Two months ago, the Government issued a decree that stopped the education process in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in North Macedonia. Since then, teaching has been conducted through online platforms. With the introduction of this measure, it was clear that the forthcoming period will present a challenge for all included in the education process. The university students that were contacted by Meta said that even though the online education has its advantages, they miss the interaction during the lectures and the fellowshiping during the breaks.
For the law student Katerina Ivanova the online studies are a bit of a shock, as she puts it, attending lectues while she is still in her pajamas and at the same time not to have a face to face contact with her colleagues.
“Despite these unusual circumstances, the education process is going on with almost the same quality as previously, as much as possible. The theoretical part of the material is passed without any obstacles, but the debate that we had during lectures is lost, and to me, that is especially important in the legal area,” said Katerina Ivanova for Meta.mk.
She is also a President of the Committee for Protection and Promotion of the Rights of the Marginalized Groups at the Sts Cyril and Methodius University’s Student Parliament and is stressing the problem of not having the availability of devices and internet connection that a large number of her colleagues are faced with.
The journalism student, Georgi Bozhinovski said that even though the quality of the lectures depend on the professor, he is disappointed with the lack of interest by certain individuals to even schedule a lecturing.
“We have situations where they meet us half way and are adapting to the situation, but there are also those that only send materials and we expect to hear from them again in June. In general, at least at the Faculty of Law, I believe there is room for a quality online teaching, but in order to be conducted properly it has to be started with control of the professors, a system needs to be introduced that will prevent manipulations with the lecturing and the absence of students for weeks in a row” stressed Bozinovski.
From the conversations with students, the impressions arise that their opinions about the online lectures are divided. Some of them think that online learning has its advantages such as having a comforting and relaxed atmosphere, more time for themselves and a constant access to the Internet. Others are demotivated due to monotonous lecturing that happens via their screens and some have no possibilities of having a discussion and asking more questions.
To be continued
