ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the environment of learning and education has adopted a new normal – which is online teaching. COVID-19 in India led to a full lockdown starting from 24 March 2020. Because of this, all universities, colleges and schools were temporarily closed to avoid the spread of the virus. E-Learning or online learning was the only option, but it poses its own challenges. The rationale behind this chapter is to study the issues and challenges faced by students in taking classes online. The responses of students through a questionnaire have been analysed to study the research question. It can be concluded from analysis that there are many problems faced by students. This study is conducted in India and the majority of the respondents are from Delhi NCR region. The factor analysis methodology has been used in the study. Three factors have been identified in the study, which are “efficiency and interaction”, “work life balance” and “family support”. From the study it can be concluded that respondents feel that through online teaching the classes are conducted efficiently, that they are very well connected with their faculty members, and that there is adequate professional and emotional support from faculty, friends and family. But students feel that there is lack of support resources (e.g. mobile phones, laptops), and technical know-how, and poor infrastructure (i.e. internet connectivity). The most critical challenge is the internet infrastructure as India is not ready for this paradigm shift. This chapter provides various managerial and government implications. The government and institutions should intervene to make sure that all teaching applications operate on mobile phones when there is absence of laptops for students. Academic institutions should prepare a step-by-step guide which would direct students and teachers how to reach and utilise different resources for digital learning. Strategies should be introduced through an oriented model to create a positive space for study among vulnerable students. Therefore, initiatives are required to minimise the inequality in digital availability.
