ince the very dawn of human civilization, the human race has been facing several epidemics like Cholera, Spanish flu, Plague, Swine Flu, SARS-, Ebola, and the present COVID 19. These highly infectious and contagious diseases have made life miserable, taking thousands of lives of human beings and influenced the social, economic, and educational sectors of the entire world. The Corona virus hurts the global economy and the education realm, and India is not an exception. The elementary, secondary and higher education system of our country is severely affected with this deadly disease. As such the schools, colleges and universities have suspended their classes throughout the country since March last week. According to a report of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (AISSE, 2018) conducted a survey on higher education and observed that there are 993 universities, 39931 Colleges and 10725 Standalone Institutions listed on their portal, which contribute to education. These institutions further reflect the student density of India as the total enrolments in higher education every year are nearly 37.4 million, reflecting the expanding horizons of the education industry. The sector was seen catching pace by the passing day until Corona virus impacted the country intensely. There is a paradigm shift in the mode of delivery of education system throughout the country both urban and rural. Recently the MHRD and other Apex bodies of different education sectors have issued guidelines to go for virtual mode of teaching from the traditional face to face system of education. This calls for accommodating the changing dynamics in education system by our planners, administrators and practitioners.

We are living in the world of 21 st century. In every Sphere of life technology has been able to deliver tremendous power in the hands of human beings in terms of access, speed, accuracy, precision, control, manipulation and prediction. In the area of agriculture to administration technology is effectively and efficiently used by the people. Education without being an exception has been influenced by technology in terms of its contents, processes and pedagogy. In the words of Alvin Toffler "The illiterate of the 21 st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn". Digital education is generating new learning opportunities as students engage themselves in online digital environments and as faculties change educational practices through the use of hybrid courses, personalized instruction, new collaboration models and a wide array of innovative and engaging learning strategies. Besides, in 21st century the view of learner's success requires students to not only be thoughtful consumers of digital content, but also effective and collaborative creators of digital media, demonstrating competencies and communicating ideas through dynamic storytelling, data visualization and content creation. Technology in the classroom opens more platforms of delivery of content, introduces new experiences, and creates more opportunities for selfdiscovery. The present COVID-19 pandemic has set new challenges before the world in all areas including up new opportunities for the educators, technocrats etc to use online virtual learning strategies for imparting learning experiences to the students across the world. Thus, techno-pedagogy is the need of the hour in India and especially in Higher Education.

Arunachal Pradesh is the largest state in terms of area among the north eastern states. The COVID 19 pandemic has influenced the state's education system starting from primary to higher education with respect to its planning, mechanism of delivery and evaluation. The Department of Education, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh is taking all measures to ensure that education especially higher education should continue amidst this pandemic by stressing on online classes, focus on online examination and evaluation etc. Till the end of July 2020 the spike in COVID 19 cases in the state is in an alarming stage. The UGC issued fresh guidelines that examination of the terminal semester students should be held and this has created confusions among the students fraternity as to how the examinations could be conducted whether offline mode or online mode.

Most of the students studying in colleges of Arunachal Pradesh largely live in rural sector in remote areas which is devoid of internet connectivity. Even though the country and the state have been adapting to the new-age learning, but there are ground realities that obstructs this objective of virtual learning. What still remains intact is that only 45 crore people of our total population of the country have access to the internet and thus to e-learning. The people residing in rural areas are still very much deprived of the latest advancements and therefore hampering the cause of online learning. Now, virtual classrooms are not only dependent on e-lectures but also require one to have access to the e-content and online study material, practice sheets etc. as well. And that's where we lag behind as India is not fully equipped to make education reach all corners of the nation via digital platforms or online classrooms. The students who aren't privileged like the others will be held back due to the current resort and there is no denying that. But universities and the government of India are relentlessly trying to come up with a solution to resolve this problem.

The 21 st century is widely acclaimed as the age of super specialization and the age of ICT. The shift from the traditional one to one and face to face mode of learning to the virtual mode of teaching, learning and evaluation is the need of the hour. The COVID 19 pandemic has compelled the educational planners and practitioners to bring changes in the content creation, mode of delivery of the contents and the process of assessing the learning outcomes by the use of technology. Therefore, we have to create adequate resources meant for successful implementation of online teaching, learning and evaluation.

