On the morning of February 17, Tsinghua students around the world logged into the Tsinghua Rain Classroom platform for the first day of online classes.
The transition to online classes may be trouble-free for most people. But some in remote areas lacking high speed internet access had to think innovatively. Meanwhile their departments had to act quickly and take extra measures.
The below examples from Department of Engineering Physics, are representatives of some of the severe challenges that their students have had to overcome to ensure their participation in the spring semester:
One of these students is fourth-year undergrad, Wu from Inner Mongolia. Wu’s internet connection is limited to his mobile phone. But due to the winds and sub-zero temperatures of the remote Mongolian Plateau, the connection is intermittent and unreliable. Wu’s teachers reassured him that extra measures would be taken. They helped raise enough funds for the installation of a Wi-Fi network at his home. Wu was deeply moved by his teachers’ efforts which ensured his access to spring semester classes.
Another senior student, Song from Sichuan Province, does have Wi-Fi connection at home. However, the network is extremely poor and will often automatically disconnect. She finds it extremely slow to download necessary files and software. Song’s teachers advised her to try connecting to the networks of her close relatives, and to keep them posted about this course of action.
Song decided to follow that advice, however, another problem soon emerged from the frequent trips from home to her relative’s house. Because of the necessity of wearing protective masks outside, Song figures that, by going to the houses of her relatives every day for class, she will have to waste too many face masks. Luckily, her graduation design does not require her to do many experiments, and that she does not have to be in school to complete a quality design.
Another student, Xiong from Jiangxi Province, was quick to make a list of everything he needed for a great classroom environment at home, a desk, a chair, and a quality Wi-Fi connection. Luckily, he was able to get a hold of these, just not in his own house. Because he does not have Wi-Fi at home, he had to go to his grandma’s house just to connect to a neighbor’s network to attend the class online. When his department learned of this, his teachers immediately reached out, offering funds to install a Wi-Fi network to his house. However, the epidemic prevented the workers to come to his house for installation. Finally, he connected to the network of one of his grandma’s neighbors to attend the class online.
Another student, Ge from Anhui Province, is currently living at his grandma’s house in a mountainous region of Anhui. In order to join the online classes, he decided to climb 10 minutes to the top of the mountain to receive a strong 4G network.
Writer: Celina Jiang, Guo Lili
Editor: Guo Lili, John Paul Grima
