Unlocking the Online Education Space During the Lockdown: Adaptation and Synergies of Teachers and Students

Online teaching and learning existed before COVID-19 pandemic and used as a supportive option to the offline mode.During the pandemic, students and teachers were forced to adopt online methods and this called for a need to realize the impact, adaptability, challenges and effect on both faculty and students.Surveys were carried out with an objective to understand the faculty and students' transformation process from offline to the online mode of teaching and learning.Various issues including online course perceptions, delivery methods, technical adaptability, students' engagement were surveyed for both students and teachers in the engineering major.The survey was carried out in three phases during the lockdown period, before commencement of classes, 10 days after commencement and after completion of half of the syllabus.500 engineering undergraduates and 45 engineering teachers participated in this survey.This survey will help teachers to understand the importance of training on the new generation tools for online teaching.Students will also realize the importance of self-learning and the way to compensate for the missing social life during the lockdown through online technical discussion during the assignments.Training on online tools and techniques played an important role in teachers' delivery method in the online mode that resulted in improvement in their confidence according to the survey.Reflections by viewing their own recorded video played an important role for the teachers where 80% of the faculty members modified their delivery methods for online teaching.The survey showed that students embraced the new space and 85% of students got involved in online course discussions that enhanced their self-learning.65% of students suggested that the missing on-campus social life was partially compensated due to online education.The forced online teaching and learning due to the lockdown, unlocked many prospects for teachers and students to explore the various online tools.