With closed doors, masked faces, and gloved hands, one of the most severe effects of COVID-19 on Gen Z is the lack of socialization. However, students are taking this problem into their own gloved hands, creating ‘learning pods’ to help cope with the isolation of the pandemic and online learning. 

A“learning pod” is when 3-10 students work together to complete online courses assigned by their school. Some students even decide to follow their own curriculum with the assistance of a private tutor. “Learning Pods” have become the sought-after solution to the depression and isolation that many students are experiencing due to the global pandemic and online school. Through the communication of both students and parents, “learning pods” allow teens to have the socialization necessary to improve their mental health.

Giddy Carricarte, a junior at AHS and ‘pod learner,’ has seen the benefits of pod learning on her emotional well-being. Carricarte meets up with her group of four to five AHS students almost every day. Her extroverted personality thriving in the social face-to-face connection that pod learning provides. 

“I do think that..[pod learning] has definitely helped my mental state,” Carricarte said.

Aspen resident and former U.S ambassador for Austria under the Obama Administration, Alexa Wesner, is the mother of a sophomore at AHS. Wesner has seen a significant improvement in her daughter’s emotional well-being and happiness since she joined a learning pod. She believes that learning pods can be an excellent alternative to orthodox distance learning, and can even improve students grades along with their mental health. 

“I think that the happier we are, the more we will function at a high level and overall I think… students’ grades will improve if their mental well-being is in a good spot,” Wesner said. 

Recently, AHS conducted a survey to gain students’ perspectives on online learning. The results showed that  77.3% of all students surveyed agreed that they feel a need for socialization during distance learning. Of the 65.5% of the students surveyed that participated in pod learning, 50% believed that pod learning had improved their emotional well-being, while 23.5% were unsure. Of those same pod learners, around half stated that pod learning positively affected their grades. 

Pod learning is a coping mechanism for the isolation that COVID-19 has brought upon Gen Z, and has been proven to improve teens’ emotional well-being and grades.  

 “We’re teenagers, and we have to have that social experience… I think that’s what growing and developing is all about,” Giddy said.