Online Teaching during COVID-19 Lockdown
Current Scenario:
The 2019-20 coronavirus has affected education systems around the globe and the education sector is now exposed to an entirely new set of challenges. Online Teaching during Lockdown is very prominent in present sceario. In India, currently there are 260 million students enrolled in more than 1.5 million schools, and 27.5 million UG and four million PG students are enrolled in 39,000 colleges. With the onset of the Coronavirus outbreak, colleges and schools all over India are ordered to shut their gates, putting classroom lessons on hold for students and their teachers.
Problems faced by teachers in online teaching during lockdown
Teachers are facing daunting challenges, from getting accustomed to e-learning - to managing their work-life balance. They feel that teaching online is harder as compared to classroom teaching because of various reasons, the main reason being less hands-on experience with technology.
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They have to put in a lot of effort only to deliver the lecture, leaving no time for giving feedbacks to each student. This is very problematic in the case of primary school students, because they need special attention.
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Secondly, there’s no face-to-face interaction with students, making it harder to know if the students are grasping the concepts properly.
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Thirdly, sending assignments, large files and course videos over WhatsApp is a big hassle. Apart from this, it’s challenging to conduct tests online if the software requirements aren’t met properly.
All these issues are making it difficult for teachers to smoothly conduct classes online.
How are we tackling it?
The pandemic is forcing educators and students to be supportive, communicate, collaborate, and be creative with solutions. Thus online teaching during lockdown is very prominent. It is also revealing that there is another way to keep the learning curve going. Since 2007, India has had its universities post videos of their lectures online, but the online teaching platforms have witnessed a sudden surge in the number of users in the recent times. Millions of students and teachers are gradually embracing digital learning apps. Teachers are now using apps like:
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Zoom,
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Google Meet,
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Google Classroom
to reach out to students. Some of these platforms enable video conferencing, while some help in uploading of assignments, each are accompanied with their advantages and disadvantages .
What’s needed in online teaching during lockdown
The pandemic is forcing educators and students to be supportive, communicate, collaborate, and be creative with solutions. It is also revealing that there is another way to keep the learning curve going. Since 2007, India has had its universities post videos of their lectures online, but the online teaching platforms have witnessed a sudden surge in the number of users in the recent times.
Millions of students and teachers are gradually embracing digital learning apps and coping with online teaching during lockdown. Teachers are now using apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Google Classroom to reach out to students. Some of these platforms enable video conferencing, while some help in uploading of assignments, each are accompanied with their advantages and disadvantages .
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Conclusion
There comes a point where educators cannot continue to use the same methods that have been in place for the last 20+ years. The same is true for online learning for higher education which I would say is still very new and there is still much research to be done in terms of student engagement, instructor presence, new platforms, etc. The time of lockdown is vital to improve upon our skills, and this can only be possible if we adopt online learning as fast as possible. On the other hand, educational institutes should start adopting online teaching softwares to ease the burden off the teachers. Companies should focus on providing quality content while being affordable and flexible.
From students to CEOs of big firms, we all need to join hands during these hard times, in collaborating to build a more adaptable and inclusive approach to learning, improve online teaching during lockdown and keep the learning curve going up.