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.