It is being said that an optimist finds opportunity in all difficulties and a pessimist finds difficulty in every opportunities. The pressing need of online education by the central government, state government and affiliated universities cannot be sidelined completely without any valid empirical data. This calls for a detailed study of the views of the stakeholders like the students, teachers, parents etc .This will help us in knowing in exact terms and empirically the feasibility of implementation of online teaching, learning and examination. Realizing the need of the hour the authority of IGG College, Tezu thought it imperative and timely to assign the Department of Education to undertake this piece of research work to provide insights into the workability of the online mode of teaching, learning and evaluation and the issues, challenges and problems supposed to be faced by the students and to derive the probable solutions. The results of the study will provide a sound basis for Planners, Policy makers and Administrators for successful implementation of online mode of teaching, learning and examination in Arunachal Pradesh in particular and India in General.

IV.

Keeping in view the above considerations the present study has been entitled as "Analysis of views of undergraduate students towards online and offline mode of teaching, learning and examination".

The study was undertaken with the following objectives:

1. To study the overall views of the under-graduate students towards online and offline mode of teaching, learning and examination in Arunachal Pradesh. 2. To examine the views of the under-graduate students towards online and offline mode of teaching and learning in Arunachal Pradesh. 3. To examine the views of undergraduate students towards online and offline mode of examination in Arunachal Pradesh. 4. To analyze the views of students on the problems faced during online mode of teaching, learning and examination in Arunachal Pradesh. 5. To suggest and evolve suitable measures for the effective implementation of online mode of teaching, learning and examination.

In view of the objectives of the study, the following hypotheses were formulated: 1. Undergraduate students don't differ in their views towards online and offline mode of teaching and learning in Arunachal Pradesh.

2. Undergraduate students don't differ in their views towards online and offline mode of examination in Arunachal Pradesh.

The following terms are operationally defined in the present study. Undergraduate students: All the students who are studying in B.A, BSC and BCOM under the semester system under Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.

Online Teaching: It refers to the process of imparting teaching through virtual mode by the use of technology in the synchronous or asynchronous mode.

Online examination: It refers to the process of conducting examination by the use of new software where students can appear examinations online according to their own time, own device regardless of where they live.

V.

For the completion of this piece of research work the investigators adopted the Descriptive-cum-Normative Survey method of research.

All the Under-graduate students of Indira Gandhi Government College, Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh constituted the population of the study.

Data were Collected from a sample of 606 under-graduate students from IGG College, Tezu Arunachal Pradesh. The sample was selected by adopting stratified random sampling technique. Out of 606 undergraduate students 338 were female students and 268 were male students, 472 students were from rural area and 134 students were from urban area and 421 students were from Arts Stream, 76 were from commerce stream and 109 students were from science stream.

ii

The investigators developed and used the following tools for collecting the required data.

1. A self developed online questionnaire to measure the views of Under-graduate students towards online teaching, learning and examination in Arunachal Pradesh.

The questionnaire was developed comprising different dimensions of online teaching, learning and examination from the perspective of the students. A total number of 30 items were there out of which 29 items were closed ended and one item was open ended.

Relevant data were collected from the UG students through online mode by mailing them the questionnaire in their personal registered email address. The questionnaire was prepared using Google Forms.

The scope of the study was delimited to:

1. 606 Under Graduate students of Indira Gandhi Govt College, Tezu Arunachal Pradesh. 2. The variables like Sex, Academic Stream and locality. 3. One self developed online questionnaire.

The investigator used appropriate statistical techniques feasible for analysis and interpretation of data. The simple percentage analysis was used to analyze and interpret the data.

As it has been stated that the present study was conducted on a sizeable sample of 606 undergraduate students of different streams of Indira Gandhi Government College, Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh, one of the objectives of the present study was to study the views of undergraduate students towards online and offline mode of teaching and learning in Arunachal Pradesh. Hence, the collected data has been analyzed in the following tables:

Since one of the objectives of the present study was to study the views of undergraduate students towards online and offline modes of examination, the collected data were analyzed under the following: VI.

