The Challenges and Opportunities of Online Learning

Source: viewsonic.com

The COVID-19 pandemic causes change in the global educational system. However, the Minister of Education and Culture has changed the learning methods for elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, and university. The learning method has been modified to the online format, which has an impact on the teaching and learning process. Educators and learners should do their own work from home to avoid face-to-face interaction, also known as online learning. In this case, educators and learners are required to be able to use several educational tools to support the online teaching and learning activities.

Digital technology is an educational tool that must be used for online teaching and learning activities. Because digital technology has an important role in the implementation of online teaching and learning activities during the pandemic. First, it can assist the teacher to provide information and communication with the student. Second, it aids educators in creating collaborative learning environments that make learning relevant to the lives of their students. Third, teachers can more efficiently personalize their learning if they have access to the cloud, data, along with content. Next, digital technology can help student for synchronous meetings and also access information and knowledge that they need quickly. Then students easily to access learning materials and collect their assignments from the teacher. Finally, students can easily fill in the attendance list during virtual classes. That's why digital technology has an important role in online teaching and learning activities.

Related to the implementation of online learning, there are several kinds of digital technology that can be used in online teaching and learning activities. First, using e-learning as a tool for synchronous meetings can make it easier for students to access subjects and for teachers to convey information, such as using the Zoom Meeting application, Google Meet, Google Classroom, and others. Second, the use of computers and laptops can help teachers and students in virtual classes. They can then complete assignments and boost creativity in the online learning environment. Third is the use of digital libraries, which allows teachers and students to access textbooks and other information without having to visit a library. To summarize, those the types of digital technology that can support online teaching-learning activities.

However, online teaching and learning give the teacher and students many challenges. The first challenge is managing screen time while distance learning. We know that during online learning, teachers and students spend many hours in front of their screens in a day. Even staring at a screen has become part of their lives. But too much staring at a screen can cause health problems such as eye problems, body aches, leading to difficulty focusing, and headaches. The second challenge is technical difficulties. Many learners are not provided with the strong connection that makes them difficult to take the lesson. It has become a big problem for learners. Sometimes they have to go to school, college, or other places to access the high connection. The third challenge is a personal problem. During online teaching and learning activities, most teachers and students report feeling stressed, unfocused on the screen, and lacking self-motivation.

On the other hand, because of those challenges, online learning has great opportunities in the lives of both teacher and student. One, both the teacher and the student can master modern technology. Since pandemic, teaching and learning should be accessible digitally. It is different from offline learning, where a teacher is required to create a learning strategy to have an interesting virtual class by using modern technology. A teacher can probably create a learning combination using audio and visual tools. The teacher can ask students to have discussion, exercise, group work, presentations, make individual or group videos, or even use audio to explain the material given by using e-learning as attractive as possible. So that teachers can effectively teach their students with a variety of learning styles through online learning. Second, students and teachers had more free time. This gives the teacher and student an opportunity to be more productive, improve their academic skills, develop their hobbies, and build social relationships. Finally, online learning can boost both teachers' and students' creativity. Because they learn via e-learning, they are more motivated to acquire the skills they want to achieve.

All in all, online learning forced educators and learners to learn digitally. They can use e-learning in teaching and learning activities. However, there are many challenges and also opportunities they will get from online learning.