Covid-19 has changed the whole scenario of the education sector. Till now, virtual learning/online learning platforms were used to increase the interest of students in different subjects and to learn something apart from the course curriculum in educational institutions. Virtual learning was used as a support to the available physical infrastructure. But since April 22, 2020, this scenario changed, and by default, virtual learning has become the main platform for teaching and learning. All the classes are now being delivered online in all the higher educational institutions. The majority of the higher education institutions across the world practice blended learning or a combination of traditional and e-learning. However, the challenges of the coronavirus crisis have brought the higher education providers in a situation to restructure the philosophy of teaching, learning and assessment without compromising with the quality and serving the interests of the learners in best possible ways. Online teaching is the best way to combat the covid crisis, where social distancing is the only way to eradicate covid. Educational institutions have adopted virtual learning across the world. For higher educational institutions, senior management has taken up the responsibility to supervise and monitor the effectiveness of virtual learning towards achieving strategic goals. The whole onus is on the course instructor to design the contents and delivery of the course in such a way as to promote self-learning and better engagement in the class. Effective knowledge starts with learner’s engagement. Hence, students’ engagement has emerged as a fundamental subject in Higher Education in the recent past. In turn, it has become a pervasive indicator for measuring the education quality of institutions.
Various researches on the relationship between student engagement and learning reveal that engagement is a predictor of academic achievement, student performance, and educational development. Engaged students exhibit interest to study, active attention, motivation, and participation, while their disengaged counterparts demonstrate poor motivation, boredom, low grades, and passiveness. As students’ performance remains a top priority for educators and engaging students is a challenge faced by lecturers all over the world, many efforts on how higher education might further inculcate and strengthen student engagement have been explored. With the increased exposure to the online world, all the traditional systems are being transformed into a virtual world like online shopping, banking, booking tickets, watching movies, etc. Hence now the education system is no more an exception to it. In the past two decades, the government has played a pivotal role in boosting E-learning. It initially started with satellite-based classrooms and subsequently followed by NKN (National
Knowledge Network), NMEICT (National Mission on Education through Information and
Communication Technology). It has also created e-access to information and library databases like INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network). It is also predicted that it shall create a new paradigm of National Academic Credit Bank (NACB), which shall ultimately transform the concepts of new generation degrees in the overall education system.
Editors: Vakul Bansal, Atul Bansal, D.N. Rao, Muhanned I. Alfarras, Rajendran
Keywords:
Virtual Classroom, Effective Teaching Skills, E-Learning Resources, Pedagogy of Teacher Education, Synchronous Online Learning, Classroom Engagement, Dynamic Learning Experience, Higher Education, Instructional Depth, Rigid Time Schedule, Technological Challenges , Asynchronous Online Learning
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