Benefits and Challenges of Online Education during COVID-19 Lockdown in India

The outbreak of novel coronavirus COVID-19 had resulted in the “Lockdown” all over the world and had arrested millions of lives in numerous ways. In March 2020, the nationwide lockdown in India resulted in closing of all the learning institutions physically. The teachers and students underwent a lifestyle change due to the integration of the online education system in the mainstream academics. The primary aim of this research is to identify the benefits and challenges of online education during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. The present article outlines the government initiatives taken for inclusion of online education in India. It also discusses the integration of online learning in India via various modes of delivery that are available as resources for students and teachers. Furthermore, this paper aims to review the researches which identify the benefits and complications of online education during the COVID-19 lockdown.  This is a secondary research article considering 21 studies conducted over the past two years (2020-2021) that examined the pandemic and its alarming impact on the education system in India. The studies collected were from peer-reviewed from electronic databases such as: Springer, Sage Publications, ResearchGate, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, ejournal.upi.edu, Wiley online library. Future studies can investigate the strategies to deal with these challenges in online education.