Work from Home and applicability of the same on Education Sector: With Reference to Private Universities in Himachal Pradesh

The Pandemic of COVID-19 has stopped the circle of life for time being but gradually the industry experts find a way in the form of work from home. This system of work from home is not exactly new i.e. IT and ITES sector is using this approach from a long time and in India as well the IT companies are using the same since 2010. Considering the education sector, work from home has sustained for a few months but the respective results are the concern of discussion, all over the industry. There are number of issues to be taken care of i.e. understanding of students, quality of content delivered, availability of required devices, learning environment, etc. The researcher has considered all these issues and tried to study the same in private universities of Himachal Pradesh. Present study is based on primary data and the respective sample is 200 students from said universities. ANOVA (One way) is used to test the hypothesis and SPSS 22.0 is considered as platform of analysis. The tentative results of the study state that online learning environment is quite different from physical class rooms, teachers are facing difficulties in assessing the online tools and platforms, assessment and quality is questionable in most of the cases.


Introduction
The last pandemic that the world has witnessed occurred in 14 th century in the form of Pneumonic Plague and more than 250 million people were infected and died, millions got infected and suffered from unforeseen diseases for their life time. At that time people called it as 'Black Death'. Traces of the same can be seen in the prehistoric period where worldwide plague had engulfed millions in Egypt and other countries. More than 700 years have been passed and in the 21 st century again the world is facing a new pandemic by the name of Covid-19 which is also called as SARS-Cov-19 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). As per the rumors, the disease has originated from a highly sophisticated research lab in China and gradually more than 90% of the global population is suffering the consequences.

Severity of Covid-19 Condition & Lockdown
The severity of the condition can be understood in a view that within 2-3 months every 10 person on the globe was infected by the same. The situation worsen to the limit where international health agencies declared it as a global pandemic and health emergency of highest level. After China and India many of the European countries, USA, most part of Asia were the most affected regions. A gradual lockdown was imposed in the said regions and most of the people were contained in their won houses, this step was taken with a view that there was/is no suitable cure to the disease and the respective medical agencies were following a 'hit and trial' method to cure the infection, in some of the cases it worked but in maximum cases the results were negative. [1][2][3][4][5] From December 2019 to September 2020 more than 13 lakhs deaths were claimed due to COVID-19 and 5.5 crores infected cases. The figures are horrifying but the governments are positive towards the discovery of cure, which could be in the form of a vaccine, but still if the same is discovered today then it will take at least a year to reach the last living person. In case of India, central government had forced a complete lockdown for almost 3 months i.e. 22 March 2020 to 6 May 2020, during this period people were almost confiscated in their houses and any type of movement was allowed only through prior permission and passes. Even in some parts of the country partial and full time curfew was also enforced to contain the situation. This was the most crucial time for the people as all type of economic activities were closed and only medical & bare minimum commodities were allowed to be traded, within specific time limits. After economic activities education sector was the second most affected area, as the maximum threat was identified for children of 10 years or below and people of 60 years or more. If the schools were opened then there are chances that the diseases may spread even faster and all the stakeholders of education sector may become the super-spreader.

Online Teaching adoption
After the companies from IT and ITES sector, education was the second area to adopt the process of online teaching and learning. At this level some of the well-established educational institutions were having their own LMS (Learning Management System) for online learning but for the rest of the institutions free web applications like Zoom, Google Meet, facebook Whatsapp, etc. were the only resources available to maintain a dialogue with the students and other related stakeholders, apparently most of the educational institutions were using the blend of all these resources.

