The most common argument for why remote learning is more effective than in-person schooling is its flexibility. Makes one wonder if the flexibility here is the ability to wake up, stay in your bed, turn on your camera, log into your Zoom class session then clutch your pillow and return to your sweet dreams while the professor continues to talk to themselves. Or at the very least, have five or six students who are boring enough to stay tuned and engaged in the class. Perhaps the flexibility here is the option to study at an international university without necessarily having to leave your home country. With all the gains and evident drawbacks associated with this, is online learning really more effective? Or is it a fast track to the dreadful doom of a society of ‘illiterate-literate’ people?’ When schools closed owing to restrictions imposed by the government of Rwanda to contain the spread of the Covid-19, Myra Lugwiri, a year two African Leadership University student, found online learning to be a challenging situation. “With online learning, I found it difficult to fully engage in class or grasp content that required the teacher to do it practically, and this was aggravated when my internet connection was unstable, causing me to waste time dropping and re-joining the call, only to get nothing from the facilitator’s shared content at the end of the session,” she says. Lugwiri also highlights in her argument that for a country like Rwanda, where technology is still a starter, online learning still has a lot of hindrances. “In-person is efficient because it is not hampered by power and internet connectivity, both of which are frequently out of our control,” she says. She adds, “In-person learning allows you to interact with the facilitator in person, allowing you to obtain the help you need quickly and effectively. One is able to describe their concern and explain it in full practically, and can be asked questions which prevents some details from being lost. One also has the opportunity to interact with their classmates, which is beneficial when doing peer work.” For Emmanuel Dusenge, a 2021 university graduate, remote learning allowed him to complete his bachelor’s degree while continuing to work as soon as the Covid-19 restrictions were eased. “I remember how tough it was for me to balance in-person classes with my employment schedule. I had quit my job since it was just impossible to meet both standards. But when I acquired a job a few months ago while finishing my education online, I was able to balance the two and it became a lot simpler for me to do so,” he explains. According to an article from Educations, ‘5 reasons why online learning is the future of education’, remote learning is more accessible, and it allows individuals to learn or teach from anywhere in the world. It states that learning this way provides a broader selection of programs, with an increasing number of colleges and higher education institutions offering online versions of their programs at various levels and disciplines. Also, in terms of infrastructure and other costs, this mode of learning is believed to be more economical and cost-effective. One of the lessons learned from Covid-19 is that even if the world were to come to a complete halt, some sectors, such as education, should continue to function in some sort. The world’s future is unquestionably secured by the education imparted. So, in a future where it can’t afford to stop, solutions to challenges impeding online learning should be devised, as well as advantageous conditions for when it is deemed an absolute necessity in the future.
