The Revolution of Online Learning in India – Benefits & Drawbacks

How Did This System Start & What Benefits Should Students Expect in Future?

Imagine learning in a digital space rather than in a physical infrastructure that limits the student to learn in a closed environment. According to renowned educators, learning in a favorable environment helps the student to attain and absorb information more effectively. Online schools in India have come forward with the ideology of operating the educational institutions in digital infrastructure that helps to unlock numerous merits such as affordability, accessibility, and efficiency for both students and educators.

All of this sounds very fascinating and development-oriented. Unfortunately, developmental strategies and their execution face uncountable barriers or hindrances throughout the process. One of such obstacles in this process is the unavailability of resources that make online education inaccessible in some areas. A student requires a smart device and internet connectivity to connect with the institution. On the other hand, online schools are the primary preferences of the population that is well-equipped with the resources. As mentioned by several anonymous parents,  learning online helps their children to increase their productivity throughout the day. Before moving forward, let us first throw some light on the reasons that helped the educational methodology to upgrade to this level.

• According to the researchers, the penetration of the world wide web and internet facilities contributed a major part in growing the education system. As per the facts mentioned by Statista, the internet penetration rate in India was around 50% in the year 2020.

• The government of India has been continuously working on attracting more student populations towards online learning. One of such initiatives is the ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ (India Study Online) campaign by the Ministry of Human Resource & Development.

• The fact that online learning consumes a lesser monetary investment than offline learning cannot be denied. Students that aspire for big goals and belong to the middle-class category of the population are the primary target audience of online educational institutions.

• The COVID-19 pandemic was no less than a cherry on the top of the cake for the e-learning industry. Almost every educational institution shifted from offline teaching to online teaching and supported increasing digital literacy in very little time.

What Kickstarted Online Education in India?

Digital India has been witnessed growing at a very impressive pace because of the internet revolution. A very recent instance of development is the 5th Generation (5G) of cellular, mobile, or data networks that is only a few steps away from implementation all over the world. Today is the day where one does not require to step out from its comfort zone to get the tasks completed.

• A student spends around 8-9 hours daily in a traditional or physical school that ultimately consumes 1/3rd of the whole day.

• Students needed a learning system that consumes nearly half of their time for delivering quality-oriented education to its students.

• Students that are preparing for early success must make the best productive use of every spare hour of the day. Hence, online schools for high aspirants were the need of the hour.

• The curriculum of the online education system is crafted in such a way that every student can follow its interests while maintaining its academic record effortlessly.

Students require to use their time very effectively and efficiently. Apart from academics, various other vital activities are part of a student’s routine. Generally, it is noticed that students usually exhaust after attending a whole day at school and have no energy left to make the rest of the day productive. Online schools in India present a very flexible learning technique that does not bound them with the time or location. According to Eduxpert, the worth of the online education market in India was $247 million in 2016. Whereas, Technavio states that the size of the online education market in India may grow by $2.28 billion by the year 2025.

How Much Are Ed-Tech Leaders Contributing To This Revolution?

Leading Ed-Tech companies can be termed as one of the important drivers of online learning in India. At present, there are many online portals approved by the government that provides Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) to the students. These courses support the children to learn without enrolling in a complete traditional degree program. Apart from MOOCs, several other private Ed-Tech companies have launched similar educational products in the market that are being utilized by the students. Some of such types of online educational products are mentioned below in this segment.

• Asynchronous Online Courses: Students consider these platforms as the most flexible way to learn and gain knowledge. This is designed by keeping the busy individuals in mind as it doesn’t follow any rigid or flexible schedule. As the name suggests, it is a completely student-centered, self-paced, and pliable program of e-learning.

• Synchronous Online Courses: This type of e-learning program works exactly the opposite. The student receives the flexibility of location but not the time. Here, a group of students enroll for the program altogether and learn at the same time from different locations online. In India, a large number of e-learning products are based on asynchronous and synchronous programs only.

• Newly Introduced in the Air - Adaptive e-Learning Courses: These are carefully crafted and developed to provide surplus flexibility in all terms without deteriorating the quality of education. Adaptive programs offer the advantage of customizing the academic content to make the learning process more student-centered.

The entry of private Ed-tech entities in the industry has offered uncountable studying options to students on which they can rely completely. Apart from diversity in courses, students state that the revolution in the education sector has undoubtedly improved the quality of academics.

This is What Students Can Expect After Enrolling With an Online School

Uncountable blogs on the internet are delivering information about the three most-known benefits of online education – affordability, accessibility, and efficiency. We will be covering the personal benefits apart from the three mentioned advantages that students receive are completion of an online course or degree. Online school in India has made self-paced learning dreams come true. Now, gifted minds don’t have to wait for the rest of the class to move forward. Similarly, slow learners now have no hurry to move with the pace of other students. Students can expect the following changes in themselves after the completion of their online learning course.

• Time Management: Time management is just not a requirement, but a life skill for everyone. The one who knows to manage their time can make the best use of the day. The practice of online learning helps the student to manage its time more constructively.

• Priority Management: It is not always about how fast one’s pace is. It is all about prioritizing the right task at the right time. Students learn this necessary skill of prioritizing after enrolling in online learning courses. This further results in making them more responsible in life.

• Self-dependency: The whole journey can teach uncountable lessons only if one is independent throughout the process. Students themselves learn to be self-dependent after taking the vital decisions on their own. As rightly said, “the one who walks alone, walks far.”

• Technical Skills: The online mode of education comes up with daily technical errors that students have to face. Sometimes, the errors are not from the management’s end which is why the learner has to solve them. Involving in the technicality of the system helps them to develop technical skills.

• Critical Thinking: Critical thinking refers to a very complex skill of analyzing the topic of discussion based on judgments and facts. It has been seen that students from an online school attain the skills of critical learning very quickly.

Summing Up

An online school can be defined using various names such as digital school, cyber school, or virtual school. The objective of this upgrade in the education system of India is to equip learners with a learning space that supports complete flexibility. Coming to the availability of resources, due to socio-economic differences In India, a lot of students are still not able to access online education. According to a survey by the Hindustan Business Line, around 50% of students do not have access to the internet which is very unfortunate.