Has Covid-19 transformed the traditional classroom learning pattern in India?

Written By: Anil Nagar, Founder & CEO, Adda247

The recent weeks have witnessed widespread efforts from the government to spread awareness and knowledge regarding the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The administration is vehemently putting every effort in an attempt to curtail the further dissemination of the dreaded virus until there is a scientific breakthrough in the form of a vaccine to gain victory over the virus.

The government in a bid to prevent large gatherings has imposed a pan-India lockdown to secure its citizens from the virulent onslaught. That includes shutting down the government and corporate offices, factories, and all public and private institutions of learning such as schools, competitive exam preparatory centers and coaching centers, colleges, and universities etcetera. 

Under such circumstances, with the closing of schools, coaching classes, and other avenues of learning, digital online learning platforms are playing the rescuer’s part by supplementing learning and knowledge to students and prospective candidates in the wake of the corona lockdown.

Through a mélange of state-of-the-art-technology and cutting edge innovation, edtech platforms are seizing the day through their advanced and super-effective learning methods by warranting that a student/candidate’s learning process does not cease.

The show must go on

As every storm beholds a silver lining, the lockdown ensued across India too has its share of complimentary opportunities. Major educationists and the stakeholders of pedagogy across the country are emphatically and vocally supporting the nationwide implementation of online learning as it coincides with both the conditions of academic continuity and the concern for student safety. Both private and public schools, leading institutes for competitive coaching, etc are furnishing compulsory virtual lessons using Zoom call or Skype to their students and candidates on an everyday basis. 

Virtual guide

As per the need, adequate video guidance and virtual training is being extended to both students/candidates and teachers to help them gain proficiency in conducting online classes. Some learning centers are even providing pre-recorded video lessons to students where eminent teachers and tutors explain complex topics and problems profusely.

The substitute teacher 2.0

Through an in-depth gauging of the current predicament, online edtech portals are playing hero to the affected students and potential applicants for competitive exams in the backdrop of a total shutdown of the service sector. In compliance with fulfilling their social responsibility, some edtech players are even providing the students with free and complimentary access to their new-age learning platforms. Such trends have garnered widespread admiration and adulation from all strata of the educational and social sectors.

Holistic appeal

The digital learning platforms along with proffering full access to online study material also allow students the dual benefits of interacting and participating in online classrooms as well as engaging online teachers and mentors. This is in many ways an augmented version of the conventional classroom setting that has received an encouraging response from both teachers and students/candidates alike.     

Overall development

Other incentives associated with online learning and edtech platforms include lending a resonant voice to the students along with amplifying and catering to the student’s choice wishes and aspirations. Digital learning mediums also offer other benefits such as providing a flexible and dynamic tempo of learning to the students and the capacity to gain knowledge anywhere and anytime, provided there is a smart-phone/computer enabled with an internet connection.  The virtual adaptive learning style is one of the best ways for disseminating customized learning, enabling effectual and bespoke learning trajectories while captivating students and candidates while attending to their individual concerns.

Evolution through innovation

Incongruously, it has taken a calamity of pandemic proportions like the Covid-19 outbreak to usher a digital transition in the extant analogous pedagogical sector. The central factor that has permitted the online remote learning permeation in tier-2, tier-3 cities, and even the considerably backward zones in India is the presence of a decent and developed technological stack. 

The harnessing of technological innovations has heralded novel prospects of great potential for students, applicants, and teachers alike. Edutech portals have managed to shake and uproot the traditional notions of classroom learning by erasing the geographical constraints while addressing students of all ages and levels. Until this fearsome pandemic gets curtailed, the immense task of gulfing the prominent post-lockdown learning gap between the teachers and the students is up to the online learning platforms. 

And interestingly enough, even after COVID-19 is tamed, online learning will continue to play a major role in reshaping India’s education sector. While conventional modes of learning will continue to exist, the multiple benefits and openings posed by the e-learning platforms are simply too good to pass.