How COVID-19 has changed the face of online learning during the lockdown in India.

Education and its resources in India have been very primitive. A vast majority of the schools still use plain old blackboard and chalk to teach lessons to their students and do not use any electrical medium to impart knowledge. In such cases, students fail to understand complex topics and concepts that need more than just an explanation with a board. They might need a 3D explanation or an audio-visual apparatus to understand certain topics better. And that's even smart classrooms and e-learning applications come in handy.

A year ago, if someone told you that all the schools and workplaces would be closed for over 6 months, you most likely would have not believed them.

But this is the grim reality. It has been over six months since the lockdown started and 120 crore students all over the world are at home without attending school physically.

Due to these changes because of the pandemic, students all over the world are now looking at e-learning and online education. Even before the pandemic, there was a soaring demand for e-learning for its abundant retention power in students and easy accessibility.

Globally, investments in the online learning sector reached over 1,40,000 crores in 2019 and these rates are estimated to reach a sky-high amount of 25,74,000 crores by 2025 due to the changes brought by COVID.

A renowned Edu-tech company based in Bangalore states that their demand has surged by 200% during these Covid times. It is true that most schools in the cities are providing online classes but their efficacy is debatable. Most teachers are not comfortable with the user inter-faces of video conferencing applications and students too are casual and unresponsive.

Shashikant, an IAS aspirant who has been attending online classes says that he barely can pay attention to the teacher during their zoom classes and prefers a digital learning platform over the zoom meetings. When as IAS aspirant is unable to focus in the online class sessions, we cannot expect children of age 8-15 years to have their best focus during online classes.

Digital learning platforms such as the Digital Teacher are known for its attention-grabbing visuals and interactive learning to keep the students engrossed in learning. With increasing cases everyday it is indispensable to consider e-learning apps and platforms for students, teachers and parents in India.



One of the biggest perks of opting for Digital learning services is that they are extremely efficient in terms of imparting knowledge and is also very cost-effective.

Aditya Ganesh, a 7th grader at Birla Open Minds states that he likes to study through an online learning website over his online classes conducted by the school since he can rewind and study the topics over and again until he understands it whereas in the online classes a majority of the time is spent on activities like taking attendance and the teaching time is reduced.

Every invention comes with a downside and the invent of zoom too has its own set of cons. Zoom app definitely can connect people across the world but it definitely doesn't deliver the human touch in online classes. So, we've been connecting with students across the country to understand their take on the downsides of zoom classes and this is what they have to say.

Saloni, A student at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune says that she definitely doesn't like zoom classes because it becomes very monotonous and you just have to stare at the screen after a certain point and zoom misses the vibe of an actual class taking place. She misses how invested the teacher is in an actual classroom and not in the online zoom class.

Another student Anagha from Christ University says that zoom classes don't at all feel inclusive. She also very rightly points out of the health effects of staring into the screen for such long hours. She says that she cannot miss the online classes because she needs to study for the exams (god knows when they will be conducted) and she has no choice but to attend the classes at least for the sake of attendance. Before all these other issues, there is another elephant in the room that needs to be addressed - The disconnection of calls due to power cuts and network fluctuations. If you've attended at least one zoom meeting, you know about how the calls get disconnected with powercuts and how they drink up all the data packs. Listening to online classes on zoom not only require a lot of data but also a generous amount of patience. If you lack the latter, you might smash your system. Do not forget to do some meditation to build your patience for attending the next zoom class online!



Also, another important factor to consider is when you shift from having physical classes to online classes, a majority share of the interactiveness gets annulled. The CBSE curriculum majorly depends on projects, presentations and assignments that need to be done in an interactive environment and the current going online classes do not facilitate that.

With the increasing number of cases every day, it definitely does not look like schools might reopen soon and students might need to attend online classes may be for another six months.
This definitely will affect their communication skills and creativity.

Also, the education of students in schools from rural or suburban areas who do not have the financial ability to afford online classes will definitely get affected. Recently there was a post that was viral in the social media about a man selling off his cattle to buy a smartphone for his child's online classes. By this, we can understand that online zoom classes are not inclusive for poor and people living below the poverty line.

Every day, there are tonnes of apps coming up for education. Apps like Ted-ed, Skillshare and Coursera are gaining a lot of demand for their attractive and effective courses.

So how do you pick an online learning website for your child or yourself?

Here is a list of E-learning companies based in India that you can consider before subscribing for one: