A decade ago, none of us could have imagined an online world where we could function as a society without physically interacting with each other.
However, as Plato wisely said, “Necessity is the mother of Invention.” and, being separated by the borders of their countries, the people found a way to connect globally through the Internet.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the world almost reached a standstill, and education took a huge hit. However, it recovered rather fast when the switch to remote learning took place.
Educational institutions had to adapt to a completely new teaching style, and students had to embrace a different way of learning.
With the pandemic not showing the science of receding and its intensity rising in waves, many students began to wonder if education would ever go back offline. Fortunately, education institutions are trying their best to return to offline learning. In this article, we shall see how.
Is Offline Learning Better Than Online Learning?
The short answer to this question is both yes and no. As with everything, there are pros and cons to offline and online learning.
The latter offers students a certain level of flexibility. It is also comparatively inexpensive as the student needs to incur boarding costs on campus. Online learning allows students to learn at their own pace.
On the other hand, offline learning is better for students who like to learn in a group. Students can find better connections in an offline platform.
They will also have better access to their professors and campus infrastructures, including facilities like labs and libraries.
Keeping the strengths of both types of learning in mind, many educational institutions today are designing hybrid systems to give students the best of both worlds.
Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Trends In Education
Educational institutions and students across the USA have molded their education system to the pandemic and come up with ways in which students and teachers can come back on-ground to experience campus education. Now we shall see some major trends in how education is coming back offline:
- Students have many resources to help them keep up with their coursework and adjust to living on campus. Students can buy research paper online to ensure that they do not miss out on any deadlines. This way, a switch back to offline learning can be less stressful.
- Students can reach out to their professors and seniors and seek out counselors to help them cope with change.
- Another important step that schools and colleges have taken is increasing Covid protocols like social distancing, keeping sanitizers in handy places, and encouraging students to wear masks.
- Many schools and colleges are adopting a hybrid education system, with certain classes being available online and others being conducted offline.
For example, theory classes are usually conducted online, and the students are expected to commute to campus for practical classes.
For any educational institution, it cannot be easy to come back to offline education overnight.
Schools and colleges are dealing with mass inertia exhibited by teachers and students alike who have gotten used to online education.
However, schools are slowly trying to attract students to campus through attractive experiences.
A Few Concluding Thoughts
It is not easy for humans to cope with a situation such as a pandemic immediately. Especially for students who are young and in the initial stages of their life, the pandemic has been very overwhelming.
The good news is that the world is slowly and surely going back to a pre-pandemic life along with adopting a few more safety and regulatory measures.
With this, even education and students will definitely go back offline in time, keeping some benefits of online learning.
About the Author – Michael Carr
Michael Carr is an education specialist. His area of expertise is consulting with boards of education to set the language, technology, social science, and liberal arts curricula at a high school level.
In addition, he works with universities to ensure that they impart all-round education to their students despite their students. He is also a freelance writer, covering student-related topics.