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| Research Phenomenon ISBN: 978-93-93166-26-5 For verification of this chapter, please visit on http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/books.php#8 |
Online Classes: Needs and Challenges |
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Nikita Sharma
Research Scholar
Education
Suresh Gyan Vihar University
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Dr. Sonia Kaur Bansal,
Professor
English Language and Soft Skills
Poornima Group (PIET),
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Dr. A. K. Pandey,
Dean
Education
Suresh Gyan Vihar University,
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
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DOI: Chapter ID: 17753 |
| This is an open-access book section/chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Introduction Education is a lifelong process, so it can be obtained anywhere anytime. There is a great need for it. The present time is of science and technology. Technology is used for the success and qualitative of any task because technical use makes the content interesting, simple and easy to learn. Information and knowledge are increasing continuously in education. Technology ensures our access to these information and knowledge stores. Traditional education system has been prevalent in India since the beginning, in which the teacher and students are present in the classroom. Teaching is done orally with the help of black board and chalk. But the modalities of education system are changing very fast. Digital learning such as PPT, Video presentations, e-learning methods, practice demos, online training and other digital methods are currently being used to make education effective, along with classroom teaching. But one of the major changes that has taken place in education today is the use of online classes. The online classes is a course conducted over the internet. Online classes are those in which a teacher teaches his students through computer, Smart phone and various internet approach. Online classes are typically a mix of video recording or live lectures supplemented with reading and assessment that students can complete on their own time. The online classes system allows both teachers and students to exchange ideas and information. It is a form of distance learning where the teacher has less role of a tutor and the student’s contribution to his/her education is more than the status of normal studies. Online classes includes web based learning, mobile based learning, computer based learning and virtual classroom etc. Need of Online Classes The idea of online classes is not new and it is already in use in India in the field of distance education and technical education. But if we look at it broadly, its trends in our educational institutions is negligible. In early 2020, all educational institutions ranging from primary to higher education had to be abruptly shut down due to fear of the spread of Covid-19. Students across the world are losing valuable time in their education during the imposed lockdown amidst fears of pandemic. At such a time, the extended lockdown period is forcing the education sector in India to rapidly evolve. Most schools and institutions have come up with the idea of online classes for students to start their respective academic years, instead of wasting time due to the delay in reopening of school. During this covid-19 situation online classes are conducted through teachers with the help of various online methods/Apps by one to one interaction mode. To improve and promote online education, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched the “INDIA READ ONLINE” campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to improve online learning. The following programs on online classes to support student and teacher learning during covid-19. PM E-VIDYA PROGRAM Recognizing the importance of digital education and its potential to ensure continuity of school education even in the present scenario, a program for multiple-means access to digital/online education under PM e-VIDYA program was launched on 17th May, 2020. As a comprehensive initiative, PM e-VIDYA is trying to realize the vision of unifying all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education, benefiting around 25 crore school going children across the country. These initiatives include– Diksha - One Nation One Digital Platform DIKSHA, globally unique, for effective teaching and administration, this Made in India initiative, since its inception, has increased its impact and reach manifold. Today, almost every state/UT uses DIKSHA to enhance learning-learning processes through curated content linked to the curriculum. Also provides access to 80,000 materials across all classes, mediums and subjects. In less than 3 years, Diksha has gained unparalleled momentum and is gaining prominence among the end-users. The primary audience of DIKSHA is the student, teacher and parent community due to DIKSHA's ability to eliminate barriers to access to content and provide contextual content in 18 languages. In addition, the digital content on Diksha is freely accessible and can be distributed at no cost. Even the consumption of the content does not require users to invest in proprietary equipment or technology that ensures that the content at Diksha can be used by all and even at the grassroots level. Diksha can be accessed at dks https://diksha-gov-in/. TV Channel- Swayam Prabha Swayam Prabha is a group of 32 DTH channels dedicated to broadcasting high quality educational programmes. The program broadly covers school education and provides teaching-learning material through 4 channels for the children of India along with providing modules for teacher training, so that they understand the subjects better and help them prepare for competitive examinations for admission to professional degree programmes. It focuses on providing one grade per channel with a sample weekly schedule to help teachers and students understand the modules emphasized during the week. This schedule will be available at https://wwwswayamprabha-gov-in/. Also, to maximize the reach of the content, Swayamprabha is available in Hindi, English and Urdu. SWAYAM Under the Digital India initiative of the Government of India, NIOS has been identified as a partner for the National MOOC Initiatives for “Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM)”. The objective of this effort is to bring the best teaching-learning resource to all including the most disadvantaged. 