From Classroom to Bedroom: How online courses are changing our perspectives about education
Perhaps the most concerning travesty in today’s discussions is the fact that an elemental necessity as education, which is often the prime determinant of a person’s choice in career and therefore his/her ability to earn- is held hostage to the towering costs of institutions.
An April 2018 report by The Scroll submitted that both the cost of education and the efficacy of the system surrounding it is making the environment increasingly volatile, considering the average cost of degree courses and the number of students undecided on their choice of specialisation steadily increasing.
This also comes at the time when online courses registered a sky-scraping spurt in audience and university collaborators, establishing the fact that more and more people are now unafraid to challenge the normative methods of teaching and learning. So, how does online learning change the outlook for education in the future?
Choice over compulsion: Traditional methods of teaching follow a top-down approach where- money is invested as a “subscription” towards a college which then decides for itself what the modules inside the course are going to be. As such, a student in a media and communication course whose sole interest is ‘film-making and production’, has to go through a semester of technical report writing despite minimal interest, since he has subscribed to the course and therefore has no say in the choice of modules.
Online learning however, disparages the “subscription-first approach” thereby a student can choose not only from courses, but from modules themselves. One can choose to opt for a filmmaking-only course and not a screen-writing course as per her/his taste. This, not only provides for more customisation-aligned learning (allowing a student to learn for example- both music and astronomy at the same time), but also makes the process more participatory, where one can pursue one’s interest without intaking “noise”.
Cost effective: Perhaps the most significant concern in the education segment is the rising cost. Most students fail to attain quality education since pioneering institutes price themselves exorbitantly.
However, online courses, because they demand no physical presence and thereby negate the need for infrastructure, are pragmatically low in cost. Pioneering institutes have tied-up with various MOOC platforms to dole out courses to students effectively bringing down education costs by a fortune.
Less investment for educators: It would be unfair to have a unidirectional view-point in the discourse. Online courses are cheaper to establish for tutors too. It only requires a one-time interface set up (which is also pre-existent- Coursera, Udemy, EdX and the likes). It requires no brick and mortar walls, no additional interfaces and also decreases the hassle of time and space- which means that teachers can reach a wider audience with minimal effort. All that one needs would be a video camera.
The only argument in-effect against online courses is the popular lack of trust on the online interface. But as we move forward towards an era where we have entrusted axial functions like- our economy, our personal identities and even national security to computers, it is highly likely that trust will build with time.
