The COVID-19 pandemic first struck the globe in 2019. More than five years later, its impact on education remains visible, with lasting changes to how teachers educate and how students learn.
Since returning to normal in-person classes, many worry the pandemic caused an irreparable setback to learning that continues to impact students to this day. According to the Associated Press, many students have begun making up for lost time, while others continue to fall behind.
According to the AP, students made up one-third of their pandemic losses in math, and one-quarter of their reading losses during the 2022 to 2023 school year. Additionally, in nine states across the country, reading scores maintained a decline during the same year.
Math performances have increased since 2020 in third to eighth grades in Athens, but, following the national trend, reading performances have decreased, according to a data chart from the Education Recovery Scorecard.
Professors and teachers across the country had to find new adaptive ways to teach classes that coincided with the distance the pandemic caused.
However, many teachers did not have the training to operate a class through a computer screen, but had to quickly adapt to the change. According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, about 94% of teachers taught online during the pandemic, but only 16% of those teachers taught online before the pandemic.
Fox Associate Professor of Marketing at Ohio University Jacob Hiler said he once had strong opinions on online teaching prior to the pandemic. However, his opinions have since changed drastically.
As a student in college, Hiler said he was opposed to online learning as he found teachers typically see online classes as an excuse to divert and forfeit attention. When the pandemic hit, Hiler said he knew he needed to alter his teaching methods to ensure learning online would flow smoothly.
“I kind of bridged very quickly into recording video lectures and also producing them in a way more akin to a YouTube video than, say, a lecture in a classroom,” Hiler said.
Hiler said he used his background in streaming and podcasting to curate engaging and creative video lectures for his classes that maintained interest and skillfully taught the course material. Hiler noted his use of applications, such as Discord, and their seamless addition to his course.
Hiler expressed concerns regarding some teachers' abandonment of lessons learned during the pandemic. He recognized the benefits of returning to normal teaching but also argued the pandemic brought new ideas and concepts to teaching that could be extremely beneficial to incorporate in the future.
“A lot of professors and faculty were very quick to throw away the lessons that we learned during COVID and just go right back to the way it was beforehand,” Hiler said.
According to a study by Brookings, teachers who used educational technology prior to the pandemic report are using it more frequently now. Through the use of applications, such as Nearpod, Prodigy and Flowcabulary, teachers are using online tools to help facilitate a smoother and effective learning process.
Loss of educational learning due to the pandemic was not the only impact on students. The pandemic also took students away from classrooms full of peers, removing an important source of social interaction.
According to the study by Brookings, almost 40% of teachers report more students are struggling with depression or anxiety than prior to the pandemic. As a result, teachers have had to adapt their expectations of students by requiring fewer educational learning assignments and more flexibility in deadlines and exams.
Hiler said students who suffered difficulties as a result of the pandemic will be able to assimilate and catch up to where they should be.
“It's about providing students those opportunities to socialize, and then once they get in those situations, they'll catch up,” Hiler said. “It's just about making sure that they have access to them.”
