From teachers struggling with technology to get their online classes going to students playing clips of music or cookery lessons during lectures.
These are some of the problems facing colleges that have adopted online tutorials for students after the COVID-19 lockdown.
Many of the audio clips of these classes are already doing the rounds on social media and are a source of comic relief. Teachers are heard pleading with students to listen to them while others are threatening to reduce their internal evaluation marks if they continue to disrupt classes.
Some of the more popular clips include students playing popular Kannada songs, and an audio of how to make tomato rice in the middle of the lecture.
A lecturer of Bangalore University (BU), who has been conducting online classes, is surprised by the level of disturbance in the classes. “When I begin the class, I mute the students. I unmute them later. But in the middle, students unmute themselves and start playing songs from the radio,” he said.
A challenge
But laughter aside, technical glitches are a challenge. According to the BU lecturer, 25 minutes into the class, the audio malfunctions and students are unable to hear him properly. While the university has stated that these online classes are useful and that professors will be able to complete portions on time, students and faculty members disagree. Other colleges are also facing similar problems. “During regular classes, I would be able to complete what I had planned in an hour. But in the online classes owing to the disturbances and technical glitches, I am able to complete only half of the study plan,” said a lecturer of a city-based degree college.
A postgraduate student of BU said that she was unable to attend classes owing to poor internet speed in her village. “Many of us went to our villages after college closed. It is very difficult to attend the class as our video keeps getting disconnected every few minutes. So I will just study on my own. What is making it challenging is that none of the reference books can also be found online,” she said.
However, what is heartening for the lectures is that the attendance rate for these online classes is higher compared to physical classes.
“Many of our students who normally bunk classes are logging in because they have nothing else to keep them engaged. Attendance for the online classes is as high as 90%, while for regular classes it is normally between 70 and 80%,” said K.R.Venugopal, Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University.
