Online Education Woes

• 19 Nov 2020

Why in News

A recent study by the Azim Premji University on the efficacy and accessibility of e-learning has highlighted various challenges involved in online education in the country.

Key Points

• Student Specific Finding:
  
  • Reason for student’s lack of accessibility to online classes:
    
    • Non-availability or inadequate number of smartphones for dedicated use or sharing.
    • Difficulty in using apps for online learning.
    • Children with disabilities found it more difficult to participate in online sessions.
• Parents Specific Findings:
  
  • 90% of parents of government school students surveyed were willing to send their children back to school, if the health of their children was taken care of.
  • 70% of the parents surveyed were of the opinion that online classes were not effective and did not help in their child’s learnings.
• Teacher’s Specific Findings:
  
  • Teachers' main problem found during the online classes was the one-way communication, which made it difficult for them to assess whether students were able to understand what was being taught.
  • More than 80% of teachers surveyed said they were unable to maintain emotional connect with students during online classes, while 90% of teachers felt that no meaningful assessment of children’s learning was possible.
  • 50% of the teachers reported that children were unable to complete assignments shared during the online classes, which had led to serious gaps in learning.
  • The survey also revealed that around 75% of the teachers spent, on an average, less than an hour a day on online classes for any grade.
  • Teachers also reported that they were ill-prepared for online learning platforms.
  • More than half the teachers surveyed shared that their knowledge and user-experience on online platforms and modes of teaching were inadequate.

Source:TH