Covid-19 has forced universities across India, and the world indeed, to suspend physical
classrooms and shift to online classes. In India, while this transition has been smooth for
most private universities, the public ones are still adapting.
As soon as the Covid-19 crisis broke out in India, in Kerala the universities like Kerala
University,Calicut University, MG university all announced the suspension of classes
until March 31. While others waited to see what would happen next, they started
exploring online classes. There are many education startups which got boost during this covid pandemic too.
But as a state like Kerala there are so many Limited conditions that disallow the students
from conducting online mode of education. While technology is enabling, it can also be
limiting, especially in India, and a state called Kerala where we both have and have not
anywhere basic access is a challenge. Not every student has a computer or fast-
streaming internet at home. This leads to issues with attendance and participation in
online sessions. A survey revealed that 100per percent of students were accessing the
materials through the mobile phone where there may not be full data in there phone as
a result they are not able to download material sent by the institute or study online. As a
result around 3 7.5 % students are only studying their online material and 37.5
percentage of students are not able to study the online materials and 25 % of the student
are not even aware of the materials.
Only small percentage of students can only able to
access the materials about 62.5 percentage of students cant able to access the materials
due to the network connectivity problem and around 12.5 per cent due to the insufficient
data and around 12.5 % is due to the unfavorable home conditions that they have and
12.5% they have stress due to the inability to access the materials on time percent of
them had internet connection good enough for streaming real-time lectures. In the
survey about 75 percentage of students have one to five hours online classes are
conducted and about 12.5 percentage of students have for 10 to 15 hours online classes
are conducted in a week as a result of this this online classes this situation of having
stress for the students is highly because about 75 percentage of the students reported
that they have more stress than the offline classes and only 12.5 per cent of the students
said that they have less stress because maybe these students have good favourable
condition at the home and most of the students reported that they have many stress due
to the unfavorable conditions at the home. Most of the students have opted for the online
mode of classes around 50% is to talk about the online mode only 25% is about the
record class. The teacher cares through the online mode of class and in this scenario 62
percent of students have disagreed and 12.5 percent of students have strongly with the
second because the Teacher cannot ensure the full participation of the student in a class.
Most of the students and parents are also feeling tensions about the online conduct of the
exam because in online conduct of the exam the questions are of objective type with the
students not able to write the full answers and the 62.5 percent of students have told that
they are not preparing the objective type of exams. Another important thing that make
the students keep alive and Happy was that of the bonding with their classmates but this
Covid time has destroyed and or the bonding with the classmates in the online platform
37.5 % of students are reported that they are Adjusting for the time being and 50
percentage of reported that they are not satisfied and the 12.5% is a of said that they
have maybe the students were be a group of students who have high network
connectivity and good technology accessibility. Another survey they reported that the
students reported that 87.5%says that online education destroyed their physical health.
These are evidence from the survey which is given by the students from the different
colleges in Kerala.
It is clear that this pandemic has utterly disrupted an education system that many assert
was already losing its relevance. In his book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, scholar
Yuval Noah Harari outlines how schools continue to focus on traditional academic skills
and rote learning, rather than on skills such as critical thinking and adaptability, which
will be more important for success in the future. Could the move to online learning be
the catalyst to create a new, more effective method of educating students? While some
worry that the hasty nature of the transition online may have hindered this goal, others
plan to make e-learning part of their ‘new normal’ after experiencing the benefits first-
hand.
