No one ever would have predicted the country to be in this situation, let alone the world. It was clear that returning to schools would be unlikely but on this scale is absolutely insane. Practically every school across the map is locked down until most likely a vaccination for the virus is discovered. Even then it is unlikely that large schools like ours will bring back its students.

It all started when Ohio State University moved classes to online. When it was announced that a Big Ten school took the initiative, it was inevitable that most schools across the nation would follow. To my surprise it seems that professors have been able to respond quickly and have been doing a great job working hard to transition online. There’s obviously a lot of kinks that will need to be worked out, but the educational system has shown to defend itself against the virus. It goes to show how important knowledge is to the people.

However, with this new online system in place for schools and universities, the amount of stress and pressure put on everyone has skyrocketed. Students, professors, parents, and workers have all reported feeling high levels of stress with everything happening. The stock markets plummeting, the grocery shelves being empty, the social distancing and much more has caused mass panic in the states.

With all of these things happening, including the load of school work, many students report that that they feel fear and worry about the health of loved ones, are having difficulty sleeping and concentrating, and many students say they are experiencing changes in eating patterns.

These issues that students of all ages are experiencing may cause a significant decrease in grades. These problems are becoming more important priorities for kids to fix, which may lead to students putting less emphasis on their education. Online courses also report to show that students are less motivated to attend courses as many know that attendance will most likely not be counted. And for those who do attend online lectures, many have said that they are experiencing lagging, constant cut in audio, and many other difficulties – this issue seemed inevitable but hopefully overtime the quality will become better. A last issue that scholars are facing with the online educational system is the ability to get questions answered. Many students said that they are worried they will struggle with course material because it will be difficult to get their questions answered.

This is no doubt a stressful time for all people. For the students out there, I will talk about in my next blog what is recommended for you to get through this difficult time and how to succeed with online classes.

 

“Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 Mar. 2020, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/managing-stress-anxiety.html.