PROS and CONS and SCOPE of ONLINE COURSE PLATFORM in INDIA

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Why Online Educational Platforms are the needed?

The Indian education system has undergone numerous significant changes over the past decades. Today the focus is more on providing practical knowledge applicable in real life scenario rather than making the students mug up the concepts, theories and definitions without actually knowing their meaning and implementation.

The one thing that has played a critical role in bringing about this drastic change is the advent of online courses or E-learning. However, most modern schools and other educational institution have adopted a method that combines traditional classroom teaching with various online programs to help enhance the knowledge and understanding of students.

Scope of the Online Learning Platforms in India

The online courses platforms in India have opened the door for number of opportunities to attain knowledge anywhere anytime with the boost in the scope of online education in India. Through this technical reform the interaction is enhanced, this aptly indicates how the introduction of this platform has been revolutionized.

According to a recent study in a global level online learning program, India has acquired second highest number of online courses enrolment. Thus, it proves to be a golden opportunity for many who want to be part of this race. This sector is expected to grow in future due to rapid growth in enrollment rates in such programs. Secondly, technological innovation is a helping hand for this sector to balance the supply and demand ecosystem. Digitalization has helped to improve the quality of education and has made it easy for both student and teacher to learn and teach as per their convenience. 

Some of the best Online educational Platforms are:

• YouTube: Vast number of videos are present on the platform. The youtubers like Khan Academy has changed the way topics were explained.
• Unacademy: The number of teachers giving classes on this platform has increased over the years. A student of any class can find the relevant teachers and start studying. The benefit of online educational platforms is that the choice is plenty.
• Udemy: For graduates and post graduates Udemy provides courses that covers vast subjects. The easy to use platform and various choices for teachers make it one of the best online learning platform.

Pros and Cons of the Online Education

Due to the inevitable hindrance, there has been a growing need of introducing online educational platform. Though traditional education system of brick and mortar still has its own significance, but, E-learning or an online course provides more convenience then the former. Where you only need availability of smart phone and a good speedy internet connection facility.

Pros of the Online Education

1. Online education or online courses are way much cheaper than offline mode of education.
2. It saves time of commuting, money we pay as fare and most importantly energy of students we invest to attend offline classes. By this we can effectively work more and allocate much time to pursue other activities. Thus, it is time and cost effective.
3. Learning has no age with the introduction of this platform where from a school student to adult person can study any suitable course. Even a far living person who does not have facilities like school/college/institutes and cannot come to cities can pursue education in order to achieve their goals. Thus, it proves to be efficient accessibility.
4. It allows women, downtrodden classes, and deprived people to achieve education and challenge the traditional ideologies and norms by breaking the barriers both geographically and socially.
5. It helps in imparting knowledge to physically disabled people. Those who cannot step outside due to any form of disability can open the doors of learning at home and can procure degrees, diplomas and build their career online courses effectively.
6. Online educational platforms offer more individual attention and you meet people from diverse culture.
7. Online courses impart you real world skills with top class educator.
8. Online courses have so many features to help each and every student whether it is queries or doubt. There is a feature of chat room, comment facility, e-mail etc to facilitate effortless learning.

 

Cons of the Online Education

1. Lack of social interaction - social interaction is necessary to build a healthy social life and with online learning we have to forgo the opportunity to socialize.
2. The digital divide – the major challenge in virtual learning is disparity in access to electricity, internet connection and lack of Smartphone’s and computers is very vast. Many people do not have access to required device and internet connection especially in rural India.
3. Smartphone & other devices – both mobile and computer are preferable for attending lectures. But only 25-30% Indian owns a Smartphone which supports the application of virtual learning. Only 11-15% of household possess any type of computer, tablets, palmtop etc.
4. Access to internet –India where access to the internet is pitifully low, the access to internet facility is only confined to 27% of Indian household. While 66% of India’s population lives in villages, only a little over 23% of rural households have access to internet connection. For urban household the proportion is 42%.
5. Among the poorest 20% households, only 2.7% have access to a computer and 8.9% to internet connection. In case of the top 20% households, the proportions to have access to a computer 27.6% and 50.5% to access internet connection.
6. Online courses are easier to procrastinate and it becomes burden if you do not learn simultaneously. These courses give you more freedom, perhaps more than you can handle.
7. Online courses require good time management skills.
8. A conductive environment for study is necessary. While 37% of households in India have one dwelling room.
9. Online courses do not have an instructor hounding, to keep you motivated and focused towards your study.
10. It can make children addict of technology and excess use of technology can impact the mind & health of young adults.

Technology is the way ahead

There has been a significant shift from thinking digital to being digital and it has probably blessed us with many advantages to internet-based courses, but we need to be more developed to accelerate the pace of online learning. There are several steps required to revamp the existing structure of online learning.

Also, what is need is to devise a quality benchmark for education. Urban, rural and underserved hinterlands should be provided equal platform to serve growth in overall development of educational structure. This sector will surely grow in near future due to many factors associated with it. Government should also encourage startups to come up with new ideas and start their business in this growing sector.