Speaking about the new collaborative effort, Professor Banchong Mahaisavariya, M.D., President of Mahidol University, said that, “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities to quickly and effectively adapt traditional learning and teaching to our 'new normal’ way of life. Recently, the university has adopted technologies to strengthen its teaching, learning and daily operations to ensure that it can continue activities safely while maintaining social distancing. Several technologies have previously been experimented with and tested by the university, but the COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst speeding up implementation for real use. In the coming academic year 2020 starting in August, on-line classrooms will be arranged for all freshmen on a virtual platform jointly developed with Siam Commercial Bank. Classrooms for students in other classes will be combined both on-line and off-line as deemed appropriate. For long-term measures, the university plans to adopt more digital technology, while conducting more training for lecturers, allowing them to up-skill their potential, teaching techniques, and assessments to ensure that the teaching they offer is the same quality as employed in-person learning environments. This will help ensure that the university, students, and staff will be able to use digital technology to respond to changes in any situation.”
Mr. Parnu Chotiprasidhi, Executive Vice President of Corporate Banking 2, Siam Commercial Bank, noted that Siam Commercial Bank and Mahidol University have working together since 2018 to adapt the strong technological capabilities of both firms to create a digital ecosystem in a bid to raise the bar for the university becoming a Smart University. Mahidol has started to embrace technologies to transform the ecosystem in all aspects and enlarge our infrastructure in all areas, and all campuses, while offering access to over 67,000 students and university staff members. Today, the vision mutually adopted throughout the past two years has brought our goal to reality. It will serve as the key to supporting Mahidol University’s learning and teaching amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has prompted educational institutions to temporarily halt in-person classes. The move will ensure that learning activities can be continued to the fullest extent under a virtual platform, which can act as a substitute for classroom learning experience. The system will also be capable of connecting remote learning and meetings among campuses in different areas, including remote conferences with institutions abroad. This effort has undoubtedly created a new prospect for education in Thailand. The implementation of a virtual platform to support virtual classrooms is part of several projects sponsored by SCB, all with the goal of placing Mahidol University in the forefront of world-class universities and helping it become a prototype driving other universities in Thailand to international recognition.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Thatchavee Leelawat, Acting Vice President for Information Technology and Kanchanaburi Campus of Mahidol University, said that drastic technology advancement has forced the educational sector to adjust to suit a new context that is completely different from the past. It is also necessary for Mahidol University to determine strategic moves to become a Digital Convergence University. With SCB’s support, we have worked closely together to design and create digital technology ready for active learning, leading to many other projects. One of the important projects is the development of a virtual platform, which is a common vision shared by our two organizations. The project to create on-line classrooms, including an interactive system for lecturers and students, was being jointly developed even before the COVID-19 outbreak, starting from laying down an infrastructure enabling the connection of Mahidol’s Salaya, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Sawan, and Amnat Charoen campuses. This digital ecosystem allows users to familiarize themselves with the system, the WiFi internet network covering all university areas, and the We Mahidol Application providing students and university staff convenient access to news updates and learning via the digital platform. This existing system can be instantly kicked off to effectively replace in-person classrooms under social distancing measures. The system is capable of eliminating the constraints of cross-border learning, allowing learners and lecturers to interact and exchange knowledge in real time. All students can continue their lessons to the fullest extent as if they are in real classrooms.
The virtual platform can truly accommodate learning, training, conferences for professors, staff, and students, simplifying remote learning, enhancing the quality of life, and reducing expenses. Since the emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak, Mahidol University has created over 65,000 virtual classrooms/conferences via its Webex programs, with participants joining over 750,000 sessions during a three-month period (April – June 2020). This development reflects our seamless adaptive capability for education of the future under a new virtual classroom context. The project is now expanding to cover co-working and co-learning spaces, allowing staff and students to connect via the virtual platform with Webex. It will extend the capability of the We Mahidol Application, enabling users to attend classes or meetings by conveniently logging in via an on-line system. These achievements reaffirm the strong technologies and academic excel of Thai universities.