1. NCERT itself has launched 34 online courses for students (Class 11 and 12) and teachers on the SWAYAM½ portal. 2. National Institute of Open Schooling offers 18 MOOC courses at secondary level and 20 courses at senior secondary level. 3. MOOCs are developed using a four-quadrant approach – lessons in PDF, a learning video, self-assessment exercises and discussion forums. 4. These can be viewed at www-Swayam-gov. Students and teachers can access all course modules (lessons, videos and assessment questions) free of charge by logging into https://swayam-gov-in/. Radio and Community Radio 1. Internet radio is an audio service accessible from anywhere in the world. Mukt Vidyavani (MVV) i.e. Open Education Radio Facility will make provision of educational and informational material for better learning. Web radio will ensure students with a stream of audio that can be paused/replayed. 2. NIOS organizes live interactive web streaming of Personal Contact Programs (PCPs) for various subjects of Secondary, Senior Secondary and Vocational courses for its students through MVV. The recording of these Audio PCPs is available 24 x 7 on NIOS website https://nios-iradioindia.in. 3. Radiovani FM 91.2 MHz, a community radio station of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIO) up to school dropouts, students enrolled through ODL, urban women and marginalized sections of society who have access to radio. It is a means of providing education. Radio channel broadcasting is available 24x7 and reaches approximately one million listeners, including students, over 6-10 kms. CBSE Podcast: Shikshavani is an audio-based learning initiative of CBSE and is available through Android App Store. The podcast covers a variety of subjects at the secondary and senior secondary levels and is available in English and Hindi. Till date, more than 400 audio files mapped from NCERT syllabus are available on Shikshavani. 1. The National Institute of Open Schooling provides content for specially-abled students, such as content in Indian Sign Language for hearing impaired students and ePub and DAISY enabled 'talkingbooks' for visually impaired students. 2. National Institute of Open Schooling has developed more than 270 videos in sign language in 7 subjects to provide educational access to students at secondary level and in yoga courses. 3. The videos can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/playlistlist=PLUuOqp8QaNB1SkqZURX0RGcaomsPfkDsI. Online Coaching 1. The Department of Higher Education has made a provision of online learning for the preparation of competitive examinations to bridge the divide among the students due to Private coaching. 2. IITPAL (IIT Professor Assisted Learning) is a series of lectures designed by IIT professors to help students prepare for IIT JEE. IITPAL videos are broadcast on Swayamprabha channels. 3. National Test “Abhyas” is a Personalized Adaptive Learning Application for students appearing for competitive examinations conducted by National Testing Agency. 4. However, in these channels, third-party e-content and digital content are available through various YouTube channels, which should be avoided so as to be highly curated and age-appropriate for the overall development of students and teachers. To ensure the availability of material. e-Gyankosh e-GYANKOSH (IGNOU) http://egyankosh.ac.in It is a kind of National Digital Fund in which various books of various subjects of undergraduate and postgraduate level are available in in PDF. Gyan Dhara - This is a type of radio channel in which lectures are given by experts on various topics. So that students from far-flung areas can get their problems resolved by talking to the experts over the phone. Gyan Darshan - This is a type of educational channel on which various types of educational programs are broadcast to the students. E-Yantra - It is an initiative to incorporate robotics in engineering education through mathematics, science, computer and engineering principles. National Digital Library - This is a free library on which more than 30 million resources are available. CIET - This is an educational channel which is broadcast 24 hours and 7 days. On this new text material is broadcast for 4 hours every day and it is repeated 5 times a day. The broadcast of educational material on this channel is done in collaboration with NCERT. Apart from this, the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government has started “Bharat Padhe Online” campaign to promote e-education, which aims to improve e-education. Under this scheme, a new app “Yukti” has been launched for the first time. Through which students, researchers and teachers will be able to fulfill the objectives of teaching with their knowledge and innovative work. Some apps for e-learning have also proved to be very helpful. Amazon Kindle is becoming increasingly popular for kids and adults alike. Maintaining the habit of reading, it stores a lot of these books offline. Duolingo has been shown to be helpful for learning a foreign language. BYJUS is an app related to competitive exams which provides coaching lessons to the students sitting at home. Through Un Academy Learning, students can solve their problems with subject experts. Apart from this, there are interesting and simple apps like Quick Math Dragon for Mathematics, Box, “Science360” for science etc. Apps like Floatry provide puzzle games for mental development. There are enough apps available even for Olympiads at the primary level. Useful Tools For Online Classes Audio :- Radio