By Evelyn Fu
From my perspective, there are many flaws with distance learning. When in-person classes existed, there were no technological problems that made learning difficult. That is just one of the problems. Classes vary greatly depending on the teacher. If you have a teacher that is “chill,” then there is less work and shorter classes. However, other students get classes that are longer and more tedious, and in a few classes students don’t even get a break in the middle.
Instead of learning five days a week, there are technically only four days. Thus, teachers have to cram more information into the brains of students in a shorter period of time. With the change to 105-minute classes, some teachers do not know how to fill in the time with content. Instead of teaching for two hours, teachers sprinkle some knowledge on their students and supervise them doing work for the rest of class, or let them off early. In other classes, students have to stay on Zoom for the full two hours, especially AP courses, because teachers feel there isn’t enough time to cover all the content.
If there is a power outage in the middle of a lesson, and you miss 30 minutes worth of class, you are already falling behind other periods. Meanwhile, some teachers take up the period by talking about irrelevant subjects, or extend the amount of time they need to discuss something. Either way, you are staring at the computer screen for many hours, and even more after class since all the work is online.
Testing is probably the most significant issue when it comes to online learning. Without a guaranteed way to prevent cheating, some teachers decide to assign more homework instead. It is reasonable that they do this; however, those with the unluckiest combination of classes and teachers are drowning in homework. Everything is pretty much the same except it’s all online – but there’s more homework. With the amount of work I have, I would prefer learning the content on my own instead of doing useless assignments.
There is also the awkward silence when teachers ask questions and sit there staring at the screen, waiting for an answer. During in-person classes, there’s more participation. In breakout rooms, it is even more awkward since most of the time you’re just working on your own or sitting there silently during discussions. Lag is also a problem during meetings because when you’re trying to speak, the audio just comes out static-y. When you ask a question and you don’t hear their response, it becomes a hassle to ask again, or you just don’t ask the teacher to repeat what he/she said and do things on your own.
Distance learning is far worse than in-person classes, with the amount of time teachers have to work with, and the amount of homework that is assigned. I personally believe teachers can adjust their learning plan so that it is more lenient. The home environment is far different than a classroom, filled with background noises and distractions.