Moodle has proved to be a saviour for students in these times of difficulties: Evlyn, Don Bosco College

These are first-hand student accounts on how our young population is managing to keep their exam prep or college course work going from the confines of their homes. In case you want to share your lockdown study experience, write to us at publish@shiksha.com.

We all are aware of the havoc this pandemic has created. It has affected the economy of the country adversely and has brought along the baggage of disadvantages. One of the major demerits is, it has impacted the education industry. The students who were eagerly waiting to start a new phase of life after passing out seems to be at a halt. The epidemic has put us on a pause mode but many colleges like Don Bosco College-Panjim, Goa are making the most of it during times like this.

Our college had introduced a website called ‘Moodle’ months before when the crisis was nowhere in sight. The website allows the students to check their results without having to wait in a queue! The students can give feedback about the teacher’s performance and their names would be kept anonymous. Hurray! Isn’t it? Moodle allows teachers to put up any study material or record content for students' purposes. One gets to keep track of their attendance. So at least we have time and source to make up to 75% attendance.

When the curfew was being laid out, all the schools in Goa and the rest of India had to be shut down. We were stuck in the middle of the portion and could not proceed further. That’s when Moodle came into the picture. We would initially grumble upon why this website was necessary and then it was a saviour suddenly. We had a few online classes, where our teachers explained the PPT to us. We could also interrupt the class if we had any questions or doubts with the help of the microphone feature.

If one has a lot of disturbance going on in the background then need not worry, we have the option to mute and listen to what the teacher has to say. If one has a poor network but is longing to clear any queries then one can put up the question in the chat section which is visible to the entire class as well as the respective teacher. Since many students were facing network issues, one of our teachers went with the idea of going offline. As in one could log in into their account and download the study material, audio/video files uploaded by them. In case of any queries, we could always put it up in the comment section.

Since my course (BBA) is a lot ‘practical and happening’, we have to be constantly on our toes to keep up with the PPTs (PowerPoint presentations), assignments and projects. We had to submit a couple of them through Moodle. We have a feature of video conferencing, so even if it is a group PPT, we can join the party.

There were a couple of students who were facing difficulties because of poor network. So our teacher suggested using the Zoom app. As for assignments we have to email it to the teacher in charge and adhere to the deadline. Instructions, specifications, and requirements are made very clear beforehand. We had been prepping up for our exams and Moodle would be a medium to answer it until we got the circular of exams being postponed from the concerned authorities. The students are free to contact the teacher via Moodle and sort out any confusion if exists. Amidst this, we had a photography contest and submission was online and the topic and details were mentioned.

Our college is doing the best they can to help the students, the rest is upon us how to make the most of it. Not many colleges have an inbuilt website like this. We consider ourselves fortunate for being able to reach out to our teachers and the syllabus of course.

About the Author:

Evlyn Fernandes is currently pursuing BBA from Don Bosco College. Her hobbies include reading and writing poems and write-ups. She likes experimenting with food.