During this self quarantine time, we’ve been doing online class for almost 6 weeks now. It's not as smooth as I was expecting long before, where I thought having online class would be the best solution. The main problem is: good internet connection.
In earlier weeks, almost every meeting, a number of students would be missing from the class and reported that they would not be able to join the online class. As there are no more offline classes and no more part-time jobs, students cannot afford to live in this city. So they all went to their hometown.
Here lies the problem.
Not all of them are coming from a place where they can access good internet connection. Number of students reported that they have to travel around 2-3 hours to the city center in order to get better access to online material. Just the material, forget about online meetings for classes. That requires them to have better gadgets as well, which mostly don’t have one.
There are students who cannot afford the internet as well. One of the problems that somehow cannot be fixed during this time.
Honestly, I cannot force my student to access material in the given time and submit the homework as I used to do because of these two reasons. So, no online class, longer due date for homework, students probably would understand less regarding the material, practical work becomes a burden and lecturers are having trouble to complete all classes and all responsibilities in the given time.
So what should I do ?
I put all the materials on an e-learning platform. Add some additional videos (from youtube or other sources) for better explanation. This helps if the student can and want to access additional yet useful information. All materials will be sent through whatsapp as well, as they said it is easier to do so. Upload their homework or project to the platform or google drive ( depend what the classes have agreed on). I make my office hours from a certain time where they can ask me anything, discuss their research using whatsapp call or messaging. Anything is fine as far as they can access it.
Exam? I make it a longer time but a small project. Easier for all.
But then again, it was from my side. My student? They complain about other classes with load of homework and ask me not to give them anything. Well, they are just terrified to ask other lecturers to decrease the amount of homework. . Those who complain also stated that they cannot afford a good internet connection all the time. Which always be the main concern during this all-online-things. But, those students too, who actually keep having daily instagram posts and stories, daily tik tok videos and so on. Well student..well...
What else should I do? What else can be the option for better way of teaching during this season?
