Online education in India

Online education in India: Its present and future

History of online education in India starts with the time when “Guru Kulas” served as the only system of education in South Asia. Students used to live with the guru away from their home and helped him in daily activities alongside studying with him. They have to live without any means to communicate with their family.

After that came the Middle Ages which were characterised by the advent of Islamic education in the Indian subcontinent. Later Western education was introduced with the coming of Europeans & much later than that the concept of schools as well as modern universities developed in the late 1800s.

And now is the time, when a small Smartphone or a Personal Computer has become a major part of the education system in India with Internet facilities being extended to more and more people with the help of technology advancement.

This advancement has given rise to online education in today’s world which is also regarded as one of the main education reforms of all time. This online education has a huge scope soon as many learners around the world are resorting to this new education system via online learning also called e-learning.

Online Education in India

Report on online education in India suggests that India’s online market was USD 247mn in 2016 and it is expected that it will grow to USD 1.96bn by 2021 with quite high CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 52 percent. In 2016, the total number of people who enrolled themselves for online courses were estimated to be around 1.6 million and further it is expected that it will be around 9.6 million till 2021.

The cost of classroom education is increasing day by day due to which there is a huge surge in people enrolling in online education. As per data, 62.5 percent of India’s population is in the age group of 15-59 years and estimated to be 65 percent around 2036. This will further lead to the spread of this new type of educational process in our country as there is greater acceptability of online platforms for education among the youth.

 This shows that India has a great potential in the future for e-learning which is widening the scope of online education in India. But we have to consider the fact that it will succeed only if there is a focused approach followed as far as the future of online education in India is concerned.

Advantages of Online education

Wide ranges of course

Online platforms offer students a wide range of courses to choose from. This huge variety of online courses gives the freedom to learn whatever you want which was not available in the traditional education system.

This will help a learner in a way that he/she will be in full dedication while pursuing a course of their own choice and it is no hidden fact that how important it is to pursue a course of our choice as it enhances our chances of getting a suitable career of our likings.

Cost-effective

Online education is cheaper when compared to traditional offline education. In offline education, we have to bear some other costs apart from tuition fees such as transportation cost, the food-rental cost which is not required in the case of online learning.

Also, we live in a country with an average low per-capita income where access to some specialized professional courses is not possible in the absence of online educational platforms. For example, a lower-middle-class student can’t go and study these courses abroad but due to this e-learning revolution, it is now affordable for him and his family to learn the same as well as making a good career for him while residing at home.

More comfortable

All the required study materials needed for your selected course are provided by online platforms so you can have easy access to them as per your requirements. The other thing which gives enormous comfort while studying online is the relief from the physical discomfort of physical classroom sessions. You can take small breaks between the lectures for your physical well being as you don’t have to sit for long hours in these e-learning platforms.

The flexibility offered to students

Learning via online platforms creates a better learning environment as there are times when learners may not understand a particular concept at once but online education has a solution for them. You can repeat your lessons or rewind your lectures several times as per convenience. Students who are considered as slow learners are the biggest beneficiaries of this new learning revolution because their self created rhythm is maintained in these courses. We can say e-learning is a self-paced learning medium.

Better connection with teachers

Some students hesitate while raising a doubt or asking any question in front of the whole class but now due to online learning platforms they can easily ask or raise any doubt before a teacher in separate. Also, the teacher has sufficient time to analyze the doubt and answer it efficiently. This will create a better connection between a teacher and a student as this is going to be a win-win situation for everyone.

Reduces inequality

We have many students in India who can’t afford to attend schools and colleges due to financial stability & social disorder in our society. But online education is providing an equal playing field to everybody. As we have discussed earlier that these e-learning programs are quite inexpensive as compared to offline platforms which help these students to learn the same thing which their affluent colleagues have been doing. Also, while studying at home via online learning, they don’t have to think of social disorders much and can easily concentrate on their studies.

Greater compatibility with the emerging world leaders

Due to innovation in technology, it is believed that digital advancement is at the forefront of emerging world order.  So this e-learning can become even more prevalent in the upcoming future. As this can be the way forward for all of us.

