Effect of virtual learning environments on academics

Dr. Satinder Kaur
In the conventional system of education there is strong and established link between lecture attendance and academic performance especially in field of biological and physical sciences to some extent in earth sciences clinical psychology etc. It is no doubt an active learning environment with good performance and is in active passive environment purely lecture based with compulsory lecture attendance.
With the augmentation of Virtual Learning Environment and added momentum of pedagogical` research on the use of information technology the VLEs are well structured depending on the faculty reliability. It is better for deep learning as the students are progressing from reading the learning material to downloading the learning material. It has also been reported and personally realised that uploading audio recordings of lectures does not have negative impact on lecture attendance and students who attended online lectures and recording perform better. The module can be made and checked in Google class room and WhatsApp groups in school and Higher Education. The performance of teacher can also be checked by looking into course view, date and time at which the action was taken, IP address of stakeholders and even the number of times the student has viewed the content. The editing and perfection attempt of teacher is also recorded. The effectiveness can be measured by using graphical analysis using Spearman’s Rank Order correlation Coefficients and Peterson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficients. The results calculated have given positive points towards Virtual learning to the researchers.
The focus on relation between use of a VLE and student performance can be convergent on frequency of access and student performance in a divergent allelic group of Higher education which can be sought in our region as a result of online teaching in present situation of Pandemic. Finding the frequency of access to VLE and accessing the consequences of such use represents challenges which teachers and researchers try to understand for the future of virtual learning in the typical geo-political conditions of Jammu and Kashmir. The limiting factor here is the speed of the internet and machines to access available with the students in predominantly hill and international border areas. Personally speaking while teaching in absolute urban College of the region, GCW Gandhii Nagar to now convening a relatively much micro institution in hamlet of Neeli Nallah in hills of Udhampur, the attendance and access rate of students to online teaching is same as far as percentage is concerned ,though number of students may be quite different.
The procedure for data analysis for the acceptance of this new teaching learning system can be extracted from student registration and VLE using learning analytic procedures. As per my experience results will be relatively positive. In the search of more and better system of education almost every country is attempting to do the best with gradation in ICT where digital has taken over on analogue. Therefore, in order to promote and improve teaching and learning within higher education institutions of higher education have adopted learning management platforms. These environments have been used by distance learning as well as onsite learning.
If we look into the shift of what the virtual learning could mean in future of higher education we see a tectonic shift in society as education is coming up a big and vast business with widespread advantages and risk factors in agenda with new ideas which have lead to positive trans global shift back home best exemplified by Indian software Engineers heading in leading software giants as world leaders. Presently , the corona virus pandemic is forcing global experiments with remote teaching along with transforming many life aspects, education could be one of them. There are some points to be looked into before making distance education new normal.
Is it necessary to have three -four years of Graduation or residential degree?
What are the requirements that are to me met in infrastructure especially in developing country like India and closer home in geo-political conditions like Jammu and Kashmir?
How to train the faculty and to facilitate changes in mindsets and behaviour?
Is it too vast with fine print experiment?
The answers to the above points in ascendance are that what part of learning process can be supplemented and which part is complemented by digital technologies. The personal effect can be given by recorded multimedia presentations, to be accessed by students at their respective places. The content can reach larger audience not only from engaged faculty but from private persons through blogs, facebook pages and YouTube ,that too larger content at much lower cost aided by animated content that is easy to understand and assisted by retainable visuals. This can be supplemented with colleges acting as platforms of research and personal interactions for broader prospective without being boarded for whole year or resident in technical institutions for half a decade. Thus making technical, skill and semi skill education percolate to humble background stakeholders. The colleges could be used for electives, group assignments, faculty interaction hours, interactive sessions and career guidance that can have handicaps in distance learning. This hybrid model is call Higher education can take. The present forced conditions can make teachers, Professors and Universities to understand what part of curriculum can be done face to face and what part can be taken care by digital learning or remote teaching. The coming syllabus setting meetings of board of studies can design the curriculum based on these analysis. This will give simplification to latest system of choice based curriculum with rooms not being limiting factor for attending classroom which are being replaced by virtual labs not only for sciences but for subjects of humanities too.
Such transitions can also control the behavioural shock as it will be alternated by F2F and Distance Learning. There is always a new normal with teething problems and initial hitch to accepted corrected and polished results. The education leaders if take the lead the classroom can be set with foreign universities and experts remotely. The time is not far for such global class rooms. We have to try out of box things where success is visible.
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