New Updates in Online Learning

*Nilesh Kumar Mitra*

## **Abstract**

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid transformation happened overnight in the teaching-learning strategy in primary, secondary and tertiary education. All educators started using web-conferencing tools as principal element of online learning. However, in spite of health concerns among the pandemic situation, strong student preferences towards returning back to face-to-face or hybrid mode brought challenges to the effectiveness of online learning. Students cite many reasons for dropping out of online courses. Increased workload and poor organization of remote learning have been found to be the principal reason for the students' dissatisfaction. The orientation of online learning needs alignment towards the principle of course design along with the flexibility to attain the instructional goals, objectives, and outcomes. Sophisticated technology often makes online and even hybrid course design to change track from well-designed pedagogy leading to loss of functional relevance for the students. Instructors should be flexible and employ multiple strategies to improve online learning experiences in both asynchronous and synchronous learning environment. Studies have proved that using the best practice of the alignment of learning outcome, online learning activities and repeated online knowledge-checks foster student motivation towards the completion of online courses.

**Keywords:** online education, instructional design, engagement in online learning, asynchronous online learning, synchronous online learning

### **1. Introduction**

Online education has been growing continuously for the last two decades. With the reduction of budgets and shrinking spaces, many Universities continue to use online education as a long-term strategy to handle increasing student enrolment. Compared to 3.2 million students enrolled in at least one fully online course during fall semester 2005, in fall 2019, 7.3 million students enrolled in at least one distance education course in the USA. Since the days of 1840, when Sir Isaac Pitman introduced teaching shorthand through the post, distance learning became available through television in 1965 with the first Open University in England broadcasting the lectures through BBC. However, today crossing the borders of postal services and television broadcasting, the advent of newer technology and web-based connectivity has turned remote learning into agile and flexible virtual classrooms [1, 2].

Analysis of the status of online learning in different parts of the world indicates a strong presence of country-level factors. A close look at the globalization of online education explains its dependence on bridging the digital divide, accommodation

of various languages, standardized curriculum across different countries and use of universal technology platforms. A shift from the agricultural or industrial economy to the digital economy, automation of jobs requiring lower grades of skills and impending need of lowering infrastructure costs have led the government administration and higher education institutions to make major structural changes [3].

After an initial peak in the enrolment of the students in the online courses, US Universities have been experiencing the burden of increased faculty training costs, lack of appropriateness of teaching of all subjects in the online mode and increased cost of technological updates. Some students are concerned about the reduced quality of instruction and increased cognitive load of mastering new technology. Among the developing countries, Indian Universities have established themselves as major drivers of online or blended education with people using online education reaching 9.6 million in 2021. Comparatively lower cost of online education, appreciable growth in internet and mobile devices penetration and escalating demand of working professionals have helped the growth of online education in India. Among the other Asian countries, the Chinese online education market has developed exponentially due to government support and a national curriculum. Universities have been providing lessons via satellite to thousands of remote schools and broadband internet connections have reached remote corners of the country. Challenges in the growth of online learning in the Middle East have been described due to the lack of educational resources in the Arabic language and low public esteem for online education. The Open University of Australia in collaboration with other leading Universities have become the national leader in online education. However, the lack of high bandwidth connectivity in remote locations has been reported as a principal factor preventing the growth of online learning. In contrast to other countries of the world, mobilebased learning has reached significant growth in Africa despite the lack of significant increase of information technology capacity [4–8].

### **2. COVID-19 pandemic and online learning**

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and higher education institutes chose to temporarily cease face-to-face classes and remote learning was promoted by the administration. By the end of April 2020, 186 countries implemented nationwide closures. Schools for more than 168 million children were completely closed for face-to-face classes [9]. Behind the black cloud, there is always a promise for bright sun rays. To cope with the extraordinary situation, countries with centuries of lecture-based teaching and related institutional biases were forced to pursue creative approaches on relatively short notice. Various strategies were used to deliver remote learning (**Figure 1**).

During the crisis period, a large amount of online teaching started in various formats and many interfaces were used to deliver the content. From primary to tertiary education, the institutions attempted to develop an expectation that the students should take responsibility for their own learning. Often the teachers put an Increased emphasis on compliance with the technical needs and requirements at the expense of the student-centeredness and engagement. These changes had a significant impact on the students' learning system. Both synchronous and asynchronous online learning from the Learning Management System (LMS) are accessed by the students, using the internet via smartphones, iPads, laptops, or desktops. Most of the students in the developing countries rely on the computer and free internet in the schools due to the existing socio-economic conditions Students and instructors with


### **Figure 1.**

*Strategies used in online learning during COVID-19 pandemic.*

poor internet connections in their residences were denied continuous access to the resources. Provision of the technological devices posed challenges to parents, institutions, Government, and non-governmental organizations. The appearance of family members and pets during the online teaching and learning caused a distraction to the attention of online learning participants. Students experienced more workloads as appropriate assessments were not introduced to match the level of coverage of the syllabus and the delivery of the lessons [10]. A study conducted in Poland in April 2020, among 2408 teenagers, found that half of the surveyed adolescents felt an increase in the requirements imposed by the teachers. About one-third of the teenagers opined about poor organization of remote learning at the schools and observed problems in consulting the teacher when they had problems in understanding the material [11]. A qualitative study was held with 79 faculty from 19 countries using Polarity Approach for Continuity and Transformation (PACT). The faculties worked in small groups to determine the pros and cons of face-to-face and distance learning. The warning signs identified in distance learning for continuous monitoring included dissatisfaction of students with faculty engagement, mentorship programs showing lack of significant engagement, failure of one-third of students to submit timely assignments and decrease in mean scores of formative assessments among 30% of the students. A reduction of 10% score in Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) stations on topics taught online was also observed [12].
