By Nazrinzulaiqa Hasbi
KUCHING: It has been almost two years since the Covid-19 pandemic struck and during that time it is evident that online classes have changed the landscape of the education sector.
Students are now glued to their screens while trying their best to navigate through the challenging new norms in education.
However, the transition from the physical to the virtual classroom has not been smooth as the students have problems coping.
In an attempt to get some insight into the experiences of the students, New Sarawak Tribune reached out to three of them from different universities.
Siti Maisarah Inhadel, 23, a student of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) said the home environment was not really conducive to learning as it’s hard to concentrate.
“It is difficult to get organised especially as some people have to share laptops with their siblings,” she said.
For her, the most significant difference between virtual and physical classes is communication with lecturers and classmates or friends.
“I have to communicate with them on WhatsApp since we started online classes, and it is harder to understand explanations written on the screen compared to getting answers face-to-face during physical classes,” she said.
Therefore, she prefers physical classes over virtual ones.
“In campus it is easier to understand lessons as we can approach the lecturers or friends face-to-face,” she said.
In the meantime, since everyone is confined to online classes, she suggested that lecturers should give clearer instructions for any task or assignment. They could also create varied activities each time so that students would not be limited to textual or theoretical tasks.
Another student, Perra Lanting, thinks a problem in online learning is the absence of physical engagement and interaction between students and lecturers.
“This results in lesser or weaker comprehension of the lectures,” she said.
The 23-year-old can’t help comparing her experiences online to her time on campus.
“Physical classes make me concentrate more even when a subject is not my favourite, whereas online lectures kind of demotivate me and I tend to lose focus easily,” she said.
Hence, the student from University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) prefers physical classes because the online ones often lead to boredom.
“I prefer physical classes more for the real and live interactions in the classrooms. During online class I get cooped up alone in a room looking at my computer screen,” she said.
She suggested that instead of just using slides, lecturers could also use interactive materials including games and interesting videos to enrich the online lecture experience.
“That would require more work to produce, but their lectures would be more interesting,” she said.
The pandemic has also been rough on Jonas Chiam Wei Kang, 22, a student from University Malaya, having attended one and a half years of online classes.
He readily pointed out problems such as bad internet connection, especially during rainy days.
“The presenter’s voice would be difficult to hear and there would problems with the shared screen,” he said.
Another glaring difference between online and physical classes, according to him, is that online learning necessitates spending more time and there are more assignments.
He prefers physical classes more because university life is more fun with friends close by, and there are always activities held by the various faculties.
Still, he thinks the present method of online learning is adequate since it utilises the Microsoft team platform for lectures and the lectures are recorded, allowing him to watch them several times to fully comprehend the subjects.
