How is e-learning a key contributor in Digital India?

Our country’s education system has undergone a tremendous transformation due to the rapid/easy internet and availability of low-cost mobiles and other electronic gadgets. People enjoy doing almost everything online, right from shopping to building business and socializing. With a population of 1.38 billion and with access to high-speed internet and smartphones, India has the highest number of tech-driven consumers. With technology playing an imperative role in multiplying reach and the handiness of learning tools/materials, e-learning has posed as an opportunity for many foreign and national education training providers. Like every other sector, education is going through a turbulent time due to the pandemic and e-learning has been bridging the gap enabling educators to continue teaching.

Digital India is a transformative vision by the government to create a digitally equipped and empowered society. With dozens of learning apps available for each age group, e-learning in India has come a long way along with developments in technology. Students in rural areas having no access to quality education can now learn from top educators through e-learning platforms anywhere across the globe. As thousands of students are going online and professionals are looking to upgrade existing skills or obtain new ones, digitalization of education and skills is skyscraping and has caught the eye of global investors making ed-tech one of the highest funded start-up industries during the pandemic.

In today’s time, we have Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) and other advanced technologies which optimizes the learning experience in comparison to the primitive years with students restricted to learn from books and traditional methods. Educators have gamified the concepts such that to make them more interesting, engaging and clearer. Gaining popularity e-learning has become the primary mode for educating and connecting students with institutes in a safe yet convenient manner. Today it has become more than live classes, broadly extending to attending webinars, online conferences where industry leaders of various verticals discuss relevant subjects delivering deeper understanding on the topic rather than limiting it to a lecture.

The new normal posed as a challenge for teachers who were compelled to move to online education due to the sudden wave of the pandemic. The main task here was to adapt to the complex digital world and learn technical expertise. The online education system is more of a screen-based learning system which restricts the students to perform practical. In the absence of a uniform digital infrastructure, both students and teachers are facing unprecedented challenges. With 65% of our country’s population living in rural areas, limited access to the internet and power supply is a major concern for remote learning which is crucial to be addressed to.

With the government’s push for Digital India, the introduction of multiple schemes and initiatives will definitely fuel the growth of e-learning in our country which will eventually lead to a major shift in the education sector. E-learning is expanding its horizon, providing a unique opportunity for teachers, researchers and knowledge aspirants to collaborate and share their knowledge and learning resources under a common platform. Ed-Tech has transformed by smoothly accelerating high-quality content and teaching methodologies in rural areas. They are now planning to expand the services further by offering courses in vernacular languages, making it easier for students to learn in their preferred language contributing to knowledge growth.