May 20th, 2020
By Nooraslinda Abdul Aris
Introduction
Covid19… pandemic… and bang ‘lockdown’! One word that caused people to start fearing and panicking. For us the lecturers, we are contemplating what should we do? What about classes and assessments? Which method should we use? Many questions start lingering through our mind and it keeps doubling even tripling without being answered. Not only the lecturers, it obviously worries the students too. Students start to think about what will happen to their current study. Will there be an end to their learning process? Classes, lecturers, friends, quizzes, final exams, and graduation are what they think most. And yet, queries were left unanswered since this is the first-ever phenomenon in this new millennium. And suddenly the term ‘panicgogy’ appeared in the education arena. The fear that learning may not achieve the intended outcome due to varied obstacles. The fact is, whatever happens, life must go on, and so does the teaching and learning activities. Let’s take a look at the effects of the Covid19 pandemic towards teaching and learning activities particularly in the UiTM context.
What is ‘Panicgogy’?
‘Panicgogy’ is basically a combination of the word panic and pedagogy. Pedagogy is commonly understood as the method and practice of teaching, while panic is a sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety. The term ‘panicgogy’ was coined by Sean Michael Morris of the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado, Denver, who is also the director of Digital Pedagogy Lab. This term ‘panicgogy’ means understanding students' practicalities of physical readiness and/or limitations (Kamenetz, 2020).
During the Covid19 lockdown period, classes at UiTM are to carry on as usual. However, the method of delivery by the lecturers needs to change. Lecturers should quickly opt to switch their teaching methods from face-to-face to online learning. Although this change may cause troubles to the majority of the lecturers, the advancement of technology and constant sharing sessions by the learning providers and expert mentors may soothe the worries away.
However, the learning outcome is not about lecturers. The focal point of teaching and learning is about the students, our future generation. Knowing what hinders the students’ understanding is of the utmost importance for the lecturers to achieve the course learning outcome. Students may face various learning disabilities and limitations. For instance, having a smartphone does not guarantee that the students would be able to follow through online lectures if sufficient and stable internet connection is not available. Additionally, other hindrances may also pose challenges to students’ learning such as unavailability of appropriate devices - some students may not own a laptop or computer which is more capable of helping them doing assignments. Informal observation among the lecturers has also pointed out the students’ burden in shouldering some family responsibilities. While at home, the students are taking the opportunity to help their parents with house chores and even doing a part-time job to support the family financially.
Through personal experience, a student who lives in the northeast of Peninsular Malaysia has an unstable internet connection. Despite having unlimited data, the internet coverage is poor causing her anxiety whenever classes are done via Google Meet. Another student when contacted out of his unresponsive in Google Classroom mentioned that he is occupied at home with house chores. The reply was “I’ll try to complete it by the end of today.” While another student who after several messages and with other student’s assistance, appeared to be saddened by the fact that she is sharing one laptop with her other siblings. All the above are the real challenges for the students, and some may feel more than mentioned. During this restriction movement period, the lecturers noticing students with issues may offer the ears to listen.
Thus, given the challenges faced by the students, the lecturers need to continuously support the students emotionally. This act is an integral part of teaching and learning, which brings about the concept of social-emotional learning (Walker, 2020). This concept supports the idea that as lecturers, we must be flexible enough to cater to the students’ needs, work on our relationship skills with the students, and let the students know that we care.
How do we empower students?
At UiTM, to cater to the control movement order that disallows close physical interaction, online distance learning (ODL) has replaced face-to-face learning. Various platforms are used for ODL at UiTM including i-Learn (will be replaced by UFuture), Google Classroom, MOOC, Google Meet, and even WhatsApp. However, switching from face-to-face learning to ODL is not as straightforward as it sounds. In ODL, although face-to-face interaction may not be traditionally physical face-to-face like before, many platforms offer the feature of virtual real-time meetings such as Google Meet, Cisco Webex Meet, and Facebook Live streaming.
Prior to ODL, lecturers in UiTM are familiar with the blended learning approach. Blended learning is referred to mixing of face-to-face classes and online learning (Owston, 2017) with the usage of technology. This so-called hybrid learning allows a flexible mode of learning. The lecturers need to spend time in preparing and designing suitable material for the face-to-face as well the online learning (Kechil et al., 2017). The initiative of the blended learning in UiTM has begun since the year 2010 in line with the vision and mission of the Critical Agenda Projects (CAP) and the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) of the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to keep updated with technology advancement (Atan, Embi, & Hussin, 2011). Thus, the familiarization with blended learning will ease lecturers' worry on the implementation of ODL.
ODL that blends virtual face-to-face interaction and online learning has become the ‘new norm’ in education be it the school and higher education. This new norm of learning offers students the opportunity to choose when and where they can fulfill the online requirements of a course. Such flexibility allows the students to check the topics, relearn it, and complete an assessment at their own pace without the need to attend the face-to-face classes. This freedom and flexibility are the notions towards empowering the students to take charge of their own learning. Thomas and Velthouse (1990) devised four conditions of empowerment: choice, meaningfulness, competence, and impact which the lecturers need to understand. The usage of ODL with various arrangements as pedagogy proven to provide students with choices; delivering materials into an understandable and reachable form is a mean of meaningfulness, completing their assignment is evidence of competency and having some good discussion via Google Classroom, WhatsApp or any other chosen platforms is a sign of positive impact towards their learning.
Hence, ODL provides the opportunity for enhancing student empowerment in their learning. Empowerment provides the students with more authority in controlling and managing themselves rather than the lecturers. The lecturers’ role is now becoming more relevant in guiding the students with an impactful task, which will gradually increase their motivation and built up the confidence level. By doing so, the students will learn to decide on their own on how they should embrace their learning.
Conclusion
It is true enough that under this unprecedented time, both the students and lecturers are in shock of what awaited them and can have a panic attack. It is time that we take one step at a time; instead of thinking what we (the lecturers) need to do rightfully to know the students’ obstacles and work thereon. Know the fact of our students and start putting our thought in their shoes. Let’s become that creative lecturer using many possible means available - Facebook, Twitter, email, WhatsApp group; compassionate by letting them know we are there to assist their journey (social-emotional learning); and design generative solution for our students. Together we can enhance our student empowerment in achieving impactful learning.
