Studying in groups or online

For almost two years, students have been learning from home with no social interaction with their peers. In terms of marks, good results were provided by benevolent teachers as students had to spend long hours working alone with little help. In this essay, it will be discussed how necessary is for a student to work cooperatively. Learning online is a trend due to the pandemic situation we are currently living in. Some people say that it provides comfort and adaptation to their children. Conversely, what at first seemed to be a great idea soon became dramatic for both families and teachers. Indeed, students spent long work hours doing different tasks, which triggered loneliness, anxiety, boredom and desperation. In most cases, it has been proved that parents were the ones that did the homework in order to remedy this unusual situation, so teachers were extremely flexible when grading. Collaborative learning is indeed the perfect tool for students to learn. Even though some shy people do not want to be in teamwork at first, they soon realise the benefits of learning in groups. Diversity enhances the possibility of acquiring new knowledge as everybody is good at something, so they can put their experience in common and create amazing things together. In order to do so, there is no other option than to stay in class to work. It is true that technology has widened the possibilities to meet up online, but to take advantage of it, maturity is required. For this reason, only undergraduates and graduates shall find it a great tool to work with. To sum up, it has been exposed the difficulty of studying online with no collaboration at all. Some people will defend those online lessons as good progress in education. Nevertheless, social contact and collaboration in class enrich student’s understanding, create strong relations and raise the consciousness of equality and respect to other’s opinions.