Digitisation of Education in India during the Pandemic: Effectiveness and Challenges

Abstract

The first online learning systems were set up to deliver information to students. With the introduction of the computer and internet in the late 20th century, e-learning tools and delivery methods expanded.  The evolutionary changes in educational technology and pedagogy leading to revolutionary transformation of education during the pandemic is a matter of discussion and concern in a country like India due to digital divide. The objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of online teaching-learning process in higher education. Factor Analysis is used to estimate an index (Online Education Efficacy Index). To determine the effectiveness of online education difference-in-difference estimator is used. The study employed purposive sampling method. The sample size is 350. This paper analyses the importance of online education for students of higher education in order to create opportunities to provide access to education to overcome the challenges faced by the students during the pandemic due to closure of colleges and universities in India. The paper also identifies the challenges of online education and tries to provide recommendations to overcome the challenges like role of the government to reduce the digital divide, enhance the scope of public-private partnership in providing the infrastructure to facilitate effective online education.