New Normal in Education

Before the year 2020 when the pandemic struck, many works were being done in a traditional way for ages. We never thought of changing the way these works were being done. But the pandemic presented many challenges and forced us to think in a way where our way of life changed. It created new work paths which were more efficient, but this also meant that many jobs became redundant or obsolete. The people involved in these jobs had only two options, either they face a job loss or they learn new skills or upskill themselves to be able to retain their jobs.

And this option of upskilling presented itself during a lockdown situation when people could not even step out of their homes. This two-sided sword of fear of job loss and lockdown also brought a rational change in the way learning / education was perceived till now. People started looking at online courses as a safe and valid option, be it for regular graduation / post-graduation courses or skill-based courses. People started adapting to the virtual way of learning.

In the pre-pandemic era, virtual courses meant either YouTube videos or pre-recorded faculty videos that you watch and learn yourself, making learning a one-sided affair. But during the pandemic, we got to know and accept that we can recreate a classroom virtually where one can interact with the teacher in real-time, just like in a regular class. This acceptance also highlighted the flexibility it gave in terms of learning anytime from anywhere and they could pursue a course from their dream university in any country without leaving their homes. This flexibility became the game-changer and people quickly started learning new skills virtually making online learning and online courses more acceptable. Looking at this need of the hour and new trend, the statutory and regulatory bodies like AICTE and UGC also gave recognition to online courses and decided to treat online degrees at par with the regular degrees.

When I say online courses, it doesn’t mean only upskilling, it also means reskilling where people during this lockdown phase found their new passion and learned many new skills. Online courses have given various options to people involved in a particular job to learn a new skill and open new avenues for themselves. For ex., a doctor who was too busy to take out time to attend a management school to learn the skills of hospital management, could now pursue an MBA – Hospital Management from his home during his free time.

These online courses have come as a blessing to home-bound women. They can now pursue any course of their choice without the tension of leaving home and kids to go to college. These new options are making women more self-reliant, more confident, and independent.

One biggest advantage of online learning is that we are not bound to learn from our neighborhood colleges/institutes. It has dissolved the boundaries of time zones and geographies for a learner and the world is now moving towards becoming one big classroom.

As we all know, time changes and teaches us many things, this pandemic has made online learning a new normal. Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science - a Deemed to be University, located in the City of Chennai has set up the Centre for Open and Digital Education (CODE) to cater to the new normal in education. CODE has launched various UG and PG courses duly approved and recognised by AICTE/UGC. So now if you want to pursue BBA, BCA, B.Com or MBA or MCA, while you continue to work or while you want to be safe during the pandemic, CODE is your ideal choice. With well researched and industry-relevant curriculum and well trained and experienced staff, you can truly think of upskilling/reskilling yourself to be ahead of the competition.