Online Education – Need, Opportunities and Challenges

Shailendra Parolkar

We have been very progressive with our IOMs initiative which we started five years back with a vision to reach out to students all over India and the world if possible, remotely and provide the best educational resources including study material and top-class teachers without any profit motives. Five years later, in the face of the COVID19 pandemic that the world is facing today, we realize that online education has become the need of the hour. Even though many of us strongly believe that in-person interaction is the best way of communication and imparting education, we are forced to adopt this new way of learning due to the lockdown and social distancing restrictions imposed by the COVID19 situation. I, among many, am of the opinion that this may not be just a temporary situation and online learning may be a significant part of our lives going forward.

Looking at the bright side, this is such a great opportunity because we are not restricted by our physical location as schools and universities around the world are opening up online learning avenues and if this becomes a trend, the cost of education should also go down because of a smaller investment in physical infrastructure. Moreover, it will be in the interest of the educational institutions as well to reduce their fees if they want to attract more students and increase their revenues. This will also give the students

students a choice from the best schools based on their interest and credentials.

As attractive as that may sound for someone pursuing higher education, this is still a huge challenge for the primary school, middle school and even high schools going students to be engaged with this model day in and day out and not get distracted, isolated or burnt out. The big challenge is – how do you keep the students engaged, alert and interested in learning sitting in front of a computer or looking at their mobile device for the whole day? Innovative programs will have to be designed based on the age group to make learning fun and ensure that the students get the opportunity to interact with their classmates and their teachers and do not feel isolated. Teachers will also have to make sure that they check on each student from time to time to address their technical and learning challenges and no student feels left out.

There is even a greater challenge for the parents to ensure that they interact with their children in a way that they may not have in the past. What I mean is that when a child is spending the whole day in isolation, interacting only virtually with his / her classmates and teachers, it is important for the family to spend some quality time together and have a greater bonding to ensure that the children are able to open up to their parents / siblings and have avenues to talk about things that they my share with their classmates and friends at school. It also becomes the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their children get some regular physical exercise which they would otherwise get in the school.

These are only a few among all the challenges that the students, teachers and the parents will face if this becomes a way of life going forward. Bottom line is – parents and teachers have to collaborate and find the best ways to keep their children physically healthy, mentally stable, motivated and focused to learn and positively oriented towards life. This sounds like a huge challenge but I am sure that we as parents and teachers will find a way and do the best possible that we can for our children if we have the best intentions. It is not only a learning opportunity for our children but for us as well. This is no different than becoming new parents or teachers. In the beginning, we only have the bookish knowledge and no practical experience about how to deal with each child based on their unique personalities, capabilities and challenges. As we go along our journey, we learn from the children as they learn from us and become better parents and teachers. As long as we understand that we are not perfect and continue learning along with our children, I am sure that they will grow as we grow with them and prepare them for the future.

 

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