COVID 19 pandemic has throttled the education sector like any sector of the society. It has demanded the abandoning of old ways of learning to adapting to new ways of learning.
Online learning has been the Messiah for lost face-to-face learning experience. Indeed, it had caught everybody still on their army chairs and without any hope to switch to digital learning.
The new mandates introduced by this pandemic such as staying at home and maintaining social distancing has made classroom lecture environment impossible.
Despite the feasibility and its viability, online learning remains the only option to salvage the delayed academic years.
WHAT GOVERNMENTS AND INSTITUTIONS CAN DO
Governments across the globe remain a parent to majority of tertiary students. Governments through study loans provide students personal and accommodation allowances which is a morale boost to the ever broke tertiary students.
It is therefore upon governments to assist universities, colleges and students to bring about a conducive and effective online learning environment under such prevailing conditions of global health crisis.
Governments can review their study loans terms and policies so to cushion students of the effects of this global crisis. Digital learning by virtue of being a pandemic on its own thus governments need to offer financial assistance to students and tertiary institutions.
Governments need to review their study loans they offer to tertiary students. Online learning demands that the book allowance be increased to allow students to purchase all technological devices required for e-learning.
For instance, supposed the book allowances are increased, students may be able to purchase at least the three basic resources for e-learning. These basic resources are:
Smartphones
Laptops/ desktops
Data
Imagine a situation whereby all students who are enrolled at tertiary institutions are guaranteed of these resources from government. Such would be awesome as online learning would go smoothly with minor hindrances.
Since students no-longer attend class, institutions must also slash tuition fees so the money served could be diverted into book allowances. Diverting these funds into the accounts of students would make online learning affordable to most tertiary students.
Furthermore, slashing tuition fee could be a blessing to the private sponsored students. The little cents that could be spared would go towards purchasing the required online learning resources. It is known fact that most of their parents and guardians are have been retrenched as a result of this global crisis.
Since students are at home, universities and colleges need to consider reimbursing students who stayed on campus some of their funds which they slashed for the services they got from the institutions. Some of these funds include among others accommodation, meal and caution fees.
This money could be helpful to the students in case they want to escape not conducive environment at home. It is a mere fact that you students cannot be on social media for class while breakfast is not served or when cattle have to be driven to the dip tank.
This cash could also assist students to escape the poorly networked parts of the country. Due to cosmetic development, stable telecommunications and mobile phones network is stable in sub-urban and urban areas. Most students who stayed on campus are mostly victims of poorly networked and WiFi-ed communities.
These few cents that could be served would also make e-learning much effective. Students would afford data to at least arrange a video or audio conferencing lectures once a week with their lectures. Zoom and Google meet are awesome for conducting a virtual class but least students afford it due to its high data consumption.
This would result to online learning being much interactive like the lost face to face learning platforms. For instance, Eswatini is ranked amongst top 10 countries with expensive data in the world, so students on the other end cannot afford it while perhaps lectures on the other side they could use their institutions Wi-Fi.
Without the interaction between the student and the lecturer, online learning is dull. Learning is too much on the hands of the students. The lecturers upload learning material on Moodle without being able to discuss that content with students. Learning then shifts to become assignment after assignment so to create the false impression that students have learnt.
Such learning environment is unhealthy for the students as well for the lecturers too. Learning aught to be a two way communication with discussions between the students and the educators to ensure students comprehend the concepts of the course.
Institutions still have great deal of job to do when it comes to their servers. Students tend to miss quizzes and tests due to servers that do not allow students connect to Moodle. This would result to students failing undeservingly.
When every stakeholder is ass-up, online learning is possible and it be learning that could adopted to spearhead attainment of Sustainable Development Goals in a decade to come.
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