How Online Classes have increased the quality and accessibility of Higher Education
The emergence of advanced digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Intelligence, Cognitive system etc. has improved the quality and accessibility of Higher Education to a large number of students. Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, has taken many Digital Initiatives to bring Quality Education to students at each corner of nation.National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) is a significant project of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to blend technology with education with its major initiatives like SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, E-Yantra, Virtual Labs etc. for the accomplishment of learning outcomes.
Quality Higher Education plays the considerable role to build a self-reliant and resilient nation. Covid-19 has paved the way to restructure Higher Education System in the way to make it universal accessible for all the students including at rural and remote areas.The unprecedented massive disruption of Education through global pandemic has made us adaptable to the New normal of learning where smart classes, online classes, virtual labs are the vital organs of Education system during and after pandemic. Thus, imparting skill-based higher education on the digital avenue has become the need of the hour.
Online Classes are web-based sessions which are conducted using digital learning tools such as Learning Management System (LMS) that can be conducted as LIVE sessions or the recorded sessions. In the first case, students can learn at their own convenience with available digital resources while the second case demands the active involvement of both teacher and students on real-time basis. But both the scenarios are aimed towards flexible and progressive learning with innovative pedagogical practices such as Flipped Learning, Blended Learning, Rapid Learning etc. to meet the educational demands of 21st Century.
The biggest benefit of such technology-driven classroom is that both teachers and students can constructively channelize their time and energy to make functional and fun-loving learning.
Following are the major benefits of Online Classes to Teachers and Students:
- Flexible: Both teachers are students are free to schedule their learning according to their mutual preferences and in different learning styles to fill the gaps and enhance the outcomes accomplishment.
- Cost-effective: With affordable and accessible Internet plans and one time device investment, Online learning has proven to be more cost-effective as there is no regular cost of commuting and physical resources.
- Collaborative: Online learning tends to improve the pupil-teacher and peer networking across borders without any cultural boundaries that help to easily incorporate research and innovation for implementation of theories in learning.
- Digital documentation: The online database of study material and reports simplifies the setting and tracking of targets with all-time accessibility of required inventory.
- Communication: The large number of students and physical disturbances restricts the personalized teacher attention to every student while this is not the case in Online classes, so these are observed to be more student-centric to fill the learning gaps efficiently.
What iCloudEMS offers teachers and students to make the best of Online Learning:
iCloudEMS offers cloud-based unified solutions to empower Online Education in Higher Education Institutes. It integrates prime Virtual Classroom settings withits cutting edge features to deliver Online LIVE classes to promote high quality education and foster Outcome based Education and Bloom’s taxonomy ecosphere to provide skill-based education and enhance the cognitive abilities of students.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 puts emphasis on the relevance of online education. It aims to deploy online platforms such as DIKSHA and SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active learning for Young Aspiring Minds) to maximize the digital learning according to their own choice of courses and schedule. The recent situations such as Epidemics and Pandemics call for leveraging the ICT-based Education while addressing all the possible challenges and reap its benefits where traditional classroom learning is not possible. iCloudEMS has always welcomed the technological needs of Institutes to nurture the modern education culture in digital-driven environment.
