Online Learning in Times of Pandemic Covid 19: Perception of Teachers and Learners of Mass Communication in IGNOU

Abstract

We are living in terrible times. Despite the challenges during the Covid, education is likely the one business that has been able to stabilise itself, albeit not totally. Everyone knew that online education was here to stay, and that all higher education institutions would have to adopt the hybrid technique sooner or later. Covid-19, pushed us all into a world of online education that was neither integrated nor given any alternatives. We didn’t have a choice but to rely completely on internet-based learning. With a little knowledge and practise, educational institutions all around the country were battling, but also succeeding, in transacting their teaching-learning processes online. IGNOU had previously attempted to reach out to students using technology-mediated teleconferencing and integrated radio counselling, but these approaches were only utilised as a supplement to a vast number of programmes and were not integrated. During the first wave of Covid in 2020, Facebook live and integrated radio counselling were the key methods of contacting IGNOU students. The School of Journalism and New Media Studies at IGNOU uses online education to launch two new programmes in the January 2020 admission cycle. The Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication has been in existence for nearly two decades and was in desperate need of an update. Furthermore, the clientele has been clamouring for a Masters’ programme for quite some time. Both programmes began at the same time, and the pandemic struck just as the admission round was wrapping up. This report will detail the School’s use of Google Classrooms for teaching and learning exchanges. Two of the most popular ways to learn are Google Classroom and Facebook Live. This study will also assist in identifying gaps in transacting with a large target audience that is diverse in demographics and psychographics in most distance education programmes. The disadvantages of using the internet to teach mass communication would also be discussed in the paper.