What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing Online Education Today?

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What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing Online Education Today
What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing Online Education Today Online learning was once an option reserved for working adults. Today, an online only environment is the educational format of choice for students of all ages and backgrounds. Almost 19.6 million students attended college online in 2019. The number has grown exponentially since then.

An online learning environment is more common than most people think. There is a reason for the massive popularity of online education amongst college students. Distance education offers immense flexibility for students no matter where they are located. They can take online classes on their schedule and study when their time permits.

Thanks to educational technology, undergraduate students and grad students alike can continue to work or take other courses. They can even get dual degrees if they wish. They can do this without the need to commute or juggle demanding schedules. They can connect and learn from any device, anywhere, as long as they have a computer and internet connection.

There is no need to attend the class in person or move to attend a school of their choice. Plus, they can connect with peers from different backgrounds in an online course setting. This interaction occurs via forums and chats, all while attending only online classes. But despite its many advantages, online learning comes with some technical issues and challenges as well.

Let’s take a look at the biggest challenges facing distance education today and review some specific tips for how to overcome them. What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing Online Education Today
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What is the most common challenge for students in online classes?

9. Abundant Distractions, Lack of Discipline – With recurrent technical issues, bandwidth problems and monotonous lectures, online attendance has seen a drastic dip. Most students find learning online boring and often complain of lacking the motivation to make it through a class.
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What are the biggest challenges facing online education today in the Philippines?

The result of the content analysis revealed the following categories of difficulties in remote learning: unstable internet connectivity; inadequate learning resources; electric power interruptions; vague learning contents; overloaded lesson activities; limited teacher scaffolds; poor peer communication; conflict with
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What is the greatest challenge today’s students face 2022?

Dedicated to raising the up-and-coming workforce while tasked with meeting the social, emotional, and physical needs of children, the U.S. educational system is in a constant state of evolution. However, there are many who would say that the system does not evolve fast enough or in a manner that is actually meeting students’ needs for the challenges of the world they are preparing to enter.

And since March of 2020 when Covid took the world by storm, the failings of the U.S. educational system have made headlines over and again. Increasingly, parents are looking for alternative educational methods with homeschooling options on the rise. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, homeschooled students rose from 3% pre-pandemic to 11% in the 2021-22 school year with no sign of numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels any time soon.

Socioeconomic dynamics, inequalities for underserved communities, lack of access to technologies, too much exposure to technologies, too few teachers, lack of resources, and hybrid classrooms are just some of the challenges that drove families to re-evaluate their children’s educational setting.

Dana Bryson, Senior Vice President of Social Impact at Study.com, urban policy expert, and social investment strategist with more than 25 years of experience, and John Edelson, Founder and President at Time4Learning with nearly 20 years of experience in providing educational resources and coursework for homeschooled students weigh in on the challenges brick and mortar schools face going into the 2022-23 school year.

“You know kids are increasingly addicted to technology but they feel burnt out at the same time. And it’s really difficult for teachers to have tech in the classroom be engaging and exciting for students. I think it’s finding that balance when we’re back in the classroom of how you use technology.

I know one solution is a micro-learning format, you know, seven to 10 minutes, short videos, and a way to have the kids really engage with the curriculum and use technology for the good, but not bore with it because they’ve spent a lot of time the last two years staring at the screen,” said Bryson. Edelson agreed that technology is a challenge in the traditional classroom setting because it is difficult to change once schools have invested in and implemented edtech resources.

He also noted that there is no single technology that can meet the needs of every student. Even the Time4Learning program is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some students use it for only one or two subjects since the program may work for them in math or science for example, but the language arts program doesn’t resonate in the same way.

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And this is a major benefit for homeschooled children – the ability to use multiple resources to meet the specific needs of each individual child. Today’s students are technically proficient, “it’s 2022, everybody uses technology all the time and any job they go into and any communications you do, technology provides all sorts of activities,” Edelson said.

The extent of how much technology impacts education is probably much larger than people realize. LearnPlatform recently released its annual EdTech Top 40 report which highlights the most popular technology used in the classroom. “Teachers accessed an average of 148 unique tools over the course of the school year, while students accessed an average of 143 unique tools during the same time period.” This begs the question of whether or not the technology being used is a positive impact on student learning, or if it’s supporting the future career paths that are defining the workforce.

