THE pandemic has accelerated tenfold the need to embrace technology. Almost suddenly, online shopping, food delivery, working from home and remote learning has become the norm. The impact is undeniable and in most cases, irreversible.
Education is impacted the most. While businesses may open, jobs may adapt, learning through the glare of a camera and the glow of a screen is just not the same. Although remote learning is nothing new, to have it imposed so suddenly and on such a scale, takes some adapting.
Remote learning affects more than just school children. We talked to an experienced fitness trainee and a fitness trainer about how they had to adapt, a fifth-year medical student who was dropped into the deep end, and a young student who said that remote learning has done a lot of good for university students like him.
-> The experienced fitness trainee
Nurul Nadia Latiff had to get creative with her training when the lockdown happened. A wife and a mother, she has been doing Crossfit training for more than four years.
Going to the gym helped her focus on working out, free from distractions and it motivated her. And she says she misses it.
Training from home now translates to getting video training routines from her coach and replying on her iPhone. Her experience also lets her coach and herself communicate about training and training progress via video messages instead of live video calls.
She admits that the most difficult thing about training remotely is to get off the couch in the first place. On the other hand, she gets to train with her daughter and husband at home.
To complete the training routine, she uses rice in duffle bags in addition to the equipment that she already has, like kettle weights. She noted that training remotely need not be expensive or require plenty of new equipment.
-> The new trainer
On the other side of the coin is Norhaliza Ismail, a 38-year-old mother of two who became a trainer for F6X Gym in January last year. The fitness centre’s metabolic conditioning programme received high demand and was officially launched in March the same year.
Most of her clients are working mums who had no experience training and are not used to working out regularly. So one of her first tasks was to scale her remote training programme accordingly. Because these women would not have the equipment for training, she substituted the weights with bottles of water, backpacks and rice in duffle bags.
Because she could not observe the students she trains closely through remote classes, she made sure to pay close attention to their form, one by one, and ask them if there was any discomfort. Of course, as these mothers train at home, distractions from crying babies and children needing attention were plenty. However, to Norhaliza, that is to be expected.
-> The fifth-year medical student
Putting in hours at the clinic is critical to a medical degree student, said Jaya Prithivi Raj, who is now in his fifth year. The practical component of the course lets students get a deeper understanding of the medical field that they are studying.
When he and his fellow students had to turn to remote learning, issues began to pop up. Which platform to use, is the internet connection stable, does everyone have the right equipment like a PC, a camera and a microphone for video conferencing, and more.
Even some of those who were already equipped with the right gear had to upgrade as they became more dependent on it. That is when Prithivi and his friends noticed that prices of these equipment skyrocketed and supplies seemed to dwindle.
He also said studying online is far more exhausting. The 8am to 5pm screen time, sitting at the same desk, takes a toll physically and mentally on a student. With all their study material also online, they have to stay on the computer even longer than usual.
All this, he said, affects the progress of learning.
-> The positive student
For 25-year-old Hariz Danial, remote learning brought along with it a lot of positive changes. After imposing a two week break to discuss how best to implement remote learning, UiTM hit the ground running by adopting various existing technologies.
Hariz admits that some had it easier than others. The younger lecturers were faster at adapting to new technology. Nonetheless, both sides were learning the ropes the first week. Their remote learning sessions were littered with technical issues on both sides at first, but soon, it was smooth sailing.
As the situation continued, Hariz realised that remote learning resulted in many new benefits, such as the implementation of centralised education resources by the university where students can get their learning material online without using third party messaging services.
Some lecturers packaged their lectures into a presentation deck and put it in this central database. This, says Hariz, gives students a lot of freedom and flexibility. With the downloadable lectures, students can study when they want, at their own pace.
He admits that he uses these presentation decks as reference material when he studies.
One of Hariz’s observations is that the whole endeavour improved some students’ communication skills. Students who were too shy to ask questions in class would now ask them in messages and chats.
But he points out that for remote learning to be effective, students must also practise discipline and time management.
