How COVID-19 Is Affecting Students…

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Solid Tips | 0 comments

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Stu­dents are one of the most wide­ly affect­ed groups by the COVID-19 cri­sis. Any lost edu­ca­tion to a stu­dent slows their progress and reduces their success. School used to be a con­sis­tent, reli­able fea­ture in the lives of par­ents, stu­dents, and instruc­tors until COVID added uncer­tain­ty and took away the abil­i­ty to meet in person. Stu­dents at all lev­els of edu­ca­tion are strug­gling to cope with the changes. House­holds are fight­ing for band­width on the Inter­net as stu­dents learn online and par­ents work remote­ly. Com­mu­ni­ty col­lege stu­dents are more adverse­ly affect­ed than their pri­vate or state-run col­leges. COVID-19 is putting up road­blocks at all lev­els of education.  While there are many neg­a­tive effects on the edu­ca­tion indus­try, COVID-19 is paving the way to give stu­dents more learn­ing options. These obsta­cles pro­vide edu­ca­tors with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to find cre­ative solutions.

Students Are Looking for Alternatives to Four-Year Universities 

Tech­nol­o­gy is upend­ing indus­tries, and edu­ca­tion is no excep­tion. Both tra­di­tion­al and non-tra­di­tion­al stu­dents are look­ing for faster ways to learn skills than spend­ing time and mon­ey at col­leges in their region.  COVID-19 is accel­er­at­ing the search for col­lege alter­na­tives. The lack of cer­tain­ty around cam­pus life and in-per­son class­es is mak­ing stu­dents look for sure things. Tak­ing online col­lege cours­es is more reli­able since stu­dents don’t have to wor­ry about get­ting sick or flip-flop­ping between online and in-person. 

Emphasis on Self-paced Learning

Even before COVID-19, our world empha­sized tak­ing the ini­tia­tive for your per­son­al development. The Inter­net has long been a tool for shar­ing resources and learn­ing new things. Edu­ca­tion com­pa­nies are cap­i­tal­iz­ing on the trend by offer­ing online cours­es for in-demand skills. Through pre-pub­lished mod­ules and peer grad­ing sys­tems, com­pa­nies like Cours­era and Ude­my allow ambi­tious learn­ers to upskill. 

Technical Schools

Col­lege stu­dents are using these tools to get their foot in the door with tech­ni­cal skills. Com­put­er sci­ence is one of the fastest-grow­ing indus­tries, and four-year schools can’t meet the indus­try’s demands. Just like star­tups, stu­dents are look­ing for the fastest way to get on the mar­ket. A four-year degree often includes human­i­ties class­es and oth­er top­ics not cen­tral to a stu­den­t’s focus area. While human­i­ties and oth­er knowl­edge-build­ing class­es are great resources for learn­ers, some view them as a waste of time and mon­ey. Stu­dents would rather focus on the skills that will get them hired.  Tech­ni­cal schools and cod­ing boot camps are gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty as stu­dents focus on quick­ly learn­ing skills rather than tak­ing human­i­ties class­es that won’t fur­ther their career. These options allow stu­dents to increase the tools at their dis­pos­al and gain the skills for entry lev­el employment.

Online Degrees Will Mimic Remote Working Situations

how COVID-19 is affecting education l education during covid 19 Work­places, just like schools, tran­si­tioned to remote work. Online edu­ca­tion is incor­po­rat­ing col­lab­o­rat­ing with peers and instruc­tors to pre­pare stu­dents for the remote workplace. While self-paced cours­es are a good tool for learn­ing, the best online degrees will involve oppor­tu­ni­ties to col­lab­o­rate with peers. Edu­ca­tion isn’t all about read­ing facts and tak­ing a test. Stu­dents learn the mate­r­i­al best when they get to engage with the con­tent in unique and chal­leng­ing ways.

Colleges Are Emphasizing Soft Skills

Stan­dard­ized tests across the world were can­celled, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to assess the knowl­edge a stu­dent obtains before head­ing to col­lege. While con­crete skills like Eng­lish, math, and sci­ence are impor­tant, soft skills are often an indi­ca­tion of a stu­den­t’s suc­cess in college.  GPA is a bet­ter indi­ca­tor of col­lege suc­cess than SAT or ACT scores. GPA gives col­leges admis­sion coun­selors more insight into the habits of appli­cants. SAT and ACT scores can be high for gift­ed stu­dents with a poor work eth­ic. A poor work eth­ic won’t get stu­dents through col­lege, even if they are skilled test-takers. 

Remote Learning Is Practice for Remote Work

At the end of the day, we pur­sue edu­ca­tion to increase the ceil­ing of careers. Many of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools used for online learn­ers direct­ly trans­late to the work­place. Mes­sag­ing ser­vices, video calls, and time man­age­ment are all need­ed to suc­ceed in today’s office environment.  Even though younger stu­dents might be well versed in how to use mes­sag­ing apps, the prac­tice of pro­fes­sion­al use dur­ing school helps stu­dents to present them­selves in a bet­ter light to employers. It’s impor­tant that teach­ers of K‑12 stu­dents, and even some first-year col­lege stu­dents, get direct­ly taught or cor­rect­ed when com­mu­ni­cat­ing. It’s not a guar­an­tee that stu­dents have expe­ri­ence using cer­tain apps or know prop­er com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools. 

Conclusion

Stu­dents are cen­tral to the edu­ca­tion indus­try. The edu­ca­tion indus­try will con­tin­ue to adapt to their needs to improve out­comes. COVID-19 is the cat­a­lyst to bring the edu­ca­tion indus­try to the 21st century. 

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