Coronavirus Crisis and Online Education

Education is at a crossroads right now, where the choice is between clinging to old practices and theories or redefining learning in the age of COVID-19. The pandemic more commonly known as the coronavirus has forced schools around the world to close, prompting a chaotic scramble to move online and find a way to connect students. (Source:digitaltrends.com)

Online Education

The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. As a result, education system has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.

Research suggests, around 1.5 billion students out of classrooms for weeks or even months across the World. Although, in many countries, educators have begun offering lessons online but Japan's public schools have been slow to adopt that model.

The Kitasuwa elementary school in Tama City, Tokyo is one of the public schools that decided not to offer distance learning while it was closed. School officials instead gave its 500 students printed materials to work at home on their own.

The teachers considered providing online lessons, but gave up the idea because they were worried about inequality. Not all their students have access to both a computing device and reliable internet service. 

A survey by the education ministry in mid-April shows how little Japanese public schools have adapted. It found that only 5% of local governing bodies across the country planned online classes while schools were shut due to the pandemic. In contrast, 100% of them planned home study with textbooks or printed materials. 

But now some people are calling for change. In the city of Musashino in greater Tokyo, parents petitioned the mayor to provide online learning for all public school students. They conducted a survey of 1,500 local parents and found that 96% of them supported online education. According to the survey, online classes will give students the chance to interact with their friends as well as pursuing their education.  

Kitasuwa elementary school says the school is aware of advantages of online learning, but they can't implement it if they want to ensure equality for all students.

According to Ishido Nanako, professor at Keio University's Graduate School of Media Design, Japan's schools have never shown much enthusiasm for digital education, which means they were ill-prepared to adapt to the coronavirus crisis.  

The Japanese government had begun instituting reforms when the pandemic began, and the crisis has accelerated those plans. The authorities now want to distribute tablets or laptops to students at every public elementary and junior high school by next spring.

What does this mean for the future of learning?

Source Image: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes : With schools shut across the world, millions of children have had to adapt to new types of learning.

Schools may be reopen, but it doesn't mean things are going back to the old style. It's time to build a new education system or "hybrid learning" that combines traditional methods with digital learning, which ultimately provides students with more creative opportunities.

While some believe that the unplanned and rapid move to online learning - with no training, insufficient bandwidth, and little preparation - will result in a poor user experience that is unconducive to sustained growth, others believe that a new hybrid model of education will emerge, with significant benefits. 

The integration of information technology in education will be further accelerated and online education will eventually become an integral component of education delivery system. 

There have already been successful transitions amongst many universities. For example, Zhejiang University managed to get more than 5,000 courses online just two weeks into the transition using "DingTalk ZJU".

According to the Dr Amjad, a Professor at The University of Jordan, pandemic has changed the way of teaching. It enables him to reach out to the students more efficiently and effectively through chat groups, video meetings, voting and also document sharing.

There are, however, challenges to overcome. Some students without reliable internet access and/or technology struggle to participate in digital learning; this gap is seen across countries and between income brackets within countries. For example, whilst 95% of students in Switzerland, Norway, and Austria have a computer to use for their schoolwork, only 34% in Indonesia do, according to OECD data.

In the US, there is a significant gap between those from privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds: whilst virtually all 15-year-olds from a privileged background said they had a computer to work on, nearly 25% of those from disadvantaged backgrounds did not. (Disadvantaged students are those who have hindrances to excelling in school because of detrimental circumstances beyond their control. These include financial and social hardships as well as problems within students' families.)

While some schools and governments have been providing digital equipment to students in need, such as in New South Wales, Australia, many are still concerned that the pandemic will widenthe digital divide.

It is clear that this pandemic has utterly disrupted an education system. There are worries about losing the relevance of education. Somehow, educational instittions are of the opinion that traditional offline learning and e-learning can go hand by hand.

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Source: www3.nhk.or.jp , www.weforum.org, www.digitaltrends.com