In fact, some of the industries facing the greatest shortages are heavily influenced by advancing technology. Careers in engineering and the trades are in desperate need of employees. With the rising costs of attending college, the potential to enter the workforce saddled with large and cumbersome debts, and the challenges of finding well-paying jobs with a good future are driving both students and parents to look more earnestly at careers in the trades.

One of the reasons for this, according to Edelson, is that “kids grow up younger, faster these days.” He continued to note that in today’s world, in comparison to generations from before the year 2000, “kids are a lot more interested and a lot more engaged when they have a choice and they’re picking their interest area.

  1. So, career pathing, picking a roadmap into careers has been pushed much younger.” This translates to a lot of homeschooled students enrolling in community college to explore career paths of interest.
  2. Or they might apprentice in different careers to see what a good fit for the future might be.
  3. This is fairly easy for home-schooled students to do due to the flexibility of schedules.

However, K12 schools are also taking note by creating more and more dual enrollment opportunities that allow students to attend alternative programs in support of individual interests and career path exploration. “When I speak with chief academic officers and curriculum directors, I’m hearing a lot of interest in this opportunity for students to have dual enrollments so that you’re in 10 th grade but you’re also taking a college-level course in a subject area you may be really interested in that may be a future career pathway,” Bryson said.

Add to this the increasing interest of schools, businesses, non-profits, and government entities in promoting trade education and addressing critical staffing shortages in essential industries. For example, Study.com started an initiative in 2021 to help address the teaching shortage with “innovative teaching pathway programs around the country to try to both get more teachers in the classroom and build a more diverse teacher pipeline,” noted Bryson.

The Biden Administration has ordered over $40 billion to be invested in the U.S. workforce to address critical shortages and help get underserved populations back into the workforce as part of the American Rescue Plan, Schools are getting involved as well.

” Wake Tech is pleased to announce that the college has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant of $520,783 to enhance Industry 4.0 training for students pursuing careers in advanced manufacturing.” With the social experiment called public education continuously evolving, the rapid pace of recent years can be directly attributed to the onset of the global Covid pandemic.

Despite the numerous challenges students, teachers, parents, and administrators faced, schools rapidly pivoted to continue providing education in a locked-down world that lasted much longer than anticipated in the early days of school closures and public lockdowns.

  1. So, the fact that the world of education continues to evolve to meet the needs of individual students and support identifying career paths that will provide stability and growth is not surprising.
  2. And as student needs and workplace concerns continue to drive change, educators will need to move beyond traditional models that no longer serve society.
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“If I were to give advice to professional educators, I would encourage them to be supportive of the families that are switching back and forth between homeschooling and the formal system.20, 30 years ago, homeschooling was a completely separate system.

Once you were a homeschooler, you were always a homeschooler and you didn’t switch back and forth. What we see at Time4Learning is there are lots of people who homeschool for three years or for five years and then they put the child back in the school system,” said Edelson. In a world where unpredictability has become the new norm, educators continue to fight to overcome decades-old challenges of overcrowded classrooms, lack of funding, and inadequate resources.

Many of these have been exasperated by the pandemic while new challenges have been added including hybrid classrooms, absentee students, virtual learning, and mastering a plethora of new technologies and protocols to keep students and staff safe and healthy.
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What is the biggest challenge faced by students today pandemic?

(2020) found in their research that the lack of knowledge, skills and devices, internet connection, irrelevance and issues with system access were the problems experienced by teachers and students in the Covid-19 pandemic.
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What are the biggest challenges facing online education today PDF?

Some of the obstacles that are currently still being faced in online learning are the time management of educators and students in the implementation of online learning, the lack of student motivation to learn, and the lack of interaction in learning so that students lack productive communication skills.
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What are 5 issues facing students today?

9 Challenges Our Students Face in School Today Part I: Poverty & Homeless Families Some students struggle with completing Math and English assignments, submitting homework on time, and staying focus in class. However, these struggles may be a part of a greater problem that is not clearly seen by parents, guardians, and educators.9 challenges students face in school are poverty, homeless families, child abuse and neglect, bullying (including cyber bullying), violence, obesity and eating disorders, sex and pregnancy, suicide, drugs, and dropping out.

This article reviews the first two challenges which are poverty and homeless families. Poverty is a major problem in the United States. The gap is widening between the upper class and the lower class sectors of society. The socioeconomic status of children and their families has a profound effect on children’s education, even in a country that prides itself on equal opportunity and fair treatment of all.

