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Studying abroad is a choice for many Hong Kong students. Unfortunately, because of the covid-19 pandemic, overseas students have a different online learning experience.

“The second wave of the pandemic in the UK is the most serious, and it can only be used to teach via Zoom,” Nathanael Tsun Sum Lai said, a 22-year-old MPhil student studying at the University of Cambridge.

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(Left: Nathanael Tsun Sum Lai said, a 22-year-old MPhil student studying at the University of Cambridge)

Because of the covid-19, there are different arrangements among different universities.  Some international students insist on attending classes locally, but more often they use Zoom to attend classes abroad.

“Fortunately, the pandemic in Australia is not very serious. Even if the government announces the lockdown, I can still take Zoom lessons in the independent office in the school,” Trinity Chau said, a 22-year-old Master's student studying at the Queensland University of Technology.

“I attend the Artistic Development lecture via Zoom, it’s very disappointing to have a class in the UK but can’t communicate with classmates lecture time, ” Sheung Yin Chan said, a 23-year-old Master student studying at Royal Academy of Music.

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(Left: Sheung Yin Chan, a 23-year-old Master student studying at Royal Academy of Music)

In Hong Kong, studying abroad is very popular among students.  According to the official figures of UNESCO, there are currently about 36,000 Hong Kong students studying abroad in the UK, Australia, the United States, and Canada.

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(Data from UNESCO)

In the minds of many overseas students, being able to study abroad is a very happy learning experience.  However, the situation of the pandemic has caused an unprecedented situation in overseas study. Some Hong Kong students even have to stay in Hong Kong to take classes via Zoom.

Hoi Ying Lee, a 19-year-old medical studies student studying at the University of New South Wales, but only can attend the lectures via Zoom only. Except for the online lectures, some offline clinical attachment and medical society workshops are also important to her as a medical student.

“As a Year 1 medical studies student, the program required more basic clinical experience, medical theory, and medical history. Glad that basic knowledge is the most important in Year 1 and there do not have many medical society workshops till now,” Lee said.

The development of technology and the popularization of electronic products have also turned overseas study courses into online teaching, which highlights the ability of schools to respond even in that state emergency period.

Chau also said that she also can reduce some transportation costs, if the school activities overlap with the class time, she can also watch the video clips after the class sine lectures via Zoom is too flexible for her.

“I like online classes very much because the time flexibility is relatively high. It is more convenient than I can do other things during the Zoom lectures with multitasking at the same time,” Chau said.

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(Trinity Chau, a 22-year-old Master's student studying at the Queensland University of Technology)

With the advanced technology, even participating in classes for studying abroad becomes easy, because the network compresses time and space, and students can take classes anytime, anywhere.

“In fact, there is no big difference between online classes and in-person classes. Classes are just different in mode, but the teaching content is the same,” Lee said.

Lee also said that online classes do have their advantages because there is a time difference between Hong Kong and Australia. If she wants to follow the Australian time in lectures in Hong Kong, that is very tired for her because the professors will record the clips of the online lectures, she can use the Hong Kong time to watch the video clips anytime and anywhere.

“I originally thought that taking classes online would have an impact on me. Fortunately, there are many theories in journalism studies. As long as you concentrate on listening to the professors, there is not a that big problem as I thought,” Zi-yi Li said, a 24-year-old master student studying international journalism studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Li pointed out that no matter how convenient the online lectures are, some lecturers are not familiar with the online lecture equipment, which seems to waste the whole class time.  Sometimes there will be unsmooth pictures and pauses in online classes, which will also affect the atmosphere of the online lectures.

Some theory-based learning courses, such as history, journalism studies, marketing, and other subjects, can also learn the key concept ad theory of the course with the cooperation of online learning.  Because these subjects are mainly reading, writing, and doing research.

With online classes and UK lockdown, Lai agrees that he can have more time and opportunities to conduct the research in the dormitory and do his assignment more attentively. During this time, he feels that he is more productive than in his previous studies.

“Online classes make everything very flexible, once I missed a face-to-face seminar because of a headache, it became embarrassing that I was the only one in Zoom,” Lai said.

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(Lai's missed his face-to-face lecture and he was the only one in Zoom)

However, some overseas students decided to return to Hong Kong because of the pandemic.  Chun Lam Leung, a 22-year-old degree graduate thinks that studying abroad on the Zoom has become meaningless, and he also gave up his master’s degree in Ireland.

"I paid HKD$5000 for reserving my master’s degree, but I really can't accept to finish my master’s degree in urban planning online since there are a lot of studio lectures that can’t hold via Zoom," Leung said.

No matter how advanced the technology is, some courses that require internship and practice that cannot be replaced by online learning.  For instance, some subjects such as medical studies, urban planning, music, etc., require time for students to carry out internships and learning in person.

Lee, a medical studies student joins the Zoom lectures in Hong Kong. Because of the pandemic, she missed some clinical attachment and medical society workshops that hold on campus. She believes that learning the knowledge of medical specialties is very important because as a medical student, these activities are very important to her.

“I will join the covid-19 vaccine program next week, hoping to buy an air ticket to Australia.  Because I am in Australia, I can intern in the hospital two to three days a week,” Lee said.

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(Hoi Ying Lee, a 19-year-old medical studies student studying at the University of New South Wales)

Being a master's student in art performance, there is a big influence for him in attending the online lectures. The limitation of the online lecture is that he can only play trombone in a single classroom. For learning music, public performance is the most important but online lectures greatly reduce the psychological quality of training in performance.

“It is very difficult for me to play trombone via online lectures, the online equipment like mic and camera affect my articulation and harmony sound, the Zoom quality also affected,” Chan said.