Challenges of Online Education and Possible Solutions

In Bharat, the culture is pretty lively, social. People enjoy the human connection and meeting each other, the concept of online training and teaching itself is an alien one. The culture in western countries and Europe is far more suitable for this. Hence challenges in online teaching for us starts right from cultural shift. Although some sectors like the IT industry are now very well adapted to online meetings and training, other sectors are still not exposed to technical advancements in communication. Thanks to the social media boom in the last 15 years, a significant population in Bharat can already communicate using such mediums and know how to operate devices like smartphones. Let's now dive a little deeper and try to understand other challenges. 

Infrastructure penetration

First and foremost, you have to come out of the notion that students exist only in cities and urban areas. Because most of the colleges are located in urban areas, for traditional education we can safely make the assumption that students will be mainly residing in urban areas. However when it comes to online teaching no such assumption or restriction can be made. The Internet - the backbone of online teaching still has a far way to go to reach a maximum population. Network infrastructure is below average in many smaller villages and habitats.   

Isolation

It remains a difficult and interesting challenge in the online learning process. Not everyone has a proper setup at their places where they can conduct or attend the online sessions. Many people cannot afford a dedicated room with required privacy and isolation in their houses. Family folks talking to each other, moving around doing their daily chores is a common picture in its current state of online learning. This can deteriorate the experience and can be chaotic for everyone attending the session. 

Economic viability in students

Financial affordability is another major hindrance. How so ever willing they are, every student may not afford to buy internet data required for attending online classes. 

 

Lack of engaging skills in teachers

Traditional chalk-n-duster teaching methods need to be replaced with new innovative methods suitable for online teaching. This means it becomes mandatory for all current teachers to enhance their skills. It is far far easier than said. There is surprising nonchalance and reluctance to change the old methods. If you train 100 teachers for online teaching, the percentage of effective outcome matching the required standard is very low.

   

Technical difficulties

Due to lack of acquaintance to technology, the teaching staff is generally very apprehensive about the technical difficulties and glitches that pop up quite often. This can happen even to the staff from the IT industry where a programmer can be an ace programmer but if something happens to the network he has to rely on their IT support staff. Are we ready to employ dedicated IT support staff in our institutions?

 

  

Lack of Human Interaction

We may think this as a non-issue but it is not. Even if the teacher is presenting live, there is a non-living layer in between. The actual physical connect and eye contact, which is an essential factor in engaging students is missing in online training. It can never give a classroom feel. This very soon leads to boredom, students are forced to stay in front of the camera, but they are not there mentally. This is already a challenge in actual classrooms and online teaching makes it worse. 

  

Writing skills can be affected

Online teaching is most effective when the assessment is also done using online mediums. In online teaching, homework and assignments are all digital. Students have to typewrite the things. Over a period of time this takes a toll on their writing skills. Hence when they are supposed to take their theory exams on paper sheets it can become difficult for students to deliver. 

Quality resources creation

If it takes an hour of preparation for an hour lecture in traditional teaching, for online the time required is far more. Reason is that the resources have to be created from scratch. The things have to be digitized. Many teachers who were simply engaging the class with their talking skills will now find it difficult and will have to prepare presentations, videos, assignments etc. And this may not be the forte of everyone. So teachers will have to acquire or buy some resources. But again the quality of resources is pivotal.

 

Follow up is hard

The excuses of students for not studying or completing the given work will have no bounds. And you will have less control over validating them. In traditional methods, it is easier to help students with their queries and doubts. With online teaching that becomes tedious. It becomes an indirect communication thread over mail or chat. Involvement from both parties at the same time is not possible. It is difficult to go online to address each and every query.

Time management

From some of the above points, this point becomes quite obvious. Teachers are going to struggle and juggle with time. Of course I am talking about teachers who are sincere and committed. Students are also going to struggle but in a different way. Their world is already 50% online and in that this will add at least 3-4 hours of online time.

Possible Solutions

We have listed down some significant challenges in online teaching and learning. Let's put some thoughts into how we can face these challenges. Here are some suggestions and recommendations to get most out of the online education system.

Infrastructure investment

Although there are many drawbacks and negative sides to the online learning system,  we have to focus on the positive ones. There are vast benefits of migrating to OLS. But to reap the benefits, we will have to invest first. First and foremost Bharat needs to invest heavily in spreading internet connectivity to all villages and remote areas.Then the institutes need to invest in procuring a strong and reliable network service. Invest in buying the required software and subscriptions. Invest in training the staff and students. The better you do in these preparatory steps, higher are the chances of your success in implementing online learning.

Skill enhancement 

All stakeholders need to acquire and enhance their computer skills. Learn new software systems specifically designed for education. For example, Moodle, Chamilo, Canvas are some online software solutions to design and conduct your course curriculum online. It also has features like online test and assessment. If some staff is not ready or not competent enough to learn the technologies, institutes need to find the replacement.

Role plays

All stakeholders need to understand each other's perspectives. Teachers need to understand the conditions and problems students will face and design the course and resources accordingly. Identify the ways of effective communication. Institute management needs to understand the efforts required to be put in by staff and support them. Be open to add new staff as required. For example, you will definitely need a full time IT support person if you want to migrate onto online learning.

Similarly students also need to be explained what efforts teachers are putting into creating quality resources so that they can appreciate teacher’s time and be sincere in the sessions. 

National policy

We need a national policy and guidelines in place for integrated functioning of online education systems. This will ensure that there are no gaps and issues across colleges and universities. There should be a process in place to resolve any issues and grievances as per policy guidelines. It is going to be a gradual shift hence the courses have to be offered both online and offline. Educate students about the benefits of online learning and encourage them to opt for online courses. When we do this during admission itself, students who are not in position to go for online courses for any reason should be enrolled into a traditional course. Or direct them to a college which offers traditional courses. 

In addition to this, the government will need to see how needy students can be assisted in internet connectivity.

Conclusion

It applies to all aspects of life. No problem is unsolvable. Where there is will there is way. Hence for creating a robust online education system what is required is the sociopolitical will and resolution. Rest of the things are a matter of execution.