With face-to-face classes resuming today, some teachers shared their experiences teaching online during the class suspension with The Macau Post Daily last week through phone interviews.
Classes were suspended early in October due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Macau, which resulted in schools needing to hold online classes for students.
Speaking about her experience, a 22-year-old woman in her first year of teaching in a secondary school found the online classes and the situation of her school to be good, saying that “as a teacher, their main goal is to help maintain a learning atmosphere for students”, and she underlined the good results from her students’ homework. She noted that there were no challenges faced in terms of connections or server crashes, but found that due to the lack of interaction, it can be difficult to help certain students who face challenges or have certain weaknesses with their studies. She also said that although the experience was good, it could be “a little inconvenient” and less effective than teaching face-to-face.
Another 22-year-old woman, also in her first year of teaching secondary school students, shared that it takes practice to get used to using an online platform, but quickly added that “it was not very difficult.” However, she added that “the hardest part is trying to motivate the students” as some students may not take online classes seriously or are easily distracted. She that there are merits to online teaching such as a slightly lighter workload and the “safety and security of being at home.” However, having faced a system crash and some issues that prevented some students from submitting their work, she said that “there are still some things that can be improved.”
Meanwhile, a 23-year-old teacher in her second year of teaching said that there was “definitely a learning curve” to learning how to use the online teaching platform that her school uses, adding that after the news about the local COVID-19 cluster, they had received training sessions prior to holding the actual classes. She found the online classes initially quite enjoyable, but eventually saw difficulties in lesson preparation and limited interaction with students. She also mentioned the challenges faced with the system, noting a time when a crash had left students and teachers unable to have the class. She added, “The biggest problem could be the connection” as the issues can use up the limited sessions and time with students.
A 39-year-old teacher with more than 10 years of teaching experience found that the training and support provided for this particular situation was adequate. At the same time, she praised the platform used for allowing students to replay the videos for a certain period of time as well as seeing who was in attendance during the class, but said that practice was necessary to get used to it. She also said that teaching classes face-to-face was more effective as student interaction was important, which had decreased during online classes. She also said that there seemed to be less control over the students during the online classes, as it was not always easy to tell what students were really doing.
