The Government of Odisha has announced closure of schools and colleges till January 31 in view of the rapid surge in Covid cases. All physical classes were stopped; scheduled examinations were postponed indefinitely and hostels were closed.
Teachers were instructed to take online classes during this period. Once again, the pandemic closed the educational institutions and disrupted the normal routine of students.
The online education option helped our students save the academic years in the past; and this time too, the stakeholders can utilise this lone option effectively to overcome the hazard. The Government of India came up with various guidelines and initiatives to assist the stakeholders to keep going their teaching-learning process. The PRAGYATA Guidelines for Digital Education published by the Government suggested eight steps for different stakeholders on the modalities of online education. They are plan, review, arrange, guide, yak (talk), assign, track and appreciate.
The India Report-Digital Education 2021released last month by the Ministry of Education highlighted the innovative, exceptional and best practices of online education by various States. The report demonstrated how our stakeholders overcome the barriers and adapted to new ways of delivering education. Apart from this, the Government also initiated a PM e-vidya Programme for multimode assistance to online education. DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SEAYAMPRABHA, AIR, etc., are some of the other initiatives of the Government which provided the necessary fillip in the online education field.
The role of teacher is very important in online education than in offline learning. Apart from teaching, they also have the responsibility to take care of the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of students. As the teacher is the first-level counsellor, his care and affection will have a great impact on the students. He has to convince the students to use internet responsibly and how its misuse can cause immense damage to one’s academic, social and mental wellbeing. As the teacher is more close to the students, many of them may ask various queries relating to examination dates, conduct of examination, methods of evaluation, declaration of results, etc. A negative answer will result in an increase of stress among the students. A teacher has to perform the role of a counsellor more than a tutor.
It cannot be assumed that a good teacher in a traditional classroom will automatically be a good teacher in an online classroom. The National Education Policy in the Para 24.3 remarks that teachers require suitable training and development to be effective online educators. Aside from changes required in pedagogy, online assessments also require a different approach. There are numerous challenges in conducting online examinations, evaluations, handling network and power disruptions and preventing unethical practices, etc.
The teacher has to prepare himself for his new online teaching assignment. Before going to prepare his own notes and teaching materials, he must go through the digital resources available in national repositories like DIKSHA, e-Pathsala, NROER, contents from Open Educational Resources, etc. Materials available in these portals and prepared by experts will be of much help to the teacher as well as students and save a lot of time.
Apart from the material he must take care of the duration of the class, timing, sharing of material and the lesson plan, cyber safety and privacy matters. All this information is to be intimated to the students well in advance to mentally prepare them for the class. He should keep in mind the simple rules of slide preparation that it is easily readable, not more than five bullet points in a slide, use of 24 size font which is good for viewing in TV, PC, tablet or mobile phone, 30 to 45 minutes session and use of infographics, graphs, charts, etc. Above all, he must maintain the human touch which makes the class live and interesting.
The institution head also plays an important role as he is the planner and controls the online classes of his institution. He is the manager behind the success of the online classes. Proper planning, coordination and time-to-time evaluation with the teachers regarding the progress of the courses are vital. Periodic reviews of the progress and communication of the same among the teachers, parents and students make everyone attentive in discharging his responsibility prudently.
Covid-19 has brought with it new challenges for the parents which has increased their responsibility. They have to see that the child is engaged in learning, the task which was entrusted to the teachers earlier. Besides, the arrangement of gadgets, network, proper environment, physical as well as mental wellbeing of the children is to be taken care of by the parents. Their digital behaviour, anxiety, stress and anger are to be watched carefully during the learning. A proper balance between learning and recreation is to be maintained by the students and the parents should ensure this by regular interaction with their children.
Apart from providing all the facilities for their children for online learning, it is also the responsibility of the parents to teach responsible usage of internet. Safe surfing and safe social media usage will help the child pay attention and interest towards his career and collect necessary inputs for achievement. The most important one is to see that TV, laptop, PC are placed in a common area of the house where the parents can keep an eye on the child. Even mobile phones should also be used in the common area which can restrict the usage time.
It is not the time to get disheartened and feel sorry for the state of affairs changing day by day. Pandemics do come and go. They caution us about the insufficiency of our efforts and what more safety measures are to be taken to face them. Our children should not be deprived of their education for the sake of pandemic. Let’s all stakeholders be united to utilise the immense advantages of technology to rejuvenate the education of our children.
(Dr Biswal is Head, Department of Commerce, Nowrangpur College, Nabarangpur. Mob: 9437125286. bhaskarnathbiswal@gmail.com)