Rising Above the Challenges of Online Learning

Jerica C. Jorge

Given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote or online learning is the best option to ensure the safety of both teachers and their students. However, conducting online lessons has it challenges.

Some of these challenges include lack of motivation of online learners, difficulties with online tools, and time-consuming resources.

Since students will be taking the lessons from the comfort of their homes, it is easy for them to get distracted and lose their motivation to study. This poses a huge challenge to teachers. But, there are some ways to somehow address these issues.

To ensure students’ motivation to learn, teachers should set clear goals. This can be achieved by setting a regular schedule including a deadline when students need to finish their assigned tasks. This way, students would keep themselves focused on the tasks at hand.

Another challenge that teachers and students are facing is the difficulties with online tools, if not the lack of it. In the Philippines, not all teachers and students have computers and internet connectivity at home. Fortunately, the are some local government units that have showed and committed support to providing the digital needs of teachers and students.

Still, both teachers and students might not be familiar with the needed software for online learning. To address this issue, it would be better to conduct an orientation on how to use the necessary apps. Involving parents with the orientation would also be helpful.

Resources used in online learning could be different from the resources used in the classroom. However, these online resources take time to create. It could be exhausting for the teachers, too, to repeatedly conduct their lessons online. So, it would be best to create videos which students can watch during their assigned lesson time.

Online learning is a new style for Filipino teachers and students. Sure, there are challenges with this new style, but there are numerous ways to address them, too.

Despite the pandemic, learning should continue for our young learners.

--oOo-

The author is Teacher III at Pampanga High School