UTAR e-learning and assistance programmes throughout the MCO

Throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO), UTAR worked hard to provide the best quality education to its students through online teaching and learning (OTL) with platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The University also prepared several administrative and support services to ensure that the sudden transition to OTL was smooth and welcoming. These administrative and support services have helped in improving the quality of OTL for both the academics and students. One of the services includes purchasing more e-books to add to the library’s expansive catalogue of books. Two additional higher performance servers were also set up to enhance the students’ online learning experience and to assist with the submission of their online final assessments. For more information on our students’ experiences with OTL, you may click here.

Participants attending an online forum on OTL

Additionally, UTAR also introduced online final assessments to replace the traditional final examinations. The University’s decision to implement this style of examination was spot-on as it was proven effective due to its many advantages, as pointed out by our students. For instance, students were given the opportunity to think outside the box and come up with creative answers, as the questions were mostly open-ended. Furthermore, the online assessments helped motivate students to exercise their ingenious brains, by applying all the knowledge they gained throughout the semester. The software “Turnitin” was used to check students’ works which helped to curb plagiarism issues.

Participants attending a webinar on online education

During the MCO period, UTAR also took several measures to help its students. The University offered financial assistance in the form of interest-free loans to students who needed it and a fee instalment plan to all students of the May 2020 trimester. With this, a weight was lifted off the students’ shoulders, since they need not worry about the financial matters. Furthermore, if any of the students required extra assistance in terms of monetary issue, the University prepared a whole host of other interest-free loans, instalment plans and financial aids that they can request anytime.

Food ready to be distributed to the students

UTAR together with Department of Student Affairs (DSA) and Student Representative Council of Sungai Long Campus (SRC) collaborated with the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to offer free meals to students who were living in the campus vicinity as part of the government’s Food Assistance programme. Throughout the course of the programme, UTAR managed to feed more than 3,000 students from both campuses, providing delicious free meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. To find more about this Food Assistance programme, please click the link here.

The quote “Home is where the heart is” never cut as deep, as many students felt frustrated when they could not return to their hometowns due to the travelling restriction imposed by the government. Thus, UTAR helped 77 students from both campuses to return to their respective hometowns while bearing the additional costs for the Ops Hantar Pulang (university-level programme) from 2 June 2020 to 20 June 2020. Buses were pre-arranged earlier to send the students back to their hometowns. The students safely returned to their hometowns following the guidelines set by the government. To have a better grasp on how UTAR handled the Ops Hantar Pulang programme, you may click here.

The University strongly believes that “Knowledge is Power”. Thus, UTAR played its part in helping the community by sharing some of its e-resources, such as webinars to educate teachers, students and even the general public. These webinars served to help broaden their mind and expand their knowledge of specific issues such as dealing with Covid-19, managing businesses during the crisis, the tools used for online learning and etcetera. These webinars were open to everyone and no password was required.

UTAR students and staff attending a webinar on managing mental health

Participants attending a webinar on boosting memory

Participants taking part in one of UTAR’s webinars