Challenges of the emergency shift to remote learning
While students and professors were advised to work from home, new
challenges surfaced including lack of availability of a suitable
workspace at home and/or having young children; both of which could have
negative impacts on the academic progress and productivity (Korbel &
Stegle, 2020). Low socioeconomic status and lack of required hardware
for successful completion of the remote learning activities as well as
living in a busy or abusive household could also negatively compound the
projected negative impacts on the students’ ability to productively
engage in academic activities (Soland et al., 2020). In a paper
commissioned by the Australian government, researchers identified key
areas of concern during the pandemic. These include 1) “material
divide”, lack of access to the resources and infrastructure; 2)
“digital divide” or lack of knowledge of online communication
platforms; 3) skills divide in terms of the coping and adaptability
skills (Centre for International Research on Education Systems (CIRES)
and Mitchell Institute, 2020). These challenges equally apply to
students and teaching professors. While the universities are going
through the uncertain times, it is vital that challenges of online
learning is fully taken into account and mitigated especially as many of
the institutions are projecting remote learning into the fall semester.