Teachers create videos as aid in virtual lessons

Suffi says AYU has about 1,500 teachers from primary and secondary schools.

THE ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has definitely taken a toll on the education field.

Realising that they have to adapt to the new norm of teaching and learning, a group of teachers have joined hands to create educational videos to help students all over the country.

Founder of Akademi YouTube (AYU), Muhammad Suffi Yusof said the academy had about 1,500 teachers from primary and secondary schools.

“The inspiration came when the movement control order was enforced in March and we created a Google Classroom model with Malaysia E-didik for teachers to conduct lessons during the pandemic when schools were closed.

“From there, I realised videos was an important tool. Since I have some background in creating videos on YouTube, I feel that perhaps there are teachers who will be interested in creating videos for their lessons too.

“Through my collaboration with Malaysia Teachers Club and E-Didik, we were able to guide teachers to create videos to be used during Google Classroom, ” he said, adding that they received positive feedback from students.

“Since we created the academy, the teachers involved could easily get at least 1,000 viewers per video.

Lim says the videos have helped her students.

“We also have teachers whose YouTube channel received over 2,000 subscribers, ” said Suffi, 37.

He said all the videos could be viewed for free.

“We move as a team but each of us have our own YouTube channels.

“We draw up schedules so that the videos will be uploaded systematically.

“To date, we have created about 3,000 videos and hopefully by 2021, we can create at least 10,000 videos, ” said the teacher who is based at the Lumut Naval Base in Perak.

With the announcement of the conditional MCO in numerous states, schools have been ordered to close until Dec 17 and home-based learning is to be used.

Teacher Lim Yiet Im, 49, said the videos definitely helped her students.

“I teach mathematics and prior to MCO, I never thought of incorporating videos in my teaching. But given the situation, I am glad that I have the opportunity to learn new things to benefit my students, ” she said.

“Together with the pre-university teachers I met through AYU, we created a playlist in YouTube consisting of videos for Form Six students.”

She said the playlist currently contained over 150 videos which had been viewed by more than 3,800 students.

She added that she would continue to create videos for lessons even after the conditional MCO ended.

“My videos, depending on the topic and questions covered, range from eight minutes to nearly an hour, ” said Lim.

“Although my videos are mostly viewed by Malaysian students, I have viewers from overseas too.

“As an educator, I believe it is my responsibility to share my knowledge with students. And since these videos are free, they will definitely help students in need, ” she added.

Savina spent RM500 on equipment to make the videos for her lessons.

English teacher A. Savina, 40, said she spent about RM500 to buy equipment to make the videos.

“I prefer to just use my smartphone when creating the videos because that is hassle-free. I bought a microphone and a tripod to provide better quality videos.

“I had initially uploaded several videos in 2014, but due to lack of time back then, it was quite impossible to focus.

“When MCO was implemented, I finally had the time to do videos and I received guidance and tips from AYU on how to create better videos, ” she said.

Savina said not only did her videos help her students, it had benefitted others as well.

“Since I received positive feedback from my viewers, I will continue to do more videos for them, ” she added.