Consolation Prize Winner: Ms Evon Juliana Jayanthi

Topic: The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the challenges of online education throughout Malaysia. How could this be alleviated in the future?

The year 2020 witnessed many unprecedented events and it is still not over. The year started excitingly for most people, especially Malaysians who have been waiting eagerly for Vision 2020 to become a reality. As we were getting ready to embrace a newer Malaysia - a progressive society and ready to contribute to the scientific and technological civilization of the future, BOOM! Everything came to a halt. Even so, as the world was excitedly planning for 2020, it seemed as if the world stopped spinning for years. All because of a deadly virus - Covid-19 that has taken the lives of many innocents, put a stop to many livelihoods, and plans - not only that, everyone was forced to stay home in order to protect themselves and their loved ones. From an epidemic, it became a pandemic. Covid-19 has continuously affected the whole world, no one knows when this lethal virus will come to an end.

Are we going to lose in this battle against Covid-19? No! There are daily new Covid-19 cases reaching record numbers. More and more people in our families, schools, communities, workplaces, and neighborhoods are becoming infected. People are becoming more fearful and insecure. How about schools? Will learning continue? Will I get to see my students and colleagues? Will my students graduate? Can they cope with the stress of online learning? Am I doing the right thing as a teacher? Can my students understand my teaching online? How am I going to make this better for my students? There are still millions of questions in our heads, especially for teachers who have diligently been working to make education possible and eliminate the impossibles. The ministry of education, school management, administrative heads, teaching staff, along with the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), practically everyone has been working tirelessly to ensure education continues.

No doubt the once not so frequently used - Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, and other social media platforms have now become everyone’s main source of communication. Although they were already being used before the lockdown, during these extraordinary lockdown situations that the world is experiencing, these platforms have become a predominant source of teaching and not just another extra tool or source used in teaching. Like all educators, we all face new and uncertain challenges in online teaching and learning. Initially, I too come from a generation where some of us used to have ‘Technophobia’- fear of technology, unlike the ‘net generation’. But as time passed, things changed and we learned during the process, and we are still learning. However, during the lockdown, most of us have overcome and got used to the new norm of delivering lessons and connecting with students online. The education system should continuously work to strengthen engagement between schools and parents. Information and guidance must be disseminated to parents on constructive practices for supporting their children’s learning. In addition, teachers need continuous support to incorporate technology effectively into their teaching practices and help students to reduce or overcome the difficulties faced during these testing times. Most importantly, the support and training provided by schools on the use of digital resources for pedagogical practice is vital to leverage ICT effectively.

Obviously, the virus will exist for some time. How are we going to turn this situation into something positive and alleviate the daily challenges that we face? No doubt education has changed dramatically with the distinctive rise of e-learning, more and more digital platforms are on the rise. The government should continue to support these digital platforms to grow and provide free access, free subscription or subsidize the fee of registering to these platforms. Teachers and students should have the opportunity to explore these platforms freely and adapt what they need in teaching and learning.

In places where students have no Internet access and devices to learn online, initiatives should be taken to provide them with affordable smartphones that come with monthly free data. Take my school for instance, initiatives are taken to provide students with no device with a chromebook each. This has greatly helped those who have no or limited device at home to continue learning. If problems still persist, local television broadcasting companies should have educational programs scheduled in the morning for all primary and secondary school levels, or at least exam levels like UPSR, PT3, SPM, and STPM. There are some private broadcasting companies like Astro that broadcast educational programs for its subscribers. Why not make it free for all?

The most important adjustment, for educators used to teaching in classrooms in real-time, is to take advantage of asynchronous learning. It is not necessary for teachers and students to communicate simultaneously. Asynchronous learning works best in digital formats. Therefore, educators have the flexibility in preparing learning materials. This will reduce the anxiety among students greatly in juggling between the demands of staying and studying at home. Learning materials can be scheduled or posted at a fixed-time for students to learn according to a time that suits them. This is where Google classroom comes in handy because all work can be scheduled and posted accordingly. Assignments are checked and returned timely where students can also have access to their work at all times.

It is undoubtedly a challenge to share devices especially in families with many school-going children. Work can be checked periodically by teachers. All queries can be clarified through appointments with the respective teachers, where feedback can also be given immediately. Teachers, on the other hand, should be sensible and understand the problems their students might be facing in order to learn online. An achievable deadline should be taken into account. Teachers should consider giving their students enough time to complete their work and hand them in. This is because some families may have a number of school going children who need to use the limited devices they have at home or may need to take turns to follow the lessons and complete the work assigned to them. This is vital as there are many poor families in rural areas with limited Internet access or none at all. Some children may also depend on their parents for their devices and wait for their parents to return home from work in order to use it. Hence, teachers’ understanding and consideration is very much needed in this testing time.

Making learning more interesting by creating short video presentations will help visual learners who might have difficulties in handling the overwhelming verbal learning online. The use of audio and video recordings are possible for both teaching and learning approaches. Students can also be assigned tasks where they can send their audio or video recordings. This will greatly help when face-to-face communication is impossible and time is limited. Teachers can give immediate feedback upon listening or watching their students’ work.

What about writing? Collaborating in Google drive or Google classroom for all online work is possible. The improvised platforms have the advantage for one to edit, comment and suggest besides viewing. This makes it possible for teachers to check their students’ work that has been shared or uploaded. Comments and suggestions can be left using these ‘comment’, ‘edit’ and ‘suggest’ buttons. Students not only get immediate feedback, but they will be able to correct their mistakes even though teachers are not able to give face-to-face feedback. Each time the teacher or anyone leaves a comment or suggests an edit in the document, the owner will be able to get immediate notification via their emails. Now, isn’t that fantastic? This will allow teachers to continuously check their students’ progress and keep track of their submissions online. There are no excuses for not being able to give feedback or ensure if your students’ have completed their work. In addition, these are only a few of the advantages of using these platforms, there are many other applications that can be used to get projects or any type of assignments done, depending on the tasks assigned.

When it comes to the use of information technology, use of some social media platforms, learning tools and online applications, there is no doubt that there are some ‘digitally competent’ and there are a majority of them who are considered ‘digitally native’ when it comes to the use of technology. Orlando and Attard (2015) stated that “teaching with technology is not a one size fits all approach as it depends on the types of technology in use at the time and also the curriculum content being taught” (p. 119). Hence, the school management should be resourceful and take the lead to conduct training, provide teachers platforms to learn and become confident users. In addition, the school administrative department should provide feedback to their teachers and students who need help the most when handling online teaching and learning. Not only that, the administrative department must also conduct regular follow-ups on their teachers’ work and join the online classes to observe and give feedback to their teachers. This will enhance the teachers’ performance and improve on areas of weaknesses. Parents will also have the confidence that their children are in good hands and learning continues.

In sum, with the passing of time, we have learnt to narrow the gaps. 2020 has definitely taught everyone that online education is comparable to face-to-face learning in many ways. However, differences still exist in quality and quantity of interaction and skill development. It is believed that with more exposure and refined methods, we are able to overcome the challenges faced. Who knows, this could be a trend in the near future when we face another uncertainty. But, this time we will be much more prepared!