Quazi Azizur Rahman                                                                                                  4/19/2021 

Writing For Engineering 

Mr. Nicholas Otte 

             Evolution of Distance Learning with New Technologies   

Abstract:  COVID-19 became huge impact for the students in distance education and became part of tradition in students’ daily lives. Aside for having disadvantages it has also advantages for students like having more flexibility in time and plans of what they want to do, and people don’t have to commute to college where they must pay transit fare. Most of the classes are online and some labs for science classes are in on campus. Life is not the same for people of how they used to live and now they need to adjust with new types of technologies. 

Introduction: Since, the COVID-19 hit into the world, people became more frightened to go outside and everything became to happen in remotely. Due to that reason many things have been impacted by it and it also affected the economy in the country. COVID-19 is an infectious disease that can spread through and come through wide range of symptoms like coughing, touching, sneezing, shortness of breath, fatigue, headache, loss of taste and smell, diarrhea and may other things. Because many people stopped going outside whether it is for work, vacation etc. Then everything started to become online where people ordering everything from Amazon, Ebay and other things for resources and for food: Door dash, UberEATS, Seamless, Grab hub etc. became popular people ordered it from there. Many meetings, events, shows started to happen from zoom and many people had to learn how to use it. Like: Essential and Restaurant workers had to learn how to get orders from the people in screen and package it for the deliveryman when he or she comes to take it. Official meetings, events, shows have started to become more on zoom and face masks became more fashionable. While it is hard to do everything in Online, there are some advantages of it: People spending more time with their families, research something they are interested in and learn it on their own time. 

 Materials and Methods: Now, that most of the things are in online, students must focus with the time they have and make plans to finish when to what. That is part students can’t balance and often get into depression and anxiety. It is psychologically effective in their mind which makes them hard to be on focus. Based on NBC news report, “I’m usually feeling distressed and tired, and I just don’t want anything to do with school anymore” (Einhorn, 2021). This is a very similar a lot of students are facing too and need help and support to overcome their obstacles that’s puts in their way.  

(Image 1: It is explaining the differences between traditional learning and online learning.) 

(Image 2: It is explaining how students feel of distance learning and is it a lot of work or less work.) 

(Image 3: It is showing the percentage of how much a student and person must go through of everything being online and what type of psychological thoughts is coming in their mind.) 

These three images are from TCU organization website where they explain everything about Distance Learning and how things are going in virtually. Due to having class in online many students are having mental problems in their mind where “There’s also more of a sense of isolation when they’re not around their friends as much, which is an important protective factor in their mental health. There is also more unpredictability and things that are out of their personal control” (Fuentes, 2020). The psychological pressure they go through is very difficult to handle and always must keep track of everything. 

Discussion:  

During the Pandemic distance learning is keeping people safe, but what is important of how they are feeling mentally. Based on the data we can understand that how much the students haven difficulty of concentrating. “Despite the availability of tele-counseling and widespread promotion of such services by universities, 93% of students who participated in the JMIR survey said they had not used school counseling services during the pandemic” (Gibbons, 2020). This shows how students feel about using even if they have it close to them, but not very good at participating into it. While we are seeing the negatives, there are also some positives things that is happening in pandemic too. It is online delivery became one of the key features for transferring resources and foods. Also, “use of food delivery service apps for IOS and Android has skyrocketed, as restaurants have shuttered except for takeout and delivery orders, and more people are staying in and ordering food at home. It’s still safe to order takeout or delivery during lockdowns and quarantines, so long as you take certain precautions, like choosing contactless delivery, taking food out of containers and washing your hands, of course” (A.D. Raymone, 2020). Before, vaccine came people used delivery apps to get mostly everything they need and in future people still are going to use it, because it is the most efficient way to get something they want and in fast. 

Results: 

To understand whether distance learning is good for the students, many website companies took survey and most of them say they don’t feel comfortable being in online. One student name Sophie Dai said, “School is not only a place for study, but a place to prepare us for future life when we embark upon complicated society and interpersonal relationship. Online education cannot replace school system thoroughly in this aspect. I really miss normal school days. Is the day of returning far?”(Learning Network, 2020). This illustrates how students feel about online and the school. Being in campus helps the students grow stronger relationships with the environment, friends, teachers and many other people. On the other hand, distance learning became very difficult for students, because it creates more pressure into them with a load amount of work and distance learning is mostly happens in home where family problem can be a big issue which can put pressure on students mind very severely and they can’t focus on the work. While this all seems, bad there are still some good things about it, people can research more and spends more time with their families. Jobs, Success comes and goes, but the people who are closes to a person, if they go, they will never come back. So, it is important to cherish the time we spend with them and always love them. Life is all about learning, because of the pandemic we learned and accept a lot of things that are close to us. The distance learning that has started for pandemic will become more common in the future and it will be used in more meetings and in other places in different situations. 

                                                                   Work Cited: 

1. Erin Einhorn, “Remote students are more stressed than their peers in classroom study shows, February 15, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/remote-students-are-more-stressed-their-peers-classroom-study-shows-n1257632 . 

2. Haeven Gibbons, “TCU Organization addresses increase in student depression and anxiety.”, October 29, 2020,  https://www.tcu360.com/2020/10/tcu-organization-addresses-increase-in-student-depression-and-anxiety/ . 

3. Carlos Fuentes, “Zoom fatigue and all-nighters: Online learning takes a toll on students mental health” October 6, 2020, https://www.upbeacon.com/article/2020/10/zoom-fatigue-and-all-nighters-online-learning-takes-a-toll-on-students-mental-health . 

4. Alison DeNisco Rayome, “Best food delivery service: Door Dash, Grub Hub, Uber Eats and more compared.” May 13, 2020, https://www.cnet.com/news/best-food-delivery-service-doordash-grubhub-uber-eats-and-more-compared/ .  

5. Cathy LI and Farah Lalani, “The Covid-19 Pandemic has changed the Education Forever. This how” 29 April 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/ .   

6. From Learning Network, “What students are saying about remote learning” April 9, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-remote-learning.html .