We Asked Parents: What Do You Think About Online Learning?

Year 2020 is coming to an end—and it has been a truly unique year (to say the least).

Since the Covid-19 pandemic reared its head in Malaysia, schools were suddenly ordered to close and find ways to teach students virtually. For younger children, this often meant that parental assistance was needed during online class. It was a very confusing period which involved lots of trial and error (which you can read about in this article).

With so many changes to the current schooling environment, we at Kiddy123 wanted to know more about parents’ experience with online learning, and their thoughts on the matter. So, we decided to ask the source themselves: our wonderful readers and parents who had to go through it!

Apps & Platforms Used for Online Learning

Social distancing meant a need to learn remotely, through technology. Many teachers, parents, and kids had to increase their digital literacy—with haste.

These are the top 5 apps and platforms used by schools around Malaysia, from most used to least:

Length of Online Class

During this pandemic, many realized that the duration of online classes were not suitable. Kids were either losing focus, or not getting enough class time!

We asked parents what they thought the ideal length of a virtual class should be (in a day). Here’s what they said:

Challenges You and Your Child Faced

This year has been nothing short of challenges—but virtual learning has brought upon a few unique ones. Here are some highlights:

The Helpfulness of Your Child’s School

We now know that one of the challenges faced by families is a lack of support and resources for online learning. On a scale of 1 (not helpful at all) to 5 (very helpful), most parents rated schools’ helpfulness with a ‘4’.

Are You Confident Your Child Will Progress through Remote Learning?

The truth is, we can’t really know the long-term effects of remote learning until more time has passed. Still, we wanted to know if parents felt online learning could help their kids. Here's how confident parents were, on a scale of 1 to 5:

Overall Satisfaction with Your Child’s Online Learning

Are parents happy with their kids’ online learning experience? We hope so, although the truth could be far from that. A majority of parents gave a middle '3', when asked to rate their satisfaction.

Schools Opening During CMCO, with Stricter SOPs

We asked parents if they would prefer schools opening during CMCO, albeit with stricter regulations. This is what they said:

Your Suggestions for Better Online Learning

After going through first-hand experiences with your children’s online learning, we wanted to hear what changes you think could help. Here are some popular suggestions:

• Make lessons more interactive
• Provide more learning materials
• Use fun and creative learning methods
• Give kids quizzes to help with revision
• Provide more breaks during class
• Have shorter lessons
• Tell parents a week in advance if material preparation is needed
• Get better internet connectivity

We’d like to thank all participants for their valuable input.