Is Covid-19 reshaping education across the globe?

Most of the countries across the world have shut down their colleges and universities temporarily in an attempt to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. This world-wide closure is disrupting the education of 300 million students globally. Thus, education institutes across the world are trying to find out different innovative methods to teach remotely and minimise the loss of studies for their students. Since the closure of the colleges by the Government due to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, all the schools and colleges been providing innovative learning solutions to the students through digital platforms.

In the current situation of lockdown, the college faculties are adopting novel ways of teaching through digital platforms. 

As the colleges have been closed for prolonged times, education institutes are searching for unique ways to complete the syllabus, stay connected and motivate their students. In the current situation of lockdown, the college faculties are adopting novel ways of teaching through digital platforms. The faculties are making notes, presentations of their lecture slides, recording their videos, organising quizzes and sharing them with the students through various online platforms such as WhatsApp groups, YouTube and various other digital tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Groups etc. The faculties conduct the classes through various apps such as Zoom, Microsoft teams, Google classroom etc. and create a perfect lively classroom environment for students to learn from the comfort of their homes. Each topic is followed by some interesting activities and assignments to understand the concept thoroughly. The students are also assessed through online assignments, quizzes and open-ended questions and are also given one to one feedback.

However, there are constraints and challenges for students and faculties worldwide in holding online classes. The primary issues are connectivity and accessibility.

As everyone does not have unlimited access to the internet, and access to devices is mainly dependent on the economic conditions of the parents. Also, not all the students and faculty are still comfortable with the online medium to teach and learn.

Although creating online classes amid the pandemic is challenging but it is also making students, teachers and parents think critically, communicate well and be more collaborative. As its advantage, the students can make optimum use of their time.

As per the surveys and feedback are given by various college students, it has been clear that students are enjoying this mode of remote learning. This mode of teaching has motivated students for Self-Learning, which is very important and makes them responsible. The students are also getting better in using the latest technological trends which will help them in the future.

ITS Engineering College located at Greater Noida is taking several initiatives and investing in digital infrastructure and faculty training to use digital tools effectively to carry on its academic endeavours during the lockdown. The college completely believes in converting crisis into opportunity. Since the lockdown started, the college has completely switched its mode of teaching to virtual learning. The college is working in the direction to make students updated in these turbulent times by organizing numerous webinars and interactions with the industry experts for the knowledge of students.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha