Education: Will online education substitute the conventional education?

Boom of Online education:

During this unprecedented crisis, online education has become viral. Even the schools have started offering their courses online.

Now, let us see the growth of online education market in India. According to a study, online education market in India was worth $247 million in 2016, which is expected to grow about $1.96 billion by 2021. Nearly 48% population in India between 15–40 age group with high aspirations but lower income is a good target market for online education. Going by this trend, there are die hard supporters of online education who would vouch for the fact that it is going to replace the conventional educational system.

Before going further, let us go back to the indigenous educational system which was prevalent in India before the British rule- the Gurukul system. It was a system where the students lived with a teacher at his home. The teacher’s home will be mostly located in a serene setting devoid of any distractions. And since the students live with the teacher for a long period of time, the relationship goes beyond a caretaker one. This was the earlier form of conventional system of education.

We have come a long way from this early system of education to the present Macaulay system of education. The present conventional system of education is mostly through schools and colleges (educational institutions). Let us now see why the online educational system cannot be a substitute to this conventional educational system.

i) Teacher- Student interaction:

If you had been in a classroom where the lecture is delivered by a quality teacher, then you as a student would have experienced a state of trance (I do not mean the art of sleeping by the way :) ). I have experienced such scenes in my school and college days. Also, a quality teacher knows each and every student thoroughly. I have seen teachers who would even act as mentors and counselors and support them accordingly.

This will be totally lost in an online education setup. With scaling in mind, teachers delivering courses online might not even know the names of their students let alone their needs.

ii) Peer Learning:

The most interesting trait of classroom learning is peer to peer interaction. Students learn both good and bad in a classroom setting. This is the same as in the case of offline teams in an office environment.

This remarkable trait might be lost in an online classroom setting.

iii) Pace of Learning:

The pace of learning is controlled mutually by both student and teacher in a classroom setting. The teachers find it was easy to repeat the lessons based on the classroom and individual student needs. The pace of learning might be very difficult to control in an online educational setting considering the fact that the students’ needs might not be understood better by the teachers. Now, few people might say that there is always a chance to got through the content again in an online educational system. But, the efficiency of a reteaching is a subject of debate in an online educational system. Also, students who are prone to distractions might fail in their work due to lethargy.

iv) Technology constraints:

Many children may find it difficult to learn the medium of technology on which the online learning is conducted. Also, the working parents find it difficult to monitor their kids while they learn online. There is a greater chance of students getting distracted due to unwanted stuff on the internet.

Also, I have found out a flaw in pre-recorded sessions of online learning. These sessions become monotonous and there is no way for the teachers to get feedback about their content or effectiveness of teaching. If the teachers resort to live teaching through an online session, then there is the problem of internet connectivity.

The Way forward:

Everyone would have known about the Arab revolution which was a sensation a few years back. The social media, particularly the Facebook acted as a medium for the revolutionaries to spread messages and gather like minded people. On seeing this, the proponents of social media came to the conclusion that it was due to the social media that the Arab revolution happened in the Middle East. But, the research and data proved them wrong. The technology just acted as an enabler for the already charged up people waiting for the revolution.

Similar is the case with the online education system. It will just act as an enabler and will never become a substitute for the conventional educational system.

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