CHALLENGES NAFTI STUDENT FACED DURING E-LEARNING

  

 Source: SABC-NEWS
         

Checking the temperature of a student 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic came with new and innovative ways of doing regular activities and academic institutions are not left out. Teaching and learning activities had to be done online since schools were closed down to prevent the spread of the virus. 

The introduction of the e – learning sessions although was innovative it came along with challenges not only for students but for lecturers as well. 

 

                                                                                  

                                                                            Home page of e-learning portal 

 A Digital Art student at NAFTI, Gabrielle Mbida explains how the internet connection has affected her so much. "I find it very difficult to submit assignment on the school or E-learning portal, I sometimes have no choice than sending it via E-mail or WhatsApp in other not to miss the deadline or fail my course. In other cases, the portal is supposed to accept a file of 20 MB yet when I try to load an assignment of 5MB it is unable to load," she laments. 

Other students also stated that sometimes due to traffic on the e- learning platform it makes the server slow or makes the platform inaccessible. When this happens, they are unable to watch their lecture videos and also submit their assignments. 

          

A photo of the portal when its inaccessible

 

  

Belinda Oduro is a lecturer in the Broadcast Journalism Department at NAFTI. She also stated some challenges of the e- learning and how it has affected her.  "If at any given moment in time we have all the students and lecturers logging on to the platform at the same particular moment the system gets choked; it is so slow and can be quite frustrating when you want to upload a video. Sometimes, I have made it a point to wake up at 12 midnight or 1am just so I could upload my lessons or assignments or even mark assignments." She continues to lament, "I don't know whether the student really understood what I thought or not and whether they were answering the questions base on what they have learnt or what they googled or what their friends told them and it quite a challenge for me, so at the end of the day I still walk away not 100% sure whether the student has understood everything i taught or not." 

 The head of Technical at NAFTI, Stanley Yeboah explains what the main issue is and how the Institute is planning to solve the problem 

Mr. Stanley on how the e -learning problems are being handled

E-learning despite its numerous challenges, has come to stay, as such management needs to offer the best solution to ensure that teaching and learning is effective at NAFTI.  

                                                        

                                        Front view of the National Film and Television Institute(NAFTI)

 

Written by: Ophelia Dzamesi.