KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — The movement control order (MCO) enforced since March 18 to combat the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has raised a new set of challenges for tertiary education institutions that are shifting classes online, according to a crisis assessment study.
The Penang Institute’s Covid-19 Impact on the Tertiary Sector report noted that many universities and colleges were forced to make swift changes when the MCO came into effect, with its History and Regional Studies Programme senior analyst Choong Pui Yee saying the first concern being technical difficulties.
“Even if students and lecturers can get past the technical difficulties, one cannot assume that all tertiary students enjoy unlimited internet access or possess laptops or desktops that allow them to attend online classes freely,” she said.
Choong cited the Communications and Multimedia Commission’s Internet Users Survey 2018 findings which indicated a sizable disparity between urban and rural internet users, with urban users making up for 70 per cent of all Internet users in the country.
“Secondly, coverage and speed of the Internet also vary depending on budget and location. Hence it is likely that some tertiary students, especially those who reside in rural areas, do not enjoy sufficiently good internet access in the way most of their urban peers do.
“These students run a high risk of being left behind if classes are entirely conducted online, and will most certainly impact the quality of teaching as well,” she said.
By and large, most private and public tertiary education institutions in Malaysia still rely primarily on face-to-face lectures and tutorials, with the latter especially important for students as it enables smaller groups of students to discuss their lecture, debate ideas, and to present their work.
“It is also the time when lecturers can properly evaluate the students’ performance, while class participation usually constitutes a small component in the overall evaluation of students.
“Besides the content of the courses, tutorials are also meant to let students practice their presentation skills. Although this can be done via online teaching, the quality of interaction will be compromised, with the spontaneity possible in the lecture hall likely to be lost,” Choong said.
The analyst added that science stream students and researchers will be particularly affected as online classes simply cannot replace face-to-face teaching nor help in their research.
“This is due to the fact that science students’ experiments and researches are mostly done in laboratories, with all necessary equipment or tools only found there. Thus ongoing research of postgraduate students will be compromised.
“With the MCO, those whose research involves organisms will find that some of their organisms may not survive. Research work dependent on seasonal changes would also
mean researchers have to delay their research for possibly a year,” she said.
In addition to the challenges of moving classes online, Choong also raised other potential issues such as hurdles in carrying out assessment.
“Examination constitutes a sizable component of the overall assessment. Tests are usually done in rooms or halls, and it is impossible to gather hundreds of students to sit for their exams as long as the risk of Covid-19 exists.
“The alternative is to conduct online exams. However, the risk of cheating is high, especially when they cannot be monitored in person,” she said, using the recent example of an at-home
computing exam by the National University of Singapore in which some students took advantage of the Covid-19 precautionary measures to cheat.
