A STUDY ON THE PREFERENCE AND PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS TOWARDS ONLINE EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN INDIA

Covid-19 pandemic has influenced almost every sector in a negative way and hardly any industry has remained uninfluenced by the pandemic. The corona virus crisis has led to act people in a different way which created havoc among the living beings. Globally the education sector is among the most effected one’s ever since the inception of the virus. Schools, Colleges and Universities were shut down in no point of time after the virus affected severally in India and therefore the idea about social distancing has to be maintained since it is one of the measures to combat the
virus from spreading. The concept of online education was then effectively applicable since studies should be continued and there should be no loses due to closure of educational institutions. There is always a problem to start something new and the idea about online education for the educational institutions was new which affected
both the teachers and the students, where they have to handle a completely new medium of infrastructure, tools and techniques. Students are the future of any economy, and the sudden disruption will definitely affect them in the short or long term. Therefore, based on the social significance of the study, the researcher tried to conduct the study
on the basis of primary survey through Google forms to understand the perception and preference of students towards online education among different age groups in the phase of the pandemic. Non-parametric test has been used to study the perception and preference among different age groups of students and based on the results, logical
conclusion along with recommendations have been given by the researcher.

新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）几乎对所有行业均造成负面影响，几乎没有任何产业能在此次疫情中独善其身。新冠病毒危机改变了人们的行为模式，给全球民众带来了巨大的浩劫。自新冠病毒出现以来，全球教育行业是受影响最严重的领域之一。在印度疫情大幅扩散后，当地各级中小学、高等院校迅速停课；而保持社交距离正是遏制病毒传播的关键防控措施之一。为保障教学活动不因教育机构关停而停滞、得以持续推进，在线教育模式随即得到了有效应用。任何新生事物的推行都会面临诸多挑战，教育机构引入在线教育亦是如此，这给师生双方都带来了不小的挑战——他们需要掌握一套全新的基础设施、工具与技术体系。学生是各国经济发展的未来，此次突如其来的教学中断势必会对学生产生短期或长期的负面影响。因此，鉴于本研究的社会意义，研究者通过谷歌表单（Google Forms）开展一手调研，旨在了解疫情期间不同年龄段学生对在线教育的认知与偏好。研究采用非参数检验（non-parametric test）法分析不同年龄段学生的认知与偏好，并基于分析结果得出了合乎逻辑的结论，同时给出了相应的建议。