Ensuring the fulfilled needs of tertiary-level students during the Covid-19 lockdown period is an interesting endeavour and challenge, to say the least. I am particularly concerned with their online and Internet needs.
Obviously, there are those who do not have wireless or Internet access at home.
A number of students might be using data on their smartphones in order to access online class sessions, course material, email announcements, updates, and assignment guidelines.
However, not every tertiary-level student owns a smartphone or is even in a financial position to afford one. And, for some, the specific distance learning platform being used, may not be fully compatible with certain types of smartphones or devices.
Additionally, the nature of the required course assignments, may warrant written documents with significant amounts of words; and the use of small mobile phones to complete these projects, may be a bit arduous.
This obviously would be less of an issue for students who have access to desktop computers, laptops, iPads, or tablets at home. But some students may also be presented with a challenge here too; especially when two or more members of the household require the use of the same device, around the same time.
Prior to the coronavirus-initiated lockdown, internet-challenged students would have been primarily making use of on-campus computer labs throughout the day, in order to complete their required written assignments. Others probably also took advantage of the services of internet cafes outside of on-campus lab hours.
Some may even have been experiencing a few hours of hospitality, generosity, or accommodation from relatives, friends, and neighbours, who willingly (or even unwillingly in some cases) facilitated their presence at their homes, in order to use computer and associated technological gadgets, devices, and facilities, for completion of assignments and projects in a timely manner.
However, in the current COVID-19 situation, schools and university campuses are closed; there is a national Stay-at-Home order; there is an ongoing “only essential services” stipulation; there is a social or physical distancing mandate; there is also a five-persons-only and no congregating requirement; and understandably so, there is a pervading fear of contracting the virus by being in contact with any random person, place, product, pet, piece, or particle.
So how can the inherent challenges for internet-displaced students be addressed? Can they leave home to go and fulfil their academic assignments?
Are internet cafés essential services that are opened and available throughout most of the day or night?
Do students feel safe enough to go to homes outside of their own, not knowing whether any of the occupants are Covid-19 positive or not?
Are relatives, neighbours, and friends comfortable with having a student over to their homes not knowing whether the student is an asymptomatic carrier?
Furthermore, are internet service providers (ISPs) and virtual private networks (VPNs), along with associated telephone companies, offering consistent, sustained, uninterrupted, and viable access and transmission service to facilitate the needs of students in all areas of the country, including rural or remote districts?
What about the T&T Electricity Commission (T&TEC), and solar electricity providers: Can students (and teachers) who live in particular districts, be assured of no power outages or blackouts, which tend to affect Internet connectivity for many?
If this current dispensation of online teaching and distance learning will, as is being suggested, become the new normal across the board; then for the benefit of both students and teachers, various systems of efficiency and accessibility will need to be explored and assured; and the associated economic implications for individuals and households, will also need to be addressed in a timely, reasonable, and feasible manner.
Maybe there are important lessons to be learnt, from already existing online schools and programs across the globe.
