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  • Writer's pictureEmma Faith

E-learning: the new norm?

**this is my final article for JOUR210**


As the spread of the coronavirus continues to alter reality, students and faculty in the state of Illinois were told to continue remote learning for the rest of the academic year as of April 18.


Students, teachers, principals and professors wonder if E-learning, or learning by electronic technologies, will become the new normal.


Using online technologies to complete schoolwork is not entirely new. In 2018, 58% of students in the eighth grade said they use internet at home to do their homework every day, and only 6% of students said they never access the internet at home for their homework (Pew Research Center).


John Barnett, professor emeritus at Western University in London, Ontario, is an expert on technology education and online education.


Barnett first became interested in incorporating technology into the classroom when he was a high school science teacher in 1980. Him and his students raised money for a school computer and his students taught him what they knew.


“I was hooked on learning the best ways that the online environment could be used for good educational purposes,” he said.


Though an avid supporter for online education, Barnett does not think it should replace face to face education. He does however have ideas on how to improve the current E-learning methods teachers have.


“Teaching online is a skill that takes time to master,” he said.


Barnett describes courses as “arenas of intellectual engagement.” He says that students should be able to feel safe when participating and have some control over what they do. He later says how group work should be implemented into online education, which creates strong connections through collaboration and reliance.


One E-learning method Barnett mentions is allowing students to have multiple chances to take an exam until the desired grade is met. He says students will learn more material each time a test is retaken when reviewing different randomly generated questions each attempt.


As an instructor, Barnett would make his exams worth only one point. He says that having online exams worth a very low value will make students cheat less and encourage them to read the material.


When talking about the benefits of E-learning, Barnett says it is a great opportunity to have universities across the world connect with each other to incorporate diversity through multiple cultures.


Although Barnett describes many opportunities the concept of E-learning provides, he does have one fear about the future.


“My fear is that some administrators will see it as a way to cut costs, not realizing that a big part of learning is the conversation and debate that goes on around and outside the courses, between students and students, students and professors,” he said.


Ryan Eschman, a Crystal Lake, Illinois native and sophomore at Iowa State University studying finance, also agrees that E-learning can be a way to decrease university costs.


“If they want to rip students off by having tuition still be as high and get the same education you can get with the cost of no tuition, then they’ll implement it. If they want to give a real college experience, then they will not do any more of this if they don’t have to,” Eschman said.


Eschman says how E-learning does not allow students to retain as much information as opposed to learning in-person, and that the lack of a classroom environment affects learning abilities as well.


“Not being able to be with my other peers and my teachers and having to learn through a screen makes it hard to want to learn. It makes it hard to stay focused for a long period of time,” he said.


Karley Krizuick, third grade teacher at Prairie Grove Elementary School in Crystal Lake, Illinois, also agrees that the transition to E-learning negatively affects her students when they move on to the next grade.


“Going into fourth grade next year, they need to know fractions and they’ve never seen a fraction,” she said.


Krizuick later says that the Illinois Board of Education advised all teachers to only review material the students have already learned. Only two hours of online learning each day is also recommended, but Krizuick says Prairie Grove does more.


“Everyone’s in the same boat, it’s not like one school is farther behind than the other,” she said.


Krizuick later talks about how home involvement matters greatly in regard to a student’s academic progression. Krizuick provides resources and articles to parents who ask for additional learning tools that will help their child’s performance.


Whether students struggle with learning outside the classroom or not, Krizuick says it will all likely tell through their testing scores in the fall.


Ethan Baker, freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying agricultural communications, agrees that the transition back to in-person instruction will be a difficult one to encounter, despite the E-learning efforts.


“I think the longer we wait and the longer we’re home, the more difficult it’ll be getting back into class,” he said.


Unlike Baker, a different University of Illinois student feels as if transitioning back to in-person classes won’t be difficult. Sophia Gonzales, junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying food science and human nutrition, says she enjoys going to lectures and having a routine at school, and how E-learning at home takes away that structure.


“It’s just so much harder to stay engaged at home. I can just be on my phone or take a nap during class and no one would know. It’s definitely harder at home,” she said.


Gonzales further describes her academic challenges and explains how this year was a crucial time for her to gain hands-on experience with food science and human nutrition.


Gonzales is enrolled in a class that was designed to prepare students for their future careers as dieticians. When students were forced to leave campus and transition to E-learning, Gonzales lost the opportunity of gaining experience through practical labs and testing on individuals.


Though Gonzales deals with academic and motivational challenges during this time, she said she felt ready to adjust to the situation.


“I feel like I didn’t have much to prepare for on my end. I feel like it was more of the teachers who had to prepare,” she said.


Peter Sheldon, advertising professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is one teacher who felt unprepared and disorganized when dealing with the transition to E-learning.


He describes his experience with the change of learning style and the lessons learned throughout the adjustment to E-learning.


“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that teaching through E-learning is about four times the work and one quarter of the fun,” he said.


During the first week of remote learning, Sheldon gave synchronous lectures on the popular video conferencing website “Zoom,” but then stopped after receiving complaints. Many of Sheldon’s students live in different countries across the world and struggled with waking up at 2:00 a.m. for class. Other students preferred a different option that would make it easier to access lecture videos at different times of the day.


Sheldon talked about the statistics he found relating to the viewing rate of his asynchronous lectures he posts twice a week, and “found them very disturbing.” He said the viewing rate at the beginning of the stay-at-home order was 70 percent. His last pre-recorded lecture had a 40 percent viewing rate.


When Sheldon was asked if he would change his current teaching methods in the fall if remote learning continues, his reply was simple: “Hell yeah.”


If given the warning that E-learning would continue throughout the fall, Sheldon talked about how he would dedicate two weeks to researching the best online teaching methods that he could use for his class.


Sheldon later talked about some of his plans for next semester if E-learning continues, such as dividing his students up into smaller groups to host Zoom meetings with practitioners who are currently in the advertising field.


“Clearly I can do a better job of engaging students,” he said.


Steven Koch, principal at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake, Illinois, agrees that issues of engagement and comprehension of material is a common theme with students of all levels.


Koch said that although students may enjoy the flexibility to their daily schedules, the lack of motivation and resources to complete schoolwork is more challenging when it comes to E-learning.


“We’re learning that remote learning has its limitations, especially for a deeper dive into difficult material,” Koch said.


According to Koch, having the students at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake utilize specific technology on their own time during the stay-at-home order was nothing unfamiliar.


Koch says that Prairie Ridge was well prepared for the transition to online learning as the majority of the teachers already use at least one online education tool, such as Google Classroom or Canvas.


However, most teachers do not meet synchronously with their students due to technology issues and students who do not have the access and tools they typically have at school.


On the other hand, Koch says that teachers at Prairie Ridge High School did not have the prior experience or time to adjust quickly to the E-learning situation.


“Teachers didn’t go through school themselves in this manner, weren’t trained in this manner, and all of a sudden we’re asked to do it,” Koch said.


The teachers also struggle on a deeper level.


Koch talks about the social element of school that has been lost during this time, and how it is a huge part of the experience for both students and teachers.


“Teachers just miss their students. We all got into this profession because we love kids, so to not have those daily interactions is tough,” he said.


As the answer to the question “what happens next” remains unanswered and uncertain, Koch finds it important for Prairie Ridge High School to pay attention to the lessons learned during the COVID-19 experience.


“What can we learn from the quarantine instruction that will translate to regular school in the future? What can we take from this to make us better? Never waste a crisis, right?” he said.

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