DENL shares its experience of going online
It is generally agreed that education is all about constant updating and adjustments to new developments in technology and scientific breakthroughs that enable the educators to fulfill the job more efficiently, but there are times that unexpected events and new challenges create situations which impose drastic changes into various aspects of the work. Early in the morning, It was around late February when Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced the threat of the COVID19 outbreak to the Kurdistan region and made higher education institutions take safety measures, by all means. Following the call from the Ministry of Higher education in Kurdistan Region (MHE) to save the academic year in early April 2020, the president of Knowledge University (KNU) introduced the plans to continue online to bring the academic year 2019-2020 to an end and prepare for an e-Smart scalable online working and learning environment for the future of KUNs academic community.
The Department of English Language (DENL) mobilised its online meetings and took the lead in adapting and incorporating the new university wide platform; Google Classroom. The idea was very new and none of the staff members had prior knowledge or experience how to cope with the GC. Realizing the frustrations of both teachers and students, the head of the Dept. Mr. Mohammad Kiani conducted training sessions where the president of KNU Dr. Dilan Rostam provided thorough information as well as practical samples for the teachers to master the process. Furthermore, the head of the department continued training the staff members, eight online practices, and set separate sessions for the students, each level had their own practices online. Hence there were multitude of cases where one on one explanation and practical works were done to protect everyone and ensure the understanding of individuals. Uploading the lecture into Google Classroom space, teachers and students maintained active exchange of information for two months, this period was referred to as a unique experience by our students. Following the online lectures the students were given assignments to work on and turn in at the time limit they were provided, the completion of these assignments along with active participation of the students in the GC space was considered as the final mark for each of the subjects undertaken by the learners.
Finally, the hard work and industriousness of everyone in the department paid off and DENL had an extremely satisfying student’s success rate which made us have faith in ourselves and encourage positivity, perseverance and benevolence in the Department of English Language (DENL) at KNU.
Report provided by Mr. Mohammad Kiani
