Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Students: Academically, Mentally, and Socially

Slides by Tara Reddy

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For my project I discuss online education and student learning outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main question asked to guide my research conducted is: In what ways is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting students ability to learn, socialize, and take care of their mental health? I investigate the K-12 education system and how online learning affects students’ developing social skills, learning development, and mental health. In addition to secondary data on mental health and learning perspectives that students are faced with in school, my project also includes a survey that I made to collect responses from parents and it also includes 2 interviews I conducted to get real data from parents who actually witnessed their children in school.

This project is important because kids are our country’s future and for a developing mind, learning online might be detrimental to cultivating social skills, such as communication and networking, as well as just learning important subjects such as math, English, and science. The lack of socialization between classmates leads to feelings of isolation which may impact a developing brain more. With so much of the focus being on unemployment and vaccinations at this point during the pandemic, it is crucial to take a step back and also observe and shed light on the effects of the pandemic on children who thrive and rely on school to be their social setting to learn and be involved in sports and activities and the overall impact from the pandemic on them. My project aids in research already conducted on this subject because it collects live data from parents who have children and have witnessed the effects of the pandemic on their children in the learning environment. I argue that the effects of online learning on students had a mostly negative impact on students from various grades (K-12).