Starting from tomorrow, Malaysia will be under a Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (Movement Control Order). All nurseries, schools and institutions of higher learning have been ordered to close for the period starting from the 18 March 2020 till 31 March 2020. Students are asked to return to their home during this period. During the time of IR4.0 with the advancement in technology and the ease of communication, classes can still be continued virtually. With the increase of the number of COVID-19 cases over the past weeks and the scare of one of our Master of Public Health students being exposed to a COVID-19 case, the Department has started to put in measure for online distal learning (ODL).

On Monday, 16th March, before the Movement Control Order has been announced the department has already started conducting all the Master of Public Health and Doctor of Public Health classes online. We have selected Zoom a web-based video conferencing as our platform for our online distal learning. The classes were conducted by our academics using the computer system in the Department, which was set up by Muhammad Haizril Arif Md Mokhtar, our Project Officer for e-Learning.

However, since the Movement Control Order was announced last night, we need to re-strategise, classes can no longer be conducted in the Department, as most movement will be restricted starting on the 18 March 2020. The Department needs to bring all the academics up to speed with running the Zoom meeting from their computer at home. Haizril conducted a hands-on class with some of the academics today.