Reasons why online education is thriving in India

Government Initiatives

In recent years we have seen the Government of India especially the Ministry of Human Resource and Development has taken some useful measures such as open online classrooms, digital classrooms in government schools, Promoting skill India initiative via online learning platforms and the whole Digital India mission which was based on this online revolution. Also, the GOI has played an important role in the promotion of online education in India for schools and universities whether under private ownership or government-owned.

Increasing penetration of Internet

India is the second-largest online market in the world with 560 million internet users and it is estimated that this figure will increase to 650 million by 2023. The internet penetration rate in India is a major driver of the growth of online education in the country with more people connecting online with the passing of every single day. This true internet access has helped our rural students to pursue these e-learning courses that were left behind due to poor internet facility.

Cost-effectiveness of online learning

One of the biggest reasons why online education is flourishing is due to its cost-effective nature as these platforms are quite affordable for everyone as compared to traditional offline courses.

E-learning platforms becoming more popular

There has been a noticeable surge in the popularity of these online courses in the past few years. When this boom of online education started in India, the biggest fear among the people was how a student is going to interact with a teacher who is physically absent or digitally present. But as time went on this fear, especially among parents, has vanished. And now they find this e-learning best suitable for their kids. This is why many online courses are becoming popular these days.

Development of Artificial Intelligence

The world has seen a huge development in artificial intelligence in recent times. This artificial intelligence is helping online learning platforms to develop a distinct approach to individual experience in learning by designing special courses for a special set of students as per their convenience.

Initiatives by the government to promote online education portal mp in India

The government of India started Digital India a nationwide program in 2015 to promote digitalization in the country. Online learning has benefitted from this Initiative as it has vastly promoted the concept of learning via the digital medium. This initiative by the government of India has given a big push to all online education portals mp and has widened the scope of quality education among learners. Also, there are some specialized initiatives taken by the government to promote online learning in India such as:

SWAYAM

Its full form is “Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds”. This online education portal mp was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development to promote an integrated platform for various online courses. The main aim is to ensure the accessibility of quality higher education at a decent price.

SWAYAM Prabha

This initiative was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development to provide 32 quality educational channels in the country on a 24X7 basis through DTH. Its main aim is to make quality learning resources available to remote areas via a digital medium where the availability of the internet poses a challenge.

National Digital Library

Developed by IIT Kharagpur to make learning resources available to all learners in over 200 languages. It contains textbooks, articles, videos, audios, lectures and many such materials required by learners. You can say it is a type of free online courses in India by the government.

FOSSEE

It stands for “Free and Open Source Software for Education”. It was launched to promote the use of open-source software in educational institutions.

e-Yantra

It was started to promote effective education for all engineering colleges based on Robotics & Embedded systems in India.

e-Pathshala

It is a dedicated portal/app initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development with NCERT & CIET to make study material available for teachers, parents, researchers, educators and students.

National Academic Depository

It is run by UGC, as this NAD is a huge connected network of school boards, central and state universities, deemed universities and private-owned universities which work simultaneously for the betterment of students and efficient collaborative working.

Virtual labs

This was started by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development under the leadership of NMEICT. It is the association of 12 IITs which aim to provide study resources & online classes through Virtual Labs wherein many experiments designed virtually to promote better understanding among learners.

Famous online education websites in India

There has been a huge development in online education companies in India as their number as well as quality has increased in recent times. They are now well equipped to deal with everything related to online learning in India.

Some Indian online education websites are Byju’s, Unacademy, Grade up, Meritnation, Vedantu, testbook, doubtnut and many more. They cover almost every type of online courses available nowadays and the best thing about them is that they have now started giving free online courses in India with certificates to help needy and brilliant students.

Byju’s now has become such a giant in this online educational industry that it is the team India’s sponsor in cricket as we have Byju’s written on jerseys of Indian cricket team players which is quite an achievement to have.

Popular Online Courses in India

There are some online courses which are quite popular these days such as Online MBA, Graphic designing, Digital Marketing, Digital Programming, Data Analytics, Business Analytics, Cloud Computing are among the most enrolled online courses in India.

