Online education: The new norm going forward

Even before the advent and unfortunate spread of Covid-19, online education was slowly spreading roots in India. The sheer scale and speed of the spread has helped to speed up its implementation across the country, and we are left with the question: Is online education the new norm going forward?

Online education is already the norm in several countries across the globe with reputed foreign universities offering full-time degrees and certification courses with schools also promoting virtual learning from a nascent stage. It would not be an over exaggeration to state that India as an education system and a society needs to catch up and move forward in order to not lag behind the global trend.

Online education in a country like India has the potential to connect a massive number of children from all sections of society, especially when we hear arguments of lack of enough schools and universities come up quite frequently in debates on education. The essence of any education system lies at the primary level, and an online system would greatly reduce the cost of the required infrastructure and thereby, increase the access of primary education to a larger number of students. Governments and educational institutions could also use their resources in training teachers, investing in right technologies, shaping online curriculums and teaching methodologies.

It is no secret that visual input greatly enhances the learning capacity of students as displayed by the high success rate of online learning portals. The current lot of students are hands-on with their tablets and mobile phones, so online transition for learners would be seamless. Besides live online classes, technologies also allow regular interaction with the teachers. The potential benefits of online education are immense to say the least.

However, any change in approach needs to primarily start with a change in societal mentality; therefore, it is imperative that parents start to accept the change, encourage their wards and resist looking at online courses as a shortcut. It is also important to dispense of the myth that children need to go to schools to get trained and disciplined. Parents need to be the forebearers of this change of vision and join hands with educational institutions and government to bring about change.

I do not propose to do away with offline education, but going forward, even post Covid-19, we need to accept the new realities of academics and creativity. Online education, if implemented properly, can skill an entire country for generations. It has the potential to move beyond degree and literacy to education and creativity. I will finish the piece with a quote from Plato, the father of western education himself, “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”