Dimapur: With a positive intention to continue learning and also to take learning to a whole new level for students; Tetso College in Dimapur, Nagaland initiated its first-ever virtual classrooms via Google Hangouts Meet on Thursday. The move comes after the state government on March 16 declared to close down all educational institutions in the state as a preventive measure to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Talking to EastMojo, Dr Hewasa Lorin, vice-principal of Tetso College, stated that the main motive behind the virtual classroom was to ensure that the students in the college do not stop learning. “In addition to the objective to ensure that learning does not stop, we believe that digital education is the future, so with this incident of the coronavirus, it sort of became a forced opportunity for Tetso College,” Lorin added.
When asked how they took to the virtual classes, Lorin said that after the government ordered the closure of educational institutions on March 16, Tetso College immediately launched the initiative. “We had training for the virtual classes for the lectures on March 17 and then we had a trial run with the students on March 18. We started the actual classes on March 19 and they will go on till March 27,” she added.
EastMojo also got the opportunity to speak with an assistant professor of Tetso College, Supongsangla Walling, who said that the lecturers at the institutions were also working from home and added that the new experience was exciting for both the lecturers and the students.
On asked about the problems faced during the virtual classes, Walling said that there were problems with the internet connection and also the daily limit data of the students running out. She further added that the institution was making some slight changes so as to save the data of the students.
Walling concluded by saying that from March 20, the students will sit for 150 minutes in the virtual class where each period will be of 30 minutes for the undergraduate students. Normal class timings will be maintained for the postgraduate students. She added that the virtual classes will continue till March 27.