and other audio materials are being used in the classroom for a long time. Audio material can be used for education by downloading webcasts and podcasts via the Internet. Podcasts and iTunes on various topics are available on many websites. A webcast is a media presentation in which educational material is broadcast over the Internet, which can be viewed and listened to by many people at the same time. A podcast is a digital media content, which includes audio, video, radio and PDF. Through this, information can be received by many people at the same time. i-Tunes provides the facility to organize digital music and videos on your computer. It is used for listening, watching, reading, playing. National Institute of Open Schooling has started web-based audio service for its learners from July 2012 which is available 24 hours a day. Video :- Both the teacher and the student can read CDs, DVDs. Or you can use the videos available on the internet in your teaching or learning. Many teachers also use the videos available on YouTube for teaching. Teachers and students can have video and audio conversations with experts through software like Ldkbi (Skype), Adobe connect, WhatsApp, Video calling, Yahoo messenger. This is very useful software related to video conversation. Computers, Tablets, Mobile phones :- Through these mediums, teachers and students can access various websites and other resources. Power point presentations, pictures, animations, etc. can make learning interesting. Many types of mobile phones also have the facility of M-learning (Mobile Learning). Blogging :- Through the blog, teachers and students can express their thoughts, ideas, etc., as well as make their comments on the available content and can also get comments on their ideas. In this way they create an environment for learning by interacting with each other. A small website to put forth your views on a topic. It can be collective or individual. Webcam :- Webcams and webcasting have made it possible to create virtual classrooms and virtual environments for learning. Through webcam, students can have video conversations with teachers and fellow students. This has made it easier to solve problems Smart Board :- Smart Board has simplified the process of learning and teaching through touch screen. This allows the students to be educated through interesting content and games. Screen Casting :- Its trend is new in e-education. There are tools available through which the user can make his screen work available on-line through video through the browser. A combination of video and audio can provide one-to-one classroom experience with complete instructions. Such software also gives the facility of Pause and Rewind to the student, so that the student can learn according to his own pace. This facility is not available in a traditional classroom. Challenges of Online Classes Internet speed & Technological challenges:- Internet Speed is a major problem in India. According to a report by broadband speed analysis company UKLA, India ranked 128th in terms of mobile internet speed. In such situation having low internet speed while taking online classes creates a problem. The condition of internet speed is worse in rural areas, due to the power outages, the internet either gets stalled or you cannot hear and see anything. Apart from this, majority of students of the country do not have the resources to read and teach. Technical understanding:- technical understanding is a major problem of online education. If the teachers and students related to technical education are left out, then teachers and students related to almost all subjects face technical problems. This problem is a big problem at primary and secondary level. Nowadays, from small children to the elders are being taught with the help of tablets, laptops, desktops and smart phones. In such a situation, if technical understanding dominates at any level, it directly affects the ability to learn. Technology addiction and side effects:- currently, online classes are generally being run for four to five hours. After that, assignments and projects are being given to the learner in the name of homework. If an average is seen, both a student and a teacher are spending about eight to nine hours online. Which is fatal to their mental and physical condition. Is even more harmful for young children. Apart from this, excessive use of technology also creates problems of depression, anxiety, loneliness etc. Effective thinking is needed to avoid these problems, so that they can save the future of the country. Language & Lack of e-content:- Languages is one of the main barriers for the development of digital education in India, there are several different languages in different state have been spoken all across country, pushing all the digital content in all these regional languages some time becomes difficult for the agencies. Struggle for parents:- online classes turned out to be a new thing for school kids and more than them, their parents are struggling to help them understand the assignment. Many school students haven’t received their school course and without textbook, it is difficult for them to keep up with the online classroom activities. According to parents online classes isn’t helping their kids much. Conclusion From the above fact we can say that in view of the present circumstances, there is a great need for online classes. In online classes, students at the comfort of their home and at a convenient time can learn their lessons. Endless repetitions, online worksheets, immediate answer to the queries at any hour are the major advantages of online classes. There are many challenges in online classes in India but the various efforts have been made by the government for the education of students for online class. References 1. Anand, Shikha – Online education
in India: Trends & future prospects. Web. may5, 2020.
<http://www.shiksha.com/mba/article/online-education-in-india-trends-future-prospects-blogld-14763.
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