Some leading platforms providing these famous online courses such as:

Online MBA courses in India

Online MBA by symbiosis.

1. Online MBA by ICFAI.

2. Online MBA by IGNOU.

3. Online MBA by Sikkim Manipal University.

4. Online MBA by Amity University.

Online Digital Marketing courses

1. Digital Marketing course by NIIT.

2. Digital Marketing by Digital Vidya.

3. Digital Marketing by Manipal Global Education.

4. Digital Marketing by AIMA.

Online Digital Programming courses

1. Computer Programming by edX.

2. Free Programming courses by Alison.

3. Programming courses by Coursera.

4. Online Programming courses by Lynda.

5. Web development & programming by Udemy.

Online Big Data & Business Analytics courses

1. Data courses by edX.

2. Big data courses by Coursera.

3. Big data training tutorials by Lynda.

4. Big data courses by Udemy.

Challenges to online education in India

Not a permanent solution

Yes, we are witnessing a boom in the e-learning sector in India but there are some issues which give it a tag of “not a permanent option” such as courses which require practical classes or experiments will never be replaced by online classes.

We can prepare our theory part with this e-learning but will lag in practical knowledge. Also, online learning platforms are doing exceptionally well in making it a user-friendly experience while learning but it is a fact that it will be very difficult for each one of us to connect with this teaching style.

Digital divide

People living in backward areas or rural areas in India are less familiar with this digital world as compared to the people living in urban areas. Most of these people from rural backgrounds are digitally illiterate due to lack of internet access, illiteracy, busyness in their household chores etc and adding to this most of them are economically poor as well.

So, for these people “Online Education is like a dream” and a faraway thing. This digital divide is increasing with the widening gap between a rich and a poor. So to make them digitally literate, we first have to deal with this gap and other social issues.

The requirement of Digital Infrastructure

In India, there are many places where we have no electricity, especially rural India. Even in areas where electrical facilities have reached, there is zero internet connectivity available. We are lagging from many countries as far as investing in digital infrastructure is concerned as with such Internet penetration rate we are going nowhere.

The problem is that if we have some kind of internet facility available in a particular area, the signal strength is so poor that it is equivalent to no connection at all. Adding to that we all know how difficult it is to run these online courses at slow internet speed. We as a country need to develop our infrastructure if we want ourselves to compete with other countries.

Uncertainty over the validation of online education degree courses

There have been some issues regarding the validation of online education degrees as many educational institutes (Government and Private owned) have raised their voices regarding the accreditation of these online courses. This is due to a huge scam of forged degrees production on the name of online courses.

This has cast doubts among these educational institutions responsible for the authenticity of any degree course in India. These issues are needed to be addressed as soon as possible by our government agencies as this will affect the credibility of these online e-learning courses.

Future of Online Education in India

The future of online education in India is very bright as many organizations (public or private) are doing everything possible to overcome these challenges associated with e-learning. We know the market of online learning is growing with each passing day and expected to grow even further with a rapid rate.

There are some suggestions which can be adopted to improve online education in India in the coming future:

1. “Nai Talim” concept defined by Gandhi Ji which emphasized self-study and experimental learning.

2. Online learning can adopt these methods to improve efficiency even further.

3. Use of artificial intelligence to personalize the experience of learning in online platforms.

4. Online education has the potential to bring decentralization in education to focus mainly on the grass-root level which requires the quality education the most than any other level.

5. We should make pedagogy material available in other regional languages as well to cater the interests of every student.

6. Online learning is inexpensive as compared to traditional offline learning but there is a scope for further reduction in prices of these online learning courses to make it affordable for even the lowest section of the society.

7. There is a need for a strong public-private partnership to build the required digital infrastructure in India.

8. The Government should bring some new initiatives to break this digital divide among citizens.

All these steps will make online education in India a better learning experience for all learners irrespective of their backgrounds.

Written By: SAKSHI

Edited By: MUKUL BUDAKOTI