Due to the sudden transition to online teaching amid the COVID-19 induced lockdown, the majority of teachers were left with no choice but to become proficient in digital tools. However, even after two years of rapid digitisation in education, 31 per cent of teachers are still not proficient in digital tools, reveals a TeamLease EdTech report titled “Digital Transformation of the Teaching Community.”
The report also revealed that due to lack of training, around 79.34 per cent of teachers learned by practice, 35.54 per cent of teachers prepared themselves by taking courses provided by institutions, 25.62 per cent learned from friends/colleagues/family, and 19.01 per cent equipped themselves by undertaking self-sponsored courses. TeamLease EdTech claims that its survey-led report captures data from more than 1,000 teachers across the nation.
Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO, TeamLease EdTech, while sharing his views on the current digital teaching ecosystem, said, “It has been over two years since we witnessed a sudden, unplanned, overnight shift to digital learning. Back in September 2020, six months into the pandemic, when we did a survey with 1,200 teachers for our study on ‘The Use of Technology in Teaching & Learning in Indian Higher Education Institutes’ more than 80 per cent of the teachers were uncomfortable with online teaching.”
As per the survey, 93.39 per cent of teachers can operate virtual classrooms, 50.41 per cent can conduct online assessments and 40.50 per cent can use content authoring tools. On the other hand, only 31.40 per cent can manage an online LMS and 14.88 per cent can operate virtual cloud labs.
"In India, there are 1,100 Universities, 42,343 colleges and 11,779 standalone institutions and 38.5 million students. With the aggressive push towards digitisation in learning through the National Education Policy (NEP), and UGC’s recent announcements enabling more universities to go online; it is imperative that a higher age of teachers are highly proficient and better equipped with the nuances of online teaching,” Rooj added.
The report also highlights that nearly 75.04 per cent of educators feel that students tend to lose interest during online classes and 44.63 per cent of teachers feel that both students and teachers are still uncomfortable with digital integration.
Neeti Sharma, Co-Founder and President, TeamLease EdTech, said, “Digital learning is here to stay and with a continual increase in the integration of digital mechanisms with conventional learning, upskilling and reskilling the teaching community on a regular basis will be crucial. More and more HEIs have realised the value of having formal training."
According to the report, 90.08 per cent of teachers expect that they would keep using the technical skills that they have acquired over the last two years, while 66.94 per cent feel that these new skills have opened better career opportunities for them.
Sharma added, “Currently 79.34 per cent of teachers are undergoing some form of training conducted by the institutes or taking Online/MOOC courses. However, going forward, the skilling endeavour needs to customised, especially to prepare educators for emerging digital competencies like AI, AR, VR, Blockchain, IoT, 3D printing, Metaverse and Web3 etc.”
Moreover, 74.38 per cent of teachers have expressed interest to continue using digital tools in the future for virtual classrooms, 61.98 per cent for online assignments, 50.41 per cent for pre-recording content and 39.67 per cent for online examinations.
On the other hand, 65.29 per cent of teachers also feel that internet connectivity is still a challenge and 50.41per cent of them think that there’s a shortage of laptops/smartphones among students.