PETALING JAYA, Feb 8 — Learning institutions have been forced to go virtual in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While classes are still able to be conducted according to schedule digitally, it hasn’t exactly been a smooth transition for many teachers and lecturers around the world as they struggle to master the tech that comes with online learning.
A lecturer from Singapore unwittingly left his entire online lecture on mute, wasting two hours talking to himself in the process.
A video of the lecturer’s reaction to his error was uploaded onto YouTube last week.
In the video, the lecturer Dong Wang, is seen “finishing” his class with a typical call for questions from his students, to which they somewhat reluctantly answered.
“Any questions? No? Can we finish our class? Do you have any questions?” said Wang.
To which his student replied: “Uh. Hi Prof, actually you were muted the whole time. So we couldn’t hear anything from you since 6:08pm.”
Their class had “ended” at around 8:00pm according to the video.
According to those in the comments section, Wang is an associate professor from the Department of Mathematics at the National University of Singapore.
Understandably stunned by what he heard after class, Wang questioned his students, trying to figure out if they actually managed to hear anything.
“(We only heard) the first few minutes. From 6:08pm onwards your screen froze and we heard nothing from you ever since,” said one of the students.
After a mild panic attack and a little hyperventilation, a puzzled and probably frustrated Wang realised the extent of his mistake and informed his students that he would redo the class at a later date.
A social media user, who claimed to be a student of Wang’s, said in the comments section that the students attempted to alert their professor to what was happening and didn’t just sit there aimlessly.
“I’m a student taking this module and yes I was there when this happened,” said Azusa Chan.
“Class started at 6:00pm and he muted himself from 6:08 onwards. Students tried all sorts of things to get his attention by unmuting and even calling his phone number. However, he did not respond and continued with the lesson.”
The user also said that many students had left the online class after a while because Wang’s screen froze, but over 20 of them stayed on and “patiently waited” for Wang to come back.
Chan added that this error was probably due to the fact that Wang was using an iPad to conduct his class, which isn’t ideal.
“After this incident, he left his phone beside him whenever he is conducting lectures so we can call him in case of an emergency,” said the user.
The video has since been viewed over 56,000 times in four days as many sympathised with the lecturer.
“I’ve studied under him before. He teaches well. I feel bad for him. Stay strong Prof!” wrote one user.
Some users also saw the funnier side to the whole issue and even joked that Wang had just outwitted everyone to get out of class.
“Good trick. When you have not prepared materials for your lecture, mute it then watch Korean dramas. Works all the time,” a social media user quipped.
