The severe and terrifying impact of the coronavirus or COVID-19 shook the world to its core. Amidst the outbreak of this airborne disease which is preventing the humans to hold a meeting, gathering or conference, the economic stature of the whole world is trembling and so is the higher education sector. Spreading like a fire through close contact as well as due to the respiratory droplets induced due to coughing and sneezing of an infected person, the coronavirus crisis has put a stop to any kind of communal gatherings. With more than 130,000 cases of infections and 5000 deaths worldwide, coronavirus has propelled everyone to avoid populous areas as well as public transports, offices, and schools.

Online learning: An Alternative

As the classes are getting suspended all over the world to prevent young kids from the claws of coronavirus, it has raised a doubt about the continuation of learning processes as approximately 300 million students are currently out of the school. With cases like the classes are getting suspended, students are constrained to their houses, international students back in their home countries, no wonder the education sector has come to a standstill. Thanks to the advance of technology, online learning has emerged as a worldwide solution to deal with the halt of education amidst corona.

An alternative way of pursuing distance education, online learning has always been helpful to the students to get their desired degrees. But propelled by the outbreak of coronavirus, online learning platforms are currently experiencing a significant boost as they are preferred by the students to continue their education. Colleges and universities are closing their classrooms and taking education to online platforms to ensure the safety of students as well as educators.

Educational Institutes like Harvard University, Colombia University, Amherst College, Barnard College, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Seattle University, Stanford University, University of Washington, University of Southern California, and many more have opted for online learning platforms temporarily in order to avoid face to face interactions. With several Universities that are salvaging their students from study abroad programs, the continuation of education via online learning has given all these international students a new ray of hope. This decision has been gladly welcomed by parents as they were worried about the safety of their children residing miles apart in the middle of the epidemic breakout.  

By lending out a helping hand many online learning platforms like Coursera and BYJU’S are offering free access to students their online study portals. Coursera is offering education to every university affected by the coronavirus outbreak through their package ‘Coursera for campus’ which will ultimately benefit approx. more than 5000 students per university. Apart from that universities can opt to create their own courses and curriculums for their students with the help of Coursera. As the Indian government has ordered to suspend classes in many schools, the online learning platform BYJU’S has also come out to help the students by providing free access to its portal until the end of April 2020. BYJU’S will be providing free Mathematics and English classes to students of grade 1 to 3, and free Mathematics and Science lessons to class 4^th to 12^th. To access the free educational contents provided by BYJU’S the students need to download the BYJU’S-The Learning App and Disney BYJU’S Early Learn application. And those students who are already using BYJU’S need to update the program to access the online lessons for free.