Are Online Lectures the Way Forward?
(Colombo, Sri Lanka)
The coronavirus pandemic has caused incomparable levels of changes across various industries. The innovation and usage of technology that the Silicon Valley had tried to infuse has been almost successfully achieved at this time of the pandemic. Employees and employers who were reluctant to utilize technology have been put into a situation with no choice, which eventually has taken over our pattern of life. The education industry is the segmentation that we ourselves are closely integrated to and have experienced firsthand on the changes that are taking place. To have an extensive comparison of how the tables have turned, it is important for us to understand the history of learning and teaching and eventually decide, Are online lectures the way forward?
The 1800s was an era where the British Empire started opening public schools around the country. Most of these still stand strong and play a major role in producing thousands of students. Even though most of these schools were aligned to certain cultural and ethical beliefs. The system is what needs to be looked upon. 200 plus years later with numerous additions and subtractions the system is pretty much the same. Today Sri Lanka has more than 10,000 schools which offer primary and secondary education in addition to the 20+ universities. We will be grateful to the British for introducing the system and be eternally indebted for those who led the education sector in the past by making education free and accessible for all socioeconomic classes.
Classroom learning is the prominent learning and teaching method in Sri Lanka. Teachers with relevant expertise teach students based on the subject and syllabus framework designed by the Government or other authorized institution. Universities have their own modules to be taught. The pandemic today, has challenged the status quo and enabled virtual learning.
Virtual education might look new to the education sector in the country, but it is not. E-thaksalawa and the National Institute of Education have been operating as premier resource hubs for local school students in the past few years. Personally, I would consider myself to have very much benefitted by these hubs as literally all subject related resources are available freely and helps students up their games when it comes to common general examinations. Today the government has been able to create a ‘Learning Management System’ for school students to access as well, which is to be considered beneficial.
These online learning has a considerable amount of advantages and a few disadvantages in it. Individual attention is given to everyone in class. This to me is a great obstacle that has been tackled by the usage of online lectures. Usually in a physical classroom, students take their seats based on many factors — a few could be the time of arrival, the interest they possess related to that specific subject, the rapport the student maintains with the teacher and others. These concerns have been overcome by online lectures where all the students have a one on one learning experience with the lecturer. All of us would have at least once in our lives experienced the shyness of asking a stupid question in front of the class, we mostly had to wait until the teacher was alone to get our doubts cleared. But the online lectures and direct messaging option it has enhances the learning experience of the students. Students can privately pose their questions to lecturers and the lecturers with integrity would answer their questions and enlighten the whole class in its particular manner. The opportunity to watch the lectures at the time of convenience is another advantage that students would agree upon. Let it be procrastination, revising or other educational needs — students have the ability to access the same lectures for more clarification and get the important points noted down. This is vital as students at times depend on random videos on YouTube conducted by other lecturers who have no proper understanding of the curriculum but have no other chance than following those lectures.
As there are two sides to a coin, online lectures have its own challenges. Firstly, when it comes to learning infrastructure has always been a key affecting factor with regards to the experience of the students and teachers. Classrooms, Fans, Desks and Boards etc. Most of them being hard infrastructure needs — in the present context learning experience depends on the soft infrastructure components such as access to internet, availability of technological gadgets, data and much more. Infrastructure is a key factor when it comes to learning. This infrastructure needs to guide us through to the next challenge of cost. Well, the maintenance cost or monthly expenditure for internet and data can be considerably low. The capital expenditure on purchasing gadgets and accessories is very much on the higher for the greater proportion of the population. The ‘laptop loan scheme’ introduced by the government in the recent past comes in handy to address this issue to an extent. Concentrating on lectures for a longer time from the same place is a burden from the point of view of a student. The time schedules in preparing for lectures are very crucial as a mismanagement can cause students fatigue and other stress disorders by being in front of their computers for a long time. Another crucial element that the online lectures miss is the human touch or emotional connection that is created during the physical lectures, the vibe is different. An important element in learning is communication, especially good two-way communication is vital. The difference between a class full of students who are slumbering and a class full of students with their cameras off is not much — both classes are very silent and this from the point of view of a lecturer could be demotivating causing a comparatively low level of value delivery.
After an extensive discussion on the tides these online lectures have turned, we come into a position whether to embrace it as the future for learning or not. Before answering the question of if online lectures are the way forward — we are in the need to question our purpose of learning. Why do we learn? Well there might be no definite answer to this question but what can most of us agree could be something related to doing a job. In October this year the World Economic Forum in its annual ‘The future of the jobs report’ address the following as key findings,
- The pace of technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas. The adoption of cloud computing, big data and e-commerce remain high priorities for business leaders, following a trend established in previous years. However, there has also been a significant rise in interest for encryption, non-humanoid robots and artificial intelligence.
- The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce. Eighty-four percent of employers are set to rapidly digitalize working processes, including a significant expansion of remote work — with the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely. To address concerns about productivity and well-being, about one-third of all employers expect to also take steps to create a sense of community, connection and belonging among employees through digital tools, and to tackle the well-being challenges posed by the shift to remote work.
- Online learning and training is on the rise but looks different for those in employment and those who are unemployed. There has been a four-fold increase in the numbers of individuals seeking out opportunities for learning online through their own initiative, a five-fold increase in employer provision of online learning opportunities to their workers and a nine-fold enrolment increase for learners accessing online learning through government programmes. Those in employment are placing larger emphasis on personal development courses, which have seen 88% growth among that population. Those who are unemployed have placed greater emphasis on learning digital skills such as data analysis, computer science and information technology.
Now we are able to understand that the world is moving towards an adaptation technology and online presence. Therefore, the need of usage of technology and access to the internet to students is vital as it should boost them up. Online lectures might be a good source of adaptation for students which could eventually help them while they start working remotely and are asked to utilize team management platforms.
Nevertheless, we should agree that online teaching definitely would play a vital role in the future. The relevant stakeholders and policy makers of the country are obliged to ensure effective policies and frameworks that would enable the transition from traditional classrooms to virtual ones with minimum damage to all relevant parties.
