Earlier this week, a cartoon strip depicting a child attending an online class was doing the rounds on WhatsApp. In it, the child had devised an ingenious way to get some relief from online classes — he had hoisted a picture of himself in front of the webcam so that his teacher could only see his studious face, while he napped on the side. While the cartoon was meant to be nothing more than a light-hearted forward, it highlighted an important fact: the pedagogy that worked in school classrooms will not work online. Considering that e-classrooms are now a reality that will last for a while, we spoke to parents and experts about their key concerns and ways to tackle the same.

1 Smart structure and class size
Although many schools have been toying with digital learning for a while, the replacement of classrooms with electronic screens was unprecedented. Chembur resident Rinku Mehta recollects that when her nine-year-old son's classes began, there was pandemonium with over 60 excited kids talking all at once. Gradually, parents and students were handed guidelines on how to behave in an online classroom. How then does one go about designing virtual classes for students? "Before diving into online classes, we should have taken time to plan, train teachers and create resources for students," shares Francis Joseph, co-founder of SLN School Leaders Network Foundation and SLN Global Network, which work towards the development of the private and public school systems, pointing to how the Dubai government mandated teacher training and creation of study material, before kicking off online classes.