This photo, taken April 9, 2020, shows a high school student taking online classes at her home in Goyang, west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SUWON, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Students from Gyeonggi Province believe that online classes allow them to take classes whenever they want, without having to worry about becoming infected with the coronavirus, a recent study revealed.
The downside, however, was that it was harder to concentrate during online classes as many students strayed off to surf the internet or social media.
The Gyeonggi Institute of Education and Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education conducted a survey of 662,121 people, including 200,085 students between the 4th and 12th grades as well as parents and teachers.
Among them, 31.7 percent of high school students liked online classes because they allowed them to study anytime, anywhere.
Others said they didn’t have to worry about becoming infected with the coronavirus (22.4 percent), and online classes can be sped up or slowed down, or even repeated to meet their learning needs (17.7 percent).
Elementary and middle school students gave similar answers.
As for the downsides of online classes, 22.2 percent of high school students said they were frequently distracted, straying off to browse the internet or social media.
Elementary students, on the other hand, said they can’t spend time with their friends (24.7 percent) and there are no activities involved (23.5 percent).
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
