‘Online education affecting students’ routine, behaviour’

Online education has shifted the focus of students from the real world to the internet-driven world which has affected their real-time “routine” and “behaviour”. Experts suggest that there will be repercussions of a prolonged break in educational institutes and difficulty for students to fit back in real classrooms as they will be missing their comfortable virtualv classes. An academic said, “Virtual education should not be made a permanent thing, rather institutes should quickly move onto hybrid education, where, on the internet, they learn skills and stuff and also move out and keep their socialising needs satisfied.”
The Sunday Guardian talked to several parents about how the lockdowns have changed their child’s behaviour, and most of them agreed that the students have become lousy and not very careful about their routine. This newspaper also talked to some university students who said online education has built unnecessary stress among them.
Education institutes in India where 97% of students study overall, have been shut for around two years now, and most of the students who do not have access to technology have suffered the most with the advent of lockdowns and shift to online education.
Kamie Aphun, a sociology professor at Delhi University, said, “The sea change that a student sees in offline education is, what is inside the university and what is outside the university, these are the challenges that refine the behaviour of students towards difficult situations and all of this is missing in online education.”
Experts say that the interaction among peers gives rise to coping skills and nourishes problem-solving skills that cannot be developed except face to face. If one hides behind the camera, the skills don’t get developed. A Turkey-based researcher psychologist, Yaqeen ul Haq Ahmed Sikander, who has a wide understanding of mental health and specialty in how a particular environment affects changes in behavior, told The Sunday Guardian, “Too much blue light which is emitted from screens has interfered in the sleep-wake cycle. Internet learning has overwhelmed ‘routine’. In online classes, students wake up and directly go in front of the screens; there is no interaction with the environment after waking up from sleep, which is very problematic, it is the routine and discipline that puts life in order.”
He further added, “Covid-19 has made us witness a global shift towards virtual learning, especially among the students. This too much inevitable screen time has reduced the attention span and students find it harder to adjust back in the classrooms. If virtual education becomes permanent, students will have difficulties in socialising and also reaching out to others which can lead to stress. Essential coping mechanisms develop while interacting with the environment and virtual learning takes those skills away.”