Abstract
The SARS CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2), cause of COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease 2019) has afflicted close to 10 million people all over the world resulting to almost half a million deaths. This disease is severely contagious and necessitates social or physical distancing between persons. As such, traditional face-to-face learning is not advised and teachers need to shift to online teaching. There are challenges to online teaching and learning for students, teachers, and the higher education institute, e.g. hardware, bandwidth, and software issues. These will be difficult but these can be overcome eventually. This work is a personal account of the old normal or traditional way of teaching Organic Chemistry and the transition to the new normal of teaching on-line. On-line teaching can be as effective as traditional teaching but everyone has to put in effort and participate in training to get used to this. In the end, it is the teacher’s being a true teacher that matters, that the teacher teaches to the best of his or her ability even during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
As of this writing, 23 June 2020, the Philippines logged a record high 1,150 new cases of COVID19 in a single day (Sabillo 2020)
9.1 million people have already been infected based on the Johns Hopkins dashboard (Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center 2020)
This paper describes my personal account during the shift of the teaching mode in the midst of the pandemic
Summary
23 June 2020, the Philippines logged a record high 1,150 new cases of COVID19 in a single day (Sabillo 2020). The other challenges will be mostly about character – having the drive to learn independently, discipline, persistence, etc These traits are needed and hopefully developed whether with traditional or online teaching. These are all easy to write here but we must be sensitive of the mental condition of students. I was cautioned though that the attachment of the Notes and answers to end of chapters is a challenge to some especially those using prepaid internet load These are my plans but the situation varies per teacher, per set of students, and per university. Every teacher will have to decide his or her own way of teaching in the new normal that will answer the challenges faced by their students and the limitations of resources. It is unfortunate though that there will be teachers, students, and higher education institutions who will not be able to adjust quickly to the new normal
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