The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to engage in the ubiquitous use of virtual learning. COVID-19 has resulted in educational institutions shut all across the world, they had no option but to adopt e-learning methods so that the learning did not come to a halt. This in turn has resulted in teachers and educators undertaking digital platforms to teach children, which in turn has brought a dramatic change in the way children are learning and growing which in turn brought myriad challenges for teachers as well as students.

Challenges Faced by Teachers and Parents with Online Learning

1. Technical Challenges

Various surveys show that while children face issues in accessing education digitally, teachers face issues in delivering education through digital mediums. These difficulties and problems associated with modern technology range from connectivity and network issues, downloading errors, issues with installation, login problems, audio, and video stagnation, and so on which are faced by both teachers and children. Many students around the world are not equipped with reliable internet access which is a hurdle to participating in digital learning. Due to this, they face problems in going live for virtual learning and other platforms that require an internet connection. A slow and high internet connection can play an important role in how quickly one can attend the class and not miss any live sessions.

2. Keeping Children Engaged

Technical challenges have led children to boredom and remaining uninterested with the ongoing of the class. Especially for younger kids, keeping them engaged in the online world has been more of a challenge as they tend to get distracted more easily. This has been a bigger problem for teachers and parents of younger children as kids get distracted too soon. Both parents and teachers have been struggling to keep kids occupied, whether it be during school or later.

3. Dealing with Absenteeism

Lack of interest, engagement, and communication also led to students not attending classes, or logging in but pursuing various other activities such as gaming or ending up dozing off. Teachers have had to struggle and take serious measures to ensure children are attending their classes by conducting quizzes and asking questions to random students in between class proceedings.

With older kids, it’s difficult for parents to keep a tab on whether they’re actually attending school seriously.

4. Students copying in Assessments 

Sometimes teachers get concerned about the risk of cheating in online learning. They feel that students can cheat to get better results in the tests and assignments. It’s a fact that there are few students who try to find an easy way out to succeed and it has become easier for them to cheat while using online learning system. Brainstorming and figuring, out ways to stop cheating and creating tests designed where cheating is minimized has also been quite the challenge.

5. Computer Knowledge 

Lack of computer knowledge amongst teachers, parents, and children is a major concern in today’s world. There are many who had earlier never operated MS Word and PowerPoint, or used any online software and online teaching media. And whenever some technical issues emerge, it gets difficult to solve the problem when one has no background in computers.

They face difficulties with live classes, usage of appropriate icons, using teaching aids creation software, communication-related apps, and websites, browsing study materials, etc. Both teachers and parents have had to learn technology proficiency like login, live classes, creating and submitting work. These hurdles have been a major challenge especially for the older generation who relied on the traditional ways of teaching in front of the blackboard.

6. Lack of Communication 

There are students who avoid communication with teachers during online learning due to various reasons. Online teaching is like communicating without body language plus students lack effective communication skills during online learning mainly because they are shy, feel intimidated, or fear being misunderstood. These issues might happen due to lack of interest, poor technological skills with apps and video calls, low confidence, self-esteem, fear of being shouted at by teachers, unable to express themselves via live chats, emails, or text messages.

Effect of online learning

According to various researches, almost two-thirds of the teachers claimed said that the majority of their students were less prepared for grade-level work than they were at this time last year. Many teachers said that they had covered only half, or less than half, of the curriculum content that they would have gotten to by this time last year.

Ways to Make Learning Fun

1. Scheduling

We all know that planning and scheduling our tasks one day in advance helps organize our thoughts and mentally prepares us for the next day. So why not get children to do the same? Letting them make their own schedule helps them develop strategic and planning skills from a young age. Not only that, once the day is over, you can always sit and talk about how the day went and what were the tasks accomplished and what wasn’t.

 

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2. DIY activities

There are some DIY activity kits out there like the DIY Rocket Toy Activity which is a great way to teach them about solar panels, lunar patrol cars, and exploration vehicles. You can always search for interesting facts on the internet so while playing, you can teach them more! There are many such DIY activity kits you can use for educational purposes or just for fun!

 

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3. Fun with flashcards

For the longest time today, flashcards have been used by kids all around the world to retain and retain faster. Whether it’s learning math formulas, improving their lexical cognizance, or memorizing historic dates.

There are a billion amazing flashcards available out there with which you can teach children about countries, their location, famous monuments, languages spoken, the currency used, and much more! Try out the Leopold Flashcards to teach them maths in the most fun way possible!

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4. Extempore in the form of storytelling

Extempore and story-telling help improve their oratory skills, boosts confidence, induces creativity, and in a way prepares them for public speaking! Play these games when the entire family is around so they get to speak in front of as many people as possible!

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5. Scrapbooking

Instead of letting them play on the phone or the iPad or watch television, give them a scrapbook and tell them to stick pictures of anything they love and tell them to write about it. They can cut off pictures from newspapers, magazines, old encyclopaedias, or print pictures from the internet. It can be anything at all, anything they love. It keeps them away from the screen and gets their creative side out. You can read what they’ve written in the scrapbook and it might help you understand them even more.

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6. Scavenger hunt with riddles 

Who doesn’t love Treasure Hunt? Add a twist to this game! Add a twist to this game and instead of mapping the house with clues, tell them to solve riddles to ultimately find their prize. Every step make the riddle more difficult. It’s a fun way to improve their analytical and logical skills! This game is a great way to encourage children to wrack their brains to find the answer!

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7. Art and craft activities that involve learning 

Art and craft activities have been used for decades to keep kids engaged. But there’s more to it! They are one of the best ways to unleash your child’s creativity, visual-spatial skills, hand-eye coordination, imagination, and more!

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8. Worksheets 

There are worksheets galore for kids on the internet. From drawing and coloring to Mathematics and Grammar worksheets, check out Pinterest to print them for personal use at home! Do beware of copyright issues before using for teaching or mass production purposes.

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9. Learning through everyday chores 

Assigning children regular chores helps teach them responsibility. Tasks that personally affect your kids, such as cleaning their room or doing their own laundry, can help them become more self-reliant at the same time. It also encourages teamwork, improves self-esteem, confidence, helps build strong work ethics, improves planning and time management!

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Also read, Homeschooling a toddler (18 months - 2 .5 years)

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