Dear Dr. Krishnan!

You spotted a key issue. In my view setting up an optimal online learning infrastructure is a global challenge and one country in Europe can learn a lot from another in India or Mexico. So I focused on finding studies with multiple countries in them:

1) Felipe Child, Marcus Frank, Jonathan Law, and Jimmy Sarakatsannis (2023). What do higher education students want from online learning? McKinsey surveyed more than 7,000 students in 17 countries to find out which elements of online higher education they value most. 7 Jun3 2023, ©2023 McKinsey & Company, Free access, Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/what-do-higher-education-students-want-from-online-learning

One of the key findings according to this study is: "In 80 percent of the countries surveyed, students said the top reason they prefer face-to-face education is that getting help from instructors is easier through in-person rather than online learning."

Exhibits 2 and 3 spell out the challenges

2) Ifenthaler, D., Cooper, M., Daniela, L. et al. Social anxiety in digital learning environments: an international perspective and call to action. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 20, 50 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00419-0, Quote: "The project reported here investigates N = 666 students' social anxiety in digital learning environments at four higher education institutions located in Australia, Germany, Latvia, and Turkey. This range of contexts allowed the research to cover a wide variety of cultural and institutional idiosyncrasies. Findings revealed different levels of social anxiety in higher education digital learning environments across countries and their cultural contexts." Open access: Article Social anxiety in digital learning environments: an internat...

Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely

Thank you for those insights Bulcsu Szekely. I think there is a paucity of studies in the developing world regarding this. We need more information on how many students in the developing world face infrastructural challenges like many in India do so that effective solutions to address those challenges could be developed. Thanks again for the links to those studies.

students are eager to learn online as it is very flexible and more interactive, but learning tools, effective online content, and content management strategies are still a challenging

Theodore Ngendahayo Yes, although the online world of learning seems attractive, the technology we have isn't up to the mark and neither is its reach.

In the Philippines, online learning is a mode of education that uses the internet and digital technologies to deliver instruction and facilitate learning. It has become more prevalent and popular in recent years due to the advancement of technology and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many schools and universities to shift to online learning to ensure the continuity of education and the safety of students and teachers.

Federico Jr Bilug Ramos Thanks for the response. It's nice to hear of the advancement in your country.