What are the Mental Effects of Distance Learning on Students in 2020
Abstract
The Coronavirus took the world by storm in early 2020 and has impacted education in various ways. Since the start of the CoronaVirus many schools have switched to distance learning to avoid the spread of the disease. This “lockdown” has a social effect on many students with fellow peers and their teachers. Many students find a lack of motivation to do work due to the environment that they are in. Also there is a lack of integrity with quizzes and tests that the teacher’s cannot get around. The research that’s been conducted is to help us understand the motivational levels of students in college when switching to distance learning. I have surveyed a group of fellow peers with a couple questions. The sample size is 20 people that have to answer 6 questions that relate to distance learning and mood with a 1-5 rating. This lab will determine if the effects of the corona virus on students is negative or not changed.
Introduction
Education has always been a huge part of the development of society. Starting very young we learn the fundamentals of life through the education system. The education system teaches us to socialize with one another, differentiate right and wrong and eventually leads us to develop society further in terms of careers. Since the world was hit with Covid-19 many students lack these fundamentals and adapting to the new system is extremely difficult. According to Amy Bintliff, a developmental psychologist and professor in the University of California, many students miss out on educational milestones such as graduations and events as such(Burke , 2020). In a social aspect this is very demoralizing to most students and causes demotivation overall.
Human nature requires us to socialize with one another, once that is left out of the equation an emptiness is felt which causes lack of interest. This sense of demotivation affects academic integrity and genuine learning. Since we were small we were taught that when it comes time to work you work and when it comes time to play you play. But the dilemma we are facing now is that both are being combined as an environment. According to a student Ian McCarthy when he’s at home it’s usually not to learn and he seems to get demotivated by the abundance of distractions that happen in the home(Turner, 2020). I can see this as a problem that is felt by many including myself. To many students the workload feels a lot heavier. This is why I conducted a survey to see if students feel less motivated since distance learning and how it affects social life.
Materials and Methods
To get the best results I found it necessary to get the answers from the source itself. I made a poll asking 6 questions to 20 of my fellow peers that go to college or late highschool (juniors, seniors)
They get to answer the questions with a rating of 1-5. One being the don’t agree to five being Strongly agree
Questions:
- I feel less motivated to do homework since the implementation of distance learning.
- On a scale of 1-5, During a zoom class how focused are you on what’s going on.
- I find school harder since distance learning.
- I am working harder to maintain my grades since distance learning.
- I feel like my learning environment is worse since distance learning
- I feel more stressed with workload since distance learning.
To determine if students are positively or negatively impacted by distance learning I asked the questions stated above and made charts showing the data for each question
Results
Question 1:I feel less motivated to do homework since the implementation of distance learning.
| RATING | Number of Students |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 7 |
| 5 | 9 |
Question 2: On a scale of 1-5, During a zoom class how focused are you on what’s going on.
| RATING | Number of Students |
| 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 8 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 1 |
Question 3 : I find school harder since distance learning.
| RATING | Number of Students |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 8 |
Question 4: I am working harder to maintain my grades since distance learning.
| RATING | Number of Students |
| 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 2 |
Question 5:I feel like my learning environment is worse since distance learning
| RATING | Number of Students |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 11 |
Question 6: I feel more stressed with workload since distance learning.
| RATING | Number of Students |
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 9 |
Discussion
From the results displayed on the charts we can clearly see a negative correlation with mood and distance learning as a whole. For Question 1 70% of the students I asked felt less motivated to do homework. This is definitely caused by the environment, first you are in a 2 hour lecture then having to do additional homework in the same place causes a feeling of distraught. For question 2 the students are actually moderately focused but only 15% are actually fully or near fully focused. In many homes there are distractions, plus the fact that you are on your laptop or mobile device makes distractions a whole lot more abundant. Question 3 shows us that many students find school to be more difficult since distance learning, this is due to the fact that there is less communication with the professor and the fellow peers. Communicating information is a lot harder when the person is not directly in front of you. Without the social aspect that the education system brings, it makes it harder for students to do well and learn efficiently.
Question 4 follows up with the lack of demotivation in students. About 50% of the students found it harder to maintain their grades even though in theory it should be easier , due to the amount of time saved by just being at home. Question 5 shows us that many students would rather be in school learning than at home. About 80% of the students strongly agree that learning at home is worse for their academics than being at school. Lastly Question 6 shows us that distance learning induces stress which is actually a huge mental health issue. Being cooped up for such a long period of time can cause our brains to feel a sense of anxiety and trauma.
References
Burke, L. (2020, October 27). Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2020/10/27/long-term-online-learning-pandemic-may-impact-students-well
Turner, S. (2020, April 3). Many students lack motivation for online learning. Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://granitebaytoday.org/distance-learning-presents-challenges-to-student-education/
