Reality of Online Classes in India

What are Online Classes

As the name suggests, Online classes are classes taken through the online medium. They can be either live or pre-recorded. As we all know that the whole world is suffering from COVID-19 Pandemic, students can't go to school to study. Thus, many schools have started taking classes through an online medium. In this, the teacher and students can use any conferencing or video calling software to communicate. Softwares like Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Skype, e.t.c are various softwares which are being used throughout the world for conducting online classes. Many softwares have also provided some special features for helping students and teachers during online classes. There are both pros and cons of online classes let's discuss both of them and then we will discuss some of the myths about online classes.

Pros of Online Classes

So, first of all, let us discuss some of the pros of online classes.

1. The first advantage is that we all are suffering from a worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic. This virus spreads by direct and indirect contact. Thus, to prevent the infection of this virus we all must follow social distancing. So, to keep the studies going in tandem with the following social distancing, online classes are the only way left. In this students can study while in the comfort of their homes. They need not go out of the house for study which is good because the pandemic is going on and we should remain inside of our homes and should not go outside until and unless an emergency arises.
2. As students need not go to school, the travelling time for students in saved. Some students who live 18-20 km away from their schools had to travel for about an hour or so to reach their school, this resulted in a huge wastage of time which is now saved and can be utilised in some useful work.
3. Students and teachers got an opportunity to learn the latest technology which many were not able to get when they used to go to schools. They got to know about various new softwares and tools which can also be used for other creative activities except for online classes.
4. Those students who were already doing distance learning for some reason have also experienced a huge advantage as earlier they were not able to interact with their teachers and ask doubts, they had to practice self-study. But now as nobody is taking physical classes and everything is online, they have also got an opportunity to become part of classes and do live interaction with their teachers and friends.

These were some of the benefits of online classes, now let us discuss some of the disadvantages of online classes.

Cons of Online Classes

Some disadvantages of online classes are as follows:

1. The first disadvantage is that while doing online classes everything is dependent on internet connectivity which is not in our hands. If we do not have a good internet connection we would not be able to either listen or tell something to the teacher. As India is still a developing country there is not enough infrastructure which can provide high-speed internet connection in each and every corner of the country.
2. Then the second biggest disadvantage of online classes is health. Nowadays students remain in front of the screen throughout the day which is very harmful to their eyes if proper precautions are not taken. Sitting in front of a laptop or computer screen can strain our eyes and can cause headaches. This can sometimes also cause anxiety
3. Online classes also act as a medium for distraction for some students who cannot keep control over themselves. As they have got internet and mobile/laptop access throughout the day they are more prone to diversions. There are various things on the internet which are not meant for children, If the internet is not used cautiously it can lead anybody into trouble. It can be observed that since the online classes have started the cases of cyberbullying has increased.
4. This is not a con but it can be a disadvantage for those who are not having proper facilities. India is not a developed country, there is still poverty in India. They don't have proper electricity connection. Most of them do not have a smartphone or a laptop with a good internet connection so that they could take online classes.
5. While in a physical class we could ask our doubts anytime we wanted, we just had to raise the hand and ask our doubt but this is a completely different deal with online classes. First of all, we have to raise our hand. Then it depends on the teacher when he/she would see our hand raise notification. Then she would unmute us. At that time if we don't have a proper internet connection it makes the situation worse resulting in huge wastage of time.
6. It is even easier to bunk online classes than physical classes as what we have to do is tell the teacher that you have a network issue, then you only have to turn the camera and mic off-IT IS DONE, now you can go anywhere you want and do whatever you want (Well, this is not the reality, teachers are smarter than students, they can identify which student is bunking the class and which has a genuine problem). But while in a physical class the teacher could keep a watch on each and every student at a single glance and it was difficult for students to bunk the class.

Some Myths related to Online Classes

1. Traditional Classes are better than online classes or online classes are better than traditional classes: This is a subjective question i.e. different people think different about this. According to me, this depends on the student. If the student wants to study then he can study well in both online as well as tradition offline classes. It cannot be asserted that which one is better it which one is inferior. If a student wants he can study well in online classes but if one does not wants then he would not study well even in physicals classes also.
2. It is easier to cheat in online classes: This myth is not completely true but also not completely false. If one wants to cheat he/she can cheat even in physical classes also. If we talk comparatively it cannot be said that it is easy to cheat in online classes because there are various technologies with which cheating can be prevented.

My Stand on Online Classes

First of all, I would like to appreciate all the schools who have taken this initiative of online classes during these difficult times of COVID-19 Pandemic because teaching technologies to those who don't know especially aged people is a very difficult task. According to me, Online class is a boon as well as a bane for students. If we use this opportunity with caution then it is a boon otherwise it is a very huge bane. I would like to share some tips with all of you. First is that we should wash our eyes every one or two hours. This will help in reducing the strain on our eyes. We should try to complete all of our work that requires laptops or mobiles in our school time. I am not saying that we should do our homework while class is going on. I am just saying that we all must try to reduce the screen time as much as we can. Long hours of screen watching can degrade our eyesight, cause dark circles and many more problems related to eyes and eyes are very important for any human being. We must use our laptops and mobiles at minimum brightness and enable reading mode. If you have to sit in front of the screens throughout the day then you must use blue ray blocker/computer glasses. We must take proper diest because the food we eat also affects our eyesight. In a nutshell, we must take care of our eyes. The government must help those who are not getting proper resources for online classes like proper internet connectivity and electricity. This would enable those who are not able to study just because of lack of resources. I also request all those who have sufficient resources for not wasting them. If we don't want to use them we must give them to poor or needy people as it would help them rather than going to a trash can. We must also not believe in various myths going around the world about online classes without any proof. We should believe only those things which we have experienced ourselves or have proof. 

So, this was all that I wanted to tell you all. I hope you all would be enjoying your online classes and take care of yourself in this difficult time.

At last, I hope you all agree with my thoughts and enjoyed my blog and if not then do comment down and tell. Also please tell me what improvements should I make in my future blogs posts. Please do share it to as many people as you can so that they can also get to know about it.

THANK YOU ALL!!

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