2019 marks the arisen of a serious and dangerous threat to the whole world as the unexpected SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) outbreak began to develop and quickly expanded throughout the world. Ever since Covid-19 existed as the millennium’s major pandemic, everything has changed, and the life we experienced far before Covid-19 existed will never come back. Even though we are moving from the pandemic to endemic phase with the economic and tourism sector re-opening, the Covid-19 situation is still serious. Thousand of Covid-19 cases are still being reported every day; however, everyone has no choice but to accept that it has come the time where we have to adapt to living with Covid-19 existing in between everything.
The first case of Covid-19 in Malaysia was detected on 25th January 2020, and the implementation of movement control order (MCO) in Malaysia can be traced back to 18th March 2020. Every sector is ordered to shut down, including the education sector altogether. Everyone is instructed never to leave their house unless to buy all the essential goods and for a medical emergency, making every city look dead. Students from kindergarten up until tertiary education are forced to switch from face-to-face learning to open distance learning (ODL), which was run based on e-learning and operated through Zoom Meeting, Webex, Google Meet, and other e-learning platforms. The sole goal was to encourage social isolation and to break the chain.
If I were to honestly describe what ODL means to me, it would be a blessing in disguise. I am well aware that ODL does not suit everyone’s cup of tea, but in my case, I am pretty content with it. I started experiencing ODL quite late from everyone as some have been going on with it for the whole four semesters and still am going strong with it. As for my case, it has only been two semesters. My family and I live with my grandma, and she was sick when I started entering university. She had been sick for quite some time; however, her condition started to worsen during the pandemic. She was too weak to carry herself, so we had to nurse her every day. It was challenging and chaotic at that moment, but writing this now made me feel grateful that I was there, that we were there until her last moment. She left all of us for good last year, and if it was not for the ODL, it might be impossible to be with her before she shut her eyes down forever. I am grateful that ODL makes me spend a little more time with my family members.
As much I think about ODL, I still believe that the good outweighs the bad. ODL, for my case, is mainly conducted through Google Meet, and the beauty of Google Meet can be seen through the ability of every lecturer to record the lecture session every day. In my opinion, that feature is so helpful as I have the option and ability to replay the recorded session at my convenience. Even when I have to take an online exam the next day, I can still refer to the recorded lectures if there is any topic that might be confusing. Compared to face-to-face learning, every student has to sit silently in a lecture hall to take the given lectures for a solid two to three hours straight for every class. In this case, students usually will be able to keep their eyes open for the first one hour while fatigue and sleepiness will follow them until the end of the lecture. They then might miss some crucial points that they are required to listen and jot down, which can be pretty frustrating. In ODL, because everyone is not tied and confined to their seats and lecturers usually allow students to stretch, prepare a cup of coffee, and eat while having lectures, it feels much better. Next, I love that ODL helps introverts to voice up by typing their questions, answers or any opinions regarding any topic in the chatbox feature. I am truly blessed that all of my lecturers will always encourage every student to participate in the discussion. Usually, the interaction in the chatbox will lead one topic to another one, and it sure works to make the lecture less overwhelming!
When there are some benefits and advantages of something, there will always be some drawbacks. One of the challenges of ODL for me is the feeling of burnout whenever I am too overwhelmed with the college workloads. I will feel mentally exhausted when the semester is about to end because every assignment has to be submitted. The process of studying and getting ready for the final exam will begin. Stress and burnout work differently for everyone, and I am not going to say that only I had it hard because apparently everyone did. I am most grateful to my family for the massive amount of love and support they have given me since I started ODL because that is what keeps me going.
Next, another challenge during ODL, in my case, is the unstable Internet connection. ODL is all about accessing online materials and attending online classes required by the lecturers. In order to do that, a decent and solid internet connection is needed for smooth sailing study sessions! I have some connectivity difficulties with the internet connection, which adds another element of complexity during ODL. There are times where the Internet connection will be very smooth and fast, but there will also be a time where the Internet will make me jump in and out from my online lectures. The connection will worsen when it rains, as there is a chance that I will not be able to even get in and join the Google Meet sessions. It is somehow quite frustrating, but it is fine since I can always review the recorded lectures when the Internet connection is stable.
As for my current family situation during ODL, it is quite overwhelming as my father just got diagnosed with Covid-19. It was pretty chaotic the day he announced that he was positive Covid-19. The rest of my family members, including me, had to report ourselves to the nearest health clinic for the home quarantine order and the procedure of getting the quarantine bracelet. The whole family then continued to quarantine at home, but a few days after that, my father had to go through a check-up, and he had to register himself to the quarantine centre. Everything had not been easy for us, but luckily, the whole household was safe and sound!
As I have said before, ODL is something I am grateful for, and it is a blessing in disguise for me. Although there are some drawbacks to the implementation of ODL for all students, the good definitely outweighs the bad. In my opinion, during a crisis like COVID-19, ODL is a suitable continuity strategy for students, lecturers, and higher education institutions. I hope that the Covid-19 situation in our country will slow down and everything will go back to the way it was before. Even though almost all adults are fully vaccinated, and the vaccination process for children will begin next year, the new variant of Covid-19 that keeps on appearing and developing is quite concerning.
Disclaimer: The photo was taken from Google.
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