Online Education – Its benefits and how it can be improved further.

 

“Online Education – No, never. It is just waste of time, it is not going to help our children, we can not risk our children’s academics by relying on online education. My child understands only through face-to-face offline teaching”. All these were reactions and responses of many parents and even of some teachers too. But when you have no choice, you need to choose the only available resource “Online Education” which you need to accept it and adapt to it by taking it as only ray of hope!

 Online Education – is way of teaching and learning in a distance mode using internet connection over the various platforms. We learn and make use of various ICT tools as per requirement of our subject and its pedagogies. There are various tools for keeping students records, for connecting with students, for teaching and for assessing and analysing on day-to-day basis. As a mathematics educator I have learned and used some of the best tools like Geogebra, Robocompass, Mathspad, Desmos, MS – Teams, MS – Forms, Quizziz and many more.

Even we have trained our colleagues to bring minimum technology literacy to cope up with Online Education System. As every coin has two sides, as online education too has some positives and some negatives. But negatives are almost negligible.

“We have shifted from chalks to chats,

From leave the class to leave the session,

From get your notebooks to upload your notes,

From reaching school from home to bringing school to home,

We have shifted from actual school to virtual school”

 

Benefits of Online Education:

When it comes to count benefits of Online Education – Sky is the limit. There are n number of benefits of online education, some of them are listed below.

O – Opulent in 21^st Century skills which is in favour of learners so that they can meet the global requirements and present themselves as a competitor in a global market.

N – Natty way to connect with students due to pandemic.

L – Lanky as it could be accommodated anywhere. One can learn or teach from anywhere and anytime.

I – Impervious mode of to carry on teaching – learning process.

N – Nurturing Nature as use of papers gone down which helps in reducing cutting of trees, transportation will reduce which reduces release of CO from vehicles which causes air pollution.

E – Efficacious tool which ensures maximum learning in other than physical schooling.

E – Easy going as teachers & and students gets flexibility to connect at any time, doubts be addressed, easy in record maintaining, easy to take follow up.  

D – Digital & Diverse as it could help in Inclusive Education in various ways. Example visually challenged person may use audio to learn, physically challenged may attend classes from home. Slow learners can get help from various visual representations and ICT tools.

U – Ubiquitous as it is in favour of national interest which definitely helps people from the country to keep learning, keep going and growing.

C – Cost effective as it needs only digital device with internet connection. Cost of books, cost of uniforms, cost of travelling and many more gets reduced. Even from the institution perspective too as infrastructure maintenance, stationary cost can be reduced.

A – Authentic way to ensure learning. Proctored Test may help us to understand exact learning level or learning gap of the students.

T – Tailored the need of learner as per their requirement, at their own pace to get the peace of mind to meet the need to survive in this competitive world.

I – Integral part of process required to attain various skills to meet the need of 21^st Century Learning Skills like collaboration, decision making, self-regulation, use of ICT and many more.

O – Open Resource. There are various free software, tools and resources which absolutely free and just a click away for learners, educators and for parents too. 

N – Need of an hour. In a situation like pandemic online education is very fruitful and the only way to conquer the world.

 

Ways of Improving Online Education for further:

We, the humans have habit of forgetting the things once the need is over. But this would be the biggest mistake if we will not adapt to the Online Education System and to continue even after the normalization of pandemics. I highly recommend few plans to improve online education for the further.

Plan A:

By keeping in view structure of 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 which is recommended in NEP 2020, we may cover 10 % of portion of foundational stage though online mode, 20 % of portion of preparatory stages through online mode, 30% of portion of middle stage through online mode, 40% of portion of secondary stage through online mode and 50% of portion of university stage through online mode. This will ensure Online Education at every stages. Percentages of portion can be adjusted at the institutional level by discussing with the board officials. This will also provide scope for Internship, Vocational education, earn while you learn at the appropriate levels wherever it applies. Institutions will have full right to decide that which all chapters from various subjects can be kept for teaching through online mode. Regular Assessments through online mode will be ease for teachers and will provide them more space to plan better to deal with students in offline and online mode. This will also guarantee inclusion of students from diverse background.

 

Plan B:

In this plan we may not include foundational and preparatory stages. We may start from middle stage onwards but the framework will be decided by higher official like NCERT or NCTE or may be committee designated by these agencies at various levels like, district level, zonal level, state level and so on. These committees will ensure implementation of online education framework at various institutes at various levels. They may keep few competitions, recognitions and awards for students, teachers and institutes to motivate them in successful implementation of Online Education Framework. These may also come together and share their best practices of implementation of Online Education Framework.

 

Plan C:

We may introduce short courses on small topics divided into various modules consist of quizzes and assignments through Moocs, google apps, microsoft tools or through live streaming using various platforms. Assigning certificate of completion, certificate of merit and other recognitions will act as a cherry on top for motivating students. Students may create their portfolios in which they may keep adding these certificates which will help teachers to understand whether learning outcomes are attained by students or not. We may also prepare some students to record their videos to create their own courses which will motivate others too. Teachers may help students to explore various tools to ease students work as they will be creating resources. We may ask students to refer or join few courses from Diksha, Swayam, NOER, NPTEL, MOOC and many more at the initial level. Students may join few courses through Microsoft Education to get a better idea of introduction of small courses. At this level everything will be between learner and teachers, here teachers need to ensure that Online Education Framework is introduced and implemented.

 

Conclusion:

This Online Education System will help us to dream for digital India. This will help schools to reach to the students those who cannot turn to the school causing reduction in dropout rates. Online Education System will ensure better literacy rates in various parts of country with its proper implementation. This will also provide scope to educate daughters to be a contributor of digital India. Online education system will ensure that learners with socio-economic challenges will also learn along with others.  This system will ensure equal opportunities for all irrespective of their religion, caste, race, sex and other factors.

 

Well at the end of this article as a concluding statement I would say that from a mindset of “something is better than nothing” to “online education is everything” we have come all the way and mastered the art of Online Education as a student, as a teacher and as a parent too. Now almost after a year of pandemic Online Education System has become integral part of our life.

 

Rajkumar Kanojiya

Mathematics Educator - India