Since the historic beginning of the new decade in 2020 with the COVID-19 outbreak, internet has been breaking down barriers and been removing the traditional gatekeepers in many established fields. One of the key domains which have undergone a metamorphosis is education. The students have attempted to adapt themselves to the ‘new normal’ ways of online learning alongside their dedicated teachers who have tremendously worked hard to make online teaching effective and interactive.
Technology has come to the forefront in these testing times and being immersed in it throughout the year has honed the technical skills massively. With the number of COVID cases in full swing, online learning platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Classroom etc. have come to the rescue. No doubt, everyone thoroughly misses the physical classroom learning, but in these pandemic times, these online learning platforms have provided the optimal alternatives. It has allowed us to venture into ways of learning we had not envisaged earlier, like learning through slides, playing quizzes with friends and classmates etc. Giving online examinations has been an altogether new experience for the students. Also, there have been other online tutoring platforms which students have largely adopted in this online era of learning, like Byju’s, Vedantu etc.
The concept of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which are free online courses available for anyone to enroll and provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, have also gained attention. Some of the massive open online courses’ providers are: Udemy, Udacity, Coursera, Edx, Stanford Online, Khan Academy etc.
A year ago, everyone was afraid to think about the way the educational methods were on the brink of metamorphic change from offline to online learning; but now teachers deserve to be congratulated for embracing the new ways of disseminating knowledge to students effectively and students should also be felicitated for procuring the knowledge enthusiastically and cooperatively. The schools have broken the rigid barriers of traditional academia and have inculcated technology and innovation as a part of their ecosystem and now it’s going to be tough to put that genie back into the bottle.