The lala-land of online education
Virtual classes, an alien term that became a new normal too quickly. When the pandemic first hit Pakistan I was in the 7th semester of my undergrad degree. The idea of waking up in the morning and logging into zoom to stare at a blank screen was dreadful. I would often wake up, log in, and go to sleep due to lack of engagement — while my degree looked upon me and nodded its head with disappointment. Throughout the unpromising journey of online education I wondered if this is how online education is supposed to be. My mind had almost turned this statement into a fact when gravity pulled me to this new planet called Amal Academy.
When I received my selection email it said “you have to ensure your camera is on”. To me, who takes naps during online sessions, this was quite an absurd demand. I thought, I couldn’t be the only one who thinks that. But once the sessions began, I indeed entered a new planet. The engagement, the energy, the activities — they all were so well planned and executed that I started to look forward to my weekends. Slowly my Amal batch started to feel like family. Where we don’t only study, but help each other, give each other constructive feedback, create a safe zone to share our opinions, and most importantly appreciate each other. From napping in between classes, I found myself sitting in a suitable spot, looking presentable, opening my camera and attending online classes at 9 a.m. on weekends! Amal academy virtually ignited the interest and passion in me that my previous institutes were unable to do so.
This fellowship has not only proven that online education can be interactive and fun but also changed my perspective. When I first entered the Amal fellowship, my goal was to do networking. Meeting new people fascinates me. Although, this interaction came at the expense of something I was not a huge fan of — teamwork. Team player is not a term I would use to describe myself. Despite taking pride in my interpersonal skills, I found it difficult to work in teams and to acknowledge the importance of doing so. From the starting weeks, we were taught the Amal values. One of them was — ek aur ek gyaarah (or teamwork makes dream work). I just skimmed through the course failing to believe this concept was true, till I participated in an activity in the weekend session.
This activity placed the reader in a situation (which was, you are stuck in outer space and you have to prioritize the items you would need for your survival) and had two segments to it. The first segment was to list the items according to priority by yourself and the second segment was to repeat the same but now in groups. I was too confident that I had done a better job individually. But the results opened my eyes! I have a 50% higher survival rate in the group results. This activity, for once, made me see the importance of teamwork. And how when different people come together, different ideas take birth. This experience had a major impact on me!
I came to realize how wrong I have been to approach teamwork when it can be so beneficial! Ever since, I am practicing to change my lens to look at working in teams and have also practiced collaborative projects at work place. This change of mind was thanks to the environment I found at Amal, which was very positive. I believe if I could go back to fix the times I lost faith in my team, I could actually achieve better results. In my university life, I never got to make the most out of group projects — and now I wish I had known the power of teamwork. Although these are one of the many things Amal has taught me, I believe the entire journey demands another blog — so tag along!
