Coronavirus effect: Wuhan University students in Kerala begin online classes
Most educational institutions including medical universities, with big number of Indian students, have restarted e-classes for students
The financial impacts of novel coronavirus Covid-19 are well documented while the killer bug’s adverse effects on education sector are yet to be assessed. Educational institutions in China, the epicenter of the virus, have switched to digital education on a massive scale to combat the virus.
Millions of students in schools, colleges and universities in China have missed classes and they are now trying to compensate for the lost classes through online learning.
Most of the educational institutions including medical universities, with big number of Indian students, have restarted e classes for the stranded students.
“The University resumed classes from February 15. Every day teachers will send the link of a video group chat when the class begins. We have to join the link through which PDF copies of text books and videos of classes will be shared. We can interact with the faculty, clear doubts and it is just like a normal classroom. The link will be active for few minutes and those who fail to join the link at prescribed time will be marked absentees,” said an MBBS student at Wuhan University from Kerala.
“Since online learning resumed after the semester break, we didn’t miss much classes. The only issue was that it took some time for us to get familiar with the distance education online learning system. All the 65 students in our class are attending the class, including those from other countries who are currently stuck in Wuhan. We have been told that online classes will continue until the situation is back to normal and flight services to China are restored,” she added.
There are reports that even primary schools including have switched to digital learning to cope up with the unexpected crisis created by the epidemic. Earlier, state run news agency Xinhua reported that the Chinese government has launched a national cloud learning platform and started broadcasting primary school classes for the nearly 180 million students in the country. Even though all schools are closed students can still keep learning through this system.