Author- Phalguni Sharma
The spread of COVID-19 has resulted in shutting down all the educational institutions. Since the closure of the schools and colleges in more than 180 countries, learning cannot be put to a halt. While observing social distancing, the distance between the teachers and the students is decreasing with the e-learning. The institutions are employing the digital way of teaching. ICT is a saviour in this situation that has made the learning and teaching process easier than thought. e-learning is nothing new but got a real boom during this pandemic. The surveys revealed that virtual learning helps retain more than classroom learning. The most outstanding feature is the opportunity of skill enhancement to the people of all age groups and societies.
More into eLearning!
Apart from online learning applications like Byju’s, Vedantu, Udemy etc. Schools and colleges use video conferencing tools and the highly emerging free web service, Google classroom, Microsoft Teams classrooms for conducting lectures for the learners. Assessments are being conducted using services like Google forms. It is interesting to see how technology is being utilised for educational purposes.
As the board exams and other competitive exams like JEE and NEET have been postponed, students are utilising this extended period in polishing their memory and skills through several platforms. Even the coaching institutes are providing the students with study materials and tests. Assignments are being given to the university students for an extra effort of learning.
But there are many hurdles on the way of virtual tutoring as well.
The teacher might not be able to focus on the students as they could through the traditional way of classroom teaching.
There might be many disturbing elements due to the absence of the environment like that in the classroom.
Technological issues like and availability of proper gadgets on the internet.
It is overwhelming to know that different universities and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provide several courses free or at a discounted rate during the lock-down period. Millions of people are signing up to pursue these courses to kill the time while sitting out their homes.
The Change we see
Besides facing the global pandemic, the education system is going through a drastic change which slowly and gradually is leading to modernisation. Z and alpha are what we call the current school-going generation. They are the ones who are most acquainted with the technology and therefore this creates the aptest platform for education, growth and progress. The teaching foundation is being more in the favour of the students and so they are coming with student-centric methods. Various ministries of state and central government are creating a framework for e-learning, like National Knowledge Network(NKN), National Academic Depository(NAD), National Project on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), et cetera.
Also, now it has decreased the cost of education because physical infrastructure is not being consumed.
For this to be a success, the authorities, educationists and the students need to mold their temperament. The teaching faculty should be made more familiar with the technology for greater efficiency. COVID has eventually catalyses the process of transition.
