Assignment

On
‘Constructive Strategies to Conduct Online Academic Activities More
Effectively at University Level’

Course Name: Strategic Management (524)

Submitted To:
Mahmud Ullah
Associate Professor
Department of Marketing
Faculty of Business Studies
University of Dhaka

Submitted By:
Anik Mahmud
ID: 081, Sec: B
Batch: 22nd
Department of Marketing
University of Dhaka
 Submission Deadline:
October 17, 2020

Contents
Impact of COVID19 pandemic in Bangladesh and around the world...................................................3
My social, economic and educational experiences...................................................................................4
Online education initiative by University of Dhaka and my experiences..............................................5
My suggestions for making virtual classes more fruitful........................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................................6

Constructive Strategies to Conduct Virtual / Online Academic Activities

More Effectively at University Level
Impact of COVID19 pandemic in Bangladesh and around the world

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, so do the risks we face. The COVID-19
pandemic has not stopped at national borders. It has affected people regardless of nationality,
level of education, income or gender. But the same has not been true for its consequences, which
have hit the most vulnerable hardest. Education is no exception. Students from privileged
backgrounds, supported by their parents and eager and able to learn, could find their way past
closed school doors to alternative learning opportunities. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds
often remained shut out when their schools shut down (Schleicher, 2020). As of 1 June 2020,
globally, 1.2 billion learners (68.0 per cent of the world's total enrolled learners) were affected
due to the education institute closure in 144 countries, according to   UNESCO data. Since 17
March, all the educational institutes in the country have remained closed. Finance minister AHM
Mustafa Kamal, in his budget speech in the national parliament on Thursday, also said that
Covid-19 has essentially caused discontinuation of the regular academic curriculum of around
40.0 million students across the country. A broader and deeper consequence of the Covid-19
pandemic on the education sector might emerge from the economic downturns being ignited by
the pandemic control measures. SANEM estimates based on the latest Household Income
Expenditure Survey (HIES) shows that - before the crisis, 23.90 per cent (or 8.4 million) of the
students' families were below the poverty line. As the crisis prolongs, assuming a three months
long lockdown since 25 March, therefore a 25.0 per cent fall in annual per capita income,
SANEM find that as many as 43.90 per cent of the students' families could fall below the poverty
line (for primary: 51.70 per cent, secondary: 42.40 per cent; SSC/HSC: 30.20 per cent; and
university: 19.0 per cent). Hence, there could be as many as 7.70 million additional students'
families falling below the poverty line during this crisis, taking the total number of students
below the poverty line to 16 million. This pandemic will have a long term effect on student’s
school going especially poor student’s dropout will increase. Child labor, poverty, robbery,
unemployment, industrialization, high school dropout, shifting to rural or suburban areas will
increase as a consequence (Uddin, 2020).

My social, economic and educational experiences

From my personal experience, it was really fierce and nerve-racking situation in the primary
stage. Gradually the pandemic started to spread throughout the whole country. I used to live in
Jatrabari, which was one of the listed red zone areas of high COVID19 cases. The whole area got
locked down within first month. But before the lockdown I came back to my hometown Barisal.
I live in a remote village of Barisal. There was desolated silence everywhere. Daily commodities
stores were used to be closed early than usual, shopping malls and other retail stores got shut
down for uncertain period. Daily laborers couldn’t find any job. They lead a miserable life.
Police patrol were everywhere so that people do not get outside unnecessarily. Most people lost
their jobs or their salary has been cut. Many people left the city because of not being able to
afford house rent. National security certificate issuing has been increased and TAX/VAT income
has been decreased. As people were jobless, many a people needed succor to live on. So,
government had to send relief help and it needed extra money to expend. Because of this
government may resort to borrowing money from Bangladesh Bank. In order to meet the
borrowing demand of the government, Bangladesh Bank may then consider "printing" more
money. This is the main reason for worry. As it is an already established fact, printing more
money to finance government expenditures is a highly risky business as it can lead to an increase
in inflation which can quickly go out of hand and result in hyperinflation. The education system
has suffered a lot. This crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequities in our education
systems – from access to the broadband and computers needed for online education, and the
supportive environments needed to focus on learning, up to the misalignment between resources
and needs. The lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have interrupted conventional schooling
with nationwide school closures in most OECD and partner countries, the majority lasting at
least 10 weeks. While the educational community have made concerted efforts to maintain
learning continuity during this period, children and students have had to rely more on their own
resources to continue learning remotely through the Internet, television or radio. Teachers also
had to adapt to new pedagogical concepts and modes of delivery of teaching, for which they may
not have been trained.
Online education initiative by University of Dhaka and my experiences

After hearing about the online classes I was in a dilemma about the process of continuing the
online class. It was completely a new idea in our country. Besides that, in a public university
students come from different region and from different financial background. I was also terrified
about the exam and evaluation system that will be taken for online classes. Again, whether this
evaluation system will be fair for all or not is another concern here as most of the students live in
rural area where they do not get better network or internet accessibility, access to devices, books
etc. as they suddenly went to home on a short notice (Reza, 2020). Hopefully, university
governing committee has taken some timely measures to combat these hindrances. They made a
deal with Grameenphone to provide university students low cost sim card with an opportunity to
buy data packages in low price than usual. Currently, our online classes are going on full swing.
The attendance in the classes are better than expected. The teachers are giving their utmost effort
for the betterment of the students.

My suggestions for making virtual classes more fruitful

Some of my suggestions to conduct online classes more effectively are as follows:

1. Engagement between the teachers and students: There should be a two-way

communication between the students and teachers to ensure better engagement. Classes
should be more interactive as like offline classes. Course outline should be designed in
such a way that students feel interested to participate and share their thoughts. Students
should be given chances and time to express their opinion and make two-way
conversation. An effective way to engage students in discussions is breakout room.
Teachers can send students in breakout room to have discussions in a particular topic in
group. Then they can come out of that room and suggest the course teacher on that topic
and the best group should be rewarded with bonus points.
2. Time schedule: The scheduled class time and length of the classes should be given a
concern. Students who use mobile data have to suffer a lot because of the unnecessary
length of the classes. Besides that, if the scheduled classes are not to be taken in a
particular day, it should be announced before.
 3. Class numbers in a day: It’s better to take only one class per day. As of today all our
activities has gone online we may gradually face its side effects like eye sight problem,
pressure on brain.
4. Assignment or group work based evaluation system: Considering the internet
connection and contingency of electricity real time examination system should be
avoided. So, there should be assignment based exam by giving a time frame to complete
it.

References:

Schleicher, A. (2020). Oecd.org. Retrieved 17 October 2020, from

https://www.oecd.org/education/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-education-insights-education-at-a-
glance-2020.pdf.

Uddin, M. (2020). Retrieved 17 October 2020, from

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/effects-of-the-pandemic-on-the-education-sector-in-
bangladesh-1592061447.

Reza, F. (2020). Covid-19: DU to start online classes, provide health insurance to students.

Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved 17 October 2020, from
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/education/2020/06/02/covid-19-du-to-start-online-
classes-provide-health-insurance-to-students.