Comparing Online Learning and Offline Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

 Learning has become one of our responsibilities since the first time we came into this world. In this era, learning becomes one of the things that is so important to do. Because as we have known, there are a lot of tricky things in this world which always give negative impacts on others. Since it is now the time of the pandemic, some schools from over the world must learn from home or have online classes. This must be a new thing for some people who always have face-to-face classes before COVID-19 exists.

              Both online learning and offline learning have positive and negative impacts. Lessons in face-to-face classes are more understandable than in online classes. Besides that, offline classes ease us to interact with the teacher properly and directly. However, offline learning is more tiring than online learning because it needs a lot of energy to do extra things that we don’t need to do in online classes, such as going to school by transportation. While in online classes, we save a lot of time because we don’t need to spend our time on things that we need to do in offline classes, such as going to school, heading out to the canteen, and going home.

              Based on a survey done by Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia (KPAI), 78% of students want to go back to face-to-face classes. The reason why the students prefer face-to-face classes is 57% because of the difficulties to understand some subjects, and some activities that cannot be done in an online class. This must be one of the most stressful things during online classes. Because once we get stuck in a matter, then it will make us stressed and bring us down. This reason will surely affect our overall life because we will not be able to concentrate on other activities. Besides that, we feel the simple tasks become more difficult than they used to be.

              When I was in an online class, I thought the offline class would be more effective than the online one. But when I had my first day being in offline class, I found it so hard because my school is a boarding school and I need to meet a lot of people every single day which is not easy. This is such an issue for those who have social anxiety or panic attacks while being surrounded by many people, including me. I was not able to focus on my class that I ended up missing the explanation that my teacher gave. I had no idea how to adapt to this situation and I almost gave up on this school. As the time went on, I realized that the hardship I faced was just a part of my journey and it was not as hard as my expectation, and from this experience, I learn that society is not as good as I thought, there are so many characters that I need to face, new friends, and new things. Since then, I have always tried to accept that I will always not be in a comfortable zone. Sooner or later, I will have to face this kind of situation and accept society for the way it is and learn from it.

              Since it is pandemic, it is not really safe to have offline classes even when we do a shifting system because we cannot guarantee that they don’t do anything that can get them infected with COVID-19. As we can see there are still many people who still care less about keeping their distance from each other, not washing their hands, or not even wearing their mask. This surely will be dangerous because they might get infected with COVID-19 without realizing it, and if that happens, then that person automatically will impact other people too, either in her home or in her school. In terms of safety, online learning is safer than offline learning. However, in terms of effectiveness, offline learning is more effective than online learning and I think offline learning gives more benefits than online learning does.

Why do I say so?

              Even though it is hard to have face-to-face classes, we will eventually get used to it. At the first time, most of us might think that having face-to-face class is so hard which makes us doubt to not be able to face this situation, but I believe that this is the process of adapting and dealing with the things we once thought we would never be able to do. Dealing with society is not that easy but we cannot change all the things that we cannot adapt to, all we can do is to accept the situation and do our best. We can never escape from the difficult situation, we can only learn to live through it.

              In offline classes, we will have so many activities in the class which make us more confident of facing some things. Such as speaking in front of many people, interacting with people directly, and making a friend with them. However, the most prominent weakness that has been shown is in managing time. We must feel so tired after going home from school which causes us to put off doing the things that we could actually finish them that moment.

              Even though offline classes give more benefits than online classes do, it doesn’t mean that online classes don’t give any benefits. When the teacher is explaining something in an online class, we can record it as a preparation for the exams that will be conducted in the last term. Compared to offline classes, online classes give us more free time than offline classes do. Besides that, we can manage time well, and get enough rest. However, if it is online, willy-nilly we need technology both for studying and communicating with each other. This technology such as a phone, a laptop is not always working well. In another word, sometimes the connection is so bad that we end up missing the lesson. Besides, we sometimes cannot hear what the teacher is saying because of the bad connection. Also, recording assignment is so stressful, especially when the storage of our phone accidentally runs out when we almost finish it.

              For the above reasons, I fervently believe that even though we get more free time in online learning, offline learning is more effective than online learning. Offline learning teaches us how to be brave and face society. In offline classes, we need to be an attentive person because we cannot really search anything up on the internet. It also teaches us how to be disciplined by going to school in time, having lunch in time, praying in time, etc. Even though it is hard at first, I believe that we will be able to face and go through this situation. This is how we learn to see the real side of life, never be as good as we think. That is how life looks like, we need to go through many hard times and face many things to become a successful person. This journey may have lots of twists and turns, but all we have to do is to get along with the ride and learn how it works for us. We will figure things out along the way.

Reference:

https://nasional.kontan.co.id/news/survei-kpai-78-siswa-menginginkan-pembelajaran-tatap-muka

Name: Amalia Aswandi

Age: 16 years old

Birthdate: November 30^th, 2005

Address: Prumnas wekke’e blok C angsa 1 street number 6

School: SMAN 5 PAREPARE