Is Online Learning a Perfect Match for Gen Z

Technology has always been at the forefront of human education. At the

beginning the history of education, the teacher was the only source for learning. With
the internet, all students can learn from many things and anywhere. Now we called by
online learning. Online learning has become one of the most popular ways of gaining
access to an education (Lewis 2005). Henceforth, almost everything in regard to the
education activities that were originally offline, shifted to virtual learning. The results of
the 2020 Population Census show that the Indonesian population is dominated by Gen
Z. Most of them are students. Gen Z is the generation that is considered the most able to
follow the development of digital technology. They even called by our first native
digital generation. In spite of that, we can’t leave the fact that Gen z also has its own
problems and challenges during online learning. During the online class, there are
several obstacles that must be faced by Gen Z. This essay begins by exploring the Gen
Z challenges while experience online learning.

Gen Z grew up with technology, but most of them prefer direct communication
over tools like texting and video conferencing (McCoy, 2019). Too long in online
meetings can have an impact on physically and mentally healthy. Having to sit for hours
looking at the big blue screen and also lack of mobility. Besides that, online learning
with long duration also makes students might have vision problems. Currently, one of
the platforms that are often used during online class is known as Zoom application.
Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human
Interaction Lab (VHIL) identified four consequences of prolonged video chat that he
says contribute to the feeling commonly known as "Zoom burnout." One of the
consequences is excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense. In a
normal meeting, people will variously be looking at the speaker, taking notes or looking
elsewhere. But on Zoom calls, everyone is looking at everyone, all the time (Stanford
News, 2021). Even though students are quiet, they are still have to look at all those eyes.
This obviously makes students feel stressed and tired easily.

Another challenge is related to internet connectivity and infrastructure. First of

all, not all regions in Indonesia have the same internet network conditions. Sometimes,
signal interference happens without any notification. This can make students with
network problems unable to receive lessons properly. Furthermore, not everything in
face-to-face learning can be adapted into online learning because of the lack of
facilities. For the example when face-to-face learning, students receive three new
chapters in one day. But this may not necessarily be applied to online learning due to
various limitations like there is no adequate facility to deliver some practical lesson.

As e-learning necessitates students to study independently, they often find

themselves challenged by self-regulation issues such as low motivation to study and
ineffective communication with their fellow students (Rannastu-Avalos and Siiman
2020; Wan Hassan et al. 2020; Zhang et al. 2020). Students who have self-regulation
learning will have more motivation to learn and schedule activities (René F. Kizilcec,
Mar Pérez-Sanagustín, Jorge J. Maldonado, 18-33). Without good self-regulation
learning, students can be left behind, lose enthusiasm for learning, and encourage them
to find an instant way. Considering that in online learning, students do not come
physically to school.

Gen Z grew up with technology. However, there are still many challenges that
must be faced by Gen Z to undergo online class. The condition of infrastructure, internet
connectivity, healthy problem that caused by long duration of online class, also student
self regulation affects the continuity of online learning. However, online learning
technology has helped Gen Z to stay connected with our school and friends. In the
future, we can evaluate the current online learning system also prepare our generation
and develop it for the better version.
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