Understanding Student Engagement and Online Learning Post Covid-19 Using Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

Corona pandemic besides claiming countless fatalities has affected the overall structure of social institutions at large. The suspension of offline learning and implementation of remote learning in the times of Covid-19 appeared to be the biggest challenge it posed to the education sector in particular and to the nation in general. Specifically talking about the state of Jammu and Kashmir, it has been witnessing the repeated and frequent closure of educational institutions for the last three years but the shift to online mode was completely a new thing as it was for other states of the country. The crisis which emerged with an abrogation of the Article 370 (special status granted to Jammu & Kashmir) in the year 2019, left educational institutions shut for six months and it was only in February 2020 the schools were reopened. Unfortunately due to the outbreak of Covid-19, they were again closed in March of the same year and remained shut again for almost eight months. It was only in March 2021, they were reopened but, due to the surging covid-19 cases, were closed back in April of the same year. This repeated school closure and the recurring shift to online mode during the times of covid-19 disturbed the whole teaching-learning process. In such a chaotic environment of teaching and learning, we are interested to know and understand the student engagement of 1st and 2nd grade students (aged 6-8). Also to know the challenges or opportunities their parents and teachers experienced during the whole school closure period. Parent and teacher perspective was specifically used to realise these objectives. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. Later, thematic analysis was used to generate the themes.