On the basis of the present online survey and analysis of the data, the following findings of the study are derived. 1. Nearly half of the undergraduate students (45.70%) were aware about online learning, e-learning and virtual learning. However, more than one-fourth (28.50%) of the undergraduate students revealed that they were unaware of online learning, e-learning and virtual learning. 2. Majority (69.10%) of the students could not attend a single class in the last two months during the pandemic period because of poor connectivity/internet facilities. However, nearly onefourth (24.80%) of undergraduate students had attended between 1-10 online classes. 3. Almost all the students (95.70%) used smart phones at the time of online classes. Only a meager (3.60%) of undergraduate students used both laptops and smart phones at the time of online classes. 4. Majority (72.60%) of the teachers used Google Meet platform whereas a little more than one-fourth (27.20%) of the teacher used Zoom online platform for the online classes. 5. A little less than half (43.00%) of the teachers shred self-prepared textual materials whereas a little more than one-fourth of the teachers (26.10%) shared online teaching learning materials to the students after the online classes. Besides, a considerable percentage (21.80%), i.e. a little more than one-fifth of the teachers shared useful and relevant links among their students after each online classes. 6. Half (50%) of the students felt that online teaching increased their self-learning ability. However, it is interesting to note that a high percentage of undergraduate students (40.50%) expressed that online teaching did not increase any of the abovementioned skills and abilities amongst them. 7. Majority (61%) of the undergraduate students felt that online teaching and learning is either least effective or not at all effective for them. However, only (30%) of the undergraduate students revealed that it is effective for them. 8. Majority of undergraduate students (77.60%) felt that online teaching is not better as compared to offline teaching. Only (8.00%) of the undergraduate students said that online teaching is better than offline teaching and learning. 9. Majority (89%) of the undergraduate students either strongly agreed or agreed on the statement that they were devoid of proper net connectivity in their habitations. Only (5%) undergraduate students revealed that they had good net connectivity in their areas. 10. More than (80%) of the undergraduate students were either strongly agreed or agreed on the statement that all the teachers and students are not technically efficient to carry on with online teaching and learning. However, only less than (5%) students were not in favour of the statement.

The present study has implications for the Undergraduate Students, Assistant and Associate Professors at the college level, Principals, University authorities, Policy makers and State Government at large.

The study has implications for the students that they should develop awareness and positive attitude in receiving education through online mode of teaching and learning in the pandemic situation.

The study has implications for the Assistant and Associate Professors that they should adopt online teaching and learning, learn new techniques of imparting virtual learning, use of different platforms like Google meet, Zoom, Cisco webex etc and accept new changes in pedagogy during and in post Covid 19 period.

The Study has implications for the Principals that they should create a techno-friendly environment in the college campus, ensure minimum logistic support to the teaching staff and the students, have liaison and collaboration with district administration and higher authorities and appraise the state government and university authorities regarding the basic and emerging needs to cope up with the situation.

The study has implications for the University authorities and State Government that they should have a healthy rapport with the college authorities, sanction additional funds to mitigate the problems, reduce curricular load, and have interaction with all stakeholders before taking any plausible decision specially in conducting online examinations.

The study has implications for the Policy makers that they should evolve new strategies for the successful and smooth carry out of online mode of teaching and learning at the college level, have proper liaison with Apex bodies like the UGC, recommend the state government about the suggestions and recommendations of different stakeholders of higher education and take appropriate and feasible steps for online teaching, learning and examination.

By and large, online teaching, learning and examination are a new experience to the academia. Although this concept was practically least used before the Covid 19 outbreak throughout the world, it was used as a supplementary to the offline teaching, learning and examination during the pandemic period and continues till today. This has opened new vistas in the field of teaching and learning by providing techno-pedagogical avenues to the teachers to expedite their delivery mechanisms and go beyond the traditional face to face mode of classroom teaching. The present study revealed that online mode of teaching, learning and examination is not a viable approach as the state of Arunachal Pradesh and other Indian States don't have proper electricity and net connectivity. Besides, since lockdown was imposed all of a sudden and there was a transition from face to face mode to Virtual mode suddenly, teachers were also not so much equipped with the technological skills to carry out the same. However, with the limited experiences and able administrative interventions the teachers of this hilly state had surmounted the problems and carried on teaching online and the examination in online -blended mode.