The National Education Policy (NEP) enables students to take a considerable section of their course via online platforms like the government’s MOOC platform SWAYAM. Considered an important component of digital education, MOOCs are gaining more relevance during the pandemic. Teachers, however, fear that this would take up their jobs, especially those who are in temporary positions as the recruitment depends on the workload. A member of the UGC committee on online assessments clarifies, ‘MOOCs need teachers and fears of dislocation are unfounded.’ On Teachers’ Day here’s a look at the new disruption coming in the teaching profession and what experts think of it.
SWAYAM platform has partnered with 203 institutes and has 1,25,41,992 students enrolled, of which 9,15,538 had registered for the exam and 6,54,664 students passed successfully. The University Grants Commission has issued a guideline to all universities to offer 20% online courses (MOOCs) either available on SWAYAM or from any other institution of Higher Education.
‘MOOCS on SWAYAM can dislocate over 50% teachers’
Seema Das, associate professor, Delhi University believes that the push towards MOOCs can dislocate as many as 50% of teachers. “With almost 50% teachers of DU working on ad hoc basis and imparting quality education to the students for decades, such steps to impose online learning platforms is not seen as necessary and productive. Instead of taking steps for their regularization on a permanent basis, what we see is an aggressive attempt by the authorities to introduce MOOCS and SWAYAM, making ad hoc and temporary teachers’ jobs obsolete and irrelevant.”
What would happen to the workload and consequently to the jobs of the teachers? Moreover, can a mechanical online mode of learning replace interactive learning where teachers are not merely instructors and facilitators? The pandemic has brought to the forefront the limitation of the online mode of learning. Not only teachers but students are also rejecting this and eagerly waiting for classroom teaching to begin, where both the teachers and the teacher are an organic part of the learning process, asked the teacher.
The autonomy of universities would also be gravely compromised with the bureaucratic superstructure being superimposed through SWAYAM, said Das. “Let the university retain its essence of being a ‘universe of free flow of ideas’ which is possible through dialectics, debates and discussion. Any attempt to replace this with a mechanical model of knowledge acquisition would be retrogressive and detrimental for the future generation of learners,” she said.
‘MOOCs Neither Dilute Education Quality nor Affect Employment Potential’
The aim behind the courses is to offer learners free access, anytime, anywhere and unrestricted participation to courses of choice. The fear of job loss and lack of quality is fear but it is not true, said Prof RC Kuhad, pro-chancellor SGT University, Gurugram, Haryana and head of UGC committee on online assessment during covid-19. “Any revolutionary transition brings new opportunities and challenges as well. The challenges should be tackled by devising new pedagogies and mechanisms,” he said.
“The teacher should overcome the fear of a reduction in workload and losing the job. They should not forget that MOOCs were introduced as teaching tools and not to replace teachers. In order to develop the MOOC, starting from designing the syllabus, coordinating the conduct, of course, evaluation etc. the teacher is required,” he added.
MOOCs are beneficial not only to students but to teachers as well, says Kuhad. Teachers can also design quality skill-based courses of his own and offer them to the students. He adds that UGC is offering it as a tool for blended learning and not online only. “Teachers, professionals can develop MOOCs either individually or collaboratively. This provides an opportunity for collaboration among teachers and educators across institutions both at the national and international levels. It also facilitates teachers in evaluating the performance of the students during the course. Academicians get global exposure through MOOCs as these courses have international visibility and students from any part of the world can enrol in these courses.”
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