Introversion and Online Classes

I am currently in my hometown and just finished attending my online classes for the day. On that note, let me confess early on that I LOVE online classes! To explain why, I need to go back to the pandemic days.

It was when our special classes (i.e. extra class hours before the start of the academic year) began in standard 12 of high school that the lockdown was announced in our country. Though physical classes were disrupted, teachers and students explored virtual platforms, eventually leading to an organised, virtual system of teaching and learning (via Google Meet and Google Classroom) for the new academic year in 2020-21.

There are two academic checkpoints or nightmares in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE): the All India Secondary School Examination (AISSE) in class 10 and the All India Senior School Certificate Examination (AISSCE) in class 12. Before you completely process the whole 10th board exam experience and step into class 11, you are immediately rushed into class 12 to face the next board exam. So basically, class 11 is just there to push you towards the next academic year and, of course, to intimidate you about the final battle. In all this chaos and rush, it is natural to lose your head, and if you're an introvert, then it's inevitable.

Severely drained of social energy over the years in school, I needed time and space to recharge my soul in solitude. Now you might be asking me why not recharge during the summer vacations? Simple, because we don't get that before 12th standard. Hence, recharging in the comforts of my home, I was able to balance learning with my need for personal space through online classes. I will list below the advantages and disadvantages I experienced in the virtual learning platform as an introverted teenager.

Advantages

1. Learning in familiar and comfortable settings

   As someone with low tolerance for cold, sitting in a class with the fan at full speed is more about survival than learning. In my home, I can create a physical space that will make me comfortable and enable me to concentrate actively in the lessons being taught. The familiar space of my home—associated with warmth, security, and privacy—puts me at ease.

   
   

2. Participation in class discussions without physically being at the centre of attention.

   From silently attending lectures while swallowing down many a doubt for fear of drawing attention to myself, I was actively clearing doubts and engaging in discussion via texts and audio during online classes!

   
   

3. Planning your day as you see fit

   Except for the scheduled hours of online class, you have the rest of the day for other independent activities. You don't have to wake up in a rush to reach school or college. You can have a peaceful and relaxed morning routine to prepare yourself for the day, and you only need to log in for class just 15 minutes (max) before it starts.

   
   

4. No travel means saving on time, money and social-emotional energy

   If idle chatter and crowds are something that drain your energy, staying home helps you maintain your equilibrium.

   
   

5. You can be yourself without feeling self-conscious or being forced to fit into the crowd.

   I enjoy deep, engaging and meaningful conversations with people, especially a one-on-one chat. But I am not interested in idle chatter or talking for the sake of talking. When idle chatter is the dominant form of communication in a group, it becomes a choice of keeping quiet or acting against your nature to belong or participate in the conversation.

   
   

Disadvantages

1. Increased exposure to screens over a long period of time can cause headaches and exhaustion.

   In all honesty, it was not just online classes that led to increased screen time and consequent health issues. During the two years of online learning (12th standard in high school and first year in a degree program), I realised how much of my hobbies and entertainment depended on electronic gadgets. I was dependent on e-books and spent much time on YouTube, if not on Google Meet. While dependency on e-materials was inevitable during lockdown days, I consciously opted for physical books and borrowed ones from libraries, once things went back to normal.

   
   

2. Long periods of isolation can make it difficult for you to function effectively in social settings in the future.

   Transitioning back to physical school buildings and classrooms was challenging after two years of comfortable learning from home. It took a while to adjust to the increased social and emotional demand, but surely, the time spent in solitude helped me prepare myself on a foundational level. Moreover, having built a one-on-one connection with teachers through direct messages and online discussions also proved to be supportive in readjusting.

   
   

Moving beyond my personal experience, curiosity led me to search out similar experiences, and I found a whole community of fellow introverts who took to online learning and work-from-home like ducklings to water! Many blog posts, research articles, and journals have recorded and analysed this phenomenon of greater adaptability or acceptance of virtual learning among introverted students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jennifer Manfre, in "Why Introverts Excel at Virtual Learning, According to a Teacher" in the blog page INTROVERT, DEAR, gives a teacher's perspective on how her introverted kindergartners were thriving in the virtual learning space. She explains how the space provides them much-needed alone time, a quieter and calmer environment for focused creative works and more control over social interactions without the pressure of having to make conversation with their deskmates.

A research article titled "Personality trait predictors of adjustment during the COVID pandemic among college students" analysed the experience of 484 first-year students (mostly girls) in a university in the USA based on the Big Five Inventory(BFI) personality assessment they took at the beginning of their semester which switched to online platform owing to the pandemic. The results showed that,

"Higher levels of extraversion...were found to be related to decreases in mood as the pandemic progressed in contrast to those with lower extraversion, for whom there was a slight increase in mood over time"

All this leads me to conclude that, although I found many advantages to online classes, the disadvantages cannot be ignored. It calls for an integrated method of teaching that utilises both online and offline spaces for an optimal learning experience. Personally, I would prefer a rough 80:20 ratio of online: offline interactions, where classes can be held online with regular weekly or monthly in-person meetups to clarify doubts and conduct examinations.

Although grounded in the unfortunate context of a deadly pandemic, the advent of virtual learning in mainstream education paved the road for a reassessment of the structure of education in terms of understanding how it caters to or doesn't cater to the diverse needs of a heterogeneous group of students, especially introverts.