Brooks 1

Marvin Brooks

Prof. Strehle

English 1201

3/28/2021

The Effects of Online and In-Person Learning

The current events of today concerning the virus have dropped yet increased as students

are reported to return to in-person classes next year, though nobody ever knows what the future

will reveal. As of last year students, faculty, and parents alike have worried about the simple

troubles of in-person as the virus, social distancing, and quarantining while online poses lag,

internet loss, or not showing up to google meets, meanwhile we have ignored the affects of our

current school system such as our mental well beings. Throughout this school year 1 out of 5

students whether online or in-person either student or teacher have been experiencing the

effects of this global pandemic in our schools as they may be diagnosed with these symptoms

and don’t know it until I explain it here, so if you tune in I’ll explain to all how online learning and

in-person learning have affected our students and faculty.

My first source for this research question of mine is a web-based survey from the

South of Iran which covers students not only in this country. The article describes that the

mental state of these kids is affecting their attitude and sleeping patterns which from living in

this I agree with it as well. The article also mentions a questionnaire on how the kids of Fares

were doing as to prove a point. Many of the results came back saying that their sleep patterns

were altered by their new conditions and some sleep for 12 hrs a day as well as play games

more and watch tv in boredom. The tests were conducted in March of 2020 which was last year,

so viewpoints and new facts could have been discovered since however the mental state of the
students was more so created via lack of in-person teachings and a lost passion for school in

general.

The second and third sources kinda talk about the same topic in a similar way. They

both talk about how students are affected by quarantine mentally or physically as one poses

that without much research within this topic or any topic in general people jump to conclusions

causing a fuss about it which thankfully most seldom means anything unlike this article. The

articles themselves tap into the statement that mental health affects adolescents easily and

could lead to dangerous calamities within the mental state of a child or even facility in-person or

remote. The students they describe do in fact have altered sleeping hours such as sleeping for

11 to 12 hours a day at the longest. The last part of these articles tells us that while the long

term effects of the mental states created by covid are still unknown, tips for avoiding this state of

mind would be to distract yourself with work, friends, showers, to-do-lists, and mental exercises

to keep yourself occupied.

The fourth source tells us on how the facility side is still as hard of conditions for them as

much as the students. The “covid fatigue” as it’s described within the article has shown that

teachers have been “struggling to ensure that their students are getting the best education

possible given the current challenges”. The article breaks down the different kinds of mental

states such as compassion fatigue, covid fatigue, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts

which are a few that affect our students and teachers as well (especially compassion fatigue for

the teachers). The fifth source is explaining what these symptoms of fatigue and boredom are

and how to combat them and recover from it all. The article goes into the meat and potatoes

telling us about the decreased amounts of time for learning for students and less time for

teachers to connect and learn about their students and their learning preferences as no student
as the same learning style to fit them though some do come close to one or another fellow

students, but this matter as most students wouldn’t be at the school anyways. The article sums

it up explaining that the education system needs to embrace the whole child approach that was

before this pandemic and how to keep it comprehensive as well as relieving our students.

Now let’s get critical about these topics and talk about the key points of these articles. The

first I found that stood out to me was this “Quarantine has worsened my anxiety to a point it

hasn’t before,” sophomore Ally Wilson said. “Worrying about my own health on top of others is

hard for me.” which leads to proof that this problem is indeed causing these mental states that

were mentioned in paragraph four. Though I also found that this line “Not only do people have to

worry about themselves, but they’re also worrying about loved ones” from Kai equals with the

quote “By definition, a good teacher is one that cares about their students. With more and more

students feeling vulnerable, teachers are being exposed to more of their struggles. As a result,

they are more likely to experience compassion fatigue” from the TFA are related in a sense that

some experience it differently than others as compassion fatigue causes us to lose feelings of

care or loss for others including family in some cases like my grandmother ( I didn’t know this

until now).

