One of the worst-hit sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic is the education sector. With all educational institutions closed for more than a year now, almost 1.2 billion students have been affected in 186 countries worldwide. This made way for e-learning, where classes are undertaken remotely on digital platforms.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced educational systems to change their teaching mode with students responding to their roll calls online. However, many experts say that the trend of having online classes for students might stay even in a post-covid world because some research suggests that e-learning has increased the capacity of the students to retain information. Also, online classes are less time consuming and more productive as compared to the traditional method.
Response of the education system to Covid-19
The education sector handled the pandemic quite swiftly and effectively. As soon as various governments started announcing lockdowns in their countries, the educational institutions quickly shifted their mode of providing education to online. With different apps like Zoom calls, Google Classrooms and Google Meet, it became easy for the teachers to host online classes with hundreds of students. The apps also came up with more features like slide sharing, uploading and downloading documents etc., to make learning in online classes easier and effective.
Also, different learning applications like BYJU’s, Tencent classroom, Lark, among others, started offering their services for free to students. BYJU’s, a Bangalore-based educating firm, saw a 200% increase in the number of students taking online classes. These learning applications transformed the whole education system as students could get a quality education without travelling to schools and universities.
Some school districts have also taken initiatives to broadcast local educational content for different age groups on separate channels. Media organisations like the BBC have also started powering virtual learning with Bitesize Daily, a 14-days curriculum learning for the kids in the UK. It also stars famous personalities like footballer Sergio Aguero, where he teaches some lessons to kids.
What exactly does the future of learning look like?
Some experts believe that this rapid and unplanned move to online learning without proper training and preparations might result in a poor, unfavourable experience to sustained growth. While others think that innovations will occur in the education system, online classes will become an integral part of schools and universities.
Many professors and teachers are finding the e-learning methods more effective as they can reach out to their students better using group chats, document sharing, voting and video meetings. In addition, they believe that online classes can go hand in hand with traditional offline classes.
Challenges of e-learning
Although e-learning has become the new way of providing education to schools and universities, some challenges are to be overcome. Many students without the required technology or reliable internet connection are required for the online classes. This difference is noticed across countries and also between people from different economic backgrounds within the country. There is a considerable gap between the people from privileged backgrounds and those from poor backgrounds. While every 15 year old from a privileged background had the required technology to take online classes, more than 25% from the poor background didn’t have it. This, as a result, further divided the gap between the haves and have nots when it came to education. No doubt that some of the schools and governments are providing the digital needs to the students who can’t afford them. Some experts are still concerned that e-learning will widen the digital divide.
Is e-learning more effective?
There is evidence to state that e-learning is more effective for those who have access to the right technology. For example, some research shows that students can retain 25-60% more when taking their classes online than just 8-10% in a traditional classroom. This is because the students can learn faster in their online classes as they have the freedom to learn at their own pace. They can re-read something that was taught, skip concepts they think they know, and choose what they want and when they want to study.
However, the effectiveness of e-learning varies among different age groups. The consensus is that children need a structured environment to study, which is offered in the traditional offline learning mode. A solid educational base, especially for young students, is vital if they want to make the most of online classes in their later stages of life. Although undoubtedly, e-learning applications use unique and fun ways to make education interesting for kids, they still need to have the experience of formal classroom learning to build a strong base.
Many experts say that the pandemic has disrupted the education system, which was losing its relevance. They suggest that schools and universities focus on skills like adaptability and critical thinking rather than just rote learning and traditional academic skills. We will have to wait and see if e-learning could be the catalyst for a new and effective education system in the future.
