eLearning Trends in India: Facts, Figures, and the Future
“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”
Rabindranath Tagore
Today in India, besides becoming an engineer or a doctor, students have many career options. Some examples of new career choices include medical transcription, customer service support, content writing, event management, social media marketing, radio jockeying, event anchoring, hospital management, and wildlife photography. These career options have emerged as a result of changing economic trends across the globe. These trends have also opened up new avenues for education and have brought about changes in traditionally held perceptions about how education is obtained, Students are now readily adopting technology as a medium for attending classes remotely, either through VSAT enabled classrooms or through virtual classrooms on the Web.
This paper describes the existing online educational landscape in India, and the possible future trends in India’s online educational market. There are some of the terms that will be used to describe online education. These terms include e-learning, web-based learning, Internet-based learning, and computer-based training (CBT). In this paper, online education has a broad definition that encompasses all of these terms. Specifically, online education in the context of this paper is any education or training that is:
- Imparted using a telecommunications technology such as a VSAT network or the Web.
- Accessed through a virtual platform, whether through personal computers or mobile devices with broadband connectivity.
Also, in the context of this paper, the terms Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and Virtual Classes refer to any system that models conventional, real-world, face-to-face education by integrating a set of equivalent virtual pedagogical concepts for teaching and learning.
While discussing the facts, figures and the future of online learning trends in India, this paper addresses:
- How Online Education addresses the Indian Educational Market
- Evolution of Online Education in India
- Online Education: What it means for Teachers and Learners in India
- Internet Adaptability in India
- The Cure for Lack of Education in India