The traditional handwritten "thank you" letter is no longer the most popular way to express gratitude, with digital methods such as instant messages and emails favored instead, according to a recent research. 

A survey of 2,000 adults finds just 9 percent send a letter of thanks nowadays—a decline of 11 percent in the past ten years— while messages via WhatsApp, SMS text, email and Facebook, have become some of the most common ways to show appreciation. 

Despite this, handwritten notes of gratitude are in fact considered to be among the top most meaningful ways to say thank you—close behind heartfelt phone calls and visiting someone to show appreciation in person. Further highlighting the influence of the personal touch, the M&S Club Rewards research finds hand-delivering flowers or treating someone to a coffee are also among the truest ways to show thanks. 

The research also finds 58 percent think it is more essential than ever to say thank you to loved ones, with 28 percent admitting the last couple of years have helped them appreciate the little things. And 29 percent think it's really necessary to show others just how much they mean to them so they realize how loved they are. 

However, in our digital age—and with all these new and simple ways to communicate and show our gratitude—saying a quick thank-you via instant message has become the habit for many. But if you really want to share a meaningful thank-you, giving someone your time or adding an element of a personal or more human touch will go a long way and have a much bigger impact. 

Paul Stokes, from M&S Club Rewards, says: "Our research shows that while the art of saying thank you may have changed over the years, the significance of showing our appreciation has never been higher."

Over the last few years, we have had to come together and support each other perhaps more than ever, so it's great to see so many of us are taking the time to share a thank-you. 

Online classes began to be popularized just a few decades ago. They are advertised as a way for adults to finish their education and students to learn the material at their own pace—it is far more suitable for people with busy schedules.

But after being enrolled in an online course last fall semester, I came to realize online classes were merely a means to fulfil course requirements.

First of all, students lack the desire to learn, and they simply complete their assignments to receive credit for a passing grade rather than genuinely engage with the course material.

As online courses tend to have more than 100 students, most of the assignments are short and simple. They are not designed for students to interact with the material in depth but designed to be graded casily to accommodate such a large number of students.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of taking an online class is the absence of face-to-face interaction between the teacher and their students. Live sessions are infrequent and are often scheduled during the middle of the day when students have to attend other classes or work. The office hours of the professor may also be during inconvenient times for many students as well. Most interaction with the professor has to be through email which is often impersonal. It is nearly impossible for students to build a relationship with their professor.

There is also little interaction amongst students. It can be harder for students to create study groups and form relationships with their peers.

Online classes also require either a computer or laptop and a reliable internet connection. Not all students have access to these types of resources, whether it is for financial or other reasons, and some students can be put at a disadvantage.

Offering online classes certainly helps students who would otherwise not be able to attend classroom sessions. However, they fail to provide a genuine education with an emphasis on convenience rather than critical thinking. We need restructured online classes in which students can have a learning experience that will actually provide quality education.

Xi Jinping's announcement that China will stop funding overseas coal projects could buy the world about three more months in the race to keep global heating to a relatively safe level of 1.5C, experts say.

Although the impact will depend on implementation(实施), China's declaration should also help to kill off coal, which has been humanity's primary power source for most of the last 200 years.

The immediate impact is likely to be felt in the countries that rely most heavily on Chinese funding for new coal projects. The governments in these nations will now have to decide whether to find alternative funding from the private sector, where the borrowing costs can be high — as Pakistan has recently found out — or whether to shift to renewables, which Xi has promised to support.

Despite the uncertainties over implementation, Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said China's announcement would accelerate decarbonisation. "Countries now know that going forward, there is no financing on the table for coal. That should clarify things a lot."

Another positive knock-on effect would be to push Japan to follow suit. The government in Tokyo has already taken steps in this direction but left a door open for financing by its private-sector institutions. Their geopolitical reason had been that they did not want to leave China as the only option for regional energy projects. With Xi's announcement, they now have no excuse not to slam the door shut for good. Likewise for South Korea, formerly one of the world's biggest coal backers, which has recently moved towards decarbonisation.