Be Ready for an Online Semester in August

The lockdown has been extended by another 19 days, as expected. Whenever we do start relaxing the restrictions, it will have to be gradual. My own guess is that the two sectors that will be opened at the very end would be education and entertainment. Will we be ready to start classes in July/August. Seems very unlikely, at least not residential campuses with students from all over the country. The assumption here is that even when we flatten the curve, we will need to maintain vigil in the form of social distancing for a long time. And maintaining social distance in crowded lecture halls, hostels, dining halls, and all other facilities will be a challenge. Also, there are likely to be significant restrictions on organizing large events, student festivals, contests, etc.

Assuming that social distancing requirements will not go away in a couple of months, or even 4-5 months, we really need to think of how to manage the next semester in our educational institutions. We really have three options in India. One is to postpone the next semester by two months, assuming that social distancing norms will get relaxed in an additional two months. But notice, one is taking a risk. What if, they don't. Will we postpone the semester by another month, or two months. Second option is to stagger the semester. Bring in old students in July end, as usual. And bring in new students two months later, when social distancing norms are likely to be more relaxed. The assumption here is that if we have only 75% students (considering a typical engineering under-graduate institution, for others, the number would be different), we could possibly maintain harsher social distancing norms, and only when the norms ease out, do we admit the new students. This has two assumptions, namely, one can maintain social distancing norms with 75% students, and that social distancing norms will sufficiently relax within an additional two months. Again, a significant risk.

So, we should look at the third option. Go online.

In the current semester, a large number of educational institutions have been forced to move instruction online. Faculty had to be trained quickly. Internet access had to be strengthened, investments had to be made in tools for managing online education. Now that all this has happened across the country, we should use the intervening period to look at the difficulties faced in moving online and try to fix them so that we can provide a better learning experience to our students. Many of the problems faced due to lockdown will not be there next semester. If a student does not have Internet access at home, next semester, the student can be asked to go to a nearby place, a friend's home, for example, to gain that access. We can even have local colleges allowing other students to sit there at non-peak hours and use their Internet bandwidth. So all the learning of this semester and all the investments of this semester will be leveraged for one more semester. We can start the semester on time.

And we can have a combination - some batches online and some batches on campus - only so many on campus that we can ensure compliance with social distancing norms. This is really what was also expected when MOOCs started becoming popular that one day, the university experience will not be a continuous four years on campus, but learn online for some semesters, perhaps even part-time, and learn on campus for some other semester to enjoy that wonderful experience.

In the long run, it is clear that Covid-19 would change the education sector completely. Online learning would become a very important part of any educational program. Next semester, we may choose online education for some batches because circumstances are forcing us to. But, in general, we should start getting ready to have an online strategy.