As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, 90% of the schools in the world switched to online learning. There are many barriers and challenges in online learning such as: Tutors find it hard to grab children’s attention, to do demonstrations as they don’t have lab chemicals, affordability for students and many more. The crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus has far-reaching effects in the field of education.
Online classes and sessions can’t be a great platform for students when it comes to science subjects and for higher grade students who chose science as one of their major subjects.
‘We as educators are finding it a little hard to make children focus in classes’ states Ranjeev Kumar a student tutor. The whole education system has been collapsed due to this pandemic. But researchers have found out various alternative strategies to help teachers and educators.
The flipped classroom is a simple strategy for grabbing students’ focus. ‘ Using the 3D virtual lab has helped us a lot during this pandemic as students can’t come to school and experiment with the chemicals; though this virtual lab is not 100% effective we are glad we have an alternative’ States Anita Vardhrajan a high school biology teacher. ‘Something is better than nothing’, this tiny quote makes a lot of sense in this pandemic as there are alternatives for these complications. ‘Our teacher has brought back our interest towards studying by showing us exciting YouTube videos on science demonstrations and encouraging us to make PPTs, have group discussions and many more.’ says Hridhaan a student.
Simple experiments and demonstrations can be done at home, like testing the speed of rusting or finding the difference between evaporation and boiling many students thought experiments like these can only be done in school but now it wrong. ‘Necessity is the mother of innovation’.
To conclude online learning does not just depend on students but teachers as well. Students must understand their responsibility must try their best to focus in online classes. This pandemic has not only got agony and pain out of people but has also shaped us human beings to adapt and to overcome any circumstance.