The Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) has launched a ‘Cloud Classroom’ program to help its students continue their studies remotely in order to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on their education.
On February 17, MUST officially started an online interactive studying program dubbed the ‘Cloud Classroom’. On the first day, the school provided 237 classes with the participation of 171 teachers and over 6,300 students.
MUST Rector Liu Liang voiced that the Cloud Classroom is a new studying experience that is designed to respond to the Macau Higher Education Bureau’s (DSES) instructions for protecting university teaching staff and students from the coronavirus, while simultaneously ensuring the quality of students’ education is not affected. Liu hopes that the students can cherish this online studying opportunity.
In setting up the online system, MUST has formed a special team and invested a large amount of resources, offering online teaching training to lecturers, who will use the program to ensure that the system runs smoothly. In order to facilitate the operations of the Cloud Classroom, MUST released information about the system across multiple platforms, including new media, phone calls and emails.
The Cloud Classroom, which utilizes MUST’s smart campus management platform WeMust, is presented through the video conferencing platform Zoom.
Through the platform, MUST students are able to engage in real-time online teaching with lecturers, avoiding the need for congregation in a physical space.
The system fully covers a range of educational activities, including the holding of seminars and completion of study assignments in accordance with the learning plan. The system is also able to register students’ attendance.
At the end of each semester, students will be able to give a review on each lecturer on Cloud Classroom. Relevant faculties will also sample classes to evaluate the lecturers’ teaching ability, as a means to improve the school’s lecturing quality.
Although the system covers a wide range of courses, it does not include all scheduled classes. The system only contains subjects which have been evaluated as suitable for online teaching. For other courses, the school will arrange compensation classes once it reopens.
In total, through the Cloud Classroom, MUST teachers will provide teaching courses related to 178 subjects.
Due to the shortage of time, the MUST Cloud Classroom is currently only available in Chinese, but it is estimated that by the end of February, an English version will be ready.
The Cloud Classroom is accessible on mobile phones, tablets and the computer. The platform allows participants to use both text and audio functions to conduct class discussions.
MUST has set up a work team to contribute to the fight against the spread of the Covid-19. The school’s Covid-19 prevention taskforce decided to establish the work team on February 9 with the goal of closely monitoring the development of the epidemic, coordinating epidemic prevention measures with the local government, collecting information, and analyzing prevention measures and public concerns.
MUST Alumni donate 30,000 masks
Alumni from the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) have donated some 30,000 surgical face masks to the university to help its lecturers and students be better prepared to resume studies. On February 14, the group of university alumni donated 30,000 face masks to the MUST. Separately, donations have been made to the mainland, the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak. On February 8, a batch of 3,000 medical gloves were delivered to Hubei province. On February 10, another 2,000 medical gloves were sent to Hubei. Recently, the MUST Alumni transported 20,000 surgical face masks to Hubei.
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