MAKING NEW INROADS: THE POTENTIAL OF E-LEARNING IN INDIA

The Indian education system has undergone a sea change over the past few decades. What was once characterized by the traditional classroom method of imparting education is now gradually evolving into learning that is available at a click, is online, self-paced and customized. E-learning opportunities have not yet been fully explored in our country. But it must be noted that if implemented, it has the potential to change the face of the Indian education system.

The prospects of e-learning look bright in India’s case.  According to a recent research report, the e-learning market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17.4% over the period FY2013-FY’2018 driven by various factors such as increased government schemes and subsequent enhanced spending to promote e-learning, fast paced adoption of technology, lack of availability of quality education, convenience and cost effectiveness among others. With this the demand of custom e-learning content is bound to increase, thereby catalyzing the overall growth of India’s e-learning market in future.

Though India has a relatively immature e-learning industry however, the relative potential and benefits of e-learning are huge. In a fast developing country like India where different sectors are on a technological growth trajectory, the effect of this advancement can be gauged from the plethora of e-learning opportunities available in the country.

E-learning brings with itself a unique set of advantages, the most prominent being the ability to provide personalized attention to all students. In a conventional set up, this is next to impossible given the time constraints and individual limitations. In rare cases it could be achieved to a certain extent only when a tutor is highly skilled and offers one-to-one tutorials to a student. However, considering that institutions across the country have a classroom-based setup, such personalized attention becomes very time consuming and cumbersome.

Another big advantage is that people living in the smaller towns & cities can get the best possible learning aids from across the world, at a very affordable price. This ensures delivery of the best quality to every nook and corner where technology has paved the way for intellectual development. This helps create a level-playing field. The digital India campaign of the government can be instrumental in boosting this method of learning dramatically.

From the learner’s viewpoint a huge advantage of e-learning is that it is self-paced, and knowledge absorption is done at the learner’s pace. The deliverables can be repeated until understood by the learner. Also, to bring in more creative ways of delivery, learning can be made compelling and interesting with multimedia. This methodology of adaptive learning will help students to extract the best out of the learning process at their own pace, without feeling left out.

Another prominent advantage of e-learning lies in the fact that distances and borders can easily be shrunk by using it as a tool for imparting training or education as physical presence of learners and trainer are not mandatory. For an organisation that is spread across multiple locations, traditional classroom training becomes a constraint.

Social Interaction is also a major advantage of e-learning. There are a lot of e-learning sites on the web which not only provide learning solutions but also give ample opportunities of social interaction to the learners such that they can collaborate and share knowledge across borders. This may serve as a breeding ground for innovation and exchange of useful ideas helping learners share their thoughts and learning. Students may learn just as much from each other as they do from teachers.

Certain specialized curricula may require specialized instructors who can give live instructions. The availability of the instructor and other resource constraints can be conveniently overcome by promoting the use of live broadcasts and other e-learning opportunities in educational institutions. as well as in organizations. Thus, instructors can remain in one location and provide instruction to many students in other diverse locations. The Indian government has also proposed plans to introduce online and audio-visual courses for learning foreign languages for Indian students.

Pre-recorded content in the form of lectures, documentaries and other audio visual content may be delivered in a store and distribute model so that the material can be viewed when needed. Periodical sessions can be made available to learners through a series of videos.  This enhances global availability of content which can be easily accessed by learners all over the world.

Even though the basics seldom change continuous updation and improvisation of training material is pertinent to ensure relevance of the content delivered to the learners. With access to the internet in virtually all parts of urban India it becomes essential to update the content such that it remains valuable for the learners. This however becomes a cumbersome job as far as revision of books is concerned. Textbooks are expensive to purchase, maintain and deliver. Digital delivery solves this issue when coupled with e-readers.

India lags behind other nations when considering the field of research and innovation. The situation of R&D in the country is in a dismal state. E-learning can be a harbinger of change in the area of research. At the higher educational level, collaboration of ideas is vital to research. Research Scholars in India can learn from researchers of other countries and can even take help from instructors located in virtually any part of the globe.

Even though the present government has thrown open the doors of opportunity for e-learning initiatives, there is a need to be cautious; in this euphoria of digitizing and reforming the education system of our country, the quality of education has to improve. Since there is a sense of urgency among the various e-learning providers to board the bus it is quite possible that while introducing online courses and blended learning methods, the standard of education might be compromised. The designers of the e-learning industries and the course creators have to work in sync to ensure that the course leads to value addition and the students are more employable.