Learning beyond boundaries in the era of E-Learning

The transition from traditional to virtual classroom has many challenges. Policymakers and Educationist suggest a few changes for maximum benefit.

The repercussions of the pandemic on the education sector are striking visible. Apart from the large scale health crisis and a setback to the economy, classroom education also finds itself on the tenterhooks. The question everybody is asking how to continue with the education of children, the future of tomorrow. The current online live classes being conducted by majority of colleges are not sufficient to make up for the physical classroom based education. Policy makers and Educationist have been emphasizing on turning to digital platform, but the most important discourse is how to go about it?

The way teachers teach in classroom is much different from what is required for an online class. While the teacher might require blackboard to write, in an Online class that can be replaced by Slides or PowerPoint Presentation. In the learning process of a student physical presence of a teacher is also an important factor. A simple encouraging pat on the back can do wonders. Similarly, there are various limitations of conducting classes on a virtual setup. However, counting in the fact that digitization is the new wave in education sector; we need to explore how we can make it more effective.

The majority of the educational institutions are organizing classes on virtual platforms. The content of online education should be capsulated, of short duration and catchy in learning. There needs to be change in the mindset and skill set of teachers & assessment policy. The time has come when more significance has to be given on Learner- Learner interaction than on the traditional Teacher- Learner interaction.

There are few aspects which need to be redesigned for conducting effective online classes.

TEACHERS– Not all teachers are comfortable speaking in front of a camera. There are very much used to see the students in front of them. It is a skill to be able speaks in front of camera. The way teacher engages with students in an offline setup is way different from how they engage in a virtual class.

PLATFORM & CONTENT – Online platforms should have interactive content to keep student engaged. There needs to be a balance between online and on campus education .We need to introduce technical and academic assistance for the students. We need to redraft the exam system, industry based curriculum, skill development course and introduce innovation hubs on the campus.

With the sudden outbreak of the deadly virus the policy makers and educationist had little time to transform to a structured form of virtual learning. While the discourse on making e learning more effective is on, on the education industry needs to strike a balance between both online and offline education. “Both online and offline classes have their own pros and cons, so I would say that the perfect model is somewhere in between”.

ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE CLASSES–

Quality of teachers: The best teachers can be procured from anywhere without any geographical constraint.
Cost of education: In online classes, cost of infrastructure, travel, etc, is significantly low.
Data: In online setup, a lot of data play is there. One can use the data collected to infer how engaged the student is in the class, to improve the quality of content & teacher training.
Convenience: There’s no need to travel, learning is accessible from anywhere.

ARCHANA SINGH