Some weeks ago, I wrote an article about tips for distance learning. While distance learning is amazing for working-studying students like me, or digital nomads like some of my classmates, it does have some downside.

In this article, I will tell you 5 reasons that made me wanted to give up distance learning sometimes. Of course, don’t get discourage from this article, there are a lot more amazing sides of distance learning as well!

 

  • Internet access

Internet connection is probably the biggest pain for me during the online master. As I live in the remote area in South Sudan, it is already luxury to have internet access.

Since my internet speed is not as fast as many of my classmates as well as teachers, I was forced to miss some of the seminars since some lecturers requested students to turn their microphone on all the time, which was not possible for me at all. Turning microphone on meant that I might not be able to follow the discussions when all the sounds messed up, and since I had about 5 seconds delay whenever I spoke, it would disturb many others as well. Well, it was the lecturer’s decision. Although I found it unfair and exclusive to many students who did not have great internet access, the lecturer refused to apologize or accepted students who could write in chat in the seminar.

I believe that internet access is one of the major issues for most of the students outside of the Global North, and if we would like to have a more inclusive and equal world of education in the future, internet access must be taken into consideration.

 

  • Devices

I am lucky enough to have several devices for learning: a laptop, a phone, and a tablet. However, I do know some of people who did not have the privilege of accessing to electronic devices. This could also be a big issue when students living in the remote areas, where people could not find any places to fix their devices if it’s broken.

Maybe online learning could also result in other forms of devices in the future? I don’t know how yet, but I believe there are ways to make distance learning more accessible for all.

 

  • Communication with classmates

Alright, here is the tricky part. While I did find myself talk a lot with my classmates, I do know many people who did not have much interactions with other peers. It is the common problem among all distance learning programs, as we are not in the actual classrooms face to face, we cannot have the same experience as on campus programs.

To interact more with classmates, one thing I always encouraged my peers to do was to create an interest club. For example, for our Gender Studies program, we created a small group to discuss about decolonization and feminism in the Global South. We have regular phone calls, share ideas and resources. In this way, we were able to build up a deeper connection between each other.

Maybe try to arrange some offline meet ups if time and space allow? That will be amazing if it works!

  • Pressure and depression

I often felt lonely during distance learning, and the pressure from deadlines were also enormous. After searching online for a bit, and talking to some of my friends who were also studying online masters, I realized that I was not the only one.

Yoga and meditation for sure helped me a lot, and it was important that I had good food most of the time. For anyone who are going through any potential depression from distance learning, I also recommend counselling sessions. LiU offers counselling sessions for students, and there are also many other places for counselling, both in person and online.

If you feel similar ways, don’t worry, you are not alone.

 

  • Time

The last part I would like to talk about is the conflict of time. Most of students doing distance learning programs are working and studying at the same time, however, nearly all the live lectures were during working hours. Well, I do not have much suggestions about it, and I still have not figured out the best ways to deal with it.

Do you have any suggestion? Leave comments below and let me know what do you think!

 

*All photos are from Unplash freely-usable images.
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