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Yoliswa Moyo

THE Covid-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm and the show cannot go on as usual.

There have been no lights, camera or action in many countries across the world due to restrictions meant to help slow the spread of the deadly virus.

Zimbabwe is on day 40 of a national lockdown which has seen many sectors of the economy, mostly informal, affected due to failure to transact as usual.

Essential service providers are however being allowed to work from their stations with enhanced precaution while other professionals continue to work from home.

The education sector has not been spared as precautions are being taken to safeguard the lives of all learners across the country.
Schools, universities and other institutions of higher learning remain closed.

This closure has set back the academic year for many students whose universities continue to fail to provide online classes and other virtual learning resources.

“They haven’t provided any online correspondence or lectures, they’re just quiet. We had opened on March 17 but after the lockdown was announced, no communication was made outlining how we would proceed,” said Mr Alpha Sibanda, a second year mining engineering student at Gwanda State University.

He said he was worried the semester would go to waste as the university still has not made provisions for online learning to date.

“What they’re basically saying is study from home by yourself, which is quite depressing. We don’t know how much longer this is going to take.

“Provision should’ve been made for us to be able to continue with our courses while at home. When universities eventually open, we would then pick up from there,” said Mr Sibanda who hopes to be a Chartered Valuation Analyst one day.

While some universities in the country have made use of various software to offer online classes and exams, it has taken Covid-19 to shake most out of their comfort zones and start thinking of ways to enhance online learning.

Universities, polytechnics and other institutions of higher learning should have normalised online learning in order to be impactful to the 21st century learner but no remote learning is happening in most institutions as there are no provisions for it.

A fourth year business management student at the Midlands State University, Ms Debra Zulu said, “I don’t think my university has a plan in place. They’re just quiet and our lecturers are also not saying anything about how we’re proceeding.”

Although the university already has an e-learning portal, she said, the online platform is underutilised.

“Our lecturers hardly use the e-learning portal except when its exam time. That’s where we see our exam timetable and our results. This silence is really worrying.

“If we were already making use of our e-learning platform as we should, we wouldn’t be having this anxiety right now,” said Ms Zulu.

A university education is not just about enhancing one’s career prospects but should broaden students’ minds and horizons, allowing them to discern connections and analyse problems successfully, thus empowering them to change the world.

The fact that Zimbabwean universities have been caught napping is a cause for concern as they, by right, should be pioneers of innovation.

“Students are currently submitting assignments but the university is trying to provide data for undergraduate students and lecturers although nothing tangible has come up so far,” said a National University of Science and Technology (Nust) lecturer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said there has however been no word on how postgraduate students would proceed.

“The semester started in January. One option is to use continuous assessment marks as the final mark.

“The other option is to finish the semester via e-learning which is proving to be problematic. Some archaic lecturers can’t use Sakai, Google Classroom and all these other online learning platforms. It’s a problem I tell you,” he said.

Across the border at Wits University in South Africa, lecturers are making use of Sakai.

In a communique, the university said “the disruptions to the normal university calendar in response to the Covid-19 pandemic can be partially mitigated by moving some learning interactions online”.

The university said apart from faculty specific support sites, two additional sites had been developed to support the move to emergency remote learning.

“The university has signed a contract with MTN to provide 30 gigabytes of data (10GB Anytime and 20GB Night Express) at no cost to you (Wits students) for one month to kick-start your online learning journey.”

Back home, all hope is not lost however as Africa University has been conducting online lessons with exams set to begin next week.

“We’re doing online lessons. We make a timetable for when everyone is available, let’s say for an hour or two hours.

“We then log into Zoom, which we use to do video conferencing. If you can’t, you’re either divided into groups such that a group can do it in the morning, another in the afternoon and so on. There’s 22 of us in my class,” said Miss Shuvai Moyo, a computer science student at the university.

She said the university makes use of various software through which exams can be written.

“We have a platform where lecturers can send resources and exam papers. There’s a time limit so when you click to start the exam, that’s when your timer starts. So, you can write the exams at different times but with the same time allocation.

“It doesn’t matter when you start because they’ll always give you a time limit,” said Miss Moyo.

She explained that lecturers use Zoom to check if students are adhering to exam rules.

“Zoom accommodates 10 users or more at a time. For exams where lecturers suspect there might be cheating, they use Zoom to watch you writing the exam. You switch on Zoom on your phone and you’ll be doing the exam on your laptop. ”

Miss Moyo said because she was on campus before the lockdown, there was no need to utilise the online platforms before but times have changed.

“The university is trying hard to ensure that our learning is not disrupted too much. We’re just making more use of these platforms, which we already had,” she said.

Offered by some of the world’s top-ranked institutions, online learning offers all the perks of attending your dream university, with the added convenience of a learning experience tailored to your schedule.

With courses available in almost every subject, and flexible timetables to suit almost every lifestyle, students are increasingly turning to online learning as a viable alternative to on-campus study.

It could allow one to study abroad remotely, at a university not in your home country.

Advances in technology now allow students to study entirely online while still socialising with classmates, watching lectures and participating in subject-specific discussions.

While some consider online learning to require a greater degree of self-motivation, institutions recognise that educational support is just as important as tutor feedback, and take great care to ensure that their students receive the same levels of support that they would receive on campus.

For institutions that have made the transition to using 100 percent online resources, students can expect to study using a combination of cutting-edge technological resources with no need to travel to attend lectures, exams or in-person discussion sessions. — @Yolisswa