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What if the World Goes Online Learning?
Science Café JB with Dr Nurbiha A. Shukor and Dr Jaysuman Pusppanathan
Heraclitus once said, “the only constant in life is change” and it could not be more accurate in today’s world. Currently, the COVID-19 has upended the way we work, live, communicate, and learn. The world is scrambling to adapt to the new normal, including the education sector. Across the globe, 1.2 billion students are no longer attending physical classes. The new norm dictates that no more physical meetings and classes for the time being. Going online is the way forward.
To address this matter, Science Café Johor Bahru has organised a virtual Science Café JB session with Dr Nurbiha A. Shukor titled “What if the World Goes Online Learning?” on 29 May 2020. Dr Nurbiha is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Science and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She is also currently the Manager of Creative Multimedia and Learning Technologies at UTM.
Online learning is a subset of digital learning, where instructions are delivered online. It is also considered as a type of distance learning. Because of the way we are accustomed to receiving lessons and the relative novelty of online learning, steps need to be taken to ensure instructions are received well by participants of online courses.
There are many reasons why institutions offer online courses aside from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a study by Popovich and Neel (2005), offering online courses could increase enrolment, which increases profit in return. This is because the rise in online course enrolment does not entail the increasing of physical facilities such as classrooms. Besides that, offering online courses also extends the university’s reach, enabling students to transcend physical distance and enrol in their courses from other states or even other countries. Offering online courses also improves students’ technological skills, aside from mitigating projected shortfalls in instructors. By offering online courses, universities are also able to eliminate overcrowding of classrooms and reduce infrastructure costs. Online courses also benefit students by allowing them to work at their own pace and adopt their own learning style. Additionally, offering online courses also improves student retention and graduation rates.
To adapt to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Grajek (2020) has observed that an increasing number of universities have planned to adopt new methods of delivery, such as full-time online courses, multi-modal courses (combines online and face-to-face teaching), , as well as classes that have options to change method of delivery down the line (online to face-to-face or vice versa).
Dr Nurbiha highlighted a survey carried out by MCMC on the online activities of Malaysians and it shows that Malaysians are keen to harness the internet as a source of education materials. The survey showed that 60.2% of Malaysians spend their time online studying, while 56% use their time online to read online publications. Dr Nurbiha also mentioned that MCMC Survey Report in 2018 shows that 61.8% of Malaysians have shared content online, and from that number, 7.3% is of an educational nature.
On the topic of online course availability in Malaysia, Dr Nurbiha mentioned Open University Malaysia, The Open University, The University of Newcastle Australia, Coventry University offer degree programmes that are conducted fully online. Dr Nurbiha reminded viewers that they need to make sure that these universities they choose are accredited and recognised. Accreditation ensures universities meet predetermined standards and is qualified to teach students the programmes that they offer.
Dr Nurbiha mentioned that in the current pandemic situation, graduations are held online too. Some common forms of graduation include pre-recorded graduation ceremonies, live online graduations, and digital celebrations. She gave an example of the Ritsumeikan Primary School in Kyoto, Japan that conducted a physical graduation that only involves the students and teachers; parents are only allowed to watch it online. Meanwhile, Florida State University that offers online programmes for distance learning. For their graduation ceremony, they have utilised the simulation game Second Life to create a virtual stage where students can create their own avatar that represents them and a 3D sequence of them going on stage to receive their graduation scrolls.
Students of Ritsumeikan Primary School conducted their graduation ceremony that is viewable online by parents. (Source)
Florida State University’s virtual world graduation in May 2010.
The issue of cost is always brought up when talking about online courses. Some would argue that since someone taking online courses do not need to physically go to the campus, it should be priced lower than attending traditional universities or colleges. However, Dr Nurbiha explained that the cost of university education goes toward different infrastructures for both instances. With traditional university/college attendance, students will be paying for the dormitories and dining halls in brick-and-mortar buildings, faculty offices and classrooms, sports facilities, as well as transportation. On the other hand, payment for online courses will go towards video production for lectures, provision and maintenance of online library or resources, as well as platform setup and maintenance.
While online courses might seem more affordable than their traditional counterparts, it bears reminding that some online degree providers will charge a premium for the convenience that they offer to students (e.g. studying from the comfort of their own home, studying at their own pace). This would cause online courses to sometimes seem more expensive than usual.
Continuing her presentation, Dr Nurbiha stated that another aspect where traditional courses differ from online courses: financial aid availability. There are plenty of financial aids available for conventional degrees, but there is still a dearth of options for online courses.
Another commonly asked questions when it comes to online courses is whether teachers will become irrelevant in the future. Dr Nurbiha insists that human teachers are irreplaceable – they still play a vital role in classrooms, even in online learning. As advanced as they are and will be, robots cannot take the place of teachers because in essence, they are not human. Human teachers can play a role that no robot can: incite and feed our curiosity as well as impart valuable wisdom. Apart from being educators, teachers are also mentors and motivators. Plus, learning involves social interaction that no robot can offer.
In the session, Dr Nurbiha also shared things that someone needs to prepare when they have decided on which online course to take.
If you need a primer on how to learn online, Dr Nurbiha highlighted a free course on Future Learn to prepare yourself with the basics of taking online classes.
Online courses are not restricted to just those on a desktop. On mobile phones, there are several educational apps that can be downloaded and most of them are free. Dr Nurbiha mentioned that the most downloaded educational app is Duolingo, an app that allows you to learn languages.
Wrapping up her presentation, Dr Nurbiha believes that online learning is here to stay. She also encouraged everyone to learn online to narrow skill gaps, earn a degree, and get quality education from top universities. She also reminded everyone that online learning needs your top dedication and discipline.