There was a time when cloud computing played a restricted role in the lives of students and teachers. Not anymore. While ed-tech is one side of the story, technology today plays a crucial role in the education sector, and asynchronous learning is a part of it. Today, students and teachers can access any course work, document from anywhere. In April 2020, with the spread of Covid-19, the Ministry of Education (earlier known as the Ministry of Human Resource Development) rolled out Alternative Academic Calendar (AAC) guidelines on continuing formal education online. “In a way Covid-19 has been a blessing in disguise as far as technology integration into education is concerned, in spite of the digital divide between the urban and rural students and insufficient digital infrastructure,” professor B Thimme Gowda, vice chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, said.
In the last two years, the Ministry of Education has contributed towards digital learning by creating a learning repository and implementing technological interventions. Some of the digital learning platforms rolled out by the government include e-Pathshala, Swayam, the National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) and Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA), among others. At the same time, the sector’s adoption of digital through the usage of various tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, among others have aided in ensuring that students continue to learn. And all this is beyond the scope of the ed-tech market. “Hybrid is the new normal and will sustain for long as it is a blend of human and technology going hand in hand for better comprehensive learning. The implementation of digital pedagogies has acted as a catalyst to enhance teacher-student learning. With the adoption of ICT tools, the learning process is getting converted to a conducive ecosystem, thereby improving the quality of education,” Tapan Kumar Nayak, professor and director, Jaipuria School of Business, Ghaziabad, said.
According to the HP India Future of Learning 2022 report, the hybrid learning model came out to be the most preferred learning model among students with 68% opting for it, followed by teachers at 85% and parents (89%). The study revealed that 85% of teachers want online learning to supplement classroom learning, while 84% of students said that online learning helped them revisit the recorded sessions at their convenience. Finally, 94% of parents opined that hybrid learning helped in continuous learning even during natural calamities and law and order. Industry observers opined that hybrid is a new model and it is here to stay, it will continue to grow alongside ed-tech.
However, naysayers believe that the model will only have limited success. According to Sanjay Gupta, vice chancellor, World University of Design, design as a subject is based on the concept of ‘Learning by doing’ which is still not possible in the online mode. The physical handling of material and machinery, and equipment is not possible. So while it worked as a stop-gap arrangement, online does not present a sustainable way forward.
Even as the education sector stands divided on the impact and effectiveness of hybrid models of learning, one thing is for sure that technology is here to stay. What is to be seen is going forward how it is used to further help in growing the sector.
Read also: New skills relevant to the changing job requirements of the current industry