Syazwani Hj Rosli

As schools across Brunei remain closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, students are adjusting to online learning at home, implemented by the Ministry of Education (MoE) recently.

Yesterday, three students spoke about their home schooling experiences and what could be done to further enhance the learning process.

Atiqah binti Raduan, who is doing a PhD in Vocational Education and Workforce with Seoul National University, returned to Brunei on March 3 and completed her 14-day isolation at home.

“We communicate with our lecturers through three different platforms – Kakaotalk, which is similar to WhatsApp, Naver band, which is similar to Facebook groups, and classes and presentations through the Zoom application,” she told the Bulletin.

The online sessions had already begun when she was still in Korea, with the university utilising the Zoom application to ensure a smooth, educational delivery for the students. “It was difficult at first, considering that we still like to write on whiteboards and brainstorm on A2 papers in class, but the professors had been familiarising themselves with the platform, and they did trials with us at least two weeks before the class began,” she said.

“One of the challenges of online learning, as a research student, is being far in the literal sense from my university, labmates and professors.

“Then there are times when I have the tendency to feel so relaxed and not motivated enough to do self-regulated learning. There is also the difficulty in coping with the time differences, as Brunei is one hour behind Korea.”

Atiqah expressed her frustration with the ongoing disruption.

“I was aiming for graduation this August. I’ve been told that they are allowing the first defence committee to be online, but I have to return to Korea for the other three or four defence, otherwise, it might be delayed. Hopefully, there will be a way to solve this.”

Md Haziq Aqwa bin Md Iman Safwa, a student at Sayyidina Husain Secondary School in Jerudong, shared his thoughts on the transition to online learning. “To me, e-learning is more convenient, as opposed to a face-to-face class. Just having our teachers at the push of a button on my laptop during class hours is exciting. It makes studying more fun,” he said.

He admitted, however, that online learning requires self-motivation, time management, Internet connection and a quota for easy access to e-learning. “From our experiences with group live-streaming classes in the mornings with our teacher, some students were not present for the ‘class’, because they overslept,” he recalled.

“Other than that, the Internet connection sometimes disrupts our online classes. My suggestion is that the authorities set up a quota for us with better speed, to provide a smooth online learning platform.”

His schoolmate, Dayangku Siti Auni Afifah binti Pengiran Haji Darun, said, “Online learning has given me plenty of motivation. The whole learning-via-technologies over the last few days has been awesome. I was excited on the first day of our e-learning classes. So were my classmates. Class participation is high, and most of us now interact more with the teachers than we used to in a physical classroom.”

Asked about the challenges, she responded, “It was hard on the first day, because some of us were trying to figure out how it works. Because of the sudden transition, online learning is a challenge for us, as well as our educators. We are slowly adapting, and we are not giving up.”

A parent of a four-year-old preschooler, who requested anonymity, said, “As a working mother, online learning is very challenging, because it requires me or my husband to co-view the media with our child.

“It is hard for a child his age to grasp the concept of learning through screens, because these concepts are usually implemented through play.

“As the parents of young children, we need to be physically available to read and play games with them, for the sake of their learning development.”