‘Online education is one of the biggest finds of the last decade’

Online education is one of the biggest finds of the last decade, Kadhambari S. Viswanathan, assistant vice-president, Vellore Institute of Technology, said on Friday (February 13, 2026) at The Hindu Tech Summit 2026.

She was speaking at a session, titled ‘From Campus to Corporation: Building Industry-Ready Talent for an AI First World’, in conversation with L.V. Navaneeth, Chief Executive Officer, The Hindu Group, at the event hosted by The Hindu, presented by VIT, and co-presented Sify Technologies.

“There is a lot of discussion on how online education will change and if it will entirely replace physical classroom-based education. But both can co-exist and supplement and complement each other,” she said.

Talking about digital literacy and digital wellbeing, Ms. Viswanathan underscored the need for teaching the younger generation how to use technology with caution. “They should be masters of technology and not the other way around. There is not much literacy and awareness about digital wellbeing among the people,” she added. 

There is evidence-based research on how screen time affects the childhood and the mental wellbeing of teenagers, she said.

Asked about how modern technology transforms the daily life and learning experience of students, Ms. Viswanathan said teaching was conventional earlier. But it is no longer faculty-led; it is rapidly becoming a student-led experience. “Faculty will facilitate the learning process but will not be [entirely in] control of the learning process. It is changing because of information overload available online. But, of course, human intervention is always needed,” she added. 

Ms. Viswanathan said the way the skillsets are going to progress will be very different. “There is definitely a skillset mismatch, and it is due to the lack of practical exposure during the course of study. This can be solved only when there is proper communication between the industry and the academia,” she added. 

She said that one of the biggest challenges of generative AI is how it affects the communication skills of the people.