EFFECTS OF COVID OUTBREAK ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR AND HOW LOCKDOWN PROMOTED THE E-LEARNING OVER TRADITIONAL LEARNING

Article highlights: How lockdown happened in India, the Effects of lockdown on the education system, what are online meeting platforms, how e-learning is different.

EFFECTS OF COVID ERA ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR AND HOW LOCKDOWN PROMOTED THE E-LEARNING OVER TRADITIONAL LEARNING.

HOW LOCKDOWN HAPPENED IN INDIA AND IT'S EFFECTS.

When the COVID virus hit Indian boundaries and going out in the locality or at the other outer regions was not safe. Therefore on 24th of March 2020, our honorable prime minister SHRI NARENDRA DAMODAR DAS MODI had to take a tough step and he announced locking down the whole country. Lockdown means limiting the citizens to their homes and not leaving it until the ultimate necessity. Initially, it was for 21 days but the lockdown kept increasing with the increasing number of cases.

The lockdown affected every sector, including education too. Industries, Schools, colleges, hostels, P.G's, and all the crowded places were immediately closed because maintaining physical distance was not possible there. People from different states and cities started leaving the metropolitan area and rushed to their native regions so that they could not get affected by this virus. 

Before the lockdown education system was running as it was for the decades. But this lockdown stopped that. Every college and schools were closed and board exams of the 10th&12th, semester exams of colleges and national level competitive exams like IIT-JEE, NEET, and codevita have to get rescheduled as in-person centers were not safe and due to instability of network in different states, online conduction of exams was not possible. So schools and universities have to promote their students based on internal grades.

But before getting promoted to senior class students have attended the lectures. By the means of online learning, this thing became possible. Online learning is nothing new since the internet is in India, people are learning online but this was not a fashion before lockdown.

HOW ARE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES MANAGING?

During this pandemic, students are dependent on online learning as institutes will remain closed until the government is not allowing them to open. Still, there are so many mediums through which schools and colleges are running and students are attending the lectures not physically but virtually. 

As the schools and colleges were closed in the middle of the session there was a very serious responsibility of course completion on teachers and students. It was a challenge for everyone to complete the whole syllabus by themselves but still, with the help of Whatsapp groups, google classrooms and due to other similar sorts of apps, the content was flexibly distributed. Also, teachers are using Youtube as a platform for live lectures where they can schedule their lectures as a premiere and the subscribed students will receive the notification. All of these things were very discrete, maintaining attendance records was an issue and also on youtube the host and viewers can't interact properly. So how can a teacher and his students communicate?

Every problem has a solution, and for institutes, the solution was online meeting platforms. But what are online meeting platforms?

WHAT ARE ONLINE MEETING PLATFORMS?

The applications and software that run on the internet and provide the facility of web conferencing, video conferencing, and video calls. These applications provide HD video calling and use the built-in camera, speakers, and microphone with no additional equipment required.  The only requirements to use them are :

A system(Computer/Mobile) that has the configuration to run the particular software.

Stable internet connectivity.

HOW ONLINE MEETING PLATFORM WORKS?

On these platforms, after signing up the host can add up to 100 numbers of viewers in a single meeting at a scheduled time which sounds similar to a classroom where 50+ students attend a 40-60 min lecture. These online meetings are called rooms where the host generates the key or passcode for his viewers and the attendees who have that particular key/passcode can join the meeting or room. Sounds simple!.

Some applications also have a built-in feature of recording the session and they also maintain the records of every particular attendee's demographics and overall attending time, which the host can use for other institutional purposes.

SOME FAMOUS ONLINE MEETING PLATFORMS

• ZOOM
• GOOGLE MEETS
• IMPARTUS
• MICROSOFT TEAMS

PROMOTION OF E-LEARNING DURING PANDEMIC

For decades the mentality for institutional education among the people is limited to visiting the campus and taking the lectures physically. If a student wants to learn something online and asks the opinion around his people he will get mixed responses and the majority votes will be for physical learning. This thing has stuck in our minds so deep that it is seemed to be the best mode of conveying knowledge. But this has to be changed and for our generation where we have so much to do that 24 hours seems less to us, the change is important.

Students learning digitally by their institutes may find a boring task to do. So along with the adaptation of new tech, our institutes must have to make an interesting curriculum that can help in completing the syllabus and also allow students to learn practically in virtual labs. In this pandemic reaching out to physical resources is impossible so virtual labs can be a better alternative to the physical ones. 

Adapting the new mode of learning initially can be challenging for teachers and students as well. But our institutes must adopt this new mode of learning which is digital learning. Conducting classes online during this COVID outbreak is the only term on the table. Not only it assures social distancing, but also it will help teachers and students to interact with other technologies. The MHRD currently known as NEP 2020 has already initiated the process.

Some of the major initiatives by MHRD are briefly described below :

1. DIKSHA: 

      

  

An initiative by The MHRD launched in the year 2017, is a portal for teachers and students equipped with learning material which is easily accessible. It is a free application provided by the GOI where the teacher can learn the digital scopes of teaching. This platform will help teachers in learning how they can organize their content so that they can easily make it available to students, and also how they can teach on digital interfaces. It will help in improving the quality of education and the use of the latest technologies in educational sectors.

This platform is beneficial for students also. As it has more than 5000 registered e-books that can be accessed by scanning of QR code on books. The content on this platform is available in different languages also.

2. SWAYAM:   

" Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds" aka "SWAYAM", is an online learning program designed by GOI. A platform where a student from class 9th to 12th or undergraduate students can enroll for the enhancement of their skills. Mostly this platform is common among the degree students but it's certification courses are available for all educational categories. It is the one-stop destination for students to access video lectures, study materials, online assignments, quizzes, and online interactions with the best in class instructors. Swayam is connected to the national coordinators like AICTE, NPTEL, ICT, IGNOU, NCERT, IIMB which provide the learning material through video and text modes to the swayam portal. Registration for the courses is easy and free but for proper certification, an exam fee has to be paid.

PAID PLATFORMS FOR QUALITY LEARNING

There are so many private institutions available that are providing paid courses, not only institutions even organizations like Google, Internshala, Coursera and etc are also providing the paid courses. The number of enrolling students in these courses is comparatively much more than the free ones and the certification value or the standard of learning is considered comparatively much better among the learners. In these courses, they train you for the most in-demand skills in the market and it depends on your choice of what courses you want to learn. They have their own interfaces where they train and you can interact with the trainer in real-time. The time duration of learning is comparatively less than that of your school or college and they train you with real-time project making skills.

CONCLUDING THE ARTICLE

Above mentioned modes are not new as they were launched even before the origination of this pandemic. But during the outbreak, the numbers of learners have increased gradually on these platforms. In lockdown, we got so much time to develop and enhance our skills, and the portals designed by the government helped us by providing the materials free of cost.

Whether it is a free platform or a paid one the ultimate price is time and energy. It depends on the learners from which source they want to get qualified. Every platform has its own importance and market value, so check the scope of the knowledge and value of the certification resource before enrolling in it.

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