Online Learning Affecting Mental & Physical Health in College Students
Brandey Freeman
Ever since the coronavirus outbreak in 2019, students have faced various difficulties from the aftermath of this pandemic, resulting in struggles in their school studies. This pandemic showed everyone how stressful a sudden shift to fully online learning can be. Schools had to be shut down and all the effected individuals had to adapt to a new form of schooling. Since the growth of the illness was so sudden, there was not much planning that went into the transition when school had to close for quarantine. All ages of students were affected, but this research is specifically focused on the serious impact on young adult aged students. This led to adaptions in e-learning and teaching methods too: a completely new way of learning/teaching for many teachers and students. College and university students were struck with a multitude of changes headed their way when campuses had to be closed. College students are very stressful people naturally and this transition to online only added more to the growing stress. For example, these students had to change the way they learned, had to deal with the new reality of the “college life,” had to face changes in their learning environment, and lastly, some even had to find new living spaces due to dorms being shut down as well. The overall environment for these students was transformed so drastically that the amount of social and peer interaction plummeted down severely. This led to some mental and physical health issues and some problems with students' general well-being as humans. Student were now spending too much time alone and too much time on a screen for hours on hours each day. Students are now faced with multiple new types of stressors and academic pressures put on them to continue to excel in this new world of learning. Another struggle students were faced with is self-control while working on school assignments. This can be especially hard to most students who were succeeding in their classes but found themselves falling behind in their new virtual learning environments. This reverse in learning can cause heaps of stress and anxiety in these effected students. All mentioned changes put together can cause issues with students' mental health as well as their physical health too. Online, virtual learning has now been adapted as a persistent alternative teaching and learning method. This literature review will demonstrate the hardships students had to face when switching to online learning with the connect of stress and well-being. Research shows that planned out preparation can improve the online learning experience.
Brandy Freeman graduated in May 2023 with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies. Her areas of focus were Elementary Education and Psychology.