In the last decade, there has been a lot of hype about digitization of learning through the multiple of newly developed systems like MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), app-based learning, online testing platforms, etc. We keep hearing about the ‘future of education’ — one where technology will bring about a radical transformation in schools and universities. That future is here!
The first wave of digitization in education in India started with the introduction of smartclasses in primary schools by companies like Educomp and TataEdge. The idea of smartclasses wasn’t to eliminate the physical presence of students and teachers in one place, but to simply reduce the repetitive and mundane nature of instruction. It made use of projectors, video lectures and live streaming in the classes. However, the financial resources required to create and distribute such content in schools led to a hike in tuition fee as well. Which made it difficult to introduce the system in government aided schools with low budgets.
And targeting the services in only elite and upper middle class institutes, leaves a large chunk of the student population unattended.
So what is the alternative?
India can certainly come up with a cost-effective model of digital education based on similar models in other countries.
In some schools in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, mid-level students are learning to study with digital devices like an iPad or tablet. Students present their assignments online, take mock examinations online and review/discuss concepts by working on them simultaneously through shared documents. The idea in such nations is to take education completely offline, eliminating the need for a pen and paper class. In fact, the Ministry of Education in Singapore is also working at encouraging universities to conduct exams, admission processes, term projects and tests on a common national online platform that can be viewed and assessed by the entire country. Establishing such a system is a long, tardy process but it is also how ed-tech start-ups are looking to make enormous profits in the Singapore market. Read here.
In the US, many higher education universities like MIT and Simon School of Business use technology in class for student feedback to the concepts taught. At the end of a lecture, the professor can ask concept-related questions to students and they can individually record their answers through a dongle or app in real time. This enables the teacher and the dean to measure the comprehensibility of the class and counting how many students were able to answer the questions correctly. However, according to an alumnus of MIT, this method only tells the professor whether you have understood the concept or not, but doesn’t improve teaching efficiencies.
In contrast to this, are the online education start-ups and networks like Byjus, White Hat Jr, Unacademy, etc. that have a higher market penetration than smartclasses. By taking education online, students can acquire foreign certification and diplomas without incurring the cost of travelling abroad. For e.g. MIT OpenCourseWare offers web-based learning of all MIT courses 100% free. One can pursue introductory courses that a freshman at MIT would be studying, as well as follow it up with graduate courses from the university. Moreover, online education provides more flexibility in terms of need for physical presence of teachers and students, rigid time schedules, and classroom resources like desks, blackboards, podium, etc. Students can access video lectures and courseware whenever they want to without any time or place constraint and get a certificate on completion of the course.
So the IT revolution in education is here. We are not looking into the future anymore. In many middle class Indian schools also, entry and exit level procedures have now gone online. Some colleges are even offering tests and assignment submission through email and personal apps.
But how much of this digitization changes our ways of learning? Are we tending towards smart studying or just meandering around the same traditional methods with newer means? There is no significant or decisive study that proves that students learning through technology are smarter or more well versed with the concepts as against those learning through traditional chalk and blackboard methods. Technology has improved the way of teaching, but not the way we learn. For example, Khan Academy, Gotit and LearnersTV have made animated teaching videos to create higher recall value of the concepts for students. Online testing platforms provide simultaneous corrections/results to students as soon as they click an answer. As much as these ways of teaching are creative, educators now have to deal with problems of low student concentration time frame and roadblocks to effective interactivity.
There is such a barrage of information online that students have lost the capacity of focus on one page of information for more than a couple of minutes. Research has shown that while answering mocks online, the urge to know whether the answer to a question is correct or not, students tend to click the answer button faster than they can analyse all angles to a question thoroughly. One may think this increases the thinking speed, but in reality it reduces the analytical capacity. Similarly, many old psychological theories revolve around the benefits of classroom interaction like the devil’s advocate, the alpha and beta groups, etc. One of the biggest problem with online education is driving student motivation. Physical classrooms are designed in a way that they periodically motivate or compel students to keep pace.
Real changes and disruptions in education usually come through the individual decisions of the many rather than through sweeping decrees from the government. Motivation to learn is driven by factors both intrinsic (passion, self-growth) and extrinsic (peer pressure, exams and marks). The older we grow; intrinsic factors play a larger role in one’s learning desires. Thus there is no genius in cracking newer ways to learning. The digital revolution has simply made it easier to access information, but the fundamental process of learning still remains the same. For e.g. a person driven by extrinsic factors like scoring higher marks in a college exam, will learn the concepts as demanded by the pattern of the exam, rather than the need for knowledge. If a question paper demands sticking to textbook definitions, the student will most likely indulge in rote learning — a technique used popularly/notoriously in many Indian schools. Maybe a shift in the pattern of exams from long form answers to application-based MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions), or a change in the final grading system will be able to discourage this practice.
However, bringing true educational reform at the mass level while maintaining some of the perks of traditional learning is tough. Meanwhile, online education is just another way of teaching, learning and testing, a better way to disseminate information. In India, digital education is in the starting phase; hence every small development in the field seems like a big development.
