How We Adopted Online Learning & Teaching During Pandemic – A True Story of Personal Experience

 

Yes, for those who had experienced the Wars, Curfews, Earthquakes, and some regional pandemics in their lives else for others the Corona Pandemic came-up with a new style of living that had never been experienced before. 

The whole country was like a pickle in a jar.  Everyone was deeply concerned about the unprecedented consequences because most people were not known about such a situation.  The life got stuck at homes; saving life & budget became the most important goal of everyone. 

The Immediate Post Effects

It was early March 2020 when the rumors of lock-down were started due to Corona Pandemic. Ultimately; in mid-March, we received a notification from the government for the immediate closure.

Saving the reputation, continuing the session & saving our bread & butter, how I being a leader in a cockpit decided to resume our schooling operations through Virtual Education was a worth learning experience of my life.

Started Exploring the Solution – My Personal Experience

I work in a university and heading a department of Schools & Colleges that was established a few years back to start a Lab School & College under the One Campus Solution Project.  Therefore; I was experiencing the whole hierarchy of the education system starting from Early Childhood to Ph.D. level. 

I started observing the educational institutions around the world and found that they were immediately shifted to Virtual Education or eLearning through Internet, TV & Radio. 

First world countries where virtual education was already started 2-3 decades before which turned them experts in technology with strong infrastructure. But in an under-developed country like ours, a very low education budget & week IT infrastructure having internet facility only in main cities, approx. 20% or less citizen’s accessibility; providing Virtual education was a big question mark.

Facing huge pressure from the community and to keep ourselves in a race with our competitors, the best and quick solution of eLearning must be onboard in our institution. Due to time constraints, the shortest and easiest way out was to adapt the tested system that other institutions were using, provided if applicable in our environment. 

The First Solution Onboard - WhatsApp

After having lots of discussions and installing the various demo versions software, truly nothing had worked successfully.  But we needed to start from at least somewhere and you know we started with WhatsApp Groups.  That was the only fastest and easiest eLearning solution to deploy initially and to keep ourselves on the racing track. It was started from 1^st April 2020 but had never thought that with this tiny solution we would be facing severe problems like:

• ·         Parents WhatsApp numbers data was a long procedure
• ·         The proper interaction with students took two weeks
• ·         The unwillingness of parents towards eLearning education but convincing them
• ·         Sharing assignments on WhatsApp and then collecting it on the email was again a hurdle
• ·         Sharing video tutorial sites and long instructions was a tough job

At least something had started, and I remember that within 20 days about 60% of students were on board.

What most Institutions were Doing

Indeed; a quest to have a complete Learning Management System solution immediately onboard was the main objective.  Private schools which were established for decades, having strong infrastructure and research were the best search target.  But after exploring many good renowned institutions, I was completely shocked by the facts:

• ·         Mostly these schools were also on WhatsApp solution
• ·         Others had adopted free LMS software available on the Internet but having limited users & options, so institutions were continuously switching
• ·         As the whole world at once started the eLearning, therefore, it was also observed that mostly free LMS servers were mal-functioning and most times in a day their services were unavailable
• ·         Paid versions to get guaranteed services with the highest number of users & options were very expensive
•         The best available eLearning LMS systems I had experienced with the free versions were:

These were highly in use but there were several other solutions available as well.  The surprising thing was that institutes were also using Skype, Zoom, Google Classroom, which are not LMS but just a communication system used in organizations for virtual meetings or webinars. 

Note: It meant two things: Virtual Education was ignored in the past AND no one prepared for such a situation

Finally; my thorough research brought me to one important point i.e. I need a professional solution with the following 6 attributes:

1. Corporate Licensing
2. Infrastructure development of the system as per our organization need
3. Planning to identify the number of users licensing & options for the next at least 5 years
4. Accessibility of system on devices including computer and mobile
5. Capacity Building Training including:
1. Infrastructure design
2. Administrative & Teaching faculty
3. Students & Parents
6. Reliability, Audit, and optimization of the system

Microsoft was the Solution I was Searching for:

Ultimately the solution came out of the box. My 15^th April 2020 evening call to one of my friends working at Microsoft Regional Office for seeking his assistance for the selection of the best LMS had completely changed the scenario!!!

Although we had interacted in different meetings related to university-level eLearning support for schooling was not the talk of the town.  Indeed; Microsoft Showcase School Projects was discussed but that we assumed a very high-tech system for a beginner schooling system like ours.  He had introduced and shared complete details of the Microsoft Office 365 Online LMS solution and shared the important links. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ww/microsoft-365/academic/compare-office-365-education-plans?market=pk&activetab=tab:primaryr2

Now, this shocked me, having an LMS system from the world’s best IT company, Complete Free!!!!

Microsoft provides free licensing for educational institutions but with limited options and a limited number of users. But that is not a piece of cake.  Your project only approves if you have a strong Proposal and Legal documents of your institution.

However; the next meeting was set next day 16^th April 2020 at 2 am mid-night because Microsoft teams had a very busy schedule and the following prerequisites were demanded from us:

1. Proposal & Request Letter for the Subscription
2. Registration Certificate of the Institution
3. Strength of Staff & Students
4. Official Internet domain name
5. Official Website & Email Addresses

Within a week all the above were provided, subsequently, the infrastructure design and training of staff with the support of the Microsoft experts team was completed in 10 working days.  Ultimately; we started our Online Classes through Microsoft on the 1^st of May 2020.  Last but not least, after 3 months our all teaching faculty had appeared in Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Certification (MIE Expert) exam and passed it.  Now we are not only having the best LMS system, internationally-certified MIE Expert staff but we are working hard to make our school the Microsoft Certified Showcase School to get international recognition.

 Thank You Microsoft Team d

The journey was tough but fruitful with a lot of researches and lessons learned.  Having Microsoft solution free of cost for the whole school is an honor and privilege among other stakeholders & competitors.  However; still the whole issue is not resolved because students who were moved to remote areas/villages during lock-down had not internet accessibility and were unable to continue their session.  Subsequently; parents having two or more children in a school can’t afford devices for all and only one kid was able to attend the session.

Dear Reader; you can comment & if have any kind of assistance required for your institution, please contact me on dawoodjanan76@gmail.com