“To avoid a ‘quarantined mentality’- thinking within the bounds of one’s privileged position-the author acknowledges that the the solutions and advice provided in this article are not one-size fits all nor do they purport to suggest that the author loses sight of the fact that the online learning and teaching programme will leave some students behind, but for those privileged enough to embark on this journey, although some might struggle, such tips can help!!!”
Introduction
The outbreak of the coronavirus also known as Covid-19 in South Africa forced Universities to temporarily halt contact lectures and closed residences to prevent the spread of the virus on campuses and in residences respectively. Furthermore, institutions and companies were forced to work remotely to the best of their capabilities. Universities in conjunction with the Department of Higher Education had to grapple with the question of how should the 2020 academic year be saved. To this end, Universities have decided, more or less, to go down the University of South Africa (UNISA) route of remote learning in the form of online teaching and learning. This article is a reflection paper on the online learning programme as adopted by South African Universities.
Context
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits-I speak in the context of Wits as I am a student there) quickly communicated its intention of online teaching and learning to students before the pronouncement of the national lockdown but a few days after chasing a majority of students from res. This move had many students worrying, myself included. I wrote a blog article (which the VC had the opportunity to read) outlining the challenges students would encounter if teaching and learning would be conducted online. I raised amongst others, issues of data bundles, lack of smartphones or computers/laptops (digital tools), poor network coverages, lack of training, and the unconducive learning environment during a national lockdown. I do not wish to summarize that article here, but it is imperative to reiterate a few points again.
It is common cause that South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. It follows then that Universities are not “immune” to inequality. Therefore not all students can afford data bundles on a daily basis, not all students have digital tools for online learning, most students come from remote rural areas (myself included) with poor network coverage and most modules cannot be conducted online without the appropriate training (most of us did not know what is a VPN, worse, we cannot make an XL spreadsheet and we spent about 13-15 years of physical/contact learning). Students were requested to leave their respective residences and they are now at home; most homes are unconducive for studying- family members socialize during the day making noise, most parents do not believe that one’s university status can exempt them from doing chores and most parents do not believe that one can spend most hours in the room (“isolation”). You cannot even take a power nap when you are at home. The student community is also a contributory factor to our grind or “chowing course”.
Fortunately enough, Wits was cognisant of some of these challenges since student leaders brought the challenges to management’s attention. To ameliorate the situation, the University negotiated that its websites be zero-rated; gave students 30GB (20GB night owl and 10GB for the day) “once-off data bundles to kick-start the online programme” and that we can access non-zero-rated websites; conducted a two-day online-orientation programme; distributed devices to those who do not have online learning digital tools as well as deferring the commencement of assessments to 04 May 2020 onwards. These are commendable responses by the University to save the academic year but the new almanac reflects that the June examinations will be conducted over a period of 10 days, possibly online which will be too onerous.
Online learning and teaching
At the time of writing, this article (25th of April 2020) Wits had already completed the first week of block two online which commenced on the 20th of April 2020. My experience of the online programme thus far inspired the writing of this article. Most lecturers, like most of us, are new to the online teaching and learning programme.
The first week was a trial and error situation. Most lecturers are conducting online live classes over Zoom or Microsoft Teams to enable live participation while others send slides with detailed notes, still others send podcasts (private school term for voice note) explaining the slides and others send recorded videos of the live classes. All these moves have been helpful to a certain extent- no strict adherence to the timetable, no possibility of bunking classes or one can unashamedly eat whilst the lecturer teaches. However, most students have failed to join Zoom or Teams meetings due to lack of understanding the procedure of following the link or sometimes the link leads one astray or the lecturer mistakenly created two meetings, sometimes Zoom requires only 100 participants (this alludes to the lack of appropriate training for both students and lecturers) and some students encounter storage difficulties when they download the uploaded videos (because most are using their smartphones as they left their laptops in res). In as much as Wits websites are zero-rated, I have observed that when downloading the recorded live classes, the site (sakai) first consumes the available data. As a result, the 30GB is being consumed by the non-zero-rated websites as well as the zero-rated sites.
The University has gone an extra mile to curtail wasting the academic year and ensuring the continuation of the 2020 almanac despite the national lockdown. Again, I commend it for such, since I will spend Christmas at home with peace of mind. To ensure the continuation of studies, students have been provided with data, devices and eased pressure until the 4th of May.
Challenges and way forward
Two challenges that I experience, however, which others might also experience, and the University cannot solve is: poor network coverage and the unconducive learning environment at home. But the latter is an individual problem which requires a changed and positive mentality but the former is a worry-some challenge. My village shares a network tower with about 5-6 other villages. I can only find a stable-strong network coverage along the road or in areas of higher altitude during the day. The worry-some challenge this raises is that I cannot stand by the roadside or on-top of a mountain to write an online test because of the stay-at-home law or safety reasons.
If one wants to succeed, one cannot continuously complain without acting otherwise one is prone to becoming an empty vessel that makes noise. It is said that “work in silence and let your success to make the noise”. In this regard, I have found solutions to my challenges. With regards to the former issue (poor network issue), I have discovered that during the AMs the network co-operates since there is less traffic online, though I miss morning live classes because now I wake up late. But this is necessary since Covid-19 has forced us to change our lifestyles. With the comfort home provides, the noise in the house, and doing chores, one ought to escape the quarantined mentality-“I can only study at res”. This calls for the change of lifestyle approach which also addresses the latter issue (unconducive learning environment issue) since one must adapt to the changed circumstances and be disciplined like a UNISA student. Working in the AMs rescues one from the noise in the house (one can literally work in silence) and avoid disturbances (house chores). The unconducive learning environment, through sacrifices and forbearance, can be changed by temporarily sacrificing so that future generations can never raise the unconducive learning environment card during a crisis.
Conclusion
My concluding remarks would be that those embarking on the online learning “journey” whilst at home though (stay at home), let us be driven by the can-do-it-attitude and we shall be victorious like how UNISA graduates have been doing it. The can-do-it-attitude is a concoction of a positive mentality, discipline, and creativity. Amidst this crisis and new venture (online learning), lest we forget this way of thinking internalized by “soldiers”: “improvise, adapt and overcome”. Lest we succumb to the comfortability and procrastination pressures associated with being at home. Academics is not sports. There is no home-ground advantage in academics.