Attention in e-classes wanes after 40 minutes, says survey

Pune: After almost a year of remote learning, experts mapping the academic impact of that shift have noticed a reduced attention span among children attending e-classes.
A survey of 200 Marathi schools conducted by the Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM) in Pune showed that students got bored after 40 minutes of the online teaching sessions. The study focused on pupils from Stds V to VIII between June 2020 and February 2021.The findings were released on February 24.
Coordinator for the survey from BSM, Preetam Selmokar, said their study was carried out in urban and rural areas of seven districts of Western Maharashtra, including Nashik, Pune and Kolhapur, and limited to Marathi medium schools. Parents and teachers were also included.
The research also highlighted lack of internet and background disturbances as challenges during online education. Some educators said coping with e-learning needs high levels of self-motivation, self-regulation and organization, and a great deal of focused attention. Others argue that attention spans across the world are getting shorter.
The BSM is a non-government service-oriented organization working on study, teaching, activities, courses for 50 years. Wamanrao Gogate of BSM said it was observed during the survey that about 25.9% of students find their daily routine disturbed and complaints like headache and back pain were observed in 40.4% of students.
School counsellor Arti Agarwal said the attention span varied according to age. In younger students it is reported to be just about 7-10 minutes. “Students do not sit for very long in live sessions. The environment is static when the screen is moving and there is no physical movement of students. Their attention is limited to the 12-inch screen so they tend to loose focus after a while,” she added.
Child psychologist Renuka Madan said boredom in a virtual classroom is because of the environment. “A physical classroom does not make students more attentive, but it is the mindset that we have been accustomed to about sitting inside a classroom,” she added.
Maths faculty at Victorious Kidss Educares, Aishhwarya Yadav, said self-paced learning through creatively designed, conceptually driven tasks could make virtual learning effective and stress-free.
Principal of Indus International School, Sandeep Chhabra said strategies were needed to keep students attentive in e- learning.