(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) E-Learning: Access and Scope of Digital Education

[December-2020]

E-Learning: Access and Scope of Digital Education

Introduction:

Education is a nation-building process and digital education is the progressive education for building a healthy rural India. India is moving towards a global knowledge super power in which educational technology, digital initiatives and virtual classrooms play their prominent roles especially for the people of rural and remote India. Hence, digital education and virtual learning need to be the essential prerequisites of most of the rural development programmes. The Central Government along with State/UT Governments has been constantly working towards socio-educational reforms through diverse programmes of digital education
and virtual learning.

Related Terminologies of Digital Education in Rural India:

Online Learning: Simply, online learning is the learning by accessing available online resources. Thus, it is associated with the provision of electronic contents available on a computer/mobile device. It might involve the use of the internet and use of online facilities. Online learning can also be done through programmes or apps installed on the personal devices of learners or participants.
Web-based Learning: Web-based learning refers to the process and practice of learning by using web browsers.
E-learning: E-learning is the process of using electronic technologies for teaching-learning processes in which the learning activities take place either entirely or partially online. They can be conducted by means of electronic media without the use of the Internet.
Blended Learning: Blended learning generally combines virtual learning with traditional classroom learning. It is an approach ‘that uses multiple methods to deliver learning by combining face-to face interactions with online activities. An example of blended learning is the flipped classroom where online activities are completed outside the classroom providing an opportunity for more in-depth discussion during the face-to-face time spent in classes’.
Distance Learning: It is the process of learning from a distance in which the participants are physically separated. In other words, distance education provides instruction to a person/persons in rural and remote areas who is learning in a place and at a time different from that of the teachers and the other learners. Presently, with the development of digital technologies, distance learning is increasingly associated with online learning and use of virtual classrooms for live online teaching.
Virtual Learning: Creating virtual classrooms for rural and remote communities of the country is the need of the hour. It is a unique innovative learning experience for people in rural areas that facilitates learning by using ‘computers and/or the internet both outside and inside the facilities of the educational organisation. The instruction most commonly takes place in an online environment. Thus, virtual learning is usually associated with online courses or online environments along with broader dimensions. Generally, distance learning is conducted in a virtual learning environment with electronic study contents. Thus, virtual learning postulates that the quality of online education depends on the proper use of digital technologies and digital contents.

Salient Features of Virtual Learning:

It is important for the rural learning population of India to understand following features of virtual learning to access the same as and when needed:
Virtual learning is a learning strategy
Remote access to an unlimited array of educational services worldwide
Virtual classrooms and learning situations
Individualised learning process
Use of different learning styles
Safe and secure learning environment.
Flexible learning in terms of time, location, and pac.
Cost-effective and time-effective, etc.

DIKSHA-Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing:

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) was launched in 2017 by Government of India as a national platform for school education to address the challenge of remote learning especially in rural areas. It is available for all the learners of grades 1to 12 and it can be accessed through a web portal and mobile application. As per the India Report Digital Education-2020, ‘DIKSHA provides access to a large number of curriculum linked e-content through several use cases and solutions such as QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs), courses for teachers, quizzes and others’. The salient features of DIKSHA include:
Autonomy and choice within a national framework
Online-offline and varied types of devices
Diversity of content and energized textbooks
Data provides the ability to see and empower
Local language content and open licensing framework
Bridging the physical and digital world
Diversity, flexibility and evolving, etc.

Conclusion:

India is moving towards a global knowledge super power in which educational technology, digital initiatives and virtual classrooms play prominent roles especially for the people of rural and remote India. Hence, digital education and virtual learning need to be the essential prerequisites of most of the rural development programmes.
Education is a nation-building process and digital education is the progressive education for building a healthy rural India. States and UTs have to actively support and be involved in creating and providing innovative resources and implementing diverse centrally sponsored digital initiatives under Digital Education and Virtual Learning.
UNISED India is always ready to go hand in hand with diverse Government sponsored initiatives on digital education and virtual learning for ‘Digital India’ by building a well digitised rural India. That means it is the right time to encourage similar innovative digital and virtual learning experiences and approaches for leading rural India towards a ‘Digital India’.