Funmi Ogundare
The management of Anchor University Lagos (AUL) has approved the commencement of virtual classes for its students as part of efforts to ensure that the global disruption caused by Covid-19 pandemic does not significantly impede its academics.
Classes for the second semester started in April 2020 after students received their login accesses and invitations to class.
Many of the students have already joined the online sessions.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Afolayan said though the institution didn’t plan for classes outside its campus before the lockdown order as it had concluded the first semester and students had gone on break, he expressed optimism about the possibility of classes going virtual if the lockdown is prolonged.
“We will continue to observe the developments and may revert to online classes if the need arises.”
Expectedly, the students received the information with excitement.
Adekoya Ayomide, a 300 level student of Accounting, described the online session as a welcome development, saying, “I’m happy about this development and I look forward to taking my classes online. For this, I am happy that I’m a student of Anchor University because I used to think this kind of experience is only possible in European countries.”
Another student, Lawal Emmanuel, a 400 level student of Political Science said: “My own concern is the attitude of the students to the sessions and the quality of information to be given by lecturers. If students are serious about the classes, considering that there would be distractions around and lecturers provide good quality visuals, it’s going to be as good as traditional classrooms. The best part is, we will maintain the required distance while still having our classes.”
However, a couple of students expressed fears and concerns about the sessions. Miss Abigail and Ugochi Nkama, both 400 level students of Business Administration and Accounting respectively, said the sessions will also come with challenges, adding, “but we are happy that this will keep us busy and remove the possible delays in our academic progress.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor J. Fatokun, expressed confidence that the classes would be seamless and productive as activities get busy across different departments.
“The truth is there are many challenges to having seamless virtual classes due to poor infrastructure across the nation, but these cannot stop us from going ahead. I know there will be a couple of hitches as we commence but as classes continue, both students and lecturers will adjust and we will have very productive sessions learning online.
“We are also very confident of robust interactive sessions between lecturers and students as we deploy the newly developed video component of Google classroom and Meet link in our online classes,” he said.
