Given such a situation it is important to look at the impact and reflect on what has transpired and what is likely to happen as we move forward in the field of global education.

4 Negative impacts of Covid-19 on education

There are a number of areas of potential risks for global education. Here are 4 negative impacts of Covid-19 on education:

1. Sluggish cross-border movement of students

Universities in many countries such as Australia, UK, New Zealand, and Canada are highly dependent on the movement of students from China and India.

Many parents will avoid sending students abroad for higher education due to high risk from the pandemic.

2. Passive learning by students

The sudden shift to online learning without any planning -- especially in countries like India where the backbone for online learning was not ready and the curriculum was not designed for such a format -- has created the risk of most of our students becoming passive learners and they seem to be losing interest due to low levels of attention span.

Added to this is that we may be leaving a large proportion of the student population untouched due to the digital divide that is part of many developing nations including India.

We are now beginning to realize that online learning could be dull as it is creating a new set of passive learners which can pose new challenges.

3. Unprepared teachers for online education

Online learning is a special kind of methodology and not all teachers are good at it or at least not all of them were ready for this sudden transition from face to face learning to online learning.

Thus, most of the teachers are just conducting lectures on video platforms such as Zoom which may not be real online learning in the absence of a dedicated online platform specifically designed for the purpose.

4. Changing format of student recruitment

Universities and colleges worldwide are facing a major risk in the area of student recruitment and retention.

The risk of losing students is so high that they will need to re-look at their admission practices, admission criteria and the overall recruitment process itself which will include, new methods of outreach and application process itself.

4 Positive changes in education due to Covid-19

Any change that is so disruptive is also likely to bring with it some new opportunities that will transform the higher education system worldwide and especially in a country like India which is planning to bring about a planned reform in this sector.

Some of the key areas of opportunity are the following:

1. Rise in Blended Learning

Universities and colleges will shift to a model of blended learning where both face to face delivery along with an online model will become a norm. This will require all teachers to become more technology savvy and go through some training to bring themselves to the level that would be required.

2. Learning management systems to be the new norm

A great opportunity will open up for those companies that have been developing and strengthening learning management systems for use by universities and colleges.

This has the potential to grow at a very fast pace but will have to be priced appropriately for use by all institutions.

3. Improvement in learning material

There is a great opportunity for universities and colleges to start improving the quality of the learning material that is used in the teaching and learning process.

Since blended learning will be the new format of learning there will be a push to find new ways to design and deliver quality content especially due to the fact that the use of learning management systems will bring about more openness and transparency in academics.

4. Rise in collaborative work

The teaching community to a large extent has been very insulated and more so in a country like India. There is a new opportunity where collaborative teaching and learning can take on new forms and can even be monetized.

Finally, it is expected that there will be a massive rise in teleconferencing opportunities which can also have a negative impact on the travel.

A large number of academic meetings, seminars and conferences will move online and there is a possibility that some new form of an online conferencing platform will emerge as a business model.