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4. Misuse/ online abuse (Oluwalola, 2015). If the teaching style
is not very interactive the perception of
Online abuse is another challenge
associated with online learning. There transactional distance will be stronger
were complaints from Delhi University for a student. Students generally use
about miscreants (not students) logging smart gadgets for accessing the online
into the virtual classrooms and harassing classes. It would be difficult for them
teachers and disturbing the class by to keep their attention engaged when
posting abuses and indecent material. social media notifications keep popping
Some universities in the UK have up. Multitasking (doing two or more
logged complaints of students posting activities at the same time) is high when
highly obscene materials during online students are attending online lectures
lectures. It causes embarrassment for (Lepp, 2019). Several past studies
all who are a part of the lecture. This support this finding that during the
incident points to two possibilities- online part of learning, students engage
either the outsiders must have hacked in multitasking (Moreno et al., 2012;
the account or some student must have Manwaring et al., 2017). Past literature
shared the username and password on psychology suggests that it is not
with them. Female teachers in particular possible to concentrate on two tasks
have found themselves to be victims of with equal attention. So, when a student
such online bullying. They are body- engages in multitasking during online
shamed, trolled and abused. Teachers lectures automatically his efficiency
have experienced online stalking and comes down thereby bringing down
harassment from parents of their the task performance (Carrier et. al.,
students during online lectures. The 2015). The success of online learning
videos of teachers from the state of to a large extent is dependent on the
Kerala taking online lectures for smaller student’s motivation and self- discipline.
classes were widely trolled and were There have been several complaints by
subjected to discourteous comments teachers that some students merely
across various online platforms such login to the lectures at the appropriate
as Facebook. Some even went to the times but do not actually “attend” class.
extent of creating objectionable videos In a study conducted among school
of the teachers and uploaded them on students in Delhi, lack of interaction and
various platforms. All of these incidents distractions in the home environment
point fingers at yet another Pandora’s were identified as major deterrents
Box of problems. In addition to this, of online learning (Khan et al, 2021).
there can be the issue of digital privacy A study conducted on the efficacy of
as well. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
documented that the students’ inherent
and visceral capacity for being organized,
5. Distraction of students
disciplined and having self-control was
Students are more likely to get distracted crucial for having a successful online
when the physical presence of the learning outcome (Banerjee & Duflo,
teacher is not around. ‘Transactional 2014). Thus, the success of online
distance’ is more in online classrooms learning largely depends on students’

110 Indian Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 3, Issue 2, July 2021