By: Kaitlyn McMullin

The transition from in-person classes to online learning has been a whirlwind and having to adapt to a new style method of teaching has been difficult for all ages. The transition has hindered the ability of students to stay focused and has caused limited chances to communicate with teachers and students.

Chaffey College student, Alonso Lopez says, “I found it to be a lot more difficult only because it’s just harder to keep in contact with professors. Some of them don't have office hours established, on top of that it's way harder to communicate with students and get other perceptions of certain subjects.”

While being at home is more important than ever during the pandemic, it has caused a downfall in the quality of work being done by students.

A junior high school student, Emily Rios says, “The quality of it is worse than it used to be, I just want the assignment over and done. So that I can move on to the next assignment and get them done quickly to prevent feeling stressed of all the assignments I have to do.”

Communicating with instructors and other students has been difficult, it causes students to rely on themselves and family members in hopes to better understand the subject at hand.

Chaffey College student, Ricardo Esperanza says, "When it first started, it hit me hard, I had trouble grasping the concept, doing the practices during class you have classmates that you're able to get feedback and ideas from. When you are on your own you mess up and question, how? And you have to learn it yourself again.”

Both positive and negative impacts have affected the students, causing them to be more diligent about their schooling, but increasing stress.

High school senior, Madison Mitchell says, “It's affecting my mental health because it's making me more stressed out when I don't understand things.”

“There's some negative and positive benefits, I procrastinate less. I know this is the first time I have to have a dedicated work schedule; I spend about four hours just reading,” states student, Ricardo Esperanza.

Younger students are left feeling confused and frustrated by having to navigate their way online. However, despite these difficulties, they find joy within learning new content.

“Papa didn’t make any sense when trying to help with some of my work so that was hard,” stated second grader, Caleb Underwood.

“It makes me feel kinda weird because I want to be in school, but I like being at home. Sometimes it’s hard to switch classes and I don’t know where to go online,” says fourth grader, Riley Underwood-Landis.

Although online school has mishaps and is necessary for students' health to work from home, students cannot wait to be able to get back onto school grounds.

“I love in school classes, in person learning is a lot easier to understand content,” student Alonso Lopez

Online learning has produced an increase in school work that needs to be completed by students. It has forced students to learn how to navigate through online courses and to be more creative and inventive. All the meanwhile, elevating stress or sadness during this experience.

Students Find Themselves Struggling with Online Learning