Online Classes and Coronavirus
By Adetokunbo Abiola
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On March 23, schools across over fifteen states in Nigeria shut down to curb the spread of Coronavirus outbreak, but proprietors and parents have not given up hope to sustain learning during this period.
The Federal Government launched free e-learning portals for all students in primary and secondary schools following the closure of schools nationwide.
In Ondo State, government recruited and trained 25 teachers for the purpose of keeping students in the state busy during the forced holiday.
Skool Media used its network to engage students through Edufirst.ng platform, Edufirst tv channel and on Youtube.
The Successor Generation Community WhatsApp School sprung up to cater to senior secondary students, by providing access to curated lectures for SS students.
In one school, standard asynchronous online learning tools (such as reading material via Google Classroom), were augmented with synchronous face-to-face video instruction, to help continue study.
Online learning is revolutionizing the way Nigerian students learn, since it has the ability to expand the educational opportunities of students, largely overcoming many challenges.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, schools have closed shop, and educationists have replaced in-person teaching with online alternatives for the time being.
Experts say it is cheaper and more cost-effective to provide internet than to build roads.
Though this doesn’t mean building roads is unimportant, but it illustrates that internet availability is as important as road construction and healthcare.
Through online platforms at this critical period, learners can engage with all kinds of classes, such as exam revision, downloading of needed materials, research purposes, real-time study.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of building resilience to face various threats, and one of such resilience is online classes.
The pandemic is also an opportunity to remind students of the skills they need in this unpredictable times to ensure those skills remain a priority for all students.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, a few online classes had been provided for secondary schools.
One of the first courses for online education in Nigeria was proposed by Intel to provide low-cost free resources for digital learning.
Learners could access interactive materials, like instruction videos, podcasts, examination papers, and books.
Bunmi Ekundare of Intel had assured that educational community would find the way to the Intel materials.
In other developments, students could go to www.7fiverz.com to open a 7-day trial account and get mail suggestions through its Contact Us page, and schools could also use the facility to expose their students to online education.
Passnownow.com had provided an education network through mobile phones far back seven years ago in 2013, in a bid to make secondary school education for Nigerian students free.
Prepclass was created by Obanor Chukwuwezam in 2013, with the aim of addressing the issues caused by the generally poor performance of Nigerian students in examinations, especially those sitting at national level.
The platform provided content relevant to local examinations andwais available as an app in English, a product targeted at Nigerian students, with prices and payment plans depending on various factors agreed individually between tutors and students.
Policy makers, educationists and others are upbeat about the use of online classes to keep education afloat in these trying times.
“We are currently using Edmodo, Active Learn and Google Classroom to stay in touch with our students. We also investing in video tutorial abilities for our teachers, to enable them deliver lessons through videos,” said Oyin Egbeyemi, Director, The Foreshore School, Ikoyi. “We are also keen about being able to monitor, assess and evaluate learning outcomes by giving appropriate homework at the end of each virtual learning session.”
Another upbeat person is the Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who said that all students in Nigeria have been granted free access to its e-learning portals; the schoolgate.ng and the mobileclassroom.com.ng App.
“These e-learning platforms have been declared subscription free for Nigerian students in primary and secondary levels during the period of this lockdown as necessitated by COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Still, challenges abound.
The first is the insufficient online use among many Nigerians students, many of who live in conditions of acute poverty, rendering them unable to benefit from things such as online classes.
The second is the low rate of online penetration in the country, especially since economic solutions are needed alongside educational ones in order to meet the needs of students.
According to Pascal Okafor in Naijatechguide, Students have a habit of learning in a traditional classroom environment and are accustomed to face-to-face learning, meaning it might not be very easy for them to settle for the computer-based learning environments.
Online learning also requires continuous interaction with digital devices such as computers, smartphones or tablets and other peripheral devices such as a modem, adaptors, printers, scanners, microphones, or routers, and it is not clear whether students have such opportunities before the coronavirus epidemic.
But how realistic is it for primary and secondary schools to suddenly shift large amounts of teaching online after the coronavirus pandemic? Or might it be that online primary and secondary school education will become the new normal far earlier than experts were previously predicting?
It’s difficult to tell, but a foundation for such an endeavour has been laid through an unexpected situation.