The efficiency of online classes in India is questionable: Gourav, KU

These are first-hand student accounts on how our young population is managing to keep their exam prep or college course work going from the confines of their homes. In case you want to share your lockdown study experience, write to us at publish@shiksha.com.

We all know about COVID-19 and its devastating effect on the world. It has now become a global threat to the world. In the current scenario, the world is facing a global crisis due to COVID-19. It is affecting every sector i.e. agriculture, education, economy, etc. of almost every country. All the educational institutions of India have been declared closed because of the devastating COVID-19. To minimize the academic loss of the students, universities are conducting online classes.

My university is also conducting online classes through Google classroom. Obviously, these classes are less effective than usual brick and mortar classes. In the normal classes, students can interact with the teachers easily and they can clear their doubts instantly.

We are aware that in the offline classes, it is easy for the teachers to teach any topic and they can easily get the idea that it is understandable for the students or not. The frequency of the classes is very less and not all the faculties are conducting classes. I do not think these classes are sufficient to cover the designated syllabus but considering the present scenario, we can say these classes are effective. During the online classes, few of the students are facing connectivity issues due to the poor network and heavy traffic. For them, it will be a problem to attend all the lectures in online classes.

We have assignments to work on from home. Relating to the syllabus every faculty member is giving assignments to us. There is no fixed number of online submissions required to take place. Until now, faculty members are providing assignments on a weekly basis. Every week they assign us new tasks or assignments and we have to complete the assignment in the given period. Also, teachers are uploading notes on Google classroom on various topics to cover the syllabus. They are providing time to study these notes and conducting doubt-clearing classes after the students finish their studies. As I am studying Bachelor of Business Administration, we do not have any lab or practical work to perform. Therefore, I am not well aware of how the university is making up for the lab or practical works.

In my opinion, only online classes are not effective to cover the whole syllabus, it needs to be supplemented with offline classes. After the lockdown is lifted, teachers can conduct online classes for the students who have doubts in offline sessions. It will save time in the offline session and it will be helpful in completing the syllabus in less time. If we consider the current scenario then we can say our university is taking good steps to reduce the academic losses of the students.

About the Author:

Gourav Saikia is currently pursuing his BBA at Kaziranga University. He is a cricket enthusiast and likes reading mystery books.