COVID-19 Pandemic: New Technologies and Challenges to Online Education
5 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2022
Date Written: February 4, 2022
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic attracted the attention of the government since March 2020. The government concrete measures came in the form of lockdown i.e. 24th March, 2020, which led to closure of schools, colleges and universities across the country. The risk and severity of the pandemic caused several deaths necessitating a shift from physical classes to online mode of education in the education sector. Online classes became the norm and there had been a shift from blackboard classes, direct face to face interaction to fruitful discussions via different modes of delivering education such as Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, Cisco Webex, Google Meet, etc.
However, with the shift, there was a paucity of expertise and skills required for online teaching. As a result, numerous workshops, skill training programmes and institutional support are required to overcome such challenges. To take advantage of online education, there are other requirements in the form of strong broadband connectivity, owning a smartphone and laptop, requisite computer skills and technical knowledge and afford data cost at an affordable rate.
Over time, it was found that students couldn’t afford a have a smartphone and was forced to rely on recorded sessions and videos. With the online mode of teaching, exams were conducted online which was quite challenging for both teachers and students. Issues over connectivity and bandwidth always tended to prevail. Sometimes, online classes were burdensome with increased screentime. Teachers and students located in the rural areas had severe connectivity problems. Against this backdrop, the study examines the advantages and challenges associated with the provision of online education. Using google forms, and framing questionnaires, a micro-level study was conducted. Responses were collected from faculty members. The results were mixed and concluded that the provision of the online mode of education was a challenging task for the teachers. Lastly, the study provided some suggestions for further improvement
in the situation.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, online education, teachers and challenges
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