Event News

Due to coronavirus outbreak, almost all industries are affected and the education industry is not a fortunate survivor either. This global pandemic has forced several higher education institutions to close down temporarily until further declaration from the government.

Here comes the headache for both students and lecturers: how are they supposed to continue our studies during this lockdown period? This is especially hard for students who take medical course in Malaysia because medical course involves not only paperwork but other practical tasks as well. Time is money, none of them is willing to delay their studies.

Thereby, university administrations across the nation have instructed students and lecturers to conduct online classes during this quarantine period in order to further their studies. As one of the reputable medical universities in Malaysia, AIMST University also partakes in the campaign to reduce coronavirus influence while empowering students to continue their studies online.

Here are a few tips for conducting a successful online class:

1. Provide virtual course site for each course

The IT team of the university which is responsible for its network maintenance should develop a virtual course site for each course. It is highly recommended that each of these sites is developed in an organized manner which will help students and lecturers to access easily.

2. Include several essential features

In order to alleviate potential disruption to daily teaching and learning activities, each course site ought to have features for online assessment, tutoring, submission and forums to allow students to explore outside the classroom. However, these feature should not be showcased in a way that will disrupt user experience. Keep it simple and easy because the point here is to keep learning effective while overcoming the global pandemic.

3. Layout a schedule for each subject

Lecturers who are responsible for the specific subjects should layout a schedule that clearly outlines which day of the week has class at specific time for their students. By doing so, students can keep track of their learning progress and manage their time better while staying home.

4. Lecturers upload necessary materials

When it comes to online learning and teaching, harnessing online platforms for sharing is a commonplace. Lecturers can upload essential learning materials to online platforms such as the web-based learning platform provided by university, Google Drive which is preferable when there are large size materials like videos and audio recordings and other social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. These platforms make sharing and learning easy.

5. Announce changes as soon as possible

Without a doubt, conducting online classes is unfamiliar to lecturers and students as they are used to attending the classes physically. And unfamiliarity always breeds uncertainty. That’s why lecturers have to identify the issue occurred as quickly as possible while monitoring the platform and announce the necessary changes to be made afterward. At the same time, students should also cooperate with lecturers to work on it.

6. Cease the barring system for this period   

Life is hard enough for all Malaysian citizens who have been impacted by the virus outbreak. Students need no extra stress while staying home to continue their studies online. It would be more humane if university administration ceases barring for this distress period.

In a Nutshell

With these easy-to-use tips, students and lecturers now can have a better understanding on how to carry out online class effectively. Meanwhile, keep in mind that each of us has to be flexible and adaptive when it comes to coping with such global pandemic. Covid-19 is not an excuse for discontinuing education.