As always, everything has happened unexpectedly. One day the whole planet woke up and faced an issue – how to protect fragile human life. We’ve happened to be neither morally nor physically ready to coop ourselves up indoors to save our lives and the lives of our loved ones from a tremendously contagious virus.
Under the conditions of quarantine, almost all of our routine processes have changed. Definite businesses have suspended or reduced their activities. Others try to adapt to remote work whenever possible. So, how are things going in socially significant areas like education?
Quarantine Studying: Major Difficulties and Struggles
The main constituents of the country’s education system – schools, colleges, and universities weren’t ready to work online at all. Having received a powerful stimulus for change, they began to adapt to new conditions. In the aftermath, not everyone succeeded.
Many institutions don’t know how to collect and store content, correctly present it to audiences, or build interaction with schoolchildren and students online in a proper way. Still, a lot of them aren’t even ready from a technical point of view. According to the poll, teachers have been asked to choose what hinders the effective transition to online work. The answers have turned out quite predictable. They are problems with technology and a lack of relevant knowledge and skills.
Distance Learning: Statistics, Insights, and Useful Apps
34% out of 20 million US tertiary students are taking at least one subject remotely. 15% of the total number of students are fully tutored this way. It’s interesting that the higher the level of education, the more students transfer online studying. For example, there are more students on remote Master’s programs than on Bachelor’s programs. Besides, in private educational institutions, 7 out of 10 students study online Master’s programs. It’s quite impressive!
In some cases, it’s more auspicious to be physically present at lectures, meetings with the teachers and classmates. However, the speed of modern life proves the opposite. For instance, China’s Ministry of Education has announced that the country has 22 online platforms, providing 24,000 higher education courses, covering 12 undergraduate and 18 undergraduate disciplines for free. Also, industry experts predict that the number of online course participants in India will rise to 10 million by 2021.
Today, dozens of programs for managing the distance learning system are already in operation. LMS (Learning System Management) grew out of online learning. It’s a platform where everything is kept online. They are materials, courses, assessments, and even lessons. Besides, well-known developers such as Adobe, SAP, Facebook have already released their programs. For students who need help with their essay assignments, there is an astounding SmartWritingService and its professional writing services it provides online. As you can see, there are many options to upgrade your distance learning!
Another newly created way of learning under pandemic conditions is computer games. Yes, you’ve got it right. Experts and users state that an entire industry is gaining momentum in the world. The reason for this is educational games. Gamification of knowledge is the creation of programs that include school objects to the game and thereby create an extraordinary experience. It’s one of the most promising trends today.
Games have always been an integral part of learning, but the rise of technology and electronic devices has made them a separate learning industry. Play pedagogy uses consistent goal setting and repetition of situations to understand and memorize a school subject. As in a game, students move from one level to another, gaining knowledge and experience as they progress.
The reason it works is that play is both emotionally and socially engaging, stimulating the cognitive process in a child. The key to the game is to create challenges easy enough to win but challenging enough to motivate. Even failure is attractive in the game’s universe as players realize that if they keep trying, they’ll eventually master the skill and beat the level. Thus, play-based learning encourages students to learn and then apply gained skills in real-life situations.
Pandemic Studying: Tips for Successful Educational Process
If you’re either a student or an entrepreneur, you should consider these tips to continue the educational process:
- Be flexible. It’s the most crucial thing under the current conditions. You don’t need to be hostage to the situation. You must look for new, innovative approaches to receive and provide educational services. It seems that the transition to online learning is something scary, unusual, and inconvenient. But first, you need to try accomodating to these circumstances;
- Stick to continuous learning. In case of cancellation of workshops, IT companies compensate employees for these benefits in other ways. Similarly, educational institutions should not neglect to improve the competence of teachers, train them to conduct lectures and seminars online, and so on, especially at such times. The transformations that are taking place in educational processes are challenging not only to students but also to those who teach them;
- Include a technical component. Cloud computing has already brought cheap data storage, software hosting, and temporary connectivity to businesses. Now, teachers see their benefits. For instance, both students and teachers have access to the timetable, homework, and documents stored on the cloud.
Of course, any transformation, especially a forced one, is stressful. Besides, it affects profits. But still, there’s no need to stop. It’s worth continuing to search for new opportunities and make the most out of the situation to develop new projects. #KhabarLive #hydnews
