The trend of e-learning in India is becoming more prevalent each day. Students are taking to online modes of test preparation due to numerous advantages. It has seen a huge rise in the number of users over the years and e-learners are no longer restricted to just large metros. Students from tier II and III cities have also embraced these courses and online modules for test preparation following the high level of Internet and mobile penetration.
In order to keep up with the growth in online education and learning trends across the globe, the country is also witnessing significant changes in the format of many competitive exams like CAT, JEE, BITSAT, CA-CPT, CS Foundation etc. Most of the major entrance exams are now conducted completely or partly online.
Examination authorities find online medium beneficial due to its high level of transparency, security and administrative efficiency. The fact that these exams involve less paper work is an added advantage. They also reduce overhead costs of logistics, paper checking and generation of the result in physical formats besides the most important advantage of eliminating the chances of human error.
As for students, registration forms for online exams are much cheaper than offline exam forms and the process is much easier and less time consuming eliminating the need of photocopy and postage and allowing students the convenience of easier payment methods than the cumbersome demand draft. Second, in the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) based entrance exams, 15 to 20 minutes of time is wasted in filling the bubbles. In OMR students save 15-20 valuable minutes. This can be spent on attempting more questions or reviewing answers.
Online exams also let students mark questions for later review or leave questions unanswered; changing an answer is also easy, as compared to the time consuming and difficult way in OMR. The biggest advantage for students is that they can take exams as per their convenience. Online exams are usually conducted over a stretch of time and students are allowed to select their preferred date and time slot along with their choice of exam center. Another benefit is that online exams eliminate the risk of getting surprises or changes in questions and patterns as the organisers usually stay away from any kind of surprise element.
While taking online tests may be preferred by one and all, actually succeeding in these tough competitive exams is another ball game all together. Preparation runs into months and burning the midnight oil just seems like an understatement when it comes to the hard work that students need to put in. Competitive exams such as JEE, AIPMT, CA-CPT, etc require extreme practice and training.
In this sphere too, students are increasingly opting for online preparatory courses in addition to attending coaching classes. The online training offers wide scope for students to develop their answering and reasoning skills. It allows them to study at their own pace and within the comfort of their homes. Precious time is saved on travelling and other logistical requirements.
Online prep modules offer access to all the comprehensive study material required even at the locations where good physical resources like coaching institutes are not available. This makes it a level playing fields for the small town students who otherwise are deprived of admissions to the prestigious higher learning institutes due to lack of availability of preparatory resources.
Even for the urban students, online preparation helps increase their scores by reviewing their preparation, benchmarking it with peers on a national level and take corrective actions within time. Due to the use of technology, the kind of analysis and tracking that is possible in online learning modes is almost impossible in offline modes. Students can connect, compare and collaborate with geographically separated peers using online mediums. Even the most unproductive time like daily travel can be converted into productive learning time by accessing preparation modules on mobile devices.
Although it is debatable if online learning can replace classroom system, many experts are of the view that online modes are bringing precision and convenience to learning which is in-turn bringing out the best performance of each student and the cutoffs are increasing considerably. This implies that the online learning is increasing the level of competition and the latent talent of small towns that was otherwise shielded from the quality training available in bigger towns is now gearing up to compete with the bigger city students. Online exams may or may not replace classroom learning, but they are bringing quality and convenience to education and increasing its reach in terms of geography and precision.
(The writer is executive director, Entranceprime.com)