learning that is supported by digital technology or by instructional practice that makes effective use of digital technology. It makes teaching and learning a smoother experience as it includes animations, gamification and audio-visual effects.
- KPMG and Google report, India’s online education market is set to grow to USD 1.96 billion and around 9.6 million users by 2021 from USD 247 million and around 1.6 million users in 2016.
- Reskilling and online certifications, Primary & secondary supplemental education will be the largest category by 2021 and Test preparation will be the fastest growing category in 2021.
- Need for the digital learning guidelines: influx of digital learning resources has made the task of selecting appropriate digital learning games, applications or tools difficult for teachers, parents and school leaders. highlight the importance of creating a set of guidelines for educational technology developers to integrate principles of good learning with digital pedagogies that are aligned with the values of peace, non-discrimination and sustainable development as enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- MP under the ‘Humara Ghar, Humara Vidyalaya’ programme planned to reach 22 lakh stu dents from classes 9 to 12, but just around 6,60,000 — 20% through TV and 10% through WhatsApp. Families of 30% of the stu dents don’t possess TVs or smartphones having Inter net connection to avail of the study material,
Reasons for growth of online education in India
- Low-cost alternative: Lower infrastructure cost and a larger student base
- Availability of quality education: Areas where availability of quality of offline education is low witness higher adoption of non-traditional education methods. For example, states like Kerala, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir account for around 4 Lakh distance learning enrolments.
- Employability Quotient: Nearly 280 million job seekers are expected to enter the job market in India by 2050. demand for industry relevant training.
- Inefficiency of traditional education system: in providing services to all the segments of the education and skill development market thus alternative source
- Growing Internet and smartphone penetration: Nearly 735 million are projected internet users in India by 2021. Smartphone user base is expected to grow with the addition of approximately 180 million new users by 2021.
The lockdown due to COVID outbreak has altered the traditional teaching-learning mechanisms with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms
- By the end of March 2020, over 180 countries had closed down schools, affecting over 1.26 billion learners (as per UNESCO). India comprises over 320 million of these learners.
- Educational institutions in India are using digital technologies to record video lectures of teachers, provide notes and content related to the courses to students through email, WhatsApp, etc., facilitate teacher-student interaction through platforms such as Zoom, WebEx etc.
Advantage of e-learning
- Flexibility to plan schedule
- Ease of Access
- More Affordable as online programs are cheaper when compared to the ones held in a traditional campus.
- Solve teacher scarcity
- Environmentally friendly as it consumes less energy and emits fewer CO2 emissions than traditional university courses, paperless learning method.
Disadvantage of e-learning
- Feedback is limited: In traditional classrooms, teachers can give students immediate face-to-face feedback, not possible in e learning
- Social Isolation: due to the lack of human communication with peers and teachers in school setting
- Requires strong self-motivation
- Lack of communicational skill development: the students might find that they are unable to work effectively in a team setting
- Cheating: Cheating prevention during online assessments is complicated.
- Abundance of free content: results in a large portion of the non- serious learners in the user base, resulting in loss of ad revenue from these customers. diminishes the perceived value of paid content.
- Multiple influencers in decision making: such as parents, peers, faculty and the information available on the internet thus delaying the adoption.
- Lack of awareness:of online offerings prove to inhibit rapid growth of the category.
- Obsolescence of content:short shelf life, and hence requires regular updates. Since this comes at a high cost, updating content remains a key challenge
Challenges with e-learning
- Digital Divide: less than 15% of rural Indian households have Internet connection (as opposed to 42% urban Indian households). Those with no access to the internet are still excluded from quality learning. NSSO data, only 4.4% of rural households and 23.4% of urban households have computer/laptop. Thus 75% of students are using smartphones to watch online classes
- Difficult for parents to adjust to the online system due to increased screen time for children, aren’t comfortable with technology themselves and increased pressure from the added household work
- Gender divide: Increased domestic responsibilities especially for girls is impairing the atmosphere of learning. India ranks 112th in WEF’s Gender Gap Index’s educational attainment component
- Lack of vernacular content: Most of the content and existing lectures on internet are in English. Ministry of HRD data shows that there are only 17% English medium schools.
- Creating new inequality: Only a handful of private schools, universities and IITs could adopt online teaching methods.
- Difficulties for teachers:Without adequate training, many teachers are not comfortable with using technology, difficult for teachers to develop a rapport with the children for effective teaching.
- Lack of institutions’ autonomy
- Conducting large-scale, high-stakes examinations will be more complicated. Most board and entrance examinations have been either postponed or suspended,
A multi-pronged strategy is necessary to manage the crisis in the short term and build a resilient Indian education system in the long term.
- Immediate/short term measures
- Ensuring continuity of learning in government schools and universities. Open-source digital learning solutions and Learning Management Software should be adopted so teachers can conduct teaching online. The DIKSHA platform, with reach across all states can be further strengthened to ensure accessibility of learning to the students.
- Deployment of ed-tech applications which takes into account the low internet bandwidth and patchy connections.
- Improve content in regional language. The existing EdTech solutions can prioritize the translation of key modules
- Leveraging community owned tablets and smart devices for education can also aid learners. Bharatnet and Wi-Fi Choupal (wifi hotspots) can be used to access the educational modules by the students in remote villages.
- Establishing quality assurance mechanisms and quality benchmark for online learning as well as e-learning platforms.
- Long term measures
- Inclusive learning solutions
- Reducing the Gender Divide by leveraging the digital solutions to enrol out of school girls. Targeted Information and Education campaigns, curated content borrowing from behavioural science and interactive media
- Strategies to prepare the higher education sector for the evolving demand–supply trends across the globe
- Courses on Indian traditional knowledge systems in the fields of yoga, Indian medicines, architecture, agriculture etc. should be integrated with the mainstream university education
- Government initiatives
- Platforms by MHRD, NCERT, and the department of technical education such as e-PG Pathshala (e-content), SWAYAM (online courses for teachers), and National Educational Alliance for Technology ( using technology for better learning outcomes in Higher Education)
- National Project on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), National Knowledge Network, (NKN), and National Academic Depository (NAD) to increase connectivity with institutions, and accessibility to content
- Pradhan Mantri e-VIDYA' initiative for digital education under which top 100 universities of the country will be allowed to start online courses by 30 May without UGC license.
- one nation - one digital platform initiative, E-content and QR coded textbooks would be provided for all grades
- One earmarked TV channel for every class from 1st to 12th - for students who do not have access to internet. Radio, community radio and podcasts would be extensively used for the same.
- Special e-content would be developed for visually and hearing impaired.
- Sankalp, a free learning app for Hindi medium Government school students in Classes IX to XII has been developed by Avanti, a social-educational enterprise.
- ThinkZone, a startup from Odisha, has partnered with a local radio channel to broadcast activity-based learning modules for students aged three to 10.
Emerging Digital Learning community develop effective solutions that will be in-line with SDG 4, and the societal and economic needs of the 21st century. Government should develop a mechanism to evaluate and compare the overall quality, relevance and learning outcomes of the multiple applications and services at their disposal so that consumer can make informed choices.