Virtual teachers slowly replacing conventional ones!

Ashwith Rego (25) of Mangalore, an electronics and communication engineer, left his job two years ago to prepare for graduate aptitude test in engineering (GATE) to pursue master's course. But instead of enrolling in a coaching centre, he enrolled at EdX, a free online education portal of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University launched in 2012 as an open source platform.

"I learned 6.002X sitting at home as an MIT professor delivered the lecture from MIT. It consisted of short video snippets with exercises (problems) in between," said Ashwith, who was among 20,000 Indian students who registered for the first season of EdX. This was the first time that the world's elite schools were offering something inaccessible to most of them thus far. They now had the best content and the best teachers.

And now, thanks to the dearth of good teachers, the demand for EdX has grown exponentially. By 2014, it had 53 lakh course enrolments by 2014 from across the world. Of this 2.9 lakh are Indians.
Each course is divided into many lectures and has a start and end date. Though they are taught free, students who need certificates have to pay a small fee.

Virtual education is growing at a fast pace with more and more education providers, universities and even individuals offering online courses on EdX's open source platform popularly called 'Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)'.

Over 50 institutions from around the world have joined MOOC, which offers 200 courses in various languages. IIT-B offers three courses lapped up by over a lakh students.
S Saurabh, a distance education student of Mumbai University, who is one among them, says: "This is a boon, especially for those who can't afford traditional education that is increasingly becoming expensive."

"I have never taught 58,000 students in my 35 years of career. This is amazing! Students from remote institutes, who can't study at IITs, are now able to get almost the same kind of education," said Prof Deepak Phatak, who teaches computer science at IIT-B. He predicts a boom in the virtual education sector in the next 10 years.

Moodle, Khan Academy, YouTubeEdu and Coursera, which cater to millions of youngsters, full online degree programmes of institutions like Arizona State University and fully-digital schools in the US and South Africa are indicative of the upcoming boom.

Does it spell trouble for conventional classrooms?

Increasing popularity of online courses also spells trouble for conventional varsities many of which are now exploring the online option to keep up pace. Some Indian B-schools are also launching online courses to coverup for the dwindling numbers.

Anant Agrawal, the MIT professor who spearheads EdX, says: "I don't believe online will replace in-person learning. It will, instead, augment it. Today, many varsities have a four-year programme. In the future, rather than students coming to universities to do a 4-year bachelor's degree, they will come to the campus after having done their first year courses as MOOCs, and then spend two years on the campus, and in the final year take up a job even as they continue with MOOCs, thus becoming lifelong learners."

Prof Phatak also rejects the possibility of online replacing regular education. "I don't think it's possible, not at least in the next 10 years. Schools/colleges in most part of the world including India don't have access to computers or Internet connectivity. Also, it would take years to develop good content for all subjects," he said.

Are virtual teachers better?

A study by US dept of education found that cash-strapped schools, from Florida to Washington, had discovered that minimally supervised students hunched over laptops could outperform their lectured counterparts for a fraction of the cost.

Traditional lectures deliver the same material at the same speed to 30 different young minds. In Internet-based instruction, the pace of learning can be perfectly tailored to suit students; they can instantly explore points of confusion and return to the primary material without interrupting anyone else.

"Moreover, the young prefer online platform which is more interactive, flexible and cheap," says Vikrant Bhushan, IITian and managing partner of WiseCells, which develops simulators for graduates to make them job-ready.

Sceptics think otherwise...

Many educationists call e-learning labs "nearly criminal" for removing the human component from instruction just to cut cost. Prof Madhuri Pejawar, dean, faculty of science, Mumbai University, says: "Virtual learning is an effective resource for highly motivated and focused students who are disciplined and prepared for the distinct demands of mediated instruction. Unfortunately, only 10% of the students are so. online courses can however complement classroom education and help reduce dependence on tuition and coaching classes."

Prof Phatak admits: "While technology provides valuable new tools for instruction and content, it cannot replace effective teaching, that is, interaction between teacher and student and among students."