Technology has taken the world by storm. The abrupt development of the pandemic known as COVID19 forced businesses, schools, and personal relationships to move to online platforms. Online/blended learning was introduced in many schools. UCT established an online high school known as UCT Online High School. We interviewed a grade 9 learner attending at the school from Crossroads Nyanga about their experience with learning online.
Interviewer: What year did you started attending UCT Online High School?
Interviewee: I started in 2022 when I was doing my grade 8.
Interviewer: What made you choose the school?
Interviewee: Well, I wanted a feel of varsity, not having to wear uniform, learning from the comfort of my home but most importantly I wanted to attend acquire quality education and from the advert displayed on the school website it was promising that and more.
Interviewer: What were your expectations of the school?
Interviewee: I expected a lot. Since it was a “UCT” High school I expected that we would get more teaching time and since I would be studying from home, I expected that my timetable would be flexible.
Interviewer: How was the transition from attending a physical school to an online school?
Interviewee: It was a big shift. There were a lot of things that I had to learn because in my primary school we didn’t use some platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Word, and PowerPoint. Even though we had orientation I had to learn somethings as we were going. I won’t lie It was very hard for me to learn somethings.
Interviewer: What are some of the challenges you faced?
Interviewee: As I have mentioned, learning to use the platforms that were new to me, having to complete daily and weekly quizzes. The biggest challenge was connectivity, we do not have Wi-Fi at home, so I had to go to the library. During loadshedding I wouldn’t be able to connect. I even performed poorly during my first term. I struggled a lot. I also felt like there was no sense of community like in my previous school during break time I would hangout with my friends and classmates but with learning online that was not possible.