Evaluating Synchronous And Asynchronous Online Learning In India’s GAFBE System During COVID-19

Abstract

Over 1.6 billion students worldwide were momentarily displaced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused an unprecedented disruption in education. Officials responded by providing online learning in two ways: synchronous (live video classes) and asynchronous (self-paced digital content, such as the DIKSHA app) in India's Government-Aided Free Basic Education (GAFBE) system. While synchronous learning offers a real-time classroom experience, asynchronous learning "gives a flexible approach" to students. This study thoroughly assesses these modalities for basic education using the Cognitive Analytics Management (CAM) framework.

We used Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) with stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, principals, and administrators) to extract their primary educational objectives and concerns for synchronous online instruction using CAM's cognitive dimension. In order to identify recurring themes in asynchronous learning feedback, we extracted 47,707 user reviews (≥5 words) from the DIKSHA app and performed Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling.

Important conclusions include:

• VFT analysis of strategic objectives: Stakeholders emphasized five key areas: governance, social equity issues, technical/infrastructure support, healthcare/safety measures, and the quality of instruction and training.
• DIKSHA review themes (analysis using LDA): Content quality, learning impact, app experience/usability, content/course management, technical issues, teaching quality, and content assessment were among the eight main topics that surfaced.

These findings highlight each mode's strengths (such as excellent curriculum content and active teaching methods) as well as common problems (such as device and connectivity issues, content updates, and a lack of real-time support). The recommendations from this integrated CAM analysis are practical and include strengthening digital infrastructure and access, improving teacher preparation for online pedagogy, optimizing learning platforms (particularly for content delivery and updates), and addressing socioeconomic barriers to ensure that all students have access to education. These observations can help educators and legislators improve their approaches to education technology in the event of a crisis.