Doha: The Pre-University Education (PUE) Division of Qatar Foundation provides support for the emotional wellbeing of students across its schools and learning centres including the Academic Bridge Program (ABP).
As schools across the country are closed due to worries about the spread of COVID-19, QF students also have shifted to online learning to continue their studies.
“One of the lessons we learned early on was that we needed to take into account the emotional impact of this extraordinary situation on both students and employees. PUE has been especially commendable in providing wellness support to both students and staff and encouraging us to modify expectations,” Dr. Mark Newmark (pictured), Assistant Director, Academic Affairs, ABP told The Peninsula.
In usual circumstances, the ABP is a face-to-face foundation programme. The programme expands students’ understanding of English, Math, Computers, and Science and sharpens their skills in these areas. The ABP helps students to become more competitive applicants for university and more succesasful students at university. But ABP has been making use of online teaching for several years.
“For many years, students at the ABP have been able to obtain their assignments and receive their grades online. ABP instructors have long made extensive use of technology both in their classrooms and in the work that students do outside of class. This provided a strong set of experiences to draw on when moving to remote learning,” said Dr. Newmark.
PUE Division of QF has provided the ABP with guidance about how remote learning should be facilitated. The ABP arranged some peer-led training on platforms that could assist with remote learning and PUE provided additional training. PUE, sister institutions, the ABP administration, ABP departments, and instructors looked into best practices and shared ideas, experiences, and resources. As is so often the case, the most valuable design elements emerged from the creativity, knowledge, dedication, and skill of the ABP faculty.
“Online learning at the ABP has gone through several iterations and the ABP continues to adapt to provide robust and effective remote learning. We are in the process of planning for the next academic year in case remote learning continues,” said Dr Newmark.
The ABP has developed a user-friendly tracking system to flag concerns about student engagement and performance. The system calls for instructors, advisors, and administrators to follow up with students.
The follow-up is also tracked and monitored. Credit at the ABP is determined by successful performance in individual courses and successful competition of the program as a whole.
Ali Al Shahabi, a student in Foundation Class of ABP, said, “Virtual learning is a new experience, that is really exciting and new to us. I really enjoy virtual learning because it’s more interactive and you are more focused than actually being in a classroom. I really find it effective, students will start depending on themselves more, they will start getting their own sources of learning. The down side with Virtual learning is that not all students attend the morning classes due to different sleeping schedules.”
Ahmad Jaber Mohammed Alshehabi, another student, said that virtual learning is really exciting.
“I saved my time for learning and discuss the lessons with my colleagues and to do my assignments in time. Virtual learning have many beneficial effect such as I had learned many computer skills. But I had faced some challenges like I didn’t have any communication face to face , and if teachers post many assignments I had been little confused about what I should to do first,” he added.
