By TFL Mawlong
We live in a world that is becoming increasingly connected, pulsing to the electronic heartbeat of social media. Everything is filtered and validated by the worldwide web. Living in real-time is no longer enough. We live on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik-Tok. This is especially true during this covid-19 pandemic. Report says that the pandemic sees an increase in media consumption across nations. In March web browsing sees a global increase of 70% and global social media engagement increases by 63%.
Meghalaya youths are as active online as the youth from mainstream India. There’s however one important divergence: apart from social media, the students in mainstream India, are also actively engaging themselves in online conventional school and college curriculum and online skills development courses such as courses on the coding skill, writing skill, etc. Our students (sans exception) are largely oblivious of digital learning platforms. Perhaps the reason is because of the lack of awareness and exposure, or the lack of opportunity. While many higher educational institutions and training institutions in other states have their state of the art e-learning system which the students are actively engaging with, we have none to offer!
We are not sure whether the educational institutions will be opened by April 30 or not, but one thing we know for sure, the threat of coronavirus will loom till a vaccine is developed, i.e. till next year. So even if the institutions are open by April 30, we never know when they are going to be closed again. We also don’t know how much the threat of COVID-19 will affect the students’ attendance once the institutions open. The uncertainty in the current academic year is indeed very real. We have seen enough instructional discontinuity during this lockdown. Imagine what’s going to happen if classes are resumed next month only to be closed again? I am afraid the cost of the instructional discontinuity will be too high. It will negatively affect human capital in a big way.
We, therefore, need to be prepared for what may happen as we move deeper into the pandemic. So what needs to be done? In education, maintaining instructional continuity is very important. Hence, we should see that the students continue to get education material during this pandemic. And for that, we need to transform our educational and skill-building institutions. So I guess the need of the hour is for the institutions to embrace the idea of remote teaching.
I agree there are many concerns regarding online classes. First, I think most of our teachers have never taught online classes. Moreover, the majority of them are too old, or too lazy and too traditional to be able to adapt to modern online teaching methods. Second, for most institutions, technical support and infrastructure may be non-existent. Third, digital tools or the internet may not be accessible to all students. These are all genuine concerns. Mind that I am not saying that there will be no challenges at all. But, isn’t it wiser to face the challenges instead of conveniently giving all excuses and doing nothing?
As far as accessibility is concerned, I believe it is not much of an issue. More than 90% of families have a Smartphone. And with Jio, 4G internet accessibility is now more inclusive than ever. So if we say that we cannot do it because there is no 100% accessibility, think about this: Even with brick-and-mortar classes, many college students are deprived of easy accessibility to education because of their part-time jobs to earn their livelihood and to pay the burgeoning tuition fees. If a parallel e-learning system exists these students would have been able to easily access some of their lessons and assignments every other day.
Also as an instructional method, online teaching scores lower compared to the brick-and-mortar class. We can never replace the vibrancy of offline class discussions. When you teach in the classroom on how to solve an equation, you are articulating your thinking process. When you ask critical questions you are modeling how thinkers make sense of theories. You also improvise your teaching when the students don’t seem to get what’s being taught. And of course, you love that look at the students’ faces when they get what you explain.
Even with modern cutting edge technology, an online class can never be as valuable as an offline class. Nonetheless, online classes are valuable and effective enough to strategically bridge the gap when offline classes are not possible, or to strategically supplement the offline classes in normal times. Besides, the Quizzing system, Gamification, and the Artificial Intelligence-powered Adaptive learning methods are exclusive to good online platforms.
When it comes to online classes for school children, another issue that needs to be kept in mind is the lack of ambiance in an online class. The children will be missing the social side. They will be sick of not seeing each other. They will feel very isolated! Therefore, to be even remotely effective for school children, the e-learning system should have rich features such as “live interactive learning experience”, “multiple teacher assistance”, and “insights on child engagement.”
Fortunately, many Edu-tech companies in India, with proven expertise, are offering excellent software/service for truly interactive live e-learning classes. Their platforms allow a teacher to teach in “small virtual rooms” so that the children can see each other and talk among themselves. Also, a teacher can see the students as they listen to his/her teaching. In this way, struggling students are also easier to spot. These software/service might be a bit expensive though, but they are worth it because without the capability of “live interactive classes”, “insight on child engagement”, and “Quizzing and Grading”, online class for children (KG to X) is nonsense!
For college-levels, such a “virtual classroom” is not necessary. But having said that, the colleges can easily build their e-learning systems by making use of free, open-source software, called Moodle (used by the majority of higher institutions worldwide). This software is perhaps the best free e-learning software available and it has the capability for video conference or live classes apart from managing the assignments, quizzes, grading system, flashcards, and many other e-learning contents.
I hope the academics eventually see the value of a good digital learning system. If you ask me, a good online class is as rewarding as the bricks-and-mortar class, albeit in a different way. Besides, good e-learning classes will also give a student the much-needed hope during this pandemic apart from preventing the degradation of human capital.