Online classes have made us busy in our homes: Manomay, IHM

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 believe that anything and everything that happens to us has both positive as well as negative aspects. Focusing upon the current situation of COVID- 19 and the 21 day lockdown period in India, we all know that how it is affecting us negatively like, all lives are at a risk, the economy might crash, the education of students is getting affected and the most importantly many of us are scared about the security of their jobs.

However, till date, our country is doing great and will continue to do so. But, we have to also count the positive aspects of it. Did you ever think that your school or college would start online classes? You would be doing deals and meetings sitting home. Frankly speaking, no one did. That idea never came into my mind. Even the HRD ministry has created a website, which contains informative videos of almost all the academic courses available so that you learn and use your time efficiently during the lockdown period. Only one thing we need to do is stay home and co-operate.

I am a final year student at the Institute of Hotel Management, Bhopal. Now at this point of time, our college has also started taking the classes online so that we learn daily and it helps us to upkeep with the syllabus. Our college has also given a proper weekly timetable and has created a social media group to connect with each one of us. At first, it was a little problematic for all of us with the lack of internet connection and improper knowledge about the software, but I must say our faculty members are working hard to cope up.

April, May are the months when the semester syllabus is nearly over in the colleges and the examination begins, so a majority of the classes are a revision for the students and they are very well effective. These are helping us a lot to brush up our knowledge and to prepare for the semester examinations.

During the classes, the respective subject lecturers are also providing us with the notes’ softcopy via emails or through social media platforms and are also giving us assignments, which keeps us busy and will fetch us internal marks. These assignments contain either making a PowerPoint presentation (PPT) or making a video after doing some research on a particular topic and then explaining it or they are giving us certain questions whose answers we have to look for and submit as a word file. Some assignments are to be done individually and some in groups and then we have to submit these assignments to the respective faculty members via email for which they also provide a due date. As of now, we have received two assignments per subject.

These online classes have also made us busy in our homes. Moreover, we all agree with this, doing something productive is always better than sitting idle. The only problem that we are facing right now is of ‘practical classes’. Hotel management is all about practical learning and since the colleges are closed our practical classes are getting affected but still, our faculty members are trying their best and providing us with the videos from where we can learn. Some of the students are cooking at home on a daily basis and are sharing their clips on social media platforms, learning something new daily and inspiring others to cook.

In a recent conversation with the college faculty members, we also got to know that our college council is deciding to change the examination pattern. They are trying to do something different this time so that it becomes easier for the students to attend the examinations and they are thinking of taking it online this time so that all the students remain safe and healthy. None of the colleges ever thought that the examination pattern, which was being followed from years, would change like this. This coronavirus has already brought many changes and will bring many more.

We, the final year students, who will graduate this year are now more concerned about our job security. This virus has strongly affected the tourism and hospitality industry resulting in a huge sink in the jobs. As of now, none of us knows when this pandemic will be over and how life will be after that.

The steps that are being taken by the Indian Government are very appropriate and appreciable and are helping us to fight with this coronavirus. All we have to do is stay home, stay safe and follow the safety and precautionary measures. We all will soon have a fresh start with some new opportunities and targets until then we need to stay calm and just co-operate.

About the Author:

"If you want to change the world, pick up your pen". Manomay is following the mantra of 'believing in yourself'. He is a budding hotelier and is currently pursuing his graduation from Institue of Hotel Management, Bhopal. He is bibliophiles and loves to spend some quality time with books daily. He mostly writes on education and way of living. He also takes part in certain debates and discussions.