In the initial stage of COVID-19 outbreak, its seriousness was not realized correctly but when a numbers of people were died due to Covid-19, everyone was in fear,everyone was locked in their houses and follow the Government had planted lockdown everywhere. With the closure of academic institutions in Pakistan, students had been left their semesters and examinations due to lockdown. But extreme situations demand extreme measures. All over the world we were seeing schools, colleges and universities having classes suspended as governments encourage social distancing and planted lockdown.
Under the lockdown conditions, online education was the only option to continue student’s education. So, universities started online mode of education. With the use of new mode of studies, it became a soft solution and a problematic for students as well.The acquisition of this new technology from students to teachers had faced several challenges because Pakistan were the most affected as they were not equipped for online education.
It became a soft solution because online mode of teaching will cost less. The online option of completion of degree would be a blessing for students belonging to small remote areas as they won’t need to pay hostel and food charges.
Coronavirus pandemic has provoke new ways of learning and has boost up the process of adoption of ‘online’ as a viable mode for learning in lockdown situation.
In the last few months, the demand for online learning has risen significantly, and it will continue to do so in the future as well. Along with parents and students, for many educational institutes, ‘online learning’ is an entirely new way of education that they have had to adopt. This is especially beneficial for people of remote areas, who had limited options. However, it is challenging for students and teachers as this is not a medium they have experience with. They are still trying and testing to ensure they have the children’s attention. Online classes are the veritable convenience way for students as well as the teachers, as it allows students, teachers to attend or take classes from any location of their choice. It saves hours as neither students nor teachers required to travel to a physical location for the classes and it have greater flexibility in choosing when the best time to study is. Students can search for whatever video they might have missed and catch up on class later! All they need is an internet connection and a laptop or a smartphone. Also, given that internet connections can be unreliable, the way to move ahead would be to upload pre-recorded lectures along with class notes.
While on one hand it becomes a soft solution for students and teachers, it has also becomes a problem as well.
Many students may not have a laptop, but statistics show us that most do have access to a smartphone. Students can then access these in their own time and convenience.
Online educations are completely dependent on proper internet connectivity and functional systems(computers or smartphones). In smaller cities and areas,a consistent connection with decent speed is a problematic factor for online education. Without a consistent internet connection for students or teachers, there can be a lack of continuity in learning for the child.
In a traditional classroom, Some students find comfort in group studies, lively group discussion, and thus easy access to professors or their fellow students. However, these moments do not arise in online learning. For some, these face-to-face interactions are a must to bring the material to life. During the exams students are unable to continue the paper due to the lose of internet connection.
Like all the benefits and challenges we will have to approach online education with an open mind
While It opens the window of learning to a far larger number of students as compared to in-class learning, but the reasons of problem for some students and teachers. Let us not forget this and make online learning more workable. We owe this to our future generations.