Lessons from Wuhan

What are some of the trends emerging out of Wuhan in response to school closures and what can we learn from this?

Lesson One

In preparing online courses, teachers are rising before 7 am to see if every student in their classes has registered their attendance online. In one middle school teachers are starting their school day at home on their laptops and smartphones. By 7:20 am, they are calling those who have not registered, to prepare them for their day's studies in cyberspace. Forty minutes later, teachers begin live streaming their lessons. For many it is the first time they had tried a live streaming app, and, not surprisingly have felt quite nervous. For some, it is taking them 4 to 5 hours to prepare for a 40 minute class as they struggle with the new skills needed for online courses, such as such as speaking naturally in front of a camera and creating a PowerPoint presentation on, for example, analytical geometry.

Lesson Two

In learning full-time from home, Wuhan students have been just as busy as the teachers. In the locked down epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province, Wuhan No 11 High School and Wuhan Pacific High School are among those that have been exploring online education options. The school's online courses, launched on Jan 30 via Alibaba's DingTalk app, have been attended by more than 700 12th-grade students. One 12th-grader at Wuhan Pacific High School, said: "Seeing the surge in the number of people infected, I became anxious after being quarantined at home during the winter vacation. Having online classes relieves my tension and makes me focus on my studies. "The school's WeChat account shows that on Jan 30, teachers of 12th-grade students began conducting live streaming courses via the QQ online messaging platform. Four days later, all 10th-and 11 thgrade students at the school had started taking online courses. When the new semester began online in Wuhan on Feb 10, more than 1 million primary and secondary school students and their parents viewed 426 virtual classes, according to the Wuhan education bureau.

Lesson Three

The government's efforts more generally, are worth noting. Nationwide, traditional bricks-and-mortar schools are working with internet companies to offer classes online. The Shanghai Municipal Education Commission announced that schools would launch a regional online education program via television and the internet. The program began airing on Monday. In an effort to combat the outbreak, state and regional teaching resources to guarantee online education for students nationwide were harnessed. On Feb 17, a cloud platform began broadcasting to ensure the country's 180 million students could continue their studies. In the first week, the platform offered 169 lessons covering 12 subjects.

Lesson Four

The government has enlisted three major telecoms operators－China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom－as well as tech companies such as Huawei, Baidu and Alibaba to back up the platform with 7,000 servers, according to China Central Television. In addition to online classes, primary and secondary school students can study via television, according to the ministry. For students living in remote or rural areas with poor internet accessibility, a channel operated by China Education Television started airing classes on Feb 17 to enable home studies.

What else will we see emerge globally in coming weeks?