Literature Review
Rashid (2020) the pandemic of 2020 has contained life in a box and even the threat is not visible to self and even others, the researcher has conducted an online study on 'new normal' of mask & sanitizer and effect of pandemic on education sector, specially higher education. The findings of the study stated that social distancing and wearing mask are the ways to protect oneself from infection and as far as the activities of teaching and learning are concerned, most of the stakeholders are taking the help of online platforms for the same. The main problems lie with the students and teachers who are using this platform for first time in their life. The time taken to finish half of the course, got consumed in training of the stakeholders and eventually other related matters of fees and salary of teachers acted as a barrier in the process. Dentas et al (2019)the researchers have focused on the outcomes of online teaching and learning system followed by higher education institutions, the findings of the study stated that in most of the cases, students were in the middle of their semesters and almost 70% of the course has already been completed, even in some of the institutions midterm exams were also conducted. Now by the end of July, 2020 authorities allowed for final exams in strict adherence to social distancing and other rules from the codebook of COVID-19. The new session was ought to be started from November, 2020 but still the parents are not willing to send their wards to colleges and the preparation of online teaching and learning is not complete. In such a scenario there is a question mark on the disbursement of quality education and even further education. Singh et al (2020) conducted a study on the applicability of LMS (Learning Management System) in regular teaching and learning in higher education institutions. The findings of the study stated that by the end of September, 2020 most of the higher education institutions have installed their own LMS and training all the stakeholders for the same. In this regard, most important question is that how the parameter of learning can be set for students and what will the assessment criteria for students as well as teachers. The study was conducted on more than 500 students and in most of the cases the respondents stated that they are more comfortable in classroom teaching. Srinivas et al (2020), the researcher have conducted a study in the metropolitan cities of India for the assessment of success of online teaching and learning and use of applications and devices for the same. The findings of the study stated that in most of the cases, private universities and institutions were already using the LMS for sharing education and most of the stakeholders were aware of the usage and application of the same. In some of the cases it was found the students are missing the link of personal contact with the teachers for doubt clearing and motivation. This type of gap cannot be filled by online education or the use of LMS in practice. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Objective
This present study will try to evaluate the present scenario of online teaching and learning systems used in higher education institution and private universities of Himachal Pradesh and also try to assess the impact of the same on various stake holders of the same.

Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1 H 0 : Online mode of education is having a significant positive effect on the understanding of students. H 1 :Online mode of education is not having a significant effect on the understanding of students. system.

Sampling
Considering the threat of COVID-19 and chances of getting infected the researcher has contacted all the respondents over online platforms and used personal contact to reach the respondents. Most of the respondents are the students from private universities of Himachal Pradesh.

Sample Size
The researcher has contacted more 239 students but due to wrong interpretation of question in the questionnaire and self-selection of the respondents more than 33 questionnaires were rejected at the time of analysis.
Hence for the ease of calculation and maintaining the dignity of study 200 respondents were considered for study.

Data Collection
A detailed questionnaire was prepared for the collection of data and this questionnaire include different types of questions i.e. scale based, dichotomous, multiple choice, disguised, etc. the aim was to collect truthful information from the respondents and conduct the study.

Statistical Tools Used
As most of the question were based on certain categories hence the researcher has used ANOVA (One Way) to analyze the data and test the hypothesis. Software Used SPSS Ver. 22.0 6. Results of ANOVA (One Way) Test

Interpretation & Result
Analysis of ANOVA states that for most of the cases the level of variation between the responses is not considerable i.e. may or may not be held responsible for rejection of hypothesis. This can be stated in terms of acceptance or rejection of the point in question, even the thumb rule of ANOVA states the same i.e. if the difference between the 'F' ratio and 'Sign.' value is higher; the hypothesis can be rejected and or else accepted. The researcher has found that a number of students were enrolled in different courses and their opinion for online teaching and learning are different, like in case of professional courses like MBA and B. Tech. students are self-aware of the IT related peripherals like computer, laptops, tablets, web based applications, etc. then on the other hand the students enrolled in courses like vocational, Arts, Education, etc. the level of understanding is low in comparison of above said courses. But gradually all the students are willing to learn at any cost and in any given condition. Age is one of the deciding factors when it comes to teaching and learning i.e. amount of knowledge required for grasping a given content is different for different students. The students who were from higher age group were found to be more specific about their needs in regard of study material, course content and difference between right and wrong content. Then in case of students from low income group this differentiation is minimum and they take whatever comes in the way. Family is one such element that cannot be avoided in any case, in case of online learning also the same stands true. In case of using LMS and other online platforms for teaching and learning some of the family members are willing to help the students in the process. Researcher found that some of the family members like father, elder brother, sister are willing to help the students in the system of online learning and it seems that in near future this system may float as it was desired in the beginning.

Result
On the basis of above analysis and interpretation it can be said that the online teaching and learning system is having a positive effect on the urge of students to learn and to apply the same in real life applications. 'Online mode of education is having a significant positive effect on the understanding of students.'is accepted and alternate hypothesis is rejected.

Conclusions
Online teaching and learning is the need of future i.e. in near future most of the student and other stakeholders of education system are ought to take part in the revolution of Information technology and the related gadgets and peripherals will be the drivers of the same. As far as private universities of Himachal Pradesh are concerned some of the universities are having support system for the online mode of teaching but still the preparation was not enough to face the situation of pandemic like COVID-19. No one has ever thought that this kind of scenario will emerge and education industry will be affected to this level, moreover in a country like India where this cannot be expected that every second person is trained to use all the required gadgets and will use them with perfection. The average education level in our country is metric or lower and in rural areas this is even low, so the basic question is of infrastructure development i.e. it at the basic level or at school level, there is a provision for acquainting with such gadgets and peripherals then this is going to result positively in near future.