Research question: What are the specific pros and cons of distance learning and what can be implemented in this way?

 

Let's first discuss the pros and cons themselves to understand this issue. We had asked our groupmates and friends about distance learning in general and then, according to the answers and our own experience. Of course, we were looking for information from experts about the pros and cons of distance learning, which we will now talk about.

 

We will start with the advantages:                                                                                                                                                 
1) You can learn from anywhere in the world. The training organization provides you with the access to its educational portal, which you can use wherever you are. It is enough just to have Internet access.                                                                                  

2) Low cost of training. The cost of distance learning is significantly lower than for full-time education.                               

3) You don't need to attend an educational institution. All studies are built through the educational portal. You listen to lectures, watch presentations and videos, communicate with other students and teachers, participate in webinars with tutors, do homework, take tests, and so on.                                                                                                                  

4) You can study at any time of the day or night. Access to the educational portal is open around the clock. At any time, you can log in to explore a topic of interest.                                                                                                                                    

5) You can set your own learning rhythm. Each of us has different learning skills. The remote form allows you to learn at a convenient speed.                                                                                                                                                                6) You can return to the studied material again. If you do not understand, you can re-read the lecture, watch the video or presentation you are interested in.                                                                                                                                                    

7) All your questions will not remain unanswered. Questions are asked to the teacher during the lesson, but you can also form them in writing and send them to their personal page with a note with a mandatory answer.

 

Tanya: And now let’s speak about the disadvantages of distance learning:
1) There is no live contact with the teacher. We all know that live communication with a person is most effective, and only then there is communication by phone, in messengers and video conferences.
2) The difficulty of getting practical experience. For example, for training in professions that require working with third-party technical means (driver, crane operator, doctor), the remote form may be difficult.
3) Working in teams of students is difficult. If you need to create a team project, it can be difficult to interact remotely between team members.                                                                                                                                                4) Being on distance learning is often difficult for a person, who wants to assimilate all the information given to him and correctly parse it.

 

Now we will finally move on to what disciplines can be implemented in a remote format without losing students' learning abilities.

 

Nastya: We'll start with the most basic subjects: native language and mathematics. If you start to understand, it is quite easy and convenient to teach your native language in a remote format, and you can send essays to the teacher when it is not problematic to learn the information from the lecture in the lesson. But if we are speaking about math, things are completely different. After receiving information from lectures, a full explanation of how and what to do is still important - AND WHAT’S THE DAMN? HOW I CAN SOLVE THESE F*CKING EXAMPLES? WHY THE TEACHER ALWAYS SHOWS US THE SIMPLEST EXAMPLES IN LECTURES (LIKE 2*2=4) BUT THE HOMETASK GETS OUT LOGARITHMS, EXPONENT AND EVERYTHING ELSE! WHAT IS IT? NOTHING IS UNCLEAR, EVEN IF I WATCHED THESE PRESENTATIONS BY 100 TIMES, АААААААААААААААААААААААААААААААААААА, SOMEBODY HELP ME.

 

Let's summarize and analyze in general. In our world, there are humanitarian and technical sciences. If we speak about the humanities (language learning, literature, writing skills are all from here), then they can be analyzed remotely, because there are no specific problems and narrow rules, there are no clear boundaries and formulas, but there are many interesting instructions and norms, such as language grammar and speaking, knowledge of literary events. Thanks to all of this, you can tell and discuss the humanitarian sciences at a distance without any extra words or explanations.

 

Lisa: Now let's go back to the tricks of Satan and what great scientists still analyze today. Exact sciences (hello, high math, physics, chemistry, etc.). Let's start right away with what usually ends an investigation, with the most important. As you all know during the lecture we are taught to immediately use the formulas, and then understand their meanings and how they appeared. Tutors show us a rule, theorem, formula, goal, in simple examples where everything is painfully obviously, but when students try to do different tasks by themselves, they face with such problems like a lot of exceptions, features and periphrases. Often, a single task contains several formulas that still need to be defined. On the one hand, it doesn't seem very difficult, everything is solved like a matryoshka doll, but here's the catch: while you solve everything in pieces, you lose part of the problem itself and understanding it, because the pieces begin to intertwine strangely, which turns the solution into a mess, and you don't know how to get out of it. You simply do not have enough experience in solving such problems and specific analysis of the task of this level of complexity. Although you can always check the solution, you can get lost in it. In the exact sciences, you always need to be on your guard and sort out the problem from its base, otherwise it will remain a problem. Often the solution is not immediately visible, and with distance learning, even more so, it can be realized only after a few days, when it is not really understood. Everywhere there are subtleties that are extremely difficult to tell in a remote format, and as a result, it is almost impossible to learn everything.

 

As you can understand and feel from your own experience, exact science isn’t so easy to learn in the form of a distance as the humanities, because without direct contact with the teacher, you cannot tell him about all your problems with the perception of information. After all, no thought will return to you after it has faded.

 

Nikita: But what can we do to improve our distance education? Our team discussed this problem and now we are ready to offer some tips to help students and teachers:

1)     If you don’t understand the topic, tell it to your tutor during the lecture. Don’t be shy! Maybe you’re not alone and your groupmates have some problems with understanding this topic too.

2)     Do your homework on time. In this way you will not panic, while doing all the tasks in the last day. Also, it will greatly simplify work to your teachers.

3)     Make an agreement about what online platform will you and the teacher use. It’s much easier to keep all information about the lesson in one place, isn’t it?

4)     Use your microphone and camera to connect with a teacher if he or she asks to do it. We all miss live interaction with the people so showing your face can help you in these hard times. Moreover, it improves discipline and tutors can be sure that you listen to them carefully.

5)     And the last but not least: attend extra classes if you feel necessity in it. Sometimes it is hard to force yourself to do extra work but the sooner you will sign up to extra lectures, the faster you will understand a difficult topic.

 

We hope that our project was interesting and useful for you. Thank you for your attention!