The next is within Kai’s once more shows this “Despite her relief at being online, 100%

virtual schooling has been hard for Layton” even though within article number three states that

in-person and how keeping kids within these masks may prove to be difficult, yet 100% is also

agreed to be just as hard as in-person seems just with less risks to COVID-19. The schools

currently are trying to accommodate for the seniors as Wayne High School is currently holding a

“mask”querading for the in-person people (pun intended) yet online may get something in

return for those who can’t make it to the prom in person so they might balance it out to help still

try and give the online seniors a relieving sign off for the year they never asked for this way.
 The most common misconception is that online gets it easy for what it’s worth and that in-

person in a sense is suffering, though as I pointed out earlier that this isn’t the case as anxiety

rises and tensions grow as you come to realize that this method of learning does have it’s fair

share of downsides and you can’t ask for help all the time, there’s no break between classes,

the work piles easily, and the fact that you can’t see your friends face to face is torturous

enough as it is just seeing dots with letters if they don’t turn on their cameras.

Symptoms such as compassion fatigue have been seen not only with teachers as certain

parents have been developing this during their long hours at work which then festers inside and

affects the students now when they go to school. The situation for now has gone unnoticed by

some if not a lot, but if you were to take a closer look at these students in-person or online you’d

start to notice the drastic changes in their schedules from before and how COVID-19 has

affected our schools. The symptoms range from the common being anxiety to the not so

common being compassion fatigue which could thus lead to the fatal edge being thoughts of

suicide which I know of some who have thought of this as a way out of this with one of my

friends having committing it before this all went down. The work that piles on from in-person and

online have led to being the cause for some of this as it touches into the anxiety of living to

expectations this year trying to stay on top of things and making sure to move up a grade or

even graduate this year alone, which explains why some of the kids who don’t commonly put in

such effort don’t experience such symptoms compared to the straight edged seniors who wish

to leave the high schools and lead onto college.

The point being we all can rightfully agree that COVID sucks regardless on how you

view it and how much time you put into data crunching about it( trust me, it wasn’t pretty),
though I’m glad that in the world people are figuring out ways to combat it and it’s physiological

effects on your mind by doing research into it and figuring out that keeping your mind busy at

school and home by giving yourself study challenges or exercise mentally and physically. Note

that in the near future the crisis of COVID-19 may end and a new generation of kids don’t have

to witness or be harmed by this wretched virus, but until then I shall do more research into it as

maybe in “my” future I could help stop this madness with a scientific breakthrough that could

save the world and spare the innocent lives of many.

The resilience of some have proven that there are ways to counteract the symptoms

as easily as you could develop them being ways to distract yourself or pass the time. One way

to pass the time is by drawing as it doesn’t require a skill set for it as anyone can draw no matter

who does it always comes out as art regardless of bias as let’s face it anything is art. Drawing

isn’t the only way to pass the time with art as painting, sketching, or even arts and crafts help

distract the mind from anxiety, though it would hurt as it piles on the workload. The second best

way to help is by gaming, as questionable as this is it does help build hand eye coordination as

it does require a lot of that as I speak for experience. Then again this does interfere with your

schedule sometimes as it may develop either clots or late chores to pile on so if you manage to

somehow balance your school work, you may fall back on your home chores. The final way of

defying these symptoms is by anything to pass the time for said time period such as a study hall

for in-person or the Wednesdays that we have (they’re shortened school days and their online

exclusive only so no one is allowed on school premises except teachers.) during lunch as

though for you this is used for school work and not anything else, but if the work is done you

could use one of the three methods to pass the time when nothing is happening.
 As for dealing with the work you have to buckle down in your homework instead of the

pressure as this will help you even during the toughest moments of life which it does helps get

used to pressure situations.

Students aren’t only losing within the psychological side of things since physically

they’re being stripped of their academic requirements. Hands on learning is a crucial thing that

is required within adolescents and teens in all schools and as coronavirus has hit our

communities, schools are forced to withdraw from these strategies. Loved ones such as

girlfriends or boyfriends may have families that distrust their significant other and would prohibit

PDA or any affection between leading to heart breaks and separation issues developing in their

future relationships. Peer driven social/emotional development and fear of losing touch in-

person are some of the things lost due to COVID-19 and in some cases are not obtainable

anymore as their loved ones or loss of loved ones may cause the family to eject or prevent their

child from going to school in-person and would have to keep them at bay online. The colored

community has been hit the worst as the virus as proven to be more effective towards the black

community and as the students already face discrimination, their lives alone have been changed

drastically so much that some of their schedules are unrecognizable from before the pandemic.

