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| ACADEMICS IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC | | |
Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. D. Namgyal
The novel corona virus and the disease it causes, COVID‐19 is one of the most unprecedented and unpredictable global public health crises in recent times. This deadly corona virus is showing no signs of retreat. To contain the spread of this deadly virus in the country, lockdown was enforced in the country on March 25; which is being kept on extending in phases. The complete lockdown has been confined only in red zone where as some relaxations are given in orange zone where as everything as usual is going on in green zones. The pandemic affected the economy, agriculture, livestock, industry and other sectors. Education sector was another causality of this pandemic. The long lockdown due to the virus resulted in closing of schools, colleges and other educational professional and technical institutes.
The countries all over the world responded to this threat by moving their educational and associated activities online; as a sense of immediacy swept the nation. The decision to pivot to remote learning was made swiftly, particularly by those institutions operating a shared leadership model, benefitting from a greater degree of agility, innovation, and collaboration. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. While countries are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are currently more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school closures due to the pandemic. As a result the teachers and students enter a new world of virtual lectures.
Covid-19 has pushed institutions, faculty and students on to online learning like never before. Online education is conducted in two ways. The first is through the use of recorded classes, which, when opened out to public, are referred to as Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs). The second one is via live online classes conducted as webinars, or zoom sessions. Universities require high-speed internet and education delivery platforms or learning management systems, besides stable IT infrastructure and faculty members who are comfortable teaching online. Students also need high-speed internet and computers/mobiles to attend these sessions or watch pre-recorded classes. There are many platforms created to enable online education in India. The National Law University of Delhi was among the first to have an open MOOC among the law schools in India, and in March, after the Covid-19 crisis broke out, it opened the course out to the public.
ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE TEACHING:
Online teaching and learning has been perceived as the best bet particularly in times of COVID-19. Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time meaning the changes corona virus have caused might be here to stay. Dinesh Singh, former vice-chancellor of DU argues that technology can enable different teaching methodologies, and also allow teaching a large number of people across the country. In a country like India where we don't have enough teachers or easy access to good institutions adopting a focused, systematic programme of using the power of technology to enable learning can prove productive. Advantages of online teaching and learning are that it is easily accessible. All it requires is an internet connection and a computer or a mobile. It is affordable, available 24*7, flexible and convenient to fit in the day, and social distancing can be practiced
DISADVANTAGES OF ONLINE TEACHING:
The biggest disadvantage of this online teaching is the lack of clarity in understanding the different topics of different subjects. Education is also about classes, exams and grades. It is about an experience that prepares a student to become a functioning member of the work force, with requisite knowledge, skills, and life experiences. Who will be responsible if we don’t get the grades, or if our careers are impacted, simply because we are struggling with online classes and figuring out what methods will be used to gauge our knowledge. Mukul Kesavan, a teacher of History at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University has some other apprehensions. He highlights the problem of inequity, underlining that only some of his students are able to attend online lectures. If universities can enforce Zoom teaching, if classes are taken to nodal places, and the institution takes the responsibility to connect students there, this can work well. But the downside is that, if done badly, it will be another legitimization of bad, meaningless online education. Online teaching also allows a little consensus on how students can be evaluated in a fair manner. A student sitting in front of a computer or a cell phone continuously for five to six hours also runs the risk of various health hazards. It can also lead to self isolation of small children. They can also misuse cell phones. Online education also fails to incorporate mentoring, interpersonal relationships, and brainstorming, Universities are great spaces for young citizens to interact with each other across lines of diversity, get along, have fun and engage in academic pursuits. Online education should be a supplement
LIMITS OF ONLINE TEACHING:
Online education is not as easy as speaking into the microphone at one end, and connecting a laptop or phone and listening in on the other. While technology is an enabling factor, it can also be limiting especially in a country like India where basic access is a challenge. Not every student has a computer or fast-streaming internet at home. This leads to issues with attendance and participation in online sessions. A survey by IIT Kanpur revealed that 9.3 per cent of its 2,789 students were not able to download material sent by the institute or study online. Only 34.1 per cent of them had internet connection well enough for streaming real-time lectures. Adapting suddenly to online classes has also been reported to be a limiting factor by some students. Students have to be online every hour for every class because attendance is marked accordingly. Most of the students have monthly mobile plans that allow them to use only on 1GB or 2GB daily data which is also not sufficient. Everyone does not have WiFi at home and they have to manage their entire course work on that. It becomes stressful. Ashley NP, who teaches English at DU’s St Stephen’s College, highlights that there is substantial learning that is lost when education goes online.
A lot of teaching learning gets lost in translation on the online platform. Students have also reported that they cannot engage online in the same manner as they would in a class. Viva, moots, debates, and classroom discussions on polarizing topics require nuanced perspectives and these lose their flavor when done online. In the online mode students are able to ask only a few questions. The greatest advantage of face-to-face teaching is eye contact. It is easy to gauge if students are following what the teacher is saying. There is an excitement present in the real classroom which is not the case with online teaching. The students have also been cut off from the university library.
With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the globe, it is a question whether the adoption of online learning will continue to persist post-pandemic. Some peoples believe that this unplanned and rapid move to online learning without any training and an insufficient bandwidth more so in remote inaccessible areas will result in a poor user experience that is unconducive to sustained growth and will only add to the divide between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not have any such or remote access to ICTs. Many others believe that a new hybrid model of education will emerge, with significant benefits. One thing is clear that this deadly virus is here to stay and given the humanity is being rattled at regular intervals by deadly microbes or by climatic aberrations, integration of information technology in education will have to be further accelerated and that online education will eventually have to become an integral component of school education. |
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