The comparative effect of remote instruction on students and teachers

In March 2020, it was announced that the United States would undergo a lockdown. COVID-19 disrupted education systems globally, with schools transitioning from in-person learning to remote instruction. This change in the classroom setting greatly affected students and teachers alike. Students learning remotely were easily distracted due to their environment, and teachers lacked experience teaching a class virtually. Our research was designed to explore remote classroom instruction from both students’ and teachers’ perspectives in hopes of discovering the academic and social impact of remote learning. Being aware of the opinions of students and teachers can help to recognize flaws in remote learning, as well as identify possible improvements that can be made to current virtual systems implemented by schools. In this study, high school students and teachers responded to a survey consisting of Likert-type scale, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions regarding various aspects of remote instruction. After analyzing the data collected, we found that remote learning impacted high school students academically and socially. Students took longer to complete assignments, and both students and teachers felt that students do not learn as much in remote learning compared to in-person instruction. Additionally, students were not collaborative during group work. There was also difficulty in forming student-teacher bonds. However, most high school students demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the topics, and an overall negative impact on students' grades was not detected. As for sleep, there were mixed responses as to whether students received more sleep during remote instruction.