As Covid-19 continues to be a global issue, our International Student Ambassadors share their experiences, especially about studying online. Saiham Hossain, an Ambassador from Bangladesh, gave his thoughts and his positive take on the entire situation. Click to read on.
"Have Saiham and Izzy been debating again?" - Professor Paul laughed as we ended our last week's IGLA (Introduction to Global Liberal Arts) class discussing the regulations of technology companies. While Izzy and her group argued that companies should be regulated by the governments, our team's motive was that tech companies should be self-regulated.
Many subjects in GLA have tutorials where students freely discuss the topic and come with viable solutions or arguments based on the lectures
Introduction to Global Liberal Arts (IGLA) is one of the 4 courses I am doing online.
Due to the novel coronavirus, all our classes have been shifted online from April 2020. I was, therefore, skeptical on starting university online. This is because online courses always had the issue of little interactions and energy. However, after 4 months, numerous assignments, including several mid-terms and a handful of research papers here are my thoughts about GLA's online classes.
The GLA (Global Liberal Arts) is one of the English undergraduate programs at Ritsumeikan University. It is a dual degree course in collaboration with The Australian National University, where we study Liberal Arts and Asia Pacific Affairs.
Taking digital notes during study
My biggest concern was whether online classes were one-sided with no real communication. However, the reality was far from it.
My university life started with Professor Takenaka's Statistics class with around 80 students (a mandatory first-year course). Seeing so many students, I gave up hope on lively communication and discussion. However, to my surprise, I was soon hung up on a dense conversation on the session's topic: "Whether income is dependent on quality-education or quality-education is dependent on income." The class was filled with voices of different views and opinions from India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and more. That was the moment; I realized GLA's online classes were more than just one-way lecture. You have communication, opinions, debates, agreements, disagreements, and so much more.
Whether it is a debate with my classmate, Aman, from India, in Professor Maekawa's Civilizations in Global History (CGH) class or discussing with Professor Thouny in his Cultural Studies class, GLA's environment has changed my views of online classes.
While it is not mandatory to be vocal in classes (although a part of your grades does depend on class participation), you have the opportunity to speak your mind out. In addition, the faculty's encouraging mindset to make classes more engaging is commendable. I remember, how Professor Fujita and Professor Koyama from the IGLA course (we have 3 professors in this course) always made classes so interactive, leading us to engage into dense conversations that we never thought of.
Heavy discussion going on in Civilizations in Global history class as Prof Maekawa explains the importance of Asian culture in modern history
One other aspect of GLA that differentiates its online classes is the tutorial sessions. GLA has a lecture-tutorial method of education where we meet twice a week for each course; Lectures, where we sit with a professor and learn the fundamentals and tutorials, where we apply the fundamentals through conversations and debates.
GLA's online portal Manaba showing the online courses for the second semester. Each 90-minute class is held twice a week, with one lecture and one tutorial.
In one of our tutorial sessions of Cultural Studies course, we discussed our practical experiences of racism or discrimination, connecting it with our previous lecture of racism in different societies. The tutorials require us to talk! Although they are now held online, most tutorials are filled with dense conversations.
If you are looking forward to engaging online classes, you would not be disappointed. However, if you are shy and prefer not to speak much, GLA's online classes would give you this freedom as well. Therefore, GLA's online style could be summed up by one statement; it's how you make it.
My online class set-up. A desk behind the window really helps me revive after a grueling debate session in the online classes of GLA
Saiham Hossain
1st Year (Class of 2024), College of Global Liberal Arts
