Challenges of online teaching and learning process in pandemic.

The offline classes in almost all schools, colleges and other educational institutions have come to a halt. The term ‘ONLINE CLASSES’ was not known and as famous as it is now. Mostly the educational institutions are adopting this method of teaching and learning these days. Online education has revolutionized the education system. New Learning techniques, animations, videography, recorded lectures have allowed the students to avail the facilities to a better learning platform. The process of understanding through videos is much faster than listening to teacher in class as you get a visual representation of what actually is being taught. Nobody knew that studying can be done write by sitting on your table in front of your laptop. However, just as every coin has two sides, there are lots of challenges to this new trend of online classes. There has been a lack of skilled designers, animators, video editors to make proper videos and lecture recordings.

A majority of teachers being a bit aged find it difficult to cope up with teaching on a laptop rather than the traditional chalk and board. As a result, they just tend to read out from pdf’s and send it to the students to learn themselves. Most of the students also face difficulty to attend online lectures due too poor network connectivity issues. This is generally observed among students in rural areas. Student mischiefs, that were common during offline classes, were a bit of mood refresher and mood changer, though it was always troublesome for teachers. In this online mode however, the mischiefs and pranks have taken a greater toll and actually affected many online lectures. The educational institutions have tried too put it on control. Still, it is found in many places, the camera and mic being left on by accident, and private conversations being leaked.

From the student’s perspective of view in India, the education system has failed miserably. Educational institutions have failed to exploit the advantages of online teaching learning process. The students find themselves in vain even when they are securing a high marks because others have secured much higher. Hopes are being lost and the lectures are being continuously monotonous.

Among these difficult times, many students have been undergoing mental health issues. However, the schools and colleges are just concerned with the completion of the courses rather than the overall development of the student. The students are being burdened with assignments all the week. Practicality of the lectures have been reduced to null and void. The practical experiments and laboratories that provided the scope for testing their learning are now reduced to just watching videos and writing assignments. Deadlines are being overlapped and there is very less free time. It is a myth that online classes mean students get a lot of free time. On the other hand, it’s very strainful for the student itself to continuously sit in front of screen for hours and then coping up with the writings. Self ­study has been lost in this part.