Burnout is another symptom that both teachers and students should look out for as

facilities that house such environments of social distancing, depression, stress, and the piled on

work while trying to live up to expectations burnouts can occur. Teachers can avoid this as the

need to work on creating a boundary between work and home as it starts to become a thin line

very easily and work from both tends to pile on over time, so creating a system to give yourself

is the best means of avoiding this especially if said teacher has children as they’re more likely to

have this be the case. Active self-care is a good means to keep yourself in check and to focus
on giving self-love and to enjoy the good in life by taking a breath and a long sigh to ease the

stress on your life which could lead to meditating.

Many believe that the shift to online and the closing of certain schools had negative

effects on the students who attended these schools as one it happened out of nowhere and two

it separated many friends from each other as some students see school as a facility to vent

about life, hobbies, sports, home, and even work, so taking such an important environment and

stripping it from someone’s day to day life has drastic ramification on anyone well being student.

Some schools were studied to prove this statement as most kids didn’t have the will to focus or

even do school work to begin with as roughly 70% for reading gains shows the decline from

92% while math is even lower scoring less than 50% in learning gains for the arriving year of

2021. Graphs help us understand the findings of research and illustrate said knowledge into an

image comparable to all and proves said research right, wrong, or equal to another, well since I

can’t physically make a graph appear ( let alone if I’m allowed to put an image within an essay)

I’ll describe what the graph foretells. The graph shows the MAP growth percentiles within math

from grades 3-8th during the Fall of 2019 and 2020 and as you “can’t” see since I can’t show the

image( should be in work cited page wink wink) it describes how over the year the returning

student’s performance was pretty lackluster within the math department from percentages like

4th grade’s 58% in 2019 to their low 47% in 2020 which shows the drastic difference.

Many students who have discovered these mental health issues have been studied upon to

see why the numbers were drastically boosted, thus finding that this is the cause of the

student’s day to day life and how it has changed. These numbers have been rising over the

years as the new generation has been proving to have the most of these cases so far from

sources like the Trevor Project and The World Health Organization which are some of the few
who have tapped into this topic of research. Many students suffer from caring for their own

health as well as the well-being of someone else too which causes problems for the student as

in paragraph four of article number five “Quarantine has worsened my anxiety to a point it hasn’t

before,” sophomore Ally Wilson said. “Worrying about my own health on top of others is hard for

me” (Neve-Jones, Kai). Many teachers too have the care for others well-being including

themselves, though as discussed earlier not caring for someone else’s health may lead to

compassion fatigue which hinders you from feeling compassion for others which implies that

you need to keep a steady pace between the ones who impact you life such as family, best

friends, and colleagues. The online half has affected some on a positive and negative aspect as

some see it easy to manage with distractions such as other students not in the picture anymore,

meanwhile others describe it as grueling with how much work there is and the constant usage of

the computer has lowered the confidence in some students. Within this article this quote

describes the info on kids with anxiety “According to the CDC, Over 7% of children aged 3-17

years, about 4.4 million kids, have diagnosed anxiety as six in 10 of those 4.4 million received

treatment”(Neve-Jones, Kai) which would explain why there are many children who go

unchecked for it or not which not knowing it could affect the people, places, and things around

them as many adolescents tend to carry this and small things in life could set off panic attacks

as what if you fail a test because of one mistake or cause someone to die by not reading a label

for an allergy prone friend (true story for me at least). We as people who go to school need to

keep in mind of all of the injustice in the world, the war in politics, and the rumors of disturbing

side-effects from vaccines for this virus which could all cause a lot of stress on anyone even

your teachers especially if they have a love one or special friend who could be in the hospital as

I type this and you read you never know, so the next time you see someone who’s suffering

from the effects of anxiety or stress or needs someone to talk to you gotta be there for them and

help them see the bright side of things.

