Page 28 - IB May 2021

Education Education

DELIVERING DIGITALLY

HOW TWO UNIVERSITIES ARE RESPONDING TO COVID

By Samantha Magick For USP’s Director IT services, Kisione Finau, last year was a
chance for his team to test its platforms.
When Islands Business met with leaders from the University “This is not the first time,” he said. “In year 2000, when
of the South Pacific recently, they were just hours away from the coup took place, we were testing our system, we were
making the decision to cancel the year’s graduation ceremo- actually offering online [study] when our students went back
nies in Fiji. It was the start of the second wave of COVID home..I said look, for me, bring it on, because I want to test
cases, which has now seen strict restrictions on movement my system, my platform, that we are ready.”
and gatherings imposed across Fiji for over a month. “The hardware measures were also matched with measures
We met to discuss USP’s transition to online study for weeks on the teaching side,” said USP’s Associate Dean Learning and
of the 2020 academic year. Now with lecture halls at the Teaching, Dr Matthew Hayward. For those students who were
Laucala campus again emptied of students, the lessons of last “properly offline” he says, old school methods such as offline
year are as pertinent as ever. printing in USP regional centres were offered. “Some learning
USP developed a strategic plan and convened a learning materials were hand delivered or sent by boat,” he said.
continuity team at the beginning of last year to respond to Dr Hayward says USP is now looking to embed the learn-
COVID-19. As borders closed and restrictions tightened, a call ings of last year and build them into a community of practice
centre began contacting students, their parents and other across the university, and not just in emergency situations.
stakeholders to check on how they were coping with the new He says timely feedback is one of those lessons. “With
way of learning. Poor internet access and a lack of equipment distance learning it is so much more important here, because
such as laptops and other devices were amongst the biggest there’s less opportunity for informal feedback in between
impediments, prompting the university to set up an outreach classes, after class.”
campus at Davuilevu (between Suva and Nausori) and another Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education Professor Jito
between Suva and Lami, and provide about 700 tablets to stu- Vanualailai says embedding these improvements is also
dents across the region. 40 laptops were also made available important given some member countries opted to keep their
to lecturers. students in-country, working from regional campuses in 2021,

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28 Islands Business, May 2021