Every crisis creates an opportunity and pushes people to think differently. The novel coronavirus pandemic may have forced schools, colleges and universities to shut down, but many are active online now thanks to information technology tools and platforms.
The shutdown of schools was ordered by the State and Central governments for the safety of teachers, non-teaching staff and students. However the Union HRD Ministry has written to CBSE, AICTE, UGC and all other autonomous organisations under it to permit the teaching and non-teaching staff to work from home during the lockdown period.
It wanted the faculty and academic staff to utilise the ‘work from home’ period for development of online content, online teaching and online evaluation, development of lesson plans and instructional material for the courses to be offered during next academic year and semester.
Quick response
Several schools like Chirec, Oakridge, Foster Billabong High, Indus, Future Kids which have the IT architecture in place have been quick to implement the government directive.
Says Sunita Rani, director of Foster Billabong, “We have rolled out e-learning platforms for online classes for grade X students apart from activity-based learning to those in lower classes to keep them engaged for at least a couple of hours a day. We are coordinating with our academic heads to prepare online lesson plans for two or three topics in the given curriculum in at least two subjects for every class and enhance the available work sheets with more links from online content. The idea is to make the virtual classroom more comprehensive and interesting for the student,” she says.
The worksheets with recap of basics for every subject for every grade are sent as they enter the new academic year.
Ms. Sunita Rani explains that the school first tried a pilot class with teacher and parents to understand teacher-student coordination, control and technical guidelines. A link was generated for students to log in and take admission into the virtual classroom with the consent of parents for their child’s online study. The principal then ensured that the teacher on duty logged in, and the entire teaching and learning process was supervised and recorded.
In addition, parents of the students are sent links to grade and subject-specific concepts, self learning strategy and links for fun learning at home to enhance math skills, and to enhance listening and pronunciation skills.
Parents happy
The initiative by the schools to conduct online classes has won appreciation from parents, says Neethika, a member of the management committee which helped in coordinating the online teaching process for all classes. “They are happy to see their children enjoying and learning at the same time,” she says.
Shailaja Rao, founder and principal of Future Kids, says they are launching virtual classes for higher classes - 10 to12 from Monday and already have an app for home-based activities and assignments for lower classes. “We are introducing one element each day to keep it interesting and engaging for the children. Parents are happy with the initiatives and some of them say they understand the situation and ask us not to push ourselves too much,” she adds.
Making up later
Virtual classes will not be same as conventional classes, but they will be used to explain basic concepts and once the schools reopen, the lessons can be revised. “We are thinking of using the online platform to complement the classroom teaching hereafter as teachers and students get used to online classes,” she says.
Oakridge International School conducts virtual classes through Google Hangout three or four days a week. The school website provides homework assignments for students in word documents and evaluates them. Jagan, a parent, says that keeps his daughter Hansini, a fifth grade student, engaged for two to three hours a day. But she sure misses her regular school activities that stretch to six to seven hours, and her classmates too, he says.
