They say that the pen is mightier than the sword. However, with Covid-19 turning our lives topsy-turvy, neither the pen nor the sword seems to be of any use anymore, having been deftly replaced by the keyboard and the screen! Online learning has come as a ray of hope in these dreary times. When online classes were announced by schools last year, parents had been relieved to know that the education of their children would continue. Or, at least, they would be ‘occupied’ for a few hours – precious time that was being ‘wasted’ playing games and doing household chores would be replaced by the much needed studying, a top priority for most Indian parents.
With the new NEP 2020, there is a lot of confusion over teaching and learning, and the online teaching mode makes matters more complex. At this time, workshops to suit the ‘new normal’, in terms of the teaching-learning process, mentorship, NEP and what to expect from it, and many other topics, have become an integral part of training for educators across the board. There is also a lot of emphasis now on the teaching of languages, physical education, art and craft, and other practical subjects like science and music online because these are not just concept-based, they also have to be shown and observed and practised.
However, when we talk about online education, or even education per se, the three stakeholders have always been the school, the students, and the parents. But who is that one major player that has been hugely overlooked? The publishing fraternity!
Publishers have always played a major role in the Indian education system, but during the pandemic, they have been the real silent heroes behind the scenes. After numerous emails sent to parents, online classes began on platforms like Zoom, Google Classrooms and MS Teams. However, glitches became apparent soon – the obvious skill gap between the digital-age students, who are almost born tech-savvy, the relatively unskilled parents and teachers with their traditional approach to education, other challenges like homework, assessments, notebook corrections, and technological hurdles like making presentations for each class, ensuring participation of each child, ensuring that they have enough to do at home using worksheets, activities, stories to watch on YouTube, and so on. For parents, work multiplied manifold –taking care of the household, cooking, cleaning, sifting through numerous mails and reports, Zoom meetings, children’s homework and activities, etc. And this is where educational publishers stepped in. They rose to the occasion and provided online content through e-books and digital content like animated learning material, assessments, test generators, teacher training workshops, career counselling webinars and workshops for parents, and much more.
The virtual launch of a Marathi series called Saptrang for classes I through VIII by an educational publisher is one such example. It accommodated around 800 teachers of Marathi nationwide. The panel was moderated by an expert on the language and the event was about the practical usability of the books as well as the digital content that could be used in everyday classroom sessions, along with how the series aligns itself to the new NEP. The author of the series, Dr Manjusha Sanjay Swami, said, “Since life must go on with or without the pandemic, a virtual launch is an exceptional idea. It was executed with absolute precision, which was perfectly managed through a slide show, a Q&A session, followed by an interaction with many teachers, parents and students, without a glitch. Through this course, the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing will get developed at every stage of their learning, through extensive learning tools like animation, language games, and so on. The series also contains teaching aids which will help a teacher impart more knowledge regarding a chapter with fun exercises, discussions and thinking activities for students.”
Shammi Manik, CEO of a leading Indian educational publisher, says, “These are anxious times and it is imperative that we as partners in learning reach out to as many educators, parents and children in terms of giving them complete information about the rapidly changing education landscape while also addressing their concerns. Through the online mode, we have gotten much closer to our audience and they are able to reach out to us far more easily.”
However, with the internet being flooded with webinars and workshops, the content which looked great initially, seems to have lost some of its sheen now. Reasons for this include content becoming repetitive and too easily accessible on different channels. Therefore, managing content – be it in terms of e-books, worksheets, videos, webinars – must be carefully regulated so as to ensure that it is consumed by the maximum number of people while retaining its impacts. This is also a reminder that innovation is needed constantly for keeping the target audience engaged and ensuring that value is delivered at each step.