The post-COVID phase is surely going to be a different one! There will be a visible change in behaviour and attitudes towards shopping, eating out and travelling throughout the globe. Governments across the globe have enforced lockdown and recommended that people should maintain social distancing measures to contain the further spread of the Corona virus pandemic. Noticeably, the corona virus outbreak has already set its foot into the education sector, as schools, colleges and other educational institutions were first shut down by the government. It is reasonable to assume that this impact will be here to stay for a fairly long time. This pandemic is a sign of changing human behaviour. It is also an event that has given rise to the push to the digitalization of businesses, especially in the education sector where e-Learning and live online classes has become a trend.
Are We Prepared For The Future?
We have to prepare ourselves to bring the best of online education into the classrooms – a blended learning form- and in the process, offer the students a powerful and efficient learning experience, who lacked good education or quality resource access. Historically, Live Online Classes has been viewed as the “free version” of the traditional education system and the second-best option available for people who do not have access to traditional education. Honestly, we can no longer assume that traditional face to face education is the only best education. While much of the world will likely return to school after the pandemic dies down the difference will be that online learning will also be acceptable, most preferred and credible in the future.
The Future of education post coronavirus phase is Live Online Classes (At Least for some time). This fact has been accepted by most of the educators, thinkers, teachers and the students. Consequently, catering to the needs of all stages of education from pre-primary to university level, online education has emerged as an alternative to traditional face to face classes. Accordingly, various stakeholders such as government and private organizations are trying their best to assist each other by improving their existing online platforms, apps and providing training to teachers to use these apps and platforms to the optimum level.
Live Online classes are now the preferred mode of education in the corona virus outbreak. Due to some of the following reasons-
1. Networking Opportunities To Students
Live Online classes provides students with the opportunity to connect with people and groups throughout the globe. This often leads to other opportunities in terms of working with other individuals in the implementation of a project which will prove to be beneficial for them. At the same time, it makes students culturally sensitive and able to fit into other environments as they expand their imagination by interacting with new people.
2. Study Material
During live online classes all the study material that you will need will be safely stored in the online mode. This includes things like informative PPTs, training materials, emails, links for websites and even teacher’s handwritten notes. This means that if there’s ever any doubt that needs to be clarified, the student will be able to access these documents fast, saving their valuable time.
3. Flexible schedule and environment
Live Online Classes provide a flexible schedule and environment for studying. You can take classes in your living room or bedroom, whatever suits you the best. Due to the flexible timings of these classes, students will easily be able to hone their skills or develop some new ones! It is also seen that students are more regular in online classes, which is a good sign.
However, there are some challenges to online classes too.
1. Live Online Classes lack student feedback
In traditional classrooms, teachers can give students immediate face-to-face feedback to students. Whosoever student is experiencing problems in the curriculum can resolve them quickly and directly either during the lecture or during the dedicated office hours. Personalized feedback makes live online classes processes easier, richer, and more significant. However, on the other hand, E-Learning still tends to struggle with student feedback. Students, after completing regular assessments become dissatisfied when they experience a lack of personalized feedback from their teachers.
2. Live Online Classes is inaccessible to many people
In Rural India, where people lack basic amenities like electricity, it is next to impossible for them to attend or take live online classes. Reasons like lack of digital knowledge, availability of phones and internet connections are the major hindrances of online classes. It would be easy to argue that online education is easily accessible to most people but not to everyone. However, these statistics don’t paint the whole picture of online classes.
3. Lack of accreditation and quality assurance in Live online classes
If E-Learning is to be considered as effective and authentic as traditional learning, it must be ensured that all online schools are not qualified and accredited. In the current COVID situation, there are a vast number of online learning platforms which are unaccredited and where all the materials are quality checked by no one but the instructors themselves
CONCLUSION
Live online classes or online education culture has changed the way of study. Where it has several negative points like, poor network and reach in the rural areas etc whereas In positive actions, now students are more comfortable and given opportunity to students to opt for additional courses along with their studies. Plus the technical hand of students as well as faculty is becoming more sharper and undoubtedly Live Online Classes are the future of the education.
