Campus closed, classes continue

I haven't stepped out of campus for one and a half months. We are staying in the dorm on campus and carrying out our classes online. This is quite a novel experience for us.

I am a post-graduate student of visuals art design at Huzhou University in Huzhou, China. With the emergence of coronavirus, many students have gone back home to their countries. I haven't because there is no airport in the town where I stay. I would have to travel about 150 km to the nearest town with an airport. That would entail travelling in a crowd by bus or train. Staying back at campus is a safer option. I feel that perhaps I am safer here than if I returned home.

When we first heard about coronavirus mid-January, our campus was closed and the 17,000 or so students of Huzhou University had gone home for the Lunar Festival or Chinese New Year. Things were normal then. It was after the Lunar Festival that the virus spread all over. It was suddenly announced that after 27 January afternoon, we would not be able to leave campus. Only those returning to their countries would be permitted to leave.

Since then, about 250 of us international students have been staying at the university dorms. In the beginning, they would send us meals twice a day from the university. Now the canteens are open and we can buy our own meals. We do not leave our rooms much. Our temperatures are taken twice daily. If anyone has fever, they are moved to another place.

Despite all these strict regimes, studies have not stopped. We are having to carry out our assignments regularly and submit these on time. We even have to do group assignments. We are each in different places and discuss our assignments online.

Many departments have stated live classes, online. An Alibaba app, Ding Talk, is being used for the live classes. Our classes will go live from next week too.

Our exams are in July. By then, hopefully, everything will be all right. Our friends will return. We will attend classes, go roaming outside of the campus. We will unhesitatingly shake our friends' hands and breathe in the fresh air, deeply.

A new experience

Md Mehdi Hasan

My Chinese friends were preparing to go home in the first week of January to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I had no idea then that I too would be going home during this holiday.

I am a student of Zaozhuang University of Shandong province, doing my under-grad studies in automation and design. When coronavirus began to spread all over from China's Wuhan province, I returned home with many other Bangladeshi students on 3 February.

As it is, according to the academic calendar, the campus was to be closed till 15 February. The holiday was extended by 10 days because of corona. But studies resumed on 26 February. I am regularly attending classes from 2000 km away. The teachers are taking our classes through online video. We are having to submit our assignments regularly. Some changes have been made in our curriculum to adjust to the situation.

I am an engineering student and so much of our studies are practical. Now theoretical classes have been increased. When normalcy is restored, perhaps we will have practical classes to make up for this.

The teachers in China are taking classes through WeChat and QQ. The teachers who are in other countries are taking classes over Messenger. There are no shortcuts where studies are concerned. The teachers send us PDF files before classes, updating us on what we will be taught and we prepare in advance. At the end of each PDF file are our homework assignments. So though campus is closed, there is no holiday. The teachers are online from 8 to 10 in the morning and 4 to 6 in the afternoon, every day. We can discuss our problems with them then.

The teachers are not just focusing on studies alone. They regularly inquire about our families, our countries. It is a completely new experience.

This experience has given us a deeper understanding of the 'global village' concept. I have also understood how technology can help us in times of emergency. There will be all sorts of hindrances in people's lives, disasters and problems, but life must go on. We must continue to look ahead.

*This piece appeared in the Shopno Niye supplement of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir