UTAR students conduct OTL for children in need

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought great impacts to various industries today, hence necessitating everyone to adapt to a new norm of living. Even with the new living norm, people in need are still looking for assistance and help. With the purpose of lending a helping hand to those in need during this period, the Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) of Sungai Long Campus, through MPU34032 Community Project, conducted “E-community service” to offer services to the marginalised community, while adhering to the standard operation procedures (SOPs) set by the Ministry of Health.

Unlike the typical community service, this “E-community service” encouraged students to be active in contributing to the community through online platforms. The E-community service saw the participation of 43 students from the Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS). The students were divided into seven groups and each group carried out online teaching and learning (OTL) for school students who came from a hard-pressed background. While conducting the online teaching, they realised the school students from the unfortunate families were falling behind in their studies due to the closure of schools during the Movement Control Order (MCO).

The school students received 10 hours of separate OTL sessions through various platforms such as Google Hangout, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. A total of six school students namely Mardawisnur bin Muhamad Nasir, Chong Yan Tong, Lau Zheng Yik, Pun Zhi Xuan, Hong Rou and Chai Ming Song were involved in this project. They were from Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Johor and Selangor. All of them are from the B40 income group and one of them is raised by a single parent. The project was supervised by Department of Soft Skills Competency academic Nur Farahin binti Bahari and facilitated by Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) lecturer Lam Foong Sin.

The subjects taught included English, Mathematics, Chinese and Finance. “It was quite fun as it was the first time for most of us to teach someone. I also learnt to use Google Hangout to conduct the online classes and I am happy to learn something new,” said Low Wen Xiu, an International Business student from FAM. Ms Lim Lee Hoon, Pun Zhi Xuan’s mother, gave positive feedback saying, “I really appreciate your effort to help my child with her studies.”

Mathematics class for Chai Ming Song from SMK Ketari, Bentong, Pahang

English MUET class for Mardawisnur Muhamad Nasir from SMA Al-Khairiah, Temerloh, Pahang

Chong Yan Tong from Kuala Lumpur was accompanied by her mother throughout the learning session