Online Classes Essay

Education is the most powerful weapon which can use to change the world. Education can bring all the desired changes in society and the world, ultimately contributing to the betterment of the individual. There are certain ways to acquire education, for instance, online education, school education, etc. This article/essay will discuss online classes' use, advantages, and disadvantages.

Online Classes

Online classes are defined as a type of education in which education is provided with the help of the internet through the use of mobile phones, computers, laptops etc. affordably and flexibly without compromising the comfort of the students and teachers. Online education involves learning about various types of disciplines from all over the world offered by various educational institutions in a very friendly manner.

Online classes/education started popularising in the last few decades. Still, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, there is a greater impetus for online education because physical education can increase the chances of getting infected and spreading the pandemic. Hence, schools opted for online education to tackle the COVID pandemic without compromising the right to education.

Online classes expanded the reach of education by delivering education to the length & breadth of the country. There are certain areas in the world and countries where acquiring education is very difficult because of their geography and other physical challenges. To solve this problem, online education can be contributed the most because it covers all the remote parts of the country and the world.

Online education has become one of the most integral parts of the students learning curriculum because it provides various short-term and full-fledged courses. This type of digital education not only raises the interest of undergraduate and postgraduate students from all over the world but also provides self-esteem to them.

Advantages of Online Classes

As if many people believe that traditional classes are the best way to provide education and increase learning outcomes, but in this modern technological world, the benefits of online education are undeniable; it has become a popular choice among students because of its enormous benefits it is time-saving, affordable, flexible and easy to access. Here are some benefits of online classes:

1. It helps the participants to learn anywhere and whenever they want to and provides freedom to choose their study time without any hindrances. Students can schedule their pre-recorded classes, classes in which they are not present, according to their time and flexibility without compromising their family and social responsibility.
2. Today's world is on the path of developing new technologies developing every second for the benefit of humanity to raise the standard of living among people. In this scenario, Online classes help the students to understand & learn about all the modern technologies which are currently developing, for instance, AI, nanotechnology, Web 3.0, etc., and use them in their study and ripped their benefits, which ultimately contribute to the betterment of the society and the world.
   
3. Online classes help to increase the enrollment ratio and literacy rate of the country and reduce dropouts from school because, in online classes, education is not limited to "YES OR NO" repetition, but it is more than that. Online classes have various interactive sessions, fun videos that help to understand the concept clearly, and animation.
4. Online Classes are easily accessible, and this accessible education ultimately leads to decreasing the country's unemployment rate. It helps the unemployed youth to learn new skills and to get jobs that suit their qualifications from the skills they acquired from online classes.
5. Online classes also contributed to women's empowerment; in earlier times, women neglected education because of high fees, large distances, and security concerns, but now they can also get an education with the help of the internet from their homes and according to their time. Education helps women compete with men in almost all fields without gender differences.
6. The internet provides a plethora of people in the field of knowledge and improving skills; online classes help the students encounter these educated people and provide a good opportunity to choose their admirable career.
7. With the enrollment in online education, online courses come up with unlimited data, study material, resources, research papers, etc., which helps to enhance the understanding of core subjects in a very efficient manner.

As opposed to a traditional classroom learning program that requires notebooks, Chairs, table chalks & dusters, and many other amenities, which creates more financial burden on schools, and this burden reflects on the fees of students; on the other hand, Online classes are undoubtedly affordable and accessible. All the study materials require in online classes are in the form of videos, pdf, eBooks links, files, docs,& and photos are easy to access; also, it is sustainable to the environment without creating any environmental damage.

Disadvantages of Online Classes

In the traditional system of education, students learn how to make friends, how to respect, how to behave with the teachers, and provide face-to-face interaction, which contributes to the wholesome development of students, but in online classes, all are missing, and they were unknown to their friends physically. Sometimes students do not understand the topics well; they need more time to understand, but it is difficult to get rid of their doubts in less time.

Certain topics need a physical demonstration, but it is not possible with online classes. A long-time of sitting for online classes negatively impacts the students' posture and may create eye problems. Online classes are also making it difficult for teachers to monitor every student properly; sometimes, students become lazy and fall asleep during classes as they are bored after taking long lectures and thus more likely to increase the chances of dropouts because, after some time, students lose their interest in an online course. Also, some technical issues, such as loss of internet, unclear voice due to weather-related phenomena, etc., create problems for students to understand the topic clearly and thoroughly.

In online classes, teachers are only present on screen without physical appearance, so there is no one to nag or push the students to complete their work and assignments, so students start to delay their work and complete it at the last minute. One of the main disadvantages of online learning is the lack of practical and physical training on certain topics, which are required in various subjects to understand the topics thoroughly. But without scientific instruments & materials and hands-on skills, students may find it difficult to apply them in real-life scenarios because many courses require mostly hands-on experiences, such as nanotechnology, AI chemistry, genetics, etc.

Steps taken by the government to promote online classes/education

1. E-PATHSALA- Developed by NCERT to showcase and disseminates all related educational e-resources, including textbooks, notes, pdf, audio, and video content through the website and mobile app.
2. DIKSHA- It stands for digital infrastructure for knowledge sharing. It serves as a National digital infrastructure to offer school curriculum-based engaging learning materials to students, teachers, and parents. With this, all teachers across the nation will be equipped with advanced digital technology & and it is available in 18 Indian languages.
3. SWAYAM- It stands for "Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) "to offer an integrated platform for online courses at affordable costs to all citizens of the country, especially the underprivileged section of the society who are not capable of affording costly education.
4. PM e- VIDYA - The GOI launched the PM e-VIDYA program in 2020 to promote & strengthen digital education in India and to make e-learning more accessible for Indian students and teachers. It aims to converge all education-related activities in digital format and is expected to benefit approximately 25 crore school students.

Government also launched 'O Labs' to provide lab experience to those students who do not have physical access to the labs using the internet.

Other Initiatives Such as National Project on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), National Knowledge Network (NKN) and National Academic Depository (NAD), etc all are contributed to the increase in the scope of online education in India.

The advantages of Online classes have immensely taken over the disadvantages by providing easy benefits; also, the government eased the regulation on online education and allowed Universities and colleges to offer more than 20% of degrees online on words by 2020.

It allows private players to venture into the Indian digital education sector. But it doesn't mean we completely neglect the physical or traditional education system. Education which comprises aspects of both the system, is the best way to deliver, and it helps the full development of students physically, mentally, and visually.

For the wholesome development of an individual, it must be aware of the modern technologies currently developing; along with that, it should understand the values taught in the physical classroom and contribute to the betterment of society and the world.