How Online education has evolved!

Just like every other industry this time the education industry faced a major challenge. Our education system was never very efficient even in the best of times. The COVID-19 pandemic has rendered it extremely biased and faulty. The main thrust of providing learning opportunities while schools are shut is online teaching. None of us anticipated that education will be provided online for every child. Be it a kindergarten student or a college going one. All of them had to attend online classes.

2020 has taken a huge toll on the education sector like any other sector. This huge shift from offline/ classroom coaching to online coaching was a game changer. But the problem is not every child has the privilege to buy a smartphone/tablet to attend online classes. For some families it’s difficult to fulfill the basic needs of the family, let alone sending their children to school. School can be managed too as government schools provide free education and mid-day meals but how can they manage to buy a smartphone for online classes. That’s how a lot of poor families’ children suffered through this pandemic.

The Internet space is teeming with learning schemes, teaching videos, sites and portals for learning opportunities. While online education has a lot of benefits, it certainly has some disadvantages too. Let’s talk about some of the pros and cons of online education.

Pros

•  Online education platforms like Udemy, Unacademy, Internshala, Byju’s classes have grown their business multifold in this pandemic. Online education platforms are a blessing for the majority of us who don’t like travelling much and want to study from the comfort of our homes.
• Online education saves money and there are so many options available for us to study from. One can attend college and prepare for other competitive exams by watching videos while travelling or sitting idle at home.
• Studying at home is good for those students who are actually quite sincere for their studies and don’t like to socialise much. This way they can focus in a better way on their studies.

Cons

• You don’t get to socialise as much as you used to. Socialising is really important to stabilise your mind and discussion with friends is a must!
• You don’t get to meet your mentors as frequent as offline classes. It really motivates children to perform better.
• Competition is lost. When you study in a group of friends, performance improves. In online classes you’re not able to compete.
• Every occasion that is celebrated in college or school is missed. No farewell, fests, diwali, holi or christmas party, sports day, functions, everything is cancelled now. It’s a huge disadvantage of online classes.

The World Economic Forum reports a surge in the use of language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools, and online learning software in the last three months. India, too, is witnessing an e-learning boom. Classes on Zoom, WhatsApp and Skype are becoming the norm for students, parents and teachers. Yet, this abrupt transition to online hardly compensates for the absence of the classroom experience.

But education is important and online education is the need of the hour. Despite the fact that many of the students cannot take advantage of this opportunity, it’s the only option that’s there with them. And this phrase “to win something, you have to lose something” holds true in this situation.