Virtual Learning - The New Age Classrooms at Home
Posted by Strategic Communications, JGI Group on 30 June 2020

The Effects of COVI-19 on the Education Sector
As the world is fighting against the Covid-19 outbreak, schools, colleges, universities have shut down, impacting nearly 80% of students globally. Since March onwards state-government in agreement with the centre began shutting down educational institutes temporarily to prevent the spread of this pandemic, leading to a period of uncertainty and stress among the students as well as the parents regarding the future of their kids.

Today, the world is changing as work-from-home and learn-from home is the new culture in almost every part of the world. In this scenario, schools have adapted to the virtual classrooms as the new norm and educators are making every tireless effort to keep educating children as best as they can.

Benefits of E-Learning
The process of learning through digital platforms also known as e-learning has become the most pivotal mode of receiving knowledge for students at the time of this global pandemic.

E-learning seems a reliable solution at the moment to fill the void created due to the absence of classroom learning. It overcomes geographical barriers and ensures convenient, quick, on -the- go and 24x7 accesses and at the same time it has reduced the risk factor concerning the health and safety of the children.

In these testing circumstances due to impromptu closure, online classes have become the biggest benefactors for students as they can learn from the comforts of their homes.

It is flexible, and also saves their travelling time and cost.  Due to the sudden shift from classroom to online mode teachers make sure that student satisfaction is always given importance. Educators in online learning keep on improvising and adding to their skills to impart better education in order to survive in this humongous platform.

The Challenges
The Indian education system mainly adheres to the traditional classroom learning method; it is only during this global pandemic various areas of online teaching have been explored.  Thus this poses a new intellectual challenge for the educators as they need to plan an effective operational framework and should be willing to think out of their box to recognise, understand, and address these critical issues.

Other challenges such as students may face Internet connectivity issues, access to technological devices at home such laptops, desktops,  absence of a collaborative learning experience, hands-on learning in complex subjects such as science and mathematics has been challenging.

In abroad  online teaching and learning pedagogy has always been a part of the educational curriculum along with the traditional classes, however, the case is not similar in India,  It is only now the pandemic has greatly emphasized on  this sudden transformation from  traditional to  the online- mode of learning.

The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has presented an eye- opening opportunity to rethink the deep-rooted classroom mode of education and understand the significance of online learning. It has been a great leveller for educators, colleges, schools, and universities to collaborate and assess the gaps and shortcomings in the conventional model.

 The JHS Approach
JHS, one of the top schools situated in Bangalore and part of the JGI group, truly believes that education is for life and not just for living. The curriculum of the school focuses on value- based methods with a vision for a progressive and proactive teaching-learning pedagogy. To engage with students in a virtual classroom, the school has made a shift to a new way of thinking.

The teachers create a list of all the things in advance that the students will need and also send a copy to all the parents so that they can prepare the learners with all the resources reducing the stress and anxiety over this new mode of learning.  To retain the attention span of the student’s fun activities, games, and quizzes are also conducted during the learning sessions to create a delighted and more engaging mood.

Students may find it daunting to sit before the screen for long hours, so the lessons are made short, crisp, and interesting by the teachers and at the same time, students are encouraged for active participation by allowing them to ask more questions. Although the classes have now shifted to an online mode continuous progress assessment and building a strong teacher- student relationship is emphasized even more now.