The Covid-19 pandemic and the lock down are responsible for shattering many sectors. And this has resulted in the shutdown of schools and colleges and has affected over 500 million students. But it has clearly promoted the growth of the online learning and education spaces in order to continue with learning and classes. The online education sector has seen a dramatic growth.
The orders of staying at home and maintaining social distancing has spared no one. Most companies, schools and institutions have shifted to online working, teaching and learning mode. They are now promoting the concept of online classrooms, and providing resources digitally.
Similarly the demand of online courses and learning has seen a sudden surge since lock down. And this clearly indicates a huge demand that is rising for online learning.
Online learning has been possible because of the inclusion of technology in the education sector. Due to this technology, distance learning courses have also gained both validation and momentum in many countries. But everything comes with its own highs and lows.
The govt. is also trying to take effective measures to curb the negatives. As they have recently announced help for students who doesn’t have internet access. This will have DIKSHA, a one-nation, one-digital platform facility for school students. Issues are still faced by the learners and teachers in order to complete the process of online courses. And these issues have been impacting the worth of the online courses in different ways.
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Let us try to understand the worth of these courses by looking at some general advantages and disadvantages of online courses/ e-learning in India:
Advantages
Visual illustrations lead to less complexity:
Visuals of any concept are comparatively seen simpler than its theoretical explanation.
Preparing for the future:
E-learning and doing online courses will allow the learners as well as the teachers to prepare for the future teaching-learning methods.
Creative and effective classrooms:
Learning and assessing online can lead students and teachers to come up with some creative and effective ways.
Flexible and Convenient:
Online courses and e-learning is said to be more convenient and flexible according to the students and the teachers. As there is no fixed amount of time that they both have to work/ engage in.
Easy content updates:
The constant updates and changes can be made and shared easily in the content and methods of teaching and learning.
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Disadvantages
Funds restrictions:
There can be restrictions in terms of funds and investments as not all the regions/people can invest the same.
Requires stable internet connection, self-discipline and time management skills:
Pursuing online courses or learning online will require stable internet connection, self-discipline and time management skills of your own in order to continue learning. This is also seen as an investment that one has to make.
Learning and teaching online will surely add up in skills but it will be at the cost of losing the chances of social interaction. Which will further lead to slower development of social skills.
Technical stoppages/ challenges:
Huddles like technical stoppages and challenges is what learners and teachers have to face and this will also restrict them from learning at times.
Lack of hands on experience:
Only second hand knowledge will be provided as there will be lack of hands on experience for learners.
To wrap it up I can say that there could be several more advantages and disadvantages of online courses and e-learning. But the key to stabilize the education is student-teacher relationship. As the idea of online education is not to replace the teacher, but to work in collaboration with teacher and learner to create a flexible and creative learning space.