The distribution of wealth is skewed in the United States. The poorest 40% of American citizens receive 12% of the national income. In contrast, the wealthiest 20% receive 51% of the national income. There are more than 36 million impoverished Americans.

  1. While the majority of poor people are White, racial and ethnic minorities have a higher rate of poverty.
  2. More than 17% of American children live in poverty, which constitutes 35% of the poor.
  3. The majority of poor children come from families headed by a single female parent.
  4. Unemployment is a factor in poverty for some, but many are employed and still live below the poverty line.

Contrary to what many believed possible in the past, education has not eliminated poverty. Schools have not been designed to properly serve poor children. They reflect and promote a middleclass way of life. What other challenges do impoverished children experience? They often come from homes that are not adequate in terms of shelter, and they may live in dangerous communities.

  1. In their neighborhood, they may be exposed to drugs, violent crime, and prostitution, and they may turn to these types of activities themselves at an early age.
  2. Parents of children living in poverty often struggle to provide them with enough quality food and medical coverage.
  3. Children living in poverty often come to school without having had enough sleep and without having had breakfast.
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They often experience family violence, abuse, secondhand smoke, neglect, and inadequate clothing. They may not be able to pay for field trips or other extracurricular activities that might expand their experience base. This is the frightening reality for millions of children.

As a teacher, you will likely have impoverished students in your class. Homelessness is another step down on the ladder of poverty. It is a very real problem faced by 1.5 million children. Many homeless families live in shelters in rural or urban areas. With one income and high rent and living expenses, many families are just one emergency away from disaster.

Homeless children still need to have an education, although when they get to school each morning, they are often hungry and tired. Like many children living in poverty, homeless children move frequently, and are exposed to drugs, violence, crime, and more.

Transportation might be an issue for some homeless children, and they miss a great deal of school. When they can attend school, they may be teased about their clothes and the fact they fall asleep in class. They may have difficulty making friends or fear participating in an activity in front of the class.

Although many homeless children are with their families, older homeless children may be runaways or may have been kicked out of their homes. Many have been abused sexually and/or physically. To help homeless families living in homeless shelters or doubling up with another family in an apartment (who are also considered homeless), Congress passed the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in 1987.

This act was put into place to ensure homeless families will receive food, shelter, adult education, job training, and more. Barriers that once kept children out of school, such as not having a birth certificate, proof of immunization, or residency, have been removed by this act. Accordingly, no child is turned away from an education.

Unfortunately, budget cuts in recent years have hampered the development of this program. Teachers who have homeless children in their classroom will need to know how to help and support children without a permanent home. The children may be emotionally needy.

  1. Due to lack of access to bathtubs or showers and little food, they may be dirty and hungry.
  2. Teachers can be an anchor for these children by showing them compassion and understanding.
  3. It may also be a challenge to communicate with parents who do not have regular access to a phone.
  4. Of course, the most important thing for homeless children is that their families find a home.

Teachers might be able to help by working with local agencies, children, and their families to find a solution to their problem. Poverty and homeless families are serious challenges that students may be facing today. Be aware of signs or situations that reflect these problems among your students.
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What online learning challenges you’ve experienced during this pandemic?

The study’s reported that the challenges were communications, assessment, online education experience, technology use tools, time management, anxiety, and coronavirus disease stress. However, students reported positively the effectiveness of online learning during the pandemic.
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What are the common problems faced by students in modular distance learning?

5. Conclusions – North Eastern Mindanao State University, a typical countryside academic institution in the Southern Philippines, did not escape from the impact of COVID-19 on its students. This study on the assessment of learning module retrieval from BSED and BEED students of the university provides insights into the challenges and struggles of the students with remote learning.

  1. The problems faced by the students are enormous and include inadequate learning resources, difficulty understanding the module contents and assessment instructions, overloaded remote learning tasks, poor learning environment, and mental health problems.
  2. However, challenges connecting to the internet seemed to have the largest impact.

Although faced with challenges during the data collection due to pandemic restrictions, our study is the first in Mindanao Island and one of the first few investigations in the Philippines that identified the barriers associated with remote learning amid the pandemic.
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What are the difficult things about teaching online *?

Ans: Some of the online learning challenges faced by teachers are technical issues, student engagement, course content, learning management systems, fear of cheating, etc.
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