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COVID-19 has affected the whole world with economies plummeting and scores of people facing an uncertain future. Along with other sectors, the education sector too has faced its share of troubles and challenges with the onset of the pandemic. The statistics are alarming indeed with around 1.2 billion children (Source: Unesco) out of their classrooms globally as authorities decided to err on the side of caution by shutting down all schools, colleges, and universities. This changed the education scenario with students, teachers, and other stakeholders taking to digital platforms to continue learning courses online.
If in the preceding years elearning was relatively underutilized as a learning model, it became all-pervasive during the pandemic as children across the world were initiated into online learning. The success of elearning in enabling education during one of the most difficult periods is expected to expand its market to the tune of $350 billion by 2025 (Source: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/12/17/1961785/0/en/Online-Education-Market-Study-2019-World-Market-Projected-to-Reach-350-Billion-by-2025-Dominated-by-the-United-States-and-China.html). The switch to online learning has brought myriad challenges, especially for people who were not attuned to the model. Faculties and teachers had to prepare online course material, conduct classes on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Twilio, etc., and perform evaluations with little or no prior experience. Children on their part were more enthused to use the new platform due to its novel quality.
However, in rural areas with sketchy internet connectivity, the inadequate elearning facilities for students were most stark. With costly devices beyond the reach of many students, elearning did not quite yield the expected learning outcomes as evident in cities with better connectivity and resources. Also, professional education had a difficult time as online education did not quite meet the exacting standards and requirements – lack of access to laboratories. The disparity in the lack of access to resources was evident in the stats provided by OECD. It stated that about 95% of students in advanced countries such as Austria, Switzerland, and Norway have access to computers and internet networks as against only 34% of students in Indonesia. With the implementation of elearning, the traditional role of faculty members seems to get transformed from a teacher-centric model to a student-centric one.
What is the future of elearning?
The transition to elearning during the pandemic has had a mixed reaction among people. According to some, the sudden and unplanned move to online learning without proper training, preparation, and the much needed bandwidth resulted in poor user experience. This may not be the ideal situation when it comes to considering elearning as a future model. On the other hand, some believe that going forward a hybrid model of education will evolve and become an integral part of normative education. The elearning model of accessing learning courses online at the time and place of the students’ choosing is going to stay. In the post-pandemic era, there would be a combination of both traditional offline learning and online learning. Further, the convenience of communicating through chat groups, video meetings, and sharing of documents by students, teachers, and other stakeholders makes elearning the go-to model for students.
Conclusion
Studies have shown that elearning facilities for students can help them retain more information (25% to 60%) vis-a-vis 8% to 10% in a classroom (Source: https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/301248/15-facts-and-stats-that-reveal-the-power-of-elearning.) The pandemic gave a boost to online learning and the model is most likely to stay in the post COVID world in a hybrid form along with traditional classroom teaching.
