Covid-19 caused schools all over the US to close, which resorted to online classes. But what effect did online class have on the students? Students had to resort to learning on their own with email as the only real contact with teachers. 

             During this time, teachers would post their work for the week and the students would finish the work. In a poll sent to the students of AHS, they were asked if having online classes had affected their grade in any way, 111 students responded, 80 saying it did affect their grades, and 34 saying it didn’t. But was this affect good or bad?

Sixty-five students responded saying their grades were negatively affected by online classes. They found it difficult to maintain focus and they lost motivation to do classes work. One student replied, “ I lost all motivation for school once they canceled sports and I had to get a full-time job”. Some students replied that they struggled to teach themselves the material and getting in contact with teachers was difficult. One student said, “I’m failing most of my classes but I’ve put so much effort into all my assignments and I don’t understand why I’m failing.”  Though these students found online classes difficult, there are students who felt the opposite. Around 25 students felt that their grades either stayed the same or even improved. One student said, “it has been very easy and I now have A+’s in all my classes as opposed to just A’s.”

While some students found it easy to keep their grades up, a lot more found it difficult. But what made such a dramatic difference? Many students have found that lack of communication has been a problem, they learn better in a classroom with the teacher present to help them, assignments though online were difficult to understand. Many even described that their home life is not the right condition for class. Some students have younger siblings, as one student responded, “ Now that all the kids are home instead of at school I have to babysit my siblings while my parents are at work. That means cooking and cleaning on top of schoolwork.” Though students found many problems with online classes, alternate reasoning could be on the student.

Keeping up with school work is important, while the majority 62 students of 114 replied that they have kept up with assignments, 16 replied that they haven’t. There are students who fall in the middle, 36 students replied that they find difficulties in keeping up, but have been trying their best. 

With classes coming to an end, hopefully students find the motivation they are looking for to get their grades up and end the year with their desired grades.