Online Learning Experience in Thailand University

Writer: Diva Safina

I currently join a program called International Credit Transfer program 2021, held by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Indonesia. It enables university students to study online at the selected international university. I got into Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand. The program started a month ago and will end later in October.

I enjoyed the program. I met new people, even though it is online. It made my adrenaline go up and simultaneously was a new challenge in my life. Getting to know and interacting with people of different tongues and cultures make my stomach full of butterflies.

I took two online courses; English for Broadcasting and Academic Listening. Participants in both classes are quite large, ranging from 30 to 34 people enrolled in each class. The courses were quite enjoyable; however, the subjects were not very familiar with my faculty, and were rather challenging subject for me.

During attending the classes, sometimes I found a language barrier during a focus group discussion. Like studying in Indonesia class, it tends to use the Indonesian language, it did happen the same to Thailand students. They sometimes forgot to speak in English, as Indonesian students sometimes do, too.

However, the program works well, the classes start at peak times and sometimes finish with peak times as well or late about 10 to 15 minutes. It is very rare, though. The systematic learning adapted in this university is similar to Indonesian universities. As a result of the pandemic, the university has also had to adjust to the online learning system. Platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams are the two most frequently used applications. The university also provides a free Microsoft account that can be accessed by every student, which is very cost-effective.

During the teaching and learning process, in one of the courses, lecturers more often presented material and then immediately gave activities to students such as analysis, fabrication and discussion. In the meantime, in the other class, the lecturers were more concerned about the discussions among the students. Therefore, the material presented was not too much, but more focused on the activities of the students in the classroom.

Since it is an online learning, honestly, I obtain a little experience during the program, yet the subjects and method I found were unique. The study system is same like in Indonesia. Once I had a group work along with Thailand students. We were supposed to record a presentation through a Zoom meeting and it was so fun. We became close to each other because we have the same taste of music.

Diva Safina is an English Education student who now is taking courses in Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand.