Online education has gained immense popularity among working professionals and students pursuing higher education. Distance learning has been around for a long time, even before technology made it extremely accessible.
Traditional schooling is now seeing an increased proliferation of virtual training materials and online courses. Even in a world of tried and tested schooling systems and curricula, the most successful schools and universities are the ones that adapt to the changing times, as well as to the expectations of students, parents and the society.
Educational institutes across the world have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic jeopardising the academic calendars. Most educational institutes have shifted to online learning platforms to keep the academic activities going. However, the questions about the preparedness, designing and effectiveness of e-learning is still not clearly understood, particularly for a developing country like Sri Lanka, where the technical constraints like suitability of devices and bandwidth availability poses a serious challenge.
Syllabus
As the schools and colleges are shut for an indefinite period, both educational institutions and students are experimenting with ways to complete their prescribed syllabus in the stipulated time frame in line with the academic calendar.
These measures have certainly caused a degree of inconvenience, but they have also prompted new examples of educational innovation using digital interventions. This is a silver lining on a dark cloud considering the sluggish pace of reforms in academic institutions, which continues with millennia-old lecture-based approaches in teaching, ingrained institutional biases and obsolete classrooms.
Nevertheless, Covid-19 has been a trigger for educational institutions worldwide to pursue creative approaches in a relatively short notice. During this time, most of the universities have shifted to online mode using blackboard, microsoft teams, zoom, or other online platforms.
The educational institutions in affected areas are seeking stop-gap solutions to continue teaching, but it is important to note that the learning quality depends on the level of digital access and efficiency. The online learning environment varies profoundly from the traditional classroom situation when it comes to learner’s motivation, satisfaction and interaction.
These categories of online learners find immense benefit in the autonomy and flexibility that these courses offer. Online learning can also help them take out some quiet time to study.
Online courses call for a greater amount motivation and self-discipline than a classroom-based course. A classroom has one or more instructors and peers, who can hold a student accountable for their course-work. In contrast, online courses involve setting our own goals, tracking progress and meeting deadlines. One does not learn effectively in isolation so online courses do offer discussion forums, email and one-on-one support. Technology also adds on to the visual experience by incorporating animations that can be used interactively for effective learning and communication.
Rewards
The classroom advantage is that the school provides structure, support, and a system of rewards and penalties to groom its students.
Traditional classroom education offers the benefit of face-to-face interactions with peers which are typically moderated by a teacher. It provides children, especially those in their early developmental years, with a stable environment for social interactions, helping them develop skills like boundary setting, empathy and cooperation. It also allows plenty of room for spontaneity, unlike a virtual learning setup.
Online education in the context of schooling, as students’ progress to higher classes in school, they seek more autonomy and intellectual freedom. Online learning can help them pursue highly individualised learning programs, possibly even college level courses.
These, combined with hands-on exercises, real world exploration, and thorough assessments, can be highly beneficial to their learning progress. They can explore their options by trying out introductory topics from different fields, before committing to a specialisation.
Online learning platforms can help these students become more independent learners, before they make their way into college. I believe that we must not hold back students from pursuing an online course but instead provide them guidance as they navigate through it.
Mobile apps that provide enhanced learning opportunities for schoolchildren have become quite popular as of late. Since mobile phones have already found their way into their hands, these apps are being used to supplement classroom learning.
Teachers and parents need to act as anchors and mentors, curating the kind of educational content students are exposed to, during this tricky phase of exploring the right career to pursue.
Virtual public schools that offer full-fledged K-12 education have already sprung up in some parts of the world. They even offer a combination of the traditional system with online education. There are programs that provide support to families that wish to home-school their children in the form of online course material.
These programs bring parents and teachers into the fold, by involving them in their child’s education from the get go. However, their effectiveness in the long term needs to be studied.
With efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, the contours of education system are changing with online education becoming the primary means of instruction.
Universities and institutions are shifting to online platforms to catch up with the curriculum. It may be too early to say how students and teachers will cope with online learning as they figure out the constraints; reorient to address them but the perception and readiness of teachers and students is an important consideration.
Online education has brought a positive impact in the lives of students and working professionals. It has given an opportunity to take up additional courses along with their studies or job as per their convenience.
Majority of the students evinced a positive attitude towards online classes in the wake of corona. The online learning was found to be advantageous as it provided flexibility and convenience for the learners. Online learning programs will also open opportunities for children from the weaker socio-economic communities who have limited access to learning resources i.e. teachers, text books and infrastructure.
It will connect them to a global network of online learners, exposing them to new perspectives. The ideas that they receive will not be limited by the number of heads in one classroom.
There are many reasons why online programs have become a popular form of distance learning in higher education today. The online environment offers unprecedented opportunities for people who would otherwise have limited access to education, as well as a new paradigm for educators in which dynamic courses of the highest quality can be developed.
The main advantage of asynchronous online learning is that it allows students to participate in high quality learning situations when distance and schedule make on-ground learning difficult-to-impossible. Students can participate in classes from anywhere in the world, provided they have a computer and Internet connection.
Students preferred well-structured content with recorded videos uploaded in university websites. They also indicated the need for interactive sessions with quizzes and assignments at the end of each class to optimise the learning experience.
However, most students also reported that online classes could be more challenging than traditional classroom because of the technological constraints, delayed feedback and inability of the instructor to handle effectively the information and communication technologies.
Therefore, all these factors should be considered while developing an online course to make it more effective and productive for the learner. It’s possible that once the Covid-19 pandemic settles down, we may see a continued increase in education systems using online platforms for study aids, albeit in a hybrid mode in combination with regular classes. Hence this study will prove useful for reimagining and redesigning the higher education with components involving online mode.
The students opined that flexibility and convenience of online classes makes it attractive option, whereas broadband connectivity issues in rural areas makes it a challenge for students to make use of online learning initiatives.
However, in engineering, medical and some other fields the education system where many courses are practical oriented, shifting completely to online mode may not be possible and need to device a hybrid mode, the insights from this article can be helpful in designing the curriculum for the new normal.
– C. Sachin Mcmillan
Bachelor of Business Administration specialising in HRM Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce University of Jaffna