Online classes are good, but they have their own challenges, say IITians

At a time when all educational institutions have been forced to shift from classroom to digital learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, doubts have been raised about the practicality of online learning.

Shiksha asks IIT students to know whether they are satisfied with online classes or not. Are they taking classes seriously? Do they doubt on the effectiveness of digital learning? Do they observe any inadequacies in the online mode? Should online education continue even after the pandemic ends?

Read on to know about their online learning experience.

Lack of teacher-student interaction in online classes

Adarsh Tomar, who is pursuing MTech (Control and Automation), Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Kanpur, feels lack of communication between teachers and students is one of the major limitations of online learning.

He said, “Interacting with teachers online is what I feel is the most difficult part about virtual learning. In classroom, teachers are always there for help, but when I have a doubt at home, I have to wait for their response. In online mode, screen time is more, which causes backache and also strains eyes.”

He said, “We are not 100 per cent gaining from what we are taught online as we have the habit of studying in a classroom.”

Online classes better, but no proper platform for proctoring

Sharing similar sentiments, Noel Jones, who is doing dual degree (BTech + MTech) course from the Electrical Engineering Department of IIT Madras, said, “Online classes are better when it comes to gaining theoretical knowledge. Accessibility has improved drastically as teachers provide recordings of lectures, which we can watch as many times as we want to understand a concept better.”

He said, “As long as the course is completely theoretical and simulation-based, there’s no doubt about its effectiveness as professors deliver their best. But we can’t gain practical knowledge as it is impossible without a laboratory. It is difficult to understand certain concepts without experimentation. Also, there is no proper proctoring platform for exams.”

Virtual classroom can’t replace traditional classroom

Milan Thauhan, who passed out of IIT Kharagpur in 2021, said, “Online learning has its pros and cons. During online classes, our performance was evaluated weekly. IIT KGP did not conduct regular end semester exams of final-year students and included grades of mid-semester exams, assignments and viva to evaluate our performance.”

Milan, who opted for a dual degree programme in Mechanical Engineering (Material Science), further said, “There were some technical glitches during online classes as professors are not that familiar with softwares, but there is a benefit of online classes as we had extra classes on Saturdays, otherwise the institute is closed on weekends. I don’t think online education should continue after the pandemic is over as virtual classroom cannot replicate the environment of a traditional classroom.”

Teachers deliver best, but slow Internet hampers learning

Utkarsh Badal, an MTech (Telecommunication and Management) student at IIT Delhi, said, “At IIT Delhi, academic courses are very tough, so I have been taking my classes seriously. I was a bit scared earlier that if I won’t be able to crack exams, my job and degree will be at risk, but our teachers taught us really well during online classes. This has overcome my fear of failure.”

He further said, “Sometimes I doubt on the effectiveness of these classes because we have been going to school since childhood, so our understanding with offline system is better. In an online set-up, we hesitate to ask questions, so there is less involvement. Most importantly, there are network issues. A slow internet connection has hampered our learning process.”

No peer interaction, practical work takes a back seat

Nikhil Singh graduated with MTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 2020, said, “Offline feeling is very different. Some assignments can’t be discussed with batchmates over phone. On-campus classes are much more interactive and fun and students can interact and also get their doubts resolved instantly.”

He said, “I opted for embedded systems course for which we require field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) boards, but since we don’t have these boards at home, we couldn’t do practicals and managed with simulations. IITs are known for dedicated world-class labs and many students whose work required lab facility faced a lot of difficulties.”

Use innovative methods to prevent students from cheating

Prakriti Mehta, a Mechanical Engineering student at IIT Bombay, said, “Peer learning is one of the major setbacks of online education. During classroom learning, students sit together, discuss things and gather ideas, which is not possible in virtual classes. As far as practical knowledge is concerned, we never practically did something or saw the instrument live during online classes. Experiments were done by our professors and we just had to make a report. So, that affects your motivation for a course in general.”

She said, “Our life has become hectic. We remain glued to the screen all day long due to which we feel exhausted at times. Cheating during online exams is also a matter of concern. Innovative methods of evaluation should be used to prevent students from cheating. Also, online education should not be a compulsion once the pandemic is over. Rather there should be a choice between online and offline education.”

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