Pain may have been experienced in all radical changes. The sharp change in educational tools may have brought difficulties for educational institutions, educators and students. However, it is obvious that it offers more fair options for students in terms of access to information and education. It can be said that there is a chance for those who cannot get education from Harvard Uni or Kings College because they live in India, Brazil or Congo etc.

It should not be overlooked that a significant part of the educational activities will be held virtually in the upcoming period. This can reduce tuition fees, as well as give a chance to attend more reputable educational programmes.

When we examine roughly the pros and cons, I believe that we will reach the edge in favour of online education.

Governments should ensure their citizens' right to access education as a universal human right. Failure to provide internet access is a problem and obligatory duty for policymakers, not the student or educational institution.

Omer Tontus Thank you for your opinion. I agree with you in many ways. Online teaching is beneficial in many ways, rather than keeping students at home doing nothing. My idea is we should think of methods which can improve the effectiveness of online teaching. Just doing a lecture via an online app like zoom will not give the full experience of teaching to students. Further developing countries like ours (Sri Lanka) have to struggle with resources as well.

Dear Eranga Harshani Silva

We will have problems and these problems will be resolved over time. The announcement of the University of Cambridge that it will not offer on-campus education next year is an important sign that solutions to online education problems can be produced.

Like the simulation center in medical education, all kinds of educational activities can be supported by AI, ML or ANN.

We have some holographic imaging techniques which are used for medical education and engineering education.

I hope we can share our experiences with you (with Sri Lanka) in the future.

Dear Omer Tontus,

Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness. Please share your experiences with us. Hope we all can face this global challenge in a positive way and overcome it.Thanks again

First of all identify the challenges and categorize them into technical issues, teaching methods, access to resources, and student engagement.

Now start addressing them one by one. There will be some which you can overcome by discussing with colleagues and asking for help from the department and institutional IT team.

However, some challenges ( increasing student engagement and improving teaching style) will take some time and can only be overcome if you are willing to learn and change.

Many Online free courses are available on https://www.coursera.org/ and https://www.edx.org/ on How to develop and online course and improve online teaching

As rightly mentioned in the question, digital divide does exist in almost every part of the world. Online teaching/ learning is sure to affect the technologically marginalized sections of the society adversely as it will further increase the gap between the technological haves and have-nots. Keeping in this in mind, teachers should try to replicate the in-person classes instead of going for native online classes.

I agree with Omar and Roy.

Agreed!! the online teaching faces so many problems but you may share E Content to your students so that they can correlate themselves with the teaching material or if anything missed due to network issue.

Yes, I agree with Nidhi Agarwal. However, there should also be attempts at bridging the gap created by the digital divide. Access to the Internet is only one of the issues. There is always a difference in the learning experience of a student who uses a lap top with all the features and all the gadgets attached and another student who can afford to have only an ordinary mobile phone with the basic features. Online teaching /learning should not lead to yet another type of elitism.

Yes, there are issues related online teaching but we should also remember that there are issues with face-to-face teaching too...

first of all, students must have sufficient readiness. Secondly, all students must have technologically sufficient material (internet, pc, tablet and etc.).

We need to train teachers and students on how to use these tools effectively and how interaction can be translated online. Also, tools such as Zoom and WebEx have to add new functions to enhance their values.

Dear Eranga Harshani Silva ,

Maybe asynchronous methods can be useful in this context. What do you think?

I agree with Berkay Celik and Samy Azer

First, both teachers and students need to adapt to the new online teaching and learning environment. They need to have proper training in using virtual classes before they could get started. Teachers also need to know how to encourage and motivate students to get engaged in their online courses.

Second, Teachers should pay attention to the technical issues related to their online courses. They should make sure that their students have proper internet connections, and that they should not need to download and use programs, or to acquire equipment that are not readily available. They should make sure that their online courses are supported by different browsers and operating systems, and are accessible using available mobile phones, computers and other equipment needed for them.

First of all, external factors are important. For example, students should have equal opportunities in terms of technical equipment. Apart from this, the teacher required visual materials (animation, simulation etc.) for the lesson. Finally, students should come prepared for the lesson.

However, I think that face-to-face education is always more effective.

Eranga Harshani Silva,

In my experience while online learning relies heavily on technology and accessibility, which is another subject onto itself, I'd like to focus on content delivery.

The switch to online learning is greatly supported if there is already aspects of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) within the course. This includes different types of educational materials such as videos, quizzes and activities to support the different learning styles of the students. Especially for learners with specific needs when it comes to audio, visual and access, it can be difficult to ensure that the support from in-class carries over to online, although as an educator being open to a variety of forms of communication such as email, call, zoom/video chats, especially for students who have questions or need extra support. When it comes to content, working with the three principles of UDL : Representation, Action and Expression, and Engagement can greatly impact the overall success of the content impact.

In normal situations, I prefer blended learning (face-to-face and e-learning). However, in emergency situations e-learning is a good solution.

day by day we are somehow managing access, speed, skills and rest of challenges through various polices but we forget to concentrate how to cater unique learning needs of students by adopting online teaching where we mostly combine efforts just to deliver the content irrespective of where it is going to land learners of different learning styles.

Eranga Harshani Silva What will you do for them who don't have any online access? Medium of education should be accessible to all the sections of the society. Your question is very significant and valid too in that context also. How we can accommodate the pupils outside this facilities into online classes. Should there be any infrastructural changes in slams and rural areas? Corona hasn't come to leave easily. So this issues should be deal with utmost priority.

It is impossible to conduct classes online if students have no access to the Internet, have electricity outages or have only mediocre- quality Internet connectivity. The digital divide that exists globally should be remedied before institutions can completely resort to online teaching/learning. It is for each institution to analyse the situation and decide accordingly. The traditional distant mode of education wherein students receive study materials and feed back through mails ( not emails) should be considered wherever necessary.

The starting point is to remember the same rules of in-person quality teaching and learning apply:

• what students do is what they learn
• an internal consistency is required between learning objectives, teaching and learning activities and assessment.

Technology is only a mediator. Having said that, many learners will be unfamiliar and unprepared for online learning. Being more deliberate and intentional about communication and opening up opportunities for building of relationships will go a long way to help them adjust. In addition, unreliable internet and power as well as other issues mean that you have to be come a pedagogical content creator whose materials will be available, self explanatory and user-friendly by students who can't go online at the desired times. In addition, you have to integrate a lot of progress tests so the student can assess their own understanding as they work through the material. Voice over PowerPoint recordings are not effective in most instances. Short explanatory videos mixed with full well structured online content is the medium to long term solution. This means you have to quickly learn how to write full online content. Video recording software is easy to get and you can learn quickly how to make good videos.

Course available on authoraid inasp....regarding facilitating online courses...

Try to create the environment where it looks like in-person setting. Be creative and use any means possible to improve your delivery skills. This is totally a new ball game and all need to know how to play it

Hi! Online platforms have varied challenges for both the learners and teachers. Following link could be useful in this regard. Thanks!

https://www.embibe.com/exams/online-learning-challenges-and-solutions/