The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions globally to resort to the online mode of teaching and learning. In this paper, we examined how the emergency online education was carried out in the Assam state of India. An explanatory mixed methods study methodology was adopted. Perspectives of 92 students and 30 teachers from 30 secondary level institutions of Assam were examined. Students’ acceptability of the emergency online education as well as the effects on the mental and physical health of the students were studied. Moreover, the teachers’ perspectives on the emerging online threats were also examined. Data were collected using two separate questionnaires administered to the students and the teachers. It was followed with telephonic interviews with the teachers to gain in-depth knowledge on the studied issues. This study examines both the positive and negative effects of the adoption of online education. The results indicated that all the students could not avail the benefits of this mode. Social messaging apps and online tools like WhatsApp, schools’ own mobile apps, Google Classroom LMS and Google Meet, ZOOM, recorded videos and audio tutorials were used to provide online support to the students. Impact on the physical and mental health of the students was observed. The online teaching process led to the generation of a large repository of e-resources. The results also indicated the ignorance of teachers regarding the online threats which could severely affect their students. The study recommended awareness programmes and training sessions for teachers and students on educational technology tools, technologies and approaches for the post-COVID-19 period.
Keyword(s) : online education
Impact of Two Coronavirus Waves on Higher Education: Comparative Study
The first wave of the coronavirus pandemic caused the largest disruption of education systems
in the history of mankind. All schools and education institutions were forced to shift their
education processes from face-to-face to online forms. Some of them had better conditions
and more experienced staff for this transition, some of them had to start to create appropriate
conditions both for teachers and students. Subsequently, numerous studies and analyses on the
impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education have been done worldwide. The paper deals
with a specific research question of how schools and education institutions used their experiences
from the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic to ensure sustainable quality of education under the
pandemic conditions. In this comparative study the authors present the findings resulted from
two questionnaire surveys. The study has been processed with a focus on three areas: the quality of
teaching, technical equipment used by students and students’ opinions and experiences with online
forms of education, and influence of the home schooling (microclimate of the home environment)
on student’s education. In the paper the authors present and discuss in more detail the first area,
i.e. they analyse how experiences from the first wave of the pandemic were used to eliminate the
negative impact on education and to provide adequate quality of education.