COVID-19 has caused many changes and difficulties throughout the world including how school is being taught this year and all everyone is hearing about are the negatives. This school year may look quite different than previous years but it has provided some potential positives that students especially may enjoy. 

Hybrid and remote learning at first was a questionable topic, whether it was going to be more time consuming or if the curriculum was going to be more laborious than being in the classroom. Even I had doubts on whether my senior year was going to be ruined due to not being in school full time. 

Online school promotes flexibility for those who enjoy working at their own pace and are self motivators. These students have the capability to have other responsibilities such as having jobs and having more free time outside of the school day. 

According to ECPI University, there are three main steps to succeed in online schooling. The three steps include being persistent, creating a conducive study environment and increasing your time management skills. 

Not only does distance learning promote flexibility in students’ personal lives but it also increases how easy it is to get to school. In some cases, students are required to get on virtual meetings such as Google Meet or Zoom which can be done from anywhere with Internet connection. This in turn means that online learning could ultimately be more affordable due to the fact that all the school supplies you will need is a device that you can access the schools’ website, instead of getting prominently unnecessary supplies per teachers’ request. 

According to ECPI University, this is not the case for students who are procrastinators and need that extra push to get their work done. These students are less likely to succeed in online school if they are not self starters. According to the Stanford School of Business, students that are unable to self motivate themselves have a higher chance of dropping out when participating in online schooling. 

In most cases, students that have a hard time motivating themselves can be identified by the work that they complete. Studies show that students that are unmotivated will take the flexibility provided with online schooling for granted and show lack of desire to complete the work assigned with acceptable effort. Instead, these students often face a rush to get their assignments done and not enough time spent learning the material provided. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some students are forced to undertake fully remote learning due to underlying health conditions and other unforeseen factors. While many other students are participating in hybrid learning or receive some form of face to face learning. Often, face to face learning requires less self discipline as fully online schooling would enforce. In the college setting about 12% of students choose to get their degree fully online rather than going into a classroom. According to general statistics, it is believed that these students chose this route due to the fact that it generally promotes a flexible schedule.