Online Teaching: Serendipity or Deliberate

           The psychological motive of seeking newness in life led to the discoveries and inventions. The quest plus serendipity has contributed in digging out the new and hidden potential of the nature.

           The old age teaching paradigms will change so quickly no one ever imagined. It was a fantasy but reality now. The World faced a new challenge where whole of the human race was forced to stay indoors within the limits of their Lakshman Rekha. The life came to grinding halt where everything was shut down including educational institutions.

           However, human intelligence knew no bounds and adjusted and adapted well with the situation and started afresh using the technology for which thanks are due to Prof. J.C.R. Licklider for brilliant idea of packet switching that led to the advent of the system as we all know today in the form of internet. Necessity led to the search for alternatives. Of course, internet was alternative for education. Teaching has been bifurcated into two categories i.e., offline and online.

           Online teaching means teaching learning on virtual platform. The teacher and students need not to meet physically face to face but can meet virtually with the aid of information
technology tools. The new field of online teaching has opened a pandora’s box and become talk of the town. All stake holders (students, parents, teachers and educational administrators) had their own role in online teaching. The debates on its pro and cons is new area that needs deliberate investment of intellectual resources. In this short write up I have attempted to deliberate upon advantages and disadvantages of online teaching.

 Advantages

1.       One teacher can meet thousands of students at a time.

2.       Transends geographical boundaries.

3.       Highly flexible (Anywhere any time).

4.       Economical in terms of time (it takes 8 to 75 minutes time for reaching students to my college) i.e., it saves time wasted in travel. We have almost 2300 students and more than 100 staff. Imagine how much time is being wasted in travelling.

5.       Environment friendly -   Most of the students and staff commute by their own vehicle. Others use public transport. Imagine the level of air and noise pollution.

6.       Evaluation is objective and quick.

7.       Minimal physical infrastructural requirements.

8.       Lecture can be recorded for later use. In physical class when a student wanted to make a note, she/he loses attention to lecture for that particular moment of time while the teacher moves ahead without taking note of it, in the meantime student might miss some important point. On the other hand, online class has no such issues.

9.       Instrumental in reducing the screen time engagement and access to other contents on internet. It provides a solid argument for parents. Parents can set time period for mobile usage (for example 3 hours). The parents can restrict the use of mobile phone by putting a restriction that you have exhausted your daily quota of mobile usage on online class. It’s time to stop now.

10.     Teacher’s performance can be easily evaluated through instant feedback.

11.     Easy to maintain student’s attendance by writing their name and roll number in the chat box.

12.     Revenue source for the institutions (LMS based online study).

13.     Virtual school will be economical for parents of students in terms of investment (no uniforms, transportation charges etc.).

14.     Will open new avenues for software developers and ICT based workforce.

Disadvantages

1.       Difficult to fathom the involvement of students.

2.       Increases the screen engagement time (Detrimental for eyes).

3.       Loss of human touch (Most important psychological phenomenon).

4.       Along with verbal communication, non-verbal communication (body language) is important contributory factor in understanding a concept, which is not feasible in online classes.

5.       Teachers used to be role model for students, their dressing style, writing style, speaking style etc. had been an object of inspiration. Some students even copy and try to inculcate the habits of their favourite teacher. Online class lacks this privilege.

6.       The notes taking was use to be one of the remarkable traits of the students. Online class is likely to demolish this one of the important psychological quality.

7.       The screen of the mobile phones, most preferred medium, is comparatively small which itself have inherited disadvantages.

8.       The online teaching lacks the conducive learning environment, which is only feasible in the traditional system of teaching.

9.       Additional academic requirements of creating simple and understandable e-contents on the already overburdened (with administrative) faculty.

10.     Likely make education dependent on instruments (Instrumentalism).

11.     Offline classroom and institutional environment (peer interaction) not only cater to the academic needs of the student, also fosters other traits resulting in overall personality development. During online classes students will miss this environment.

12.     Online classes tend to promote individualism at the cost of collectivism which has inherent working ideas that has been proved to be detrimental for society in the past.

13.     Students may become lethargic due to involuntary physical activities that occur during offline classes.

14.     Online classes may render some people jobless (School uniform and other related vendors).

Impediments

1.       Lack of adequate ICT infrastructure especially in rural sector.

2.       Quality and uninterrupted internet connectivity.

 

Conclusion

          Every new system has its pro and cons, online teaching is no exemption. The responsibility lies upon the guardians to take informed decision in this context. One thing is clear that sooner or later education system has to adopt online teaching may be partially in the ratio of 2:3.