By TFL Mawlong
It has been five months since educational institutions were closed for the second time. Five months had passed since we were being held hostage by an all-encompassing shadow of fear. Between trying to protect the population and reopening educational institutions, it does seem like a binary choice. But it is undebatable that reopening is critical. Still, many are heaving liberal sighs.
Looking back, we didn’t seem to know what we are doing. Last year, the colleges’ ad hoc approach to education after the reopening proves a heavy disappointment on two counts which I believe are worth discussing. This evaluation is based on first-hand experience, surveys and observations in various colleges in the city, which, being publicly funded, are expected to be exemplary.
First, the institutions were undoubtedly following the protocols (at least at the front gate). However, their efforts fell short. Students were breaching protocols and failed to avoid proximity. No one is to blame. Let us assume a college has 1000 students enrolled. Even if only 250 students (say) attend classes, it would be a large enough crowd for many campuses. And when there is no one to enforce Covid protocols. People’s movement on campus is a ‘Brownian Motion’ just like in ordinary days. At the college front gate, the students would adhere to all protocols. However, once inside, they move erratically and randomly, interacting with one another in the same way that pollen grains do in the water. Also with humans, there is a great affinity for clustering. It is hard for colleges to enforce protocols everywhere and at all times. Not to mention the hangout places outside the campuses.
This happened in various colleges last year. Imagine if this happens every day in the current situation! It might wreak havoc! We are vulnerable unless we strengthen campus face masks and social distancing protocols and ensure a safe locality surrounding the campuses. But as aforementioned, the former may not be possible, especially given the pathetic work cultures in the colleges. Therefore, one would expect breaches at various points.
Second, when colleges reopened last year, ephemeral emotions drove a significant number of students to classes. The attendance then dropped to a paltry 15% (approx) on average. Colleges, understandably, have no control over this. In such cases, we require some innovations to ensure the access to lessons is fair. Unfortunately, none of our colleges have a proclivity to innovation.
Evidence suggests our colleges have only a rudimentary understanding of what blended learning is. Most principals appear to understand and accept blended learning as a process in which some classes are offline and others online. While there is nothing seriously wrong with that, there is a catch! When colleges reopened last year, some of those who attended offline classes rarely attended online classes. And many of those who attended the online classes were outstation students and few Shillong residents, most of whom did not attend offline classes. Of course, there was some overlapping.
So an offline class would typically comprise ‘some’ students from among those who ‘rarely’ attend online classes plus ‘some’ students from among those who ‘rarely’ attend offline classes. Therefore, mixing online and offline lessons for every unit taught (as colleges did last year) would cause a peculiar ‘fairness issue’. You end up teaching different lessons for two almost different groups belonging to the same class. The pro-offline group would learn only topics/lessons taught online. And the pro-offline group would be familiar only with the topics covered offline. Of course, some students attended both online and offline classes. Again, a significant number of students attended neither. This is, to me, an issue we must not overlook.
Vulnerable students should stay at home. So it appears we are in a catch-22 situation–damned if I do, damned if I don’t. On the one hand, we want to revive regular classes and ensures good attendance, on the other hand, we want to protect the vulnerable population. They are mutually exclusive events if the approach is tactless and the same as last year i.e. if colleges continue to adopt a very shallow, laze, laughable, incorrect adoption of blended learning.
The solution is to implement ‘true’ blended learning, as required by the UGC. True blended learning is a learning approach that combines face-to-face and online learning experiences. That is not to say that a teacher can simply upload lecture videos of some topics, discuss the rest in offline classes, and claim to be leading blended learning.
In the current situation, colleges should implement a ‘remote’ version of blended learning. And I sincerely wish their methods would supplement in-class lectures, and effectively ‘accelerate’ learning. Since the need to avoid overcrowding would mean a reduction in the number of offline classes, one should improvise and adapt. Just a thought: perhaps one could expertly break down the one-hour class into chunks of 15-25 minutes micro-lectures, allowing for two or three topics to be discussed while reserving 10-15 minutes for worksheet discussion. It is possible to do it without sacrificing depth. You could then supplement the lectures with expertly designed ‘worksheets both as hard copy and online. Notes for rote learning are not important. I am sure this will allow teachers to cover more topics, and help students learn more quickly, retain more information, and avoid the usual ‘crass’ lecture. I know because I have successfully done it myself, and that too in complex, highly conceptually, mathematically dense topics of Quantum Mechanics. Teachers, of course, should develop the innovative methods that suit them. One can then deliver the recorded videos of these micro-lectures via an e-learning portal for those who cannot attend if live-streaming the class is difficult.
But then again, none of the colleges I am aware of, have a good e-learning solutions. Some colleges do have a free version of WordPress LMS Plugin, like ‘Tutor LMS’, installed on their websites. However, such an e-learning platform has so little to offer. If you can have a sneak peek at these e-learning portals through any student account, you will see only a swarm of pdf/photo notes. Also, being a free version, a WordPress Plugin, and using a low-cost server, such an e-learning solution is useless because it is too slow and lacks capabilities. It can barely handle 10 concurrent users at a normal speed. Hence, on the scale of a college, such e-learning is merely a ‘show’.
We have done our best to protect the students up to this point. I hope we don’t throw that away. Many people have been fully/partially vaccinated, so new confidence emerges, luring us into a false sense of invincibility. But we must not forget we are still in the grip of fear; our vulnerability remains high. I hope principals will enthusiastically embrace true blended learning and faithfully enforce protocols everywhere in their campuses. May you find the fortitude and adaptability to deal with these challenges.
(The author can be reached at [email protected])