The Impact of Virtual Learning in the Indian Education System

Future Is Full Of Virtual?

VL has become the new norm of the future; it is a convenient and flexible option while equally promoting active and independent learning. It is a very flexible learning process irrespective of particular timings, age, place, and course with only condition being the learner must be equipped with a laptop/desktop with good internet facility. VL is a very good method of learning in situations like the current pandemic. It cannot be denied that it has its own pros and cons. It provides a huge platform to interact easily with very good courses and education on a global scale. Thus, many factors influence the usage of VL directly and indirectly.

In this VL mode, teaching can be based in or out of the classroom using just the computer/laptop and the Internet. This has become the major component of VL. Nowadays smartphones and tablets too have become good competitors to computers, but cannot act as a substitute. VL is a kind of de-multiplexer where one teacher can educate “n” number of students. It is a platform that motivates students of all kinds to freely interact overcoming their fear and shyness. Until before COVID 19 situation, students and teachers of most institutions have least participated in VL platforms. Nevertheless, as everyone knows, in the current scenario, people are getting adapted to technology so fast and VL is no exception. .

Dheva Rajan, S. (2020) mentioned in his book chapter “COVID-19 and lockdown in the world” about the many advantages of VL like flexibility, time saving, easy to interact any time etc. along with various disadvantages like practical learning especially in life science where the solution is still not found. All these pros and cons are discussed in this chapter for students and the teachers separately. Many suggestions too for the development of VL industry have been given in the chapter. One can effectively manage the teaching-learning process through VL. It will cover maximum of the well-maintained population. However, it can never be accessed by poor countries, states or villages unless positive steps are taken by the respective state or central governments.

The quantity of learning varies from person to person according to their passion in learning. In such a technology- driven scenario, it has become a challenge for the teachers to accommodate this quality in their teaching and learning process. Online teaching poses different set of challenges for educators (teachers) and students (learners), but collaboration and communication make it easier to stay connected and engaged. VL is an excellent method of educating even the remotest areas of the world. As the distance between the tutor and student is significantly reduced, a lot of time and money is being saved that is spent mainly for transportation and other means. Anyhow, readers can get idea of the future scenario or trend when going through this chapter fully.