ONLINE LEARNING, A BOON OR CURSE

Education is experiencing  one of the biggest shifts during corona virus pandemic. Online teaching and learning has become an alternative way in order for safe and continuous learning. Learn from home (LFH) therefore is necessary, which is redefining the experience of teaching and learning.

There are some challenges which perplexed parents, students and faculty members since online teaching can never be similar to classroom one.
  - Since the school is now a home but it doesn't look like a classroom.  so some schools have mandated students to wear uniforms, follow discipline as before in the traditional classrooms
  - In situations where parents too may be working from home and have two or more children, separate silent rooms and good bandwidth connection increases cost of education but the good thing is that, since the child is at home so it is possible to have persistent invisible supervision. Sometimes parents also have to sit with the students in case of small kids to fix technical issues and to help them with studies.
  - most faculty members too are ill at ease with online teaching. Their challenges in a synchronised teaching format are unique. They too need a good bandwidth and silent place at home. Next on their small laptop screens they can't see all the students in the class. Talking the advantage the students may not pay attention to the class
  - the teachers need to put in intensive work and time to design the instructions and students need to equip themselves with technical skill to decode the text instructions.
  - some working class parents may not be able to avail the basic requirements for online learning during this hard period of lockdown and jobless situations.

SOLUTION FOR THESE CHALLENGES

Yes, there are solutions for these challenges which are in different stages of evolution. Technology companies are working on providing solutions that will permanently alter the way of education.EdTech companies are seeing this windfall opportunity to disrupt the conventional practices of teaching.
  - A digital whiteboard can be used to write, scramble and even sketch which can be used by teachers as well as students
  - Presentation tools must be used to share visual appealing contents
  - The online teaching platforms should also provide options for students to pause a lecture, to ask questions or even to indicate the faculty to either slowdown or speed up a topic
  - Features like online quiz, break out sessions (in which classes can be separated into smaller groups) for discussions may be added to bridge the gap between online an in class experience.

Government also have taken many proper steps to make the online learning more effective. The Department of School Education and Literacy under Ministry of Human Resources and Development has recently released PRAGYATA which has guidelines for digital educations.
- The ministry has urged schools to have an alternative timetable and enable access to digital infrastructure of their teachers.
  - Teachers have been asked to limit the screen time to thirty minutes in alternative days for pre-primery, two sessions of twenty to forty-five minutes per day for elementary students and four sessions of 30-40 minutes for secondary and higher secondary students

E-larning is a good news but at its initial stage, it possesses certain threats of adaptability to students as well as teachers. Attitude change and technological literacy would help them to gain confidence.