The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 an international health threat on March 11, 2020, which caused the entire world to come to a standstill because the virus was so deadly and contagious.
Outdoor activities were halted, workers were laid off in large numbers, hospitals were overcrowded, and a slew of other issues arose, bringing the economy to a halt.
Even schools, which are essential for education, were forced to close and transition to online learning platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and others.
Malaysia declared a national lockdown on March 18, 2020, but began reopening schools on March 21, 2022.
Dr Vimala Govindaraju, a 42-year-old lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), shared her thoughts on finally meeting her students in person after hosting online classes for two years.
“It was hectic, and I felt laziness setting in when they declared UNIMAS reopening to students and the public because, unlike online classes, we had to travel to our designated teaching facilities, but I was happy to finally meet my students offline after two years,” she said.
She recalled instances when students refused to turn on their cameras and mute their microphones during online classes, even when lecturers were enthusiastically teaching the class.
There were also times when students “attended” her online class but were distracted by other activities such as playing games, surfing the internet, or simply leaving their devices on without actually listening.
The increased interaction between lecturers and students has been a noticeable change since switching back from online to face-to-face classes.
Lecturers were able to engage students in physical activities such as dancing, singing, acting, and others to keep the class interesting and students’ attention focused on understanding the subjects being taught by them.
In one of Dr Vimala’s classes, she assigned her students to create and share a diagram of what they understand about a topic she presented to the class so that the students could exchange their points of view, understanding, and opinions.
“This is why I prefer offline classes over online classes because students can easily communicate with me and other lecturers,” she said.
Aside from increased interaction between students and lecturers, lecturers were more expressive in person than they were during online classes.
According to Dr Vimala, this is because students were able to see their lecturer’s body language being expressed in front of the class, which allows the students to relate more to the subjects being taught by their lecturer.
“Another noticeable increase I noticed since offline classes resumed was students requesting sessions with their academic advisors. Because all of us are here and so are the students, it is easier for them to seek not only academic help, but also emotional support as well as sharing painful experiences with us to help ease their burdens,” she said.
She once had students share their grief with her in private sessions after being devastated over the loss of loved ones, an unexpected turn of events during their time at university.
Although offline classes were resumed, there were a few instances, for better or worse, concerning the student’s attitude.
Dr Vimala recalled that students who stayed on the UNIMAS campus were still undisciplined, making outrageous excuses to miss her lectures such as “other activities,” “unable to wake up,” and, worst of all, simply being too lazy to get up.
Besides being “helplessly glued to their beds”, students were also unable to turn in their assignments, both online and offline, giving aneurysm-inducing reasons like “schedules were full”.
“I admit that adapting to offline activities is difficult, but I strongly urge students to make some effort to change their mindset so that they have even a slight bit of discipline to complete assignments, whether online or offline,” she said.
To conclude on a positive note, Dr Vimala advises current students of her classes and others to be a respectable student in the eyes of other lecturers regardless, because students are here to have fun while learning, not to act as if they are still in their hometown, attending online classes.
- This article was written by a student from the Strategic Communication Programme at the Faculty of Language and Communication, UNIMAS
