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Research Article

Offline to Online: A long way to go

2
1 Harini C. & Alisha Liz Varghese
1 Assistant Professor, SIES College of Commerce and Economics, Sion East, Mumbai,
Maharashtra, India, Email: harini.c.h@gmail.com
2 Assistant Professor, SIES College of Commerce and Economics, Sion East,
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Abstract
The whole world has been grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on
various sectors. With physical distancing norms being advocated in the bid to prevent
transmission of the virus, schools and colleges across the globe have faced a major
setback. However, the pandemic has been the catalyst to bring online learning to the
forefront as the solution to fill this void. With the advent of this emergency remote
teaching, educators all over the world have been in a furore to create e-content and shift
the teaching-learning process online. While several studies extol the benefits of online
education, its success in the Indian education system is uncertain owing to several
constraints that are endemic in the country. This paper aims to study the merits and
challenges of online learning in higher education in India and suggest some remedies
for the same.
Keywords: COVID 19, Online learning, Higher education, Challenges, Remedies,
Merits
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has upended
the world as we all know it. Caused
Historically, India has been a country
that is renowned for its education. by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the
Ancient Indian Universities like Nalanda, disease is believed to have originated
Takshashila, Valabhi and Vikramshila in Wuhan, China and was declared
have always occupied the status of as a global pandemic by the World
premier institutions of higher learning Health Organization on March 11, 2020.
and research. Over the years, India With the number of cases constantly
has strived to maintain this status by fluctuating and the slow rollout of
constantly enhancing the quality of vaccines, the virus seems to be here
education and research in the country. to stay for the foreseeable future. The
With the passage of time, the country Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of
has embraced various pedagogies and the Government of India has imposed
methods of teaching and learning. The the use of social distancing measures
year 2020 has witnessed one such foray to prevent and control the extent of
into a new mode of education across transmission of the virus. This decision
the nation - online learning. has major implications in the education
sector and has resulted in a rapid

106 Indian Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 3, Issue 2, July 2021