SINGAPORE, Aug 12 — In the coming two weeks, university students starting the new academic year will be attending a mix of classes which will be conducted fully online or in-person on campus — in some cases, classes for the same module will involve a hybrid of both arrangements — depending on the number of participants for example.

The arrangements are part of the precautionary measures in place amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with Singapore still in the second phase of its circuit breaker exit. 

While most faculty members and undergraduates whom TODAY spoke to across three public universities had no issues about having to go back to campus, instead of being allowed to work or study from home completely, some were concerned that the new lesson formats could be disruptive for some students. 

At Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where the academic year started yesterday, employees such as professors and administrative staff would have to report back to campus for work.

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Lectures for a class size of more than 50 students would be delivered online.

Tutorials, seminars and lab sessions would generally be conducted face-to-face. These will be limited to 50 people each time and held in a sufficiently large venue to ensure safe distancing, said NTU in response to TODAY's queries.

Likewise, classes of 50 students or fewer will be conducted on campus at NUS, and larger classes will be held online. Nevertheless, individual faculties have the flexibility to decide how they wish to conduct classes with more than 50 people, an NUS spokesperson told TODAY.

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NUS’ Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, for instance, will be adopting online learning for all its undergraduate courses, while the NUS Business School will teach courses face-to-face whenever possible.

In the latter’s case, faculty members may conduct “hybrid” classes where up to 50 students for a module return to campus while remaining students concurrently tune in for lessons online.

Classes start this week at NUS.

In SMU, the majority of the classes, which begin next Monday, will be fully online. However, a small proportion of classes will adopt a hybrid approach, with half of the class attending lessons in-person and the other half doing so online.

What faculty and students say

Not all faculty members were thrilled at the prospect of returning to campus amid the pandemic.

Assistant Professor Mansur Khamitov from NTU’s Nanyang Business School felt that it may have been better to have lessons fully online, given the unpredictability of the Covid-19 situation both locally and globally.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that there is benefit in engaging with students in-person. He is planning to conduct about 60 per cent of his lessons fully in-person and the remaining entirely online.

“But some concern is still there. We want to make sure us professors don’t get sick and students don’t get sick,” he added.

Like Asst Prof Khamitov, another NTU professor, who declined to be named, felt that it was better to have lessons fully online.

She was worried that the different arrangements would be disruptive for students as they may have to shuttle between their homes and campus in between virtual and on-campus lessons.

As a result, many may in fact choose to be on campus even when attending online classes, she noted.  “We are talking about a crowded campus where students will have to find a place to do online lessons, to study and to eat,” she added.

However, Nurul Haq, a final-year engineering student at NTU, is glad to return to campus as there are too many distractions at home. He plans to return to campus for all his modules, even though only two require him to be on campus.

The 24-year-old said that he hopes NTU can accommodate as many students as possible on campus, with safe-distancing measures in place.

NTU said that students who have online and in-person classes on the same day are advised to use dedicated study areas around the campus, such as the libraries, for online learning.

At NUS Business School, Associate Professor Lawrence Loh who is teaching two hybrid modules this semester, acknowledged that there will be some challenges in managing a hybrid class. For instance, he has to ensure that both online and offline students interact with each other.

Nevertheless, he said that the value of a hybrid class outweighed its inconveniences, since at least some students will benefit from the face-to-face delivery of lessons which he believes is more effective.

Ms Loh, a third-year business student at SMU who declined to provide her full name, said that she sees value in having lessons on campus yet at the same time, she is happy to save time travelling to campus when she can attend online lessons from home.

For Quinn Cheong, a third-year student from NUS Business School, her main gripe in the coming semester is the long waiting times between some of her lessons which can go up to seven hours.

With NUS imposing restrictions on student movements in campus, the 21-year-old said that she will have to find a way to kill time as she can no longer move freely around campus during her free periods. — TODAY