The Effect of COVID-19 on Education: Challenges and Opportunities

The educational system of the whole world is going through a huge challenge because of Covid-19. Most of the countries have closed the colleges and universities and moved to online teaching. Although online teaching is the best option to ensure the continuity of the learning process, yet there are some challenges of online teaching:

1- Passive Learning

Modern methods of teaching focus mainly on student-centered learning and encourage student’s active interaction and participation. Asking students to watch a video or to read a document only may be dull. Learning will be passive because there is not an active face-to-face interaction between the students and the teacher and lack instant feedback.

2- Social Isolation

Besides being a place to learn and develop skills, schools and universities are also places for social activity and interaction. The student develops social skills and learns to communicate with others. The lack of personal interaction inside the class between the teacher-student and student-student creates a social distance. Therefore, teachers should keep in touch with their students with the available platforms.

3- Assessment

Closing universities and going toward online teaching affected a key element in the teaching process, which is assessment. Formative assessment is significant to evaluate the students during the course. Changing to online exams may lead to more evaluation errors than usual because it is a new area for both teachers and students and because of having problems with the internet or required resources.

Beside of these negative points, there are some points that represent an opportunity to improve the education system:

1- The Structure of the Educational System

Going through this crisis gave institutions and universities a chance to reflect on their structure. To find out the weak and strong points in their system. It is a challenge for all teaching staff and supervisors to show their efficiency and ability to work under difficult circumstances and using technology effectively.

2- The Importance of Collaboration

Coronavirus outbreak and the current situation have shed light on the importance of collaboration and cooperation. Teachers are collaborating and helping each other and the students to go through this period. Although online teaching is effective but it cannot completely replace classroom teaching. This shows the significance of active communication between the students and teachers.

3- New Teaching Tools are used “blended learning”

The inability to attend regular class sessions forced teachers to look for new innovative tools for teaching. Many teaching softwares and platforms are used nowadays. Even after the end of covid-19, teaching will not go back as it was. We all realized the great role of technology and it positive impact on education.