Nuances and Repercussions of Virtual Learning Belonging to the Students of Traditional and Professional Programmes

: The advent of Covid-19 has created tremendous impact in all spheres of life. The entire world experienced unprecedented halt. It has made technology as integral part of human life in the universe. Pandemic has given birth to the concept of New Normal. It consists of wearing mask, maintaining social distancing and nurturing hygiene through use of sanitizer. Covid-19 affected intensively on public and private sectors such as: business, banks, schools, colleges, tourism and hospitality industry. Schools and Colleges were closed in order avoid spread of virus through mass gathering. This situation created serious dilemmas about the process of teaching and learning in all the educational institutions. There were plenty of challenges in the mind of all the stakeholders in the realm of academics. The teachers as well as students were unprepared to adjust with online mode teaching and learning. Need is the mother of necessity. Therefore, students and teachers commenced the path of exploring new online Applications such as MS Team, Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx. Learning is considered as never ending and ever-changing. There is passionate desire in the mind of teacher and students for smooth teaching and learning in the turbulent time. The prominent challenges faced by the students were: availability of Digital devices, Poor internet connectivity, digital illiteracy and background noise. It was a transition period from Chalk and Talk to technology. This research paper primarily focuses on identification of nuances and repercussions of virtual learning amongst the traditional and professional programmes.


I. INTRODUCTION
The concept of virtual learning has commenced new horizons in educational institutions all over the world.The use of technology in academia has also increased by leaps and bounds on account of covid-19.According to Britannica [1], virtual learning is the form of education in which students are physically separated from teachers during the learning process and technology is used to facilitate communication between student and teacher or amongst students.Learning becomes more effective when teacher and learner create meaningful interaction about the subject, figure out different perceptions of the subject.Traditional learning method made efforts to construct such possibilities by nurturing critical thinking.In traditional learning students are motivated to enhance their grasping power [4].It is apparent that traditional system of teaching and learning is capable of inculcation of important skills in the personality of the students.This research paper focuses on use of technology in virtual learning and analyse whether it creates the same impact in learner's mindset or not.It is found that application of technology has become integral part in all spheres of life.Learning is a continuous process and it has found a virtual way to move forward in spite of unforeseen obstacles.

II. METHODOLOGY
The research methodology for this study includes qualitative and quantitative methods.Methods are used to examine the impact of virtual learning amongst the traditional and professional program students.This research work is completed through data collection in the form of questionnaire.The preliminary sources for open and closed ended questions were journals and research articles.This study taken into consideration the students from traditional and professional courses.
Professional courses students are familiar with online learning mode but for traditional courses students it was new experience.The main concern was to assess whether online learning awareness affects the adaptability of leaners towards learning process.It is necessary to get more insight on learner's approach towards online learning.We have conducted an interactive session with the undergraduate and post graduate students of Changu Kana Thakur Arts Commerce Science College, New Panvel (Autonomous).It has added required parameters to be considered while learning online such as an availability of smart devices, internet connectivity.Through interactive sessions, it was observed that unstable internet connection was one of the main obstacles which leaners faced during the initial period of virtual learning.The questionnaire formed using google form consisted of fifteen questions regarding journey of online learning.The researchers collected 447 responses in total.Data collected includes learners' personal information along with area they belong to.  Figure 2: Challenges faced by students during online learning The above bar chart shows that 70% of students from rural and sub urban area faced network issue.From the interaction with students, it was clear that Electricity failure/Power cut off is main reason behind network issue.When students were asked about their virtual learning experienced, 72.2% responded they were happy with this learning mode.Approximately 55% of students wish to go for virtual learning in near future.This gives boost to National Education Policy, which Government of India in trying to implement for Higher Education [10].Though whole learning process cannot be structured using virtual mode, but blended learning approach can be best suited to incorporate NEP in academics.This initiative can provide an opportunity for accessing academic programs anytime on the basis of flexibility of the learners.
Figure 3: Devices used by students during online learning Last one and half year, as online learning take over the traditional chalk and talk teaching method, there are few changes in teaching and learning process.To check learners understanding level for a given topic, teacher used to assign quizzes to the student.Students used to physically attend different seminar and workshop to enhance their professional and communication skills.Online learning was able to provide all these facility through different digital tools and applications.These questions were included in questionnaire and findings are depicted in chart.Fig 3, shows that 84.6% of students are using smartphone to attend online lectures, workshop, quizzes and webinars.Physical separation of teacher and students raised questions about attentiveness and concentration of the students during online lecture.More than 80% of students believe that Face to Face communication with teacher during online lecture helps to understand concepts.The next question after gaining information about attentiveness is: Whether the students are able to attend lectures smoothly or there are any disturbances?From the collected data it has been analysed that 92% of students have struggled in the initial period of online learning and now they are adjusted with it.From Fig. 4, it can be concluded that 81% of students understand the lesson taught by teacher through online mode.When students were asked about their favourite online application for learning, they have voted for MS Teams.In Changu Kana Thakur Arts Commerce and Science College New Panvel (Autonomous) MS Team is used for learning purpose.It shows that the students have demonstrated adaptability with digital tools which they regularly used.
Fig 1, depicts the pie chart of areawise distribution of the learner.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Area-wise distribution of the learners'

Figure 4 :
Figure4: Understanding level of students during online learning Online learning has advantages such as availability and disadvantages such as more screening time.Exposer to smart screen affects eye sight.Sitting at one position for longer period of time leads to spinal issues such as back pain and headache.Questionnaire tried to cover this point by enquiring students about the time spent for online learning.

Figure 5 :
Figure 5: Each day time spend for online learning Fig 5, shows that 84.4% of the students have spent maximum of five hours per day for virtual learning.No one can predict the future but everyone can become ready for pandemic situations.Learning is continuous process in students' academic journey and it should never stop because of Covid-19 like unprecedented situations.This questionnaire tried to find out students' preferable mode of learning.

Figure 6 :
Figure 6: Preferred mode for learning by students Fig 6, shows that virtual learning is preferred by almost 54.8% of students.Making online learning compulsory is not good choice as many nearly 34.2% of students belong to rural area.But blended learning can come out as good alternative for education.
Table I, shows the details of the data collected: Table: Detail of Respondent from Traditional and Professional Programs