When Archie Comics predicted online classes in 1997 it might have seemed a very cool thing. Fast forward to 2021, a year into a global pandemic COVID-19 Online Classes is the alternate option to on-campus classes but with it comes new challenges for the teachers and students alike. Sritama Maitra, assistant professor and research scholar from Loyola Academy, Hyderabad shares her experience of teaching classes online. She said, “Physically, for the eyes and the head it became challenging because of sitting too many hours in front of the computer. What was more challenging is that in the beginning, we were trying to be very idealistic and create a sort of mini classroom online.”
“While trying to create a mini classroom online we insisted that people should keep their videos turned on and of course we kept our videos turned on as well. But what happened was that most of the time it did not work out well. I am sure some students genuinely had issues but I am also sure some students kept their videos off just to escape from being seen.” Sritama added.
Sritama Maitra Credits: Dhanush
She mentioned the difficulties of students zoning out and it was disturbing that at the beginning of the class there were 50 people and slowly after 15-20 minutes only five of them were available. “If people went off-camera, we would ask them to turn on their camera and it took up so much time. It was also frustrating because we had to keep asking them to turn their cameras on,” she added.
Sritama shared, “What I learnt last semester is that if you have to individually cater to students in the online mode you need a whole semester and we don’t have that time. The semester was shortened but the syllabus wasn’t. We had to teach all five units in a short time. And most of us made the mistake of engaging individually with the students.”
According to Sritama, the disappearing faces were one challenge, and going after them to keep their camera’s on was another. She said, “Taking classes wasn’t a big problem. Examinations were a problem because online examinations no matter how we conducted it wasn’t cheat proof. Somehow students found ways to copy either from the class notes or directly from google and most of it wasn’t relevant.” However, another major challenge was correcting answer scripts online.
As a lecturer in Literature, Sritama added, “I think another aspect of frustration was that if you really have to teach literature dramatically – which I think is the best way to teach – and also interactively, it is important that your audience is also communicating with you. But if people are somehow finding ways to go off-camera then you don’t know who you are talking to and after sometime you give up calling and asking them to turn the camera on or asking for their opinion on a topic just to engage them.”
She said that it was very frustrating for a literature teacher but a compromise was made and added, “What I realised and my colleagues also did from our lessons in the previous semester is that online teaching has to be like a YouTube video. You can’t have too many interactions because when we try to make it interactive, we lose out on time and eventually our audience Is going to frustrate us because they are more interested in escaping and the online mode allows them that scope.”
The stress levels kept increasing with attendance entry becoming a huge task and clubbing classes together in the online mode. Sritama said, “Because we were low on staff, one teacher was given several sections, and maintaining the attendance for so many students as well as a record of their marks for various components online was a huge task.”
She added, “You are also feeling nervous about the disease and are constantly looking at the rising numbers and through the online mode you are almost trying to pretend as if everything is okay when it is not. It takes a toll on one’s mental health too.”
Sritama Maitra
The colleges were open for a while and certain colleges called for a batch-wise phase to teach students. Sritama said, “What we were doing was a hybrid model where we were having offline classes for one batch and the other two batches had online classes. Every hour, we were running after a class to find a room with Wi-Fi first and then a room big enough to accommodate the offline batch with proper social distancing.”
Well, the challenge wasn’t so much in taking the classes as it was for the preparation required for these two kinds of classes. “Online class requires a different kind of preparation and different kind of mindset. Offline class requires a completely different mindset and preparation. It is difficult to switch from one to the other within the scope of an hour. It takes a toll on your mind and sometimes you feel very lost. It is better to maintain a uniform system than this because it is a very stressful situation,” she added.
While online classes were a new concept and every day a new challenge was met work-life balance went for a toss. Sritama said, “We used to have departmental meetings even during holidays and because we asked our students to contact us personally the only ways were WhatsApp and phone calls, both of which would never stop ringing. We always had students asking questions about studies or reopening of college since they were also worried.
Sleeping hours, time to eat were all affected and the multitasking that the lecturers were doing took a toll on their physical health also not just their mental health. Sritama added, “It is still not safe for coming back to teach for myself, students, or my colleagues. The second wave has increased, and coming to college is scary and risky. Despite the difficulties of the online mode, I think it is still better than people gathering in the college when cases are rising.”
She mentioned that the college she works in is primarily a group of privileged people. Most of the students and faculty could afford this transition to online teaching. All of us have mobile phones and laptops at home so continuing education online despite all the challenges lecturers and students face is the safest way now.
Listen to Sritama's tale here:
Credits: Ananya Mariam Rajesh
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