When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill in 2020, business and economic activity was not the only area to bear the brunt of this virus, with the education system suffering a terrible blow too. Schools across the globe shut down, with 1.2 billion children forced to move from classroom learning to e-learning. Today, many states are opening up their schools in a phased manner but places still affected by the pandemic continue to have children sit behind screens and listen to classes delivered online. The question remains – will this shift to online learning persist in the post-pandemic era?
Educational Transformation and the Twenty-first Century
The twenty-first century has, without a doubt, forged a new relationship between man and technology. Man in his quest to discover and improve the quality of life went on to innovate and create gadgets essential to everyday functioning, from phones to tablets, kindles, laptops, and more. With technology intertwined in a person’s life, the education sector saw the need to integrate with it to facilitate better learning.
Due to this, the traditional chalk-and-talk method of teaching gave way to classrooms that included computers, projectors, and other media. This form of blended learning-enabled better engagement and allowed teachers to utilize different metrics to track the performance of various students. Studies show 60% of teachers feel blended learning has a positive impact on a student’s academic performance. It makes better use of classroom time, allowing educators to provide individual attention to students who need it.
The Impact of the Pandemic
With the arrival of the pandemic, to reduce disruptions to coursework and research, educational institutions switched to online solutions to adapt to the situation. Not only were classes taken on Google Meet, Zoom, Jitsi, but e-learning technology came to play a more significant role than ever before. The definition of blended learning by Terry et al. states that 30 to 50% of learning should be delivered online. However, with the pandemic putting a halt to regular classes, almost all learning moved online, which opened doors for students to pursue numerous interests and certificate courses by top-notch universities that were now being made available to all. While distance and a stringent admissions process may have initially been a hindrance to having access to high-quality education, due to the pandemic, colleges and universities began creating online content and making it accessible to people across the globe.
Students signed themselves up to different learning sites in addition to regular classes. Educational technology company, BYJU saw a two hundred percent increase in the number of students using their products, with Coursera and Masterclasses showing a very high number of people signing up. Many enrolled themselves in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to receive verified certification in courses of their choice. As a result of the pandemic, the online learning platform Coursera saw 35 million new enrolments in six months. With a lot of people spending time at home, they thought of investing in various other sources of gaining knowledge and online classes was the best bet.
