Online Education in India During the Corona Pandemic: Aptitude and Attitude of Students

Emergence of Coronavirus from Wuhan, China has brought in a very unique experience in the history of modern era, impacting people in all walks of life. Educational sector saw a quantum leap into digital teachinglearning. The situation was unique and there emerged an unfamiliar order in the midst of pandemic chaos. Despite many adversities faced by the teaching fraternity and the student community, the learning never stopped. The study aimed to find out the attitude and aptitude of students in India during the lockdown. This study draws out the following conclusions – Zoom and Cisco Webex were the top two platforms that the students had knowledge of for remote learning; students ranked their computer skills as good (47%), fair (33.80%) and poor (19.20%); 49.60 per cent of the students ranked their app skills as good, 34.10 per cent fair and 16.40 per cent poor; a significant difference in the computer skills, app skills and overall skills (both computer and app) of the students was observed. Students opined that online mode of teaching was not suitable for practical content, more self dependency consequently stressful and provided an opportunity to choose their learning style. There was a significant difference between the knowledge, skill, and attitude of the students. The top two problems cited by the students in online classes were network connectivity issues and a pressing need for more storage space to avail the data related to course content.