IT skills, can easily access the electronic media for their educational purpose. So they will be more confident and interactive. This will bring a negative thinking or lack of confidence in the mind of students whom can not easily access these kind of technologies. Most of the students love to travel to their school, college or university. And the absence of the physical and face to face interactions with teachers and students bring a kind of depression in the students. Most of them are facing these kind of depressions now a days. Taking care of the mental health of students along with online education is very important during this pandemic.

                          There are  number of technologies available for online education but sometimes they create a lot of difficulties. These difficulties and problems associated with modern technology range from downloading errors, issues with installation, login problems, problems with audio and video, and so on. Sometimes student finds online teaching to be boring and unengaging. Online learning has so much of time and flexibility that students never find time to do it. Personal attention is also a huge issue facing online learning. Students want two-way interaction which sometimes gets difficult to implement.

                              The learning process cannot reach its full potential until students practice what they learn. Sometimes, online content is all theoretical and does not let students practice and learn effectively. Mediocre course content is also a major issue. Students feel that lack of community, technical problems, and difficulties in understanding instructional goals are the major barriers for online learning . Because of the tension and pressure students were can not sufficiently prepare for balancing their work, family, and social lives with their study lives in an online learning environment. E-learning has certain weaknesses in the form that it can hamper the communication between the learner and the educator, that is, direct communication and human touch are lost. Users can face many technical difficulties that hinder and slow-down the teaching–learning process. Time and location flexibility, though it is the strength of online learning these aspects are fragile and create problems. Student’s no serious behavior in terms of time and flexibility can cause a lot of problems.

                     All students and learners are not the same, they vary in degrees of their capabilities and confidence level. Some do not feel comfortable while learning online, leading to increased frustration and confusion. Inadequate compatibility between the design of the technology and component of psychology required by the learning process; and inadequate customization of learning processes can obstruct the teaching process and creates an imbalance. Providing better environment for students are very important in this sense.

                     The deadly and infectious disease Corona Virus also known as Covid-19 has deeply affected the global economy. This tragedy has also shaken up the education sector, and this fear is likely to resonate across the education sector globally. AS social distancing is important at this stage, this will have negative effects on learning opportunities. Educational units are struggling to find options to deal with this challenging situation. Whatever new methods we follows, we don’t need forget the mental conditions of the students. Students are considered to be the hope of our future. Giving them proper guidance and psychological help for their mental health is very important during this period. This a time of misfortune. So, this is a situation that demands humanity and unity.

Reference :

Ayebi-Arthur, K. (2017). E-learning, resilience, and change in higher education: Helping a university cope after a natural disaster. E-Learning and Digital Media, 14(5), 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753017751712

Agarwal S, Kaushik JS (2020) Student’s perception of online learning during COVID pandemic. Indian J Pediatr 8:1.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03327-7

Schneider SL, Council ML (2020) Distance learning in the era of COVID-19. Arch Dermatol Res 8:1. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00403-020-02088-9