Experiential learning is a process that allows learners to develop knowledge and skills from their own experience rather than from formal courses, says Charu Noheria

India’s education segment is rapidly changing and online learning has become an indispensable part of it. All thanks to technological advancements, marking a new chapter for the sector in the post-Covid world. While other occupations struggled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, educational start-ups and teachers found a common platform of e-learning to engage with learners. EdTech startups are mushrooming at a rapid pace to keep up with the demand in the market.

While work-from-home was not entirely a new concept in the pre-Covid days, school-from-home certainly is! Educational institutions were among the first to shut down and the country was faced with a serious predicament — academic discontinuity for millions of students. Enter, e-learning! The pandemic exponentially accelerated adoption of e-learning. Edtech companies that were agile, adapted quickly to the new circumstances and offer more than just online tutoring that existed before the pandemic struck.

With students sequestered at home due to social distancing norms and health concerns, educators had to find efficient and interesting ways to engage students. It became important for solution providers to design lessons to interest the curious learner to learn further, even during the pandemic-induced lockdown.

One reason edtech companies were able to allow students to gain access to best-in-class remote learning is technology. Internet proliferation and increased usage of smartphones has made elearning more accessible than ever, even to students in Tier-II and Tier-III towns. Schools have shifted to online learning and teachers are encouraging students to adopt online learning methods since they are convenient and efficient. The future of education is now set to be student-centric rather than teacher-centric, with the advent and increased adoption of online learning tools.

Experiential learning: Experiential learning is a process that allows learners to develop knowledge and skills from their own experience rather than from formal courses. This is understandable. When you learn to ride a bicycle or to swim, you never forget because you learnt the skills practically. Similarly, when you watch movies, you retain more - the concepts come to life before your eyes and ears — creating greater retention. How many of us have sat through boring classes and lost interest in subjects because of the traditional methods of teaching and learning? Experiential learning is, therefore, interactive, participative and multi-dimensional. It is only through experiential learning characteristics, when woven into the curriculum, that students will be better prepared to face the complexities of the modern world.

Edtech companies are facilitating live classes, automated attendance, personalised assignments, ready-to-use presentations, adaptive practice and even instant doubt-clearing, making learning more convenient and efficient, and creating a unified learning solution. These advances in e-learning further help India make the transition to digital education from physical classrooms. And the big difference between the traditional ways and digital education is experiential learning. Hands-on learning, immersive storytelling, gamification, simulations and videos are the best way for students to absorb, retain and apply concepts.

Experiential learning is effective because it closely mimics real-world experiences, structures and monitors those experiences and provides ample opportunities for hands-on doing, experimenting and simulation. Using all these elements produces a powerful learning experience that cannot be replicated by other learning methods.

Today, the classrooms combined with digital learning tools through innovative methods have helped in increasing the student’s engagement with personalised learning approach. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become an integral part of the teaching process that allow students to learn with an understanding.

The writer is Co-Founder and COO, Practically