KOZHIKODE: COVID-19 has claimed thousands of lives in China. But even in this extremely adverse situation, the Chinese work culture has shown no sign of meekness. Ask the umpteen Malayali students pursuing MBBS in China stuck here, and they will say they haven’t missed a single day of class.
“Online classes started on February 24, the same day we were asked to rejoin after the winter vacation. They go on from 5.30 am to 2.30 pm. Video classrooms, special chats, e-mails, PDF files etc, are continuing in full swing,” says Swetha V, a Perambra native pursuing her third year in MBBS at Sichuan University. Ever since the outbreak, the university has developed an app called ‘Super Star’, in which files, videos and PDFs are uploaded.
“There are 100 students in my class attending the sessions from their countries now. If students cannot use the app, they can avail the material through ‘WeChat’,” elaborated Swetha. One’s attendance will be marked on logging in. To Log in to the online class meant the attendance and one cannot bunk after logging in.
“To make sure students don’t bunk, they send question papers in QR code form randomly. We have to extract the question paper and answer it within five minutes,” she says. Revathi Anoop Menon, Swetha’s classmate says the university has a separate app called ‘Pencent’ for conducting conference calls. Amal Nazeer, a third year student of China Medical University, Shenyang, from Kalpetta, says he has to attend six-hour classes daily. “Attendance is mandatory, or else we won’t be allowed to appear for the examination. Hence, I am hooked to my laptop,” he says.
Meanwhile, a couple of students pursuing their second year at Sichuan University said online classes have not commenced for them yet.
‘2-3 videos daily’
Husna Pallikkunnan of Malappuram says she gets her classes in the form of videos. “I get two to three videos daily — each 15 to 20 minutes long. There will be an exam at the end of every video,” says Husna, a third year student at Yangzhou University.