The unique coronavirus outbreak threw the traditional educational system into disarray, pushing students all across the world to switch to a e-learning approach
Education is one area where the Covid-19 epidemic has demonstrated that we can achieve in a variety of ways. To combat the pandemic, schools, colleges, and universities around the world, including in India, took extraordinary measures – schools, colleges, and universities were closed, and e-learning became the norm. With 35 million students enrolled in higher education in India, the country has a low gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 26%. China has a substantially higher GER of 51.6 percent due to its greater population. We must prioritise online learning if we are to attain the 50 percent GER target set by the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 by 2035.
Furthermore, the NEP’s carefully considered provision of multi-point entry-exits and credit banks will be practicable only if they are sufficiently facilitated for adoption in an online context. All subjects that do not require hands-on experience will be delivered via the internet. Others who seek competency-based abilities will require a combination of online and offline techniques. Around 85% of the lectures were covered by material provided by mail in the early days of open and remote learning, with the remainder delivered face-to-face in centres within the university’s jurisdiction. The mode is hybrid in an e-learning system if certain lectures are also delivered face to face for some reason.
All open institutions, with the exception of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), were required to operate inside the confines of their respective states. The mail approach was gradually replaced by online instruction as the information technology (IT) infrastructure improved. Online exams are also gaining popularity since they are proven to be a useful tool for not only promptly measuring a student’s knowledge but also for resolving concerns such as handling question papers, answer scripts, exam room scheduling, invigilator scheduling, and collaborating with examiners. While the different Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) do not require permission, all degree-granting programmes must be approved by the regulator, the University Grants Commission (UGC). One of the requirements is that the course include both online and face-to-face lectures. IGNOU, state open universities, and the Ministry of Education are the other players in open and distance learning. Engineering, like medicine, requires hands-on experience and has thus been excluded from degree requirements, while add-on e-content such as the Indian Institute of Technology’s National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) has been developed (IITs).
One of the main reasons for the slow growth of online learning degrees is the education ministry’s and the UGC’s cautious stance out of fear of commercialization and the admission of fly-by-night operators. The number of registered ODL courses at some large traditional universities, such as Mumbai and Pune, is twice that of their normal programmes. While this may appear to be positive, the UGC should streamline its laws and, most all, eliminate the arbitrary distinction between ODL and online learning programmes, especially because the postal method is nearly obsolete and the majority of information is already available online.