Online education’s time to shine is now. Are universities ready?

Universities are having difficulty fully shifting to online learning. Unfortunately, as the end of social distancing is not on the horizon, no simple fix for online learning issues is available.

In March of this year, educational institutions brought their operations to a halt, and students switched to lectures on live stream and remote assignments in place of regular classroom learning and physical group activities.

Several universities have already had an online learning system and platform set up even before the pandemic. However, educators and students who are not experienced in pre-taped or live-streamed lessons find it tough to adapt to the new method of education.

Consequently, students spent time panicking, confused, and clueless about what they were supposed to do. They were missing that support they usually got in class when they had assignments, and they simply did not know where to get that support.

Educators are tasked with troubleshooting technical issues resulting from the sheer volume of simultaneous student log-ins and poor connectivity. They are now in charge of remedying audio and video issues and checking out on students to ensure they do not miss any content.

Crowded classrooms, auditoriums, and hallways are discouraged by health experts. Without a clear idea of when this pandemic will end, virtual classes are in for the long haul, for they address social distancing concerns at schools and universities. At the moment, the problem educational institutions face is that not many people are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars or pounds only to participate in Zoom classes. So, numerous UK universities are preparing for a vast gap in their financial plans as they anticipate that fewer students would attend this year’s semesters. A study found that twenty percent of students were happy to postpone their college degrees if colleges were not working as expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The remaining eighty percent of students are still willing to proceed with their studies. They are sure to encounter teaching problems brought upon by the sudden shift to online learning. For the most part, online lessons turn out badly when educators opt to use for online learning the same slides they had previously made for classroom settings. Teachers have a fixed attitude toward lectures. They have been taught in a certain manner, which is also how they have been doing their teaching for a long time. Now, out of nowhere, they are obliged to move their materials online without updating their content and teaching styles.

Keeping students engaged is already a challenge in a classroom setting, and switching to class streaming does not solve class engagement problems either, as some lessons last for hours. Students find it troublesome to focus their attention on their devices’ screens for such a long time.

Due to these technical difficulties during and after class, educators now have to work overtime mostly to attend to student requests and complaints.

All these issues are part of growing pains but as online education picks up pace and people adjust to the new technology and procedures, solutions and innovation are expected to arise.

Some students may choose to skip this school year and that will result in financial problems to educational institutions. Universities say that international students may be difficult to retain because one of the reasons they study abroad is to experience a multicultural environment. Be that as it may, the main goal of international students is to get their diplomas from their chosen international universities.