Online education amid COVID-19 pandemic and its opportunities, challenges and psychological impacts among students and teachers: a systematic review

Abstract

PurposeThe global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the complete lockdown of almost every part of the world, including all educational institutions, resulting in the prompt implementation of online education to facilitate the students to carry on their learning. These conditions made the researchers study the experiences of online education among students and teachers. The influences of online teaching-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly offered numerous opportunities besides raising some challenges which impacted the overall psychology of students and teachers. So, this paper aims to conduct a systematic review of the research papers focussing on opportunities, challenges and psychological impacts raised due to the sudden shift to online education among students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachTo conduct this systematic review, 19 articles published between July 2020 and May 2021 were considered and reported by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA).FindingsIt was found that online education influenced the interests and experiences of the students and teachers and has immensely impacted their overall psychology. So, for the effective implementation of online and blended education, psychological well-being of students and teachers should be taken care of with properly designed instructions, adequate infrastructure or resources and satisfactory technological skills.Research limitations/implicationsIn the present study, the students were not categorised according to their subjects or streams, i.e. science, commerce, humanities, medical, dental, postgraduate or undergraduate. All the students were categorised into two categories only: (1) college students and (2) school students. And also, teachers were not categorised and were presented as a whole, as school, college or university teachers.Practical implicationsThe current research identified the abrupt implementation of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised various challenges and psychological impacts among students and teachers besides offering them many opportunities in times of crisis.Social implicationsStudents and teachers constitute the educational community of society. They should get ample opportunities to develop skills for online education; challenges faced during online education should be identified and tackled, and the issues concerning the psychological well-being during online education for both teachers and students should be addressed to achieve sustained development of online education–blended learning environments.Originality/valueThe paper is the original research work based on the systematic review and concludes with suggestions for the future of online and blended pedagogy while taking care of the psychological needs of students and teachers in online and blended learning environments.