Online courses are the main way of teaching in every country under the epidemic sweeping the world. This is a big shift from traditional in-person courses to full-online courses. Recently, news came out in China that a mother broke down and cried because she was supervising and accompanying her son studying online courses every day, which has sparked a heated debate about whether online courses are putting too much pressure on parents. Parents responded with complaints about the pain of accompanying their children to online courses. 

After all, the majority of online courses are for students, so do students feel the pressure of online courses? According to the public impression, there is a big difference between the educational concepts of China and the United States, so how do students who receive different education in China and the United States feel the pressure of online courses? Why do Chinese mothers put aside their own affairs to accompany their children to online classes? Why is it said that when Chinese students receive education, the whole family is under pressure? In this article, let’s take a look at the pressure and impact of online courses on different students. Then put aside the online course, to explore what is the source of college students’ pressure under China’s national conditions.

Of the six college students interviewed (Two educated in China, a senior and a freshman; Two Americans with different majors, and two Chinese studying in the United States), only those two Chinese-educated students said they disliked online classes because they “put too much pressure on me,” says Jue Hou.  As a senior student majoring in photography, he faces the pressure of internship and has to prepare graduation works at the same time. Instead of communicating with classmates about his creative ideas face to face, he can only video talk with classmates and teachers in the small grid of the computer, which makes him feel “very depressed, sometimes I even don’t want to talk”. 

Linchenyu Li, another Chinese student, has the same reason. Although she is only a freshman, she also feels the pressure brought by online teaching. She thinks that “it is painful not to have close communication with classmates”. In addition, the online course caused her grades to drop significantly, which made her very depressed.

The other four students, who were educated in the United States, did not feel pressured by the online classes, and some even found them more comfortable than in-person classes. “Online classes have taken a lot of pressure off me,” said Harrison Song, a student from China. “Instead of having three classes a week, I only have one or two classes a week.” Kelly Wang, a Chinese overseas student who also believes that the pressure of online classes is much less than that of in-person classes. She explains that the amount of reading required in a week is relatively low, and she only posts some ideas on the discussion board on weekends. In the case of classroom teaching, it is necessary to discuss the problems in every class. Sometimes the professor will use pop quizzes to check whether the students have finished their reading tasks. Kelly mentioned that she is a graduate student majoring in English, and her exam format is to submit papers at the end of the semester or at the end of each chapter. Therefore, the course format does not affect her score, whether in-person or online. Harrison, a basic education major, takes a wide variety of courses, with some exams taking place in class. Switching to an online course means to him that “the closed-book exam became an open-book exam, which made the exam much less difficult and helped me get better grades.”

Ngwena Azoh, a local American student, believes that online teaching does affect her mood to some extent. She describes herself as an “extrovert” personality. She thinks that online education prevents her from making more friends, but she doesn’t feel any pressure and she admits that she hasn’t followed the ups and downs of her grades during the course. “It’s fine to let nature take its course,” she said, “but I hope the school can resume classes as soon as possible.” Another American student, Karen Chaves, an art and design major, chose to study at home after the school converted its entire curriculum to an online course. She also thinks online classes are less stressful and she has more time and freedom to draw what she likes. “I don’t really care about my grades,” she said. “I don’t think it’s how much your grades are, but how much you actually learn.”

Among the six interviewees with different identities, only the students receiving online courses in China felt the pressure brought by online courses, which mostly came from the ideological burden that they failed to meet their study expectations. Either because of the lack of communication with teachers, unable to effectively express their views on some knowledge, resulting in low mood; Or anxiety about falling grades. When it comes to grades, all four Chinese students attach great importance to grades no matter where they study, and grades have become a major source of stress for them. Whether the class is online or face-to-face, it directly affects their learning attitude or grades. Looking at these two American students, they are less concerned with the grades themselves and more concerned with whether the students will actually learn something useful during the online course.

In fact, the pressure that Chinese students feel is not caused by online courses, but just another form of teaching. The reason why students pay so much attention to the impact of online courses on their grades is, in the final analysis, the pressure exerted by society. According to a recent survey on the mental health of college students conducted by the China Social Survey, 75 percent of college students think that their stress mainly comes from social employment, but their academic performance is an important criterion for competing for jobs. China is a country with a large population. Every year, tens of millions of college students face the problem of finding jobs.

The “China Youth Development Report” recently released by the China Youth Center and the international Liaison Development of the League Central Committee stated that according to the calculation of China’s new labor force in the future, the new labor force of Chinese youth will remain at 15-22 million each year in the next few years. The high level of time and supply exceeds demand, which directly leads to high employment pressure. In addition, in recent years, due to the gradual popularization of higher education in China, the number of college students who need employment after graduation has increased year by year, and the initial employment rate of college graduates has decreased year by year.

After interviewing the four Chinese students again, whether they agree with Karen’s opinion that knowledge is more important than grades, Jue Hou gave the answer like this: “If your knowledge cannot be reflected by grades, who will ask you if you have such knowledge?”As shown in the above research, in China, a country with such a large population, it is impossible for everyone to get the opportunity of face-to-face communication with the interviewer in such an extremely fierce social competition. Therefore, it may not be the most correct way to select excellent talents based on grades, but the fairest and the most efficient way for everyone. Attaching importance to achievements and worrying about employment have become the basic state of Chinese college students.

To sum up, the development of online courses has been progressing and has received a lot of praise. However, it will bring psychological burden and pressure to students if they fail to meet the achievement and expectation of learning efficiency due to the inability to closely connect students with teachers. This pressure is felt more acutely by Chinese students, who place too much importance on grades. It is very difficult to change this situation because it is caused by China’s national conditions. And it’s not just Chinese students who have to do their best to excel in society’s fierce competition. Behind them, often the whole family is working together, just like the mother who breaks down but still accompanies her children in online classes.

 

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