Education Scenario In Times Of Covid -19

 Learning is often considered to be a normal part of working and personal life. Both learning for achieving a job as well as for achieving knowledge should not be neglected.

In the days of the ongoing Pandemic Covid19, learning has become all the more difficult for students, teachers are suffering the most, sitting till late nights preparing notes for online studies for the children.

                                 What is online learning and is it possible to study online 

Online environment is changing continuously and it represents a great opportunity for learning. It is very important to discover how to learn using all available communication channels and choosing the ones that best suit a person’s style of filtering the information.

Covid-19 has forced universities across India, and the world indeed, to suspend physical classrooms and shift to online classes. In India, while this transition has been smooth for most private universities, the public ones are still adapting. There have also been debates on the nature of classes, and the future of examination and evaluation — whether they could be conducted online or not 

While faculty grapples with new ways of managing this sudden transition to online education, students are left clinging on to their mobile phones and computer screens. If the lockdowns were to continue for some time, how would higher education be affected? What are some of the deeper issues that require introspection? And what does this mean for the students going forward?

Online learning is a great alternative to traditional universities, especially for people who can’t afford the time and money to take real courses. 

But what are the advantages and disadvantages of online learning?

Disadvantages of online learning out number the advantages of it. 

Disadvantages from teachers’ perspective  

1). Online teaching is overwhelming and tiring and too strenuous mentally for teachers

2). Preparing Powerpoint presentations, worksheets, online testing and then checking online                       

     takes mental toll of teachers 

3). Teachers are facing health issues, spondylitis, cervical, strain on the eyes

4). Above all, only a few students respond in online classes, moreover they are reluctant to    

     switch on their cameras, so the personal touch goes missing 

5). Teachers can’t make out which student understood what, where a student needs to 

      improve and which student needs improvement     

Advantages from teachers’ perspective

     But seeing from another side, teachers are not at a loss.

1). Teachers have learnt a lot as it has been more an year and a half and now teachers are 

      quite used to this style of teaching, preparing notes and examining 

2). Teachers are well equipped with modern gadgets, like laptops and smartphones, hence 

      they can do all the paperwork they had to do in schools, on these modern gadgets

3). Moreover teachers have groomed themselves a lot 

         

 

      Disadvantages from students perspective

             Here too the negative aspects out number the positive aspects  

  1).     90% children freely cheat, in online exams they don’t have a supervisor or an  

           invigilator, hence they don’t have any stress, whereas some amount of stress is

           for a child  to grow. Children open their books, have a word with their friends. Only        

           some parents with ethics don’t allow their children to cheat, they sit with their children            

           throughout the exam and make sure that their children give their exams without 

           consulting books, their friends and any other outside entity

     2). Children are becoming sedentary, they remain seated at one place for long hours, 

           they are becoming inactive with no physical activity

     3).  Some children have poor concentration levels, they say offline studying is better

     4)   Children are developing babits like lying in bed and studying, not taking bath, not   

           even brushing their teeth, nothing. They just get up in the morning and switch on their 

           phones

     5).  A number of them login in the class, then start playing with their friends or start 

           watching TV

      6). Only a teacher can sustain a child’s interest in studies and the key factor is missing

      

      Advantages from students perspective

      1). In a class of 30 students, only 4-5 students are very regular, they are in their uniform,

            sitting and studying 

      2). One good point is that nobody fails, hence even the below average student feels 

           good. We always talk about the children who score well and average students,

           and those who fail or face failures, it becomes a stigma on those who fail. In online 

           system there are no failures, the one who usually scores below 40, feels confident 

           enough, he/she can score well      

       3). In offline teaching, if a student missed a class, the student had to ask from his 

            classmates, what all happened went haywire. In online teaching when the teachers

            teach, whether it is a Zoom meeting or at Google meet or in any way the one who is 

            teaching, or if the child is not there or if the child's attention gets diverted, he/she can 

            get the recorded lectures anytime he wants to listen.                

                                          Conclusion

            In today’s scenario, till the ongoing pandemic Covid 19 is there online teaching is the 

            basic needs of teachers and students too. But as the pandemic subsides, children 

            should be back to schools because disadvantages of online teaching exceed the advantages of   it.