Corona Daily 248: An Online School Student Speaks

This week, I interviewed a 17-year old student M, who spoke on condition of anonymity. I was keen to know the student’s experience of online school and exams.

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-        First feelings on hearing about classes shifting online, in March.

M: I was excited because I hadn’t done online school before. I thought it would be fun. Also, because I would save two hours commute every day, but our year-end exams were due and I was a bit stressed because I didn’t know how they would be conducted.

-        More independence as a result of shifting online?

M: Not really. Many teachers become paranoid about kids bunking classes or cheating in the exams. They become authoritative and restrictive. The cameras must be on all the time. To go to the washroom in your own house, you have to ask the teacher. Some teachers give me my own time- to work asynchronously. But not all, varies from teacher to teacher.

-        Benefits and downsides.

M: I get more time to myself. With no commute, I can do more things outside school hours, which I really like. Talking of downsides, sitting in front of the screen for eight hours is really exhausting. Teachers become paranoid and give us more work, without realizing we have eight subjects. In normal times, they have an eye on each of us. Teachers see what we’re doing in the class. Not having that rapport with my friends is something I really miss. Each of us has different relationships with different classmates. Online school has changed the class dynamics. In a class like English, there are always lots of jokes going around. I miss that liveliness.

-        On exams that were conducted online.

M: Online exams have made the playing field more uneven. Some teachers opted to ignore students who were cheating. I could see some students using their phones, calling friends. That is frustrating for students like me who don’t cheat. The pressures are different. You are not in the exam hall, not sitting in a school uniform.  

-        On technical difficulties.

M: Fortunately, absolutely none. But it’s a great excuse. (smiles). If you want to disappear from class, you can always blame it on the WiFi connection.

-        On millions of Indian children studying on their smartphones.

M: Fortunately, I have a laptop. But school on the smartphone is a real challenge. Not only the screen size, but a laptop is different. We use our phones to text, to take pictures, to listen to music, and just that makes our phones overheat. The battery runs out. I can’t imagine zoom calls and submissions through a phone. Schools should be more accommodative if they know students don’t have laptops.

-        How do students cheat on exams?

M: Extensions, multiple devices, blurring zoom screens or google meets. We give exams on exam.net, a special platform. It doesn’t allow you to leave the screen during exams. You can’t press escape. You can’t switch screens. I’ve heard some students split screens between two windows. Also heard about “exam.net hack”, a software that has become popular worldwide in the last couple of months.  Don’t know how it works, but schools are now banning it.

-        Would you like to keep elements of online school post-pandemic?

M: We are still being treated like we are in a physical school. A physical school achieves a variety of interactions in eight hours. An online school doesn’t have to go on for eight continuous hours. Online courses (like Coursera) are different. The teachers there don’t know you personally. But our school teachers know us well. They have a good idea about our performance and participation. Online learning is usually voluntary. Here the online school counts in my scores and university admissions. The accountability is high. I sincerely hope after pandemic the world goes back to the physical school.

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Ravi