 The reasoning behind the paragraph you just read is simple yet important

nonetheless as it could hopefully save our future generations from what we suffer from. Stress

is a big factor in all of this as it plays a roll in the mind stimulating these feelings of dread,

helplessness, and anxiety which could lead to depression or thoughts of suicide. While stress

may be the cause of it, nobody is innocent as we all are capable of causing stress on each other

and trust me it’s never pretty. Sometimes it could be by accident which you can’t really avoid

since accidents happen as mistakes make us human, though if something or someone is

causing this on purpose you might want to reconsider moving away from the source of the

stress. The cause if on purpose should be removed from your day to day life as it may cause

these symptoms or psychological illnesses, however if the stress is from a job, school, or family

I suggest this for you. Focus on hobbies in free time and relax while trying to not rush everything

for someone’s expectations as not everyone can, so try as best as you can when doing your

work and try not worry about it. The stress from work can go if you practice to not take work

home with you as this goes with family as well as you experience more stress here than work as

it’s the people that your working for in the first place to support and cherish deep down, so

losing them at a time period like this would be horrific as it is any other time though COVID-19

would make it worse. The best you could do for them is to watch and see how your family copes

with it and be there for them to help with fun, entertainment, work, and love in-doors. The

pandemic has stressed many people as not just people who have a family as not everyone is

willing to die as it’s the human spirit, will, and the literal reason why we’re born is to live and

thrive no matter the circumstances, so it’s our duty to help all during this pandemic as to prevent

as little stress for others just make sure to not over exert yourself in the end. The vaccine has

brought the ideas of a COVID-19 free future with little to no stress yet viruses never seem to

leave our history we just find minimal cures for them, but although the future is not written for

anyone and it seems misty try to stay at ease and try to experience the joys of some friends,

jobs, family time, and life.

 I believe this paper has gone on long enough and if someone stuck around this long, it

must have a lot of free time on your hands or they’re interested in the conclusion of this factual

draft. The rise and fall of the reports for the virus have convinced the faculty to send their

students to in-person classes for next year thinking that this would be okay, though after running

through all of this information I say it’s better to go to school in-person rather than online. Online

suffer on the psychological side as the constant day in day out routine of sitting at the computer

and doing piles of homework/ CCP work (no offense) messes with the normal flow of someone’s

mind and it causes one to start to lose the will to do the same routine everyday as it gets boring

and drawn-out leading to compassion fatigue from not regularly seeing the struggles of others in

the world but instead your computer screen. The routine of going to school changes with testing,

breaks, concerts, and even some high schools are schools are having a prom still as they’re

taking many precautions for it as to not risk everyone there for the special night, thus creating

things that online could only dream of going through instead of typing out mathematics on your

computer and typing to friends when you can’t even hear them verbally especially if the text fails

or glitches which doesn’t happen in-person. Stress is a thing which in-person a therapist at your

school could give advice and friends are there till the end unless all you can see of them is their

initials online in circles which don’t smile back or talk if they're muted or talk during lunch.

Friends and compassion from friends are the best medicine for these symptoms since the lack

of them is capable of causing them while keeping them close will have you feeling warm inside,

thus explaining that the confines of online and the risk of in-person are causing such symptoms

of depression, anxiety, etc, though with the proper practice, hobbies, advice, and close friends

all will be well.

 1. Ranjbar, Kevian. “Students' attitude and sleep pattern during school closure following
COVID-19 pandemic quarantine: a web-based survey in the south of Iran.”Environmental
Health & Preventive Medicine 3/10/2021, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p1 10p ,
https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=fdf9c64f-6ae3-
4273-9a84-88f597c07636%40sdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU
%3d#AN=149171403&db=s3h Accessed March 10, 2021.

2. Garcia, Emma. Weiss, Elaine. “COVID-19 and student performance, equity, and U.S.
education policy” Economic Policy Institute September 10, 2020
https://www.epi.org/publication/the-consequences-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-for-
education-performance-and-equity-in-the-united-states-what-can-we-learn-from-pre-
pandemic-research-to-inform-relief-recovery-and-rebuilding/ Accessed March 12, 2021.

3. TFA Editorial Team, “Tackling COVID-19 Fatigue as a Teacher” AmeriCorps October 20,
2021
https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/tackling-covid-19-fatigue-as-a-teacher Accessed March
12, 2021.

4. Kuhfeld, Megan. “How is COVID-19 affecting student learning?” Brookings communities

December 3, 2021
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/12/03/how-is-covid-19-affecting-
student-learning/ Accessed March 13, 2021.

5. Neve-Jones, Kai. “Quarantine and online school has affected the mental health of
students and teachers alike”. Knight Life November 19, 2020.
https://knightlifenews.com/23957/feature/quarantine-and-online-school-has-affected-the-
mental-health-of-students-and-teachers-alike/ Accessed March 13, 2021.