GuruQ, an ed- tech platform not only offers students access through new technologies with best of tutors but also allows students and tutors both to create their personal dashboard.
Minal Anand, Founder & CEO, GuruQ talks about the online learning scenario in the country, government pushing for Digital India and better engagement in learning.
How can online education transform the Indian education sector?
It is quite evident how online education has transformed the education sector in most parts of the world. You can especially see how it has changed the education sector across the First World. Today, we have Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) and so many other advanced technologies with the help of which children can learn. Earlier, they were constricted to learn from books, traditional means or theory. Today, the same concepts can be learned via various concept-learning platforms.
People have gamified concepts and made them more interesting and clearer. Another important aspect is the influence of practical learning that technology has brought. All those ideas which were earlier made to understand from a book, people can now understand them through various online platforms, games, VR. Technology has immense potential in the area of education. Platforms are bringing in new & innovative ways to learn. Students can now study online and are no more restricted by geographical borders or time constraints. They can study anytime, anywhere. These Ed-tech platforms now provide you with various functionalities that were readily available in other parts of the world but were not prevalent in India until now.
How government push for digital teaching will further accentuate the growth of e-learning in India?
If the government pushes for digital teaching, it will absolutely accentuate the growth of e-learning because it is the government push that will eventually lead to the major shift in the education sector.
In India today schools, teachers and parents are all reluctant to incorporate technology into learning. Some believe this increases the child’s dependency on technology, other’s argue that use of technology may not lead to direct improvement in results and marks. If the government along with central authorities like CBSE and NCERT, push for technology to implement, will schools and parents actually open their minds and wallets to the same? After all, it is the CBSE that gives marks and grades and NCERT provides the books and creates the curriculum and syllabi. So, if the government and these central boards of education start pushing technology and digital teaching, that is when schools will truly implement it.
How is e-learning getting its sheen back?
I believe that e-learning never lost its sheen. Since inception, it has been prevalent and has never lost its importance. Indians may seem to think that it had lost its significance or maybe never even had any because they prefer traditional forms of learning that have worked for Indian students for years. As Indians, we are very resistant to change. We believe if something has been working for years, then why to mess with it. This drawback of ours to not move ahead with changing times has to lead to the slow adoption of various e-learning functionalities and us falling behind many other nations. But today we are noticing a huge shift in the mindset of Indians that is finally pushing them to adopt the technology.
Furthermore, in the past various external factors such as low/no internet connectivity also impacted the adoption of technology in education. But today, due to initiatives like Digital India and initiatives by companies like Jio to provide high width broadband because of which e-learning has definitely become more prevalent and popular.
How is e-learning transforming the education scenario in India?
Earlier, oftentimes, learning was restricted to just the information that was provided to us in our course books. Now anyone can learn or get their doubts cleared easily by logging on to various platforms. For instance, you can log in to BYJUs or Khan Academy to learn various concepts from premade videos, or if you want an actual tutor to come to help you learn and clear your doubts, you can log in to platforms like GuruQ. E-learning has massively transformed the education scenario in India and there are lot more positive changes to come.
Do online courses bring in better engagement in learning?
Yes, online courses help provide better and more cohesive learning, as online courses can be customized to fit your all learning capabilties and needs with platforms like GuruQ. Thus, When you combine traditional methods like books with online courses, the amalgamation definitely provides better learning for students. Through online courses, one can go beyond the scope of traditional syllabi and truly understand the practicality of courses and concepts better, that will help students not only score better in examitaions but also help apply the same in the real world scenarios.