When the Covid-19 widely spread in early March, Tan Tao University decided to shift the entire curriculum to online learning, in order to maintain current activities. Up to now, the SBE is effortlessly progressing and so are others. We are, step by step, pushing to improve classes to be more effective and complete.
From the beginning, the Business School seemed to stumble during this urgent preparation. However, this transition does not cause great effect, because TTU students are so highly adaptive to hardship. That is an undeniable advantage of Liberal Arts model at Tan Tao University. And now, we will look into the details of the SBE’s online courses!
How does online teaching affect the teaching the SBE?
Tan Tao University is a wild unicorn, among others. Students here, have been acquainted with “non-traditional” classes. Therefore, according to Dr. Francisco T. Roma, Acting Dean of the SBE, “It is easy to teach online. It focuses more on listening comprehension and greater focus on learning. It provides students a wider range of materials which are easily accessible on all devices. It is time saving and there is a comfort factor on students especially during this emergency – COVID 19.”
“With the availability of ICT resources at TTU, online learning is another form of hybrid learning, in time of need. It blends what is traditional, and another alternative way to teach, where students are situated all over the places and they are not in class.
And like now due to the Social Distancing (movement control order) by the government to protect the citizens from COVID-19 epidemic, OLT help us teachers to teach online. Students feel that we are taking care of their knowledge acquisition needs through the use of ICT and LMS using Moodle/Zoom technology as a feasible alternative” – Dr. Moses Enjob.
Are there any challenges or difficulties for SBE in online learning?
After 1 month, despite not physically present at classes, students are doing well. Therefore, the Business School said that this “non-traditional” model is one of the most appropriate methods during this pandemic
In fact, many universities have implemented online teaching. Thus, it is the application of technology to address educational obstacles that have dragged many teachers, students and parents in passive situation.
“Online learning has too many differences compared to traditional learning because it lacks face to face interaction. Therefore, the teamwork activities were not put in effect”- Dr. Francisco T. Roma said. For that reason, the SBE is rushing for solutions to develop soft skills for students during this pandemic.
In addition, there is a common problem with online learning: “There are some issues that can be encountered with online classes like the reliability and dependability of the facilities to support smooth delivery of online classes like internet, computers, electricity, the application system. There were times that there are no electricity or problem with the zoom so classes can’t be conducted.” – Dr. Bernardo Jeffrey L. Morante.
Moreover, according to Dr. Moses Enjob, there are many challenges in online learning: “No face to face contact. In reality, online learning lacks chemistry or human touch between teacher and student(s). For the young minds, they naturally need personal contacts, confidence, and reassurance, in order to be well motivated in their pursuit of knowledge and skill. For adult learners like in open university, this issue is fine as they are more matured, as they are working adults. For working adults who do on-line learning, either part-time or full-time, in colleges and universities what they really need are the resources like notes, assignments, exercises, and class projects. They are more independent.
As we know very well through the usage of internet in our daily lives, it is an acknowledged fact that ICT is never mean to be perfect, but meant to be robust (it will never die) as at certain places the reception is very good, but at another location the reception is poor due to power supply variability, interruptions, quality of communication lines of the telecom department, and other factors.”
Although, there are still many limitations in time and space in online learning, the SBE will continue for improvement and gradually level up the quality of lectures for TTU students.
