While countries across the globe, hit hard by COVID-19, have kept their schools closed, Taiwan, Australia and Sweden have been among the few to keep theirs open.
Facing a worsening spread and rising death toll, more limitations on public gatherings have been put in place to slow the transmission of the virus. In some developed countries, schools have replaced face-to-face teaching with distance learning.
Such an alternative not only requires that each student has fair access to the requisite hardware and software, but that teachers are willing and able to adopt a different approach to imparting their knowledge and evaluating learning.
However, distance learning is not built in a day and Taiwan is not ready for it. If there is an imminent need for coronavirus containment, it could be a problem for schools, particularly universities.
Compared with the learning pattern in college, students in senior high school and below are highly dependent on textbooks, with a limited scope for further education. Shifting to distance learning would thus have a smaller impact.
College students, however, would be greatly affected, given that they are supposed to pursue more knowledge outside the scope of their studies. By pushing the boundaries, they can learn how to compare and contrast things in a broader sense, while thinking critically and independently.
There are two levels that the Ministry of Education should address in dealing with the challenges of implementing large-scale online learning.
First is the use of relief funds. According to a ministry plan, NT$400 million (US$13.3 million) is to be used to facilitate college teaching, training and guidance.
There are two burdens on universities and colleges. One is the tuition shortfall. Due to the temporary ban on entry by foreign nationals or the shift to distance learning, contributions from overseas students have dropped, given fewer credit hours. While earning less, schools have to pay more for the input and traning of staff for distance learning, the ministry Web site states.
The ministry should look into the significant gap in tech hardware between public and private universities, with the latter lagging far behind, although students at public and private schools are entitled to the same quality of learning. What is more concerning is that private schools lack resources to support huge annual maintenance fees.
By putting more funds into improvement and upgrading, this serious challenge could be turned into an opportunity to expand domestic demand if the government wants to save the industry and sustain the economy. Not only could it kill two birds with one stone, it might also benefit teachers and students.
The second level deals with the responsibility of teachers and students.
On one hand, teachers are obligated to adopt a different type of lesson planning, speaking in front of the camera and, with the help of assistants, engage in online platforms and interaction.
A new and fair evaluation system for learning is also needed.
If there was a need for adaptation to the trends in online teaching before, such as the platform Coursera — founded by Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller — now is the time for the ministry to seek an incremental implementation, which might be a painful, but ultimately beneficial process from a long-term perspective.
On the other hand, students have to adapt to learning online at a random location. On the upside, they would have to spend less time on transportation, giving them more time for reading. The downside is their attitude to learning would be more difficult to evaluate objectively, including attendance, concentration and introspection.
Assigning scores would not be easy — and never objective to a larger extent. The crux is self-discipline.
As National Cheng Kung University professor Su Wen-yu (蘇文鈺) has said: “It is a matter of civic duty when it comes to employing an online teaching method, while being concerned about whether or not students are wandering around and contracting the disease instead of taking courses. That should never be a teacher’s responsibility. Teaching a course is one thing, disease prevention quite another.”
As the government steps up its efforts to ensure smooth progress during this crisis, it should give teachers more timely support. Money alone would not ensure a successful shift to distance learning; it ultimately depends on each Taiwanese’s civic and social responsibility.
Huang Yu-zhe is a political science undergraduate at Soochow University and has been accepted to National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies.
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