IN RECENT days, Malaysia recorded the highest searches of the phrase "Google Classroom" in the world, indicating serious efforts and high interests of educators in the country to embrace the unfamiliar waters of online teaching and learning throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) period amidst parents voicing frustration over homeschooling for overall lack of teacher-learner engagement.
This positive development, however, is to be commended, especially when Senior Minister (Education) Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin announced the likelihood of delaying the opening of schools as a preventive measure to reduce the risk of the Covid-19 spread.
As their daily life grows even more stressful and restricted, our students’ cognitive, social and emotional needs will become even more pronounced. Therefore, as the "unsung" heroes who continue to do their part in the pandemic fight mostly invisibly, there are several pertinent preparations that Malaysian educators should consider for a more effective online learning to take place successfully.
We must first question ourselves whether we are rightly adopting the online teaching pedagogy, or, are we exercising “pandegogy”, i.e. teaching online solely because of the pandemic?
Good learning design is still key regardless of the learning context and, therefore, effective online learning requires well-thought decisions by educators to wisely select between synchronous and asynchronous modes, having considered the potential constraints faced by learners at home.
Educators must be clear on what they want students to learn in each session in which frameworks such as Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction (1992) can be used to organise learnings into more manageable concepts.
Educators should then tamper their expectations when it comes to assigning work via online learning mode. We must be clear with the learning outcomes we set and to not just “throw in” random tasks for the sake of completing topics in the syllabus.
Learning materials should be decided carefully beforehand, whether to reuse existing learning materials, innovate them for more up-to-date contents or to consider whether this is a good time to develop new learning materials which can also serve as materials for later Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) development.
Essentially, critical learning materials should be carefully discerned from the good-to-haves as we must realise that we are not the only instructors assigning work to each student and not everything must be done online at the same time.
In the hands of passionate and mindful teachers, ICT-enabled lessons can be transformational. However, to some non-digital native educators, this may appear daunting if not intimidating a task. Thus, it is best to start with familiar tools that are easy to use. This will cut time on learning curves and technical glitches that may hamper the online teaching, and minimising learning experience.
When there are several options to choose from, we should settle for tools that are easily accessible to both of us as teachers and students, taking into consideration the internet bandwidth and speed.
Actual learning requires time and dedication, yet many take it for granted, thinking that learning processes will occur naturally, even online. But on their own, many students do not know how to learn efficiently.
Simply because we upload materials into our learning platforms, that does not mean that our students are learning.
It is, therefore, imperative for educators to guide students to learn. We must follow up by asking about their learning that goes beyond content matter - what are the things they find confusing? Why is it confusing?
Assessments for learning must also be judiciously designed. Clear instructions and guidelines should be laid down for students at every step. The learning process itself must be monitored by encouraging quality interactions in the learning platforms and feedback be obtained for continuous teaching and learning improvements.
During synchronous sessions, students should be given the opportunity to discuss with one another as they would in their normal classroom settings, instead of having to listen to one-way lectures where instructors merely narrate slides for the entire session.
On the whole, efficient delivery of an online lesson is dependent on our ability to effectively organise learning experience. Solid lesson planning complemented by effective learning design and effective classroom management is key in creating meaningful learning experiences as it leaves little room for students to side track.
And when all is lost, the less is more approach can never go wrong. So, keep calm and teach on, fellow educators!
The writer is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology, Department of Foundations of Education, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She can be reached at ainimarina@upm.edu.my