In this article, we discuss the effectiveness of Distance education during quarantine. We will show that the education system is not ready yet to deal with this epidemic in some Arab countries. For example, in the US, the system of education always deploys ”e-learning” in the process of teaching as well as online courses for distance-learning students.
How distance education during quarantine can Succeed?
Certainly, Coronavirus has a bad impact on education. Indeed, with the danger and the way in which COVID-19 propagates, the movement is statically stagnant in the world. This is to prevent all kinds of gatherings. Because educational institutions have large numbers of students, so governments have forced students to stay at home so as not to spread the virus.
In this context, some governments are required to declare extended school vacations; whereas others have adopted a “distance education” or E-learning program. Certainly, studying at home remains the most optimal solution. This will maintain the continuity of the courses already started before the coronavirus crisis. Implementing this method will not be an easy task, especially for countries that have never done this type of distance education.
Youtube is a good platform for distance education
Almost all countries have easy access to modern Internet communication technology. So all that teachers and professors have to do is to save a course on a video and share it for use on the Internet. We distinguish here two types of distance courses. First is the official courses prepared by recognized public institutes. Second is the private courses prepared by individuals voluntarily either in the form of videos on Youtube or in the form of sites that sell courses online.
Schools and institutes only train teachers who are going to teach in the classroom. However, with the coronavirus problem, it is clear that teacher training in the area of e-learning is now of great importance. It is true that there are websites that have teachers of such quality. Yet, since they are not free, you have to pay to have a course. The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically increased the inability of educational institutions to cope with educational developments. Teachers and professors should have received training on e-learning before any sort of crisis hinders the process of educational teaching.
The shock of the education system
The education system in most countries, especially in the Arab world, is shocking due to the spread of this new and dangerous epidemic. This system faces a very disturbing problem because the online learning system is not yet developed. Moreover, the coronavirus forced, on the one hand, medical researchers to make a huge effort to find an effective vaccine; on the other hand, it forces teachers to develop distance teaching methods. Therefore, both researchers and teachers are in the same boat struggling against the aftermath of this viral disease.
Personal efforts of professors
If someone visits Youtube, he or she will discover a large number of videos from certain teachers. Teachers used their personal efforts to prepare video lessons with lower picture and voice quality. In fact, most of the professors use their cell phone cameras to prepare courses in videos. Other teachers prefer to use WhatsApp to communicate with students and parents by creating groups for all their classes. This allowed some teachers to discover the extent of the involvement in which they objected to the inconvenience and loss of privacy. These are all individual efforts to thank. But it is the role of governments to provide good distance education to their students. Indeed, this crisis has shown the importance of education to form good research in all fields, especially in health. Who knows, one day we may have to face another deadly virus more than the coronavirus.
Conclusion
Government and civil society should be ready to face and live under such crises. Distance education is one of the most mandatory procedures that we should take into account in teaching. Countries that do not deploy e-learning either in their syllabus or their methods for teaching should equip their schools, institutes, and universities with distance education.
