As SUSTech adapts to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the international community had to adjust to teaching and taking classes online. With our international faculty and teaching staff returning to SUSTech to undergo their 14 days of self-isolation or quarantine, while others remain in their home countries, we spoke to a few of them to see how they are dealing with learning in this new educational paradigm.

Chin Chin TAN (’21, Financial Engineering) is from Malaysia and returned there for the Chinese New Year holiday. She has not returned to SUSTech, following the instructions that required her to stay at home until further notice. Despite this, she worked with her classmates to qualify for the Asia-Pacific Regional Finals of the 2020 CFA Institute Research Challenge. She spoke about how she had adjusted to learning from home and her ongoing teamwork.

As a junior student, Chin Chin declared her major at the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year, choosing to study Financial Engineering. Globally, this is a highly competitive field, and the opportunity to take part in globally recognized competitions such as the CFA Institute Research Challenge is vital for all students.

The practical benefits of studying finance are showing themselves, with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closing its trading floor. While such an occurrence is quite rare, the trading floor is mostly symbolic these days, with the majority of traders operating online. Similarly, the rapid uptake of online banking and other electronic transactions means that the finance industry will play more of a practical role in society. With the finance discipline increasingly relying on the digital realm, the need to be in a specific physical location means that finance students are best suited to adapt to the new paradigm.

The competition has helped her and her teammates get a more practical insight into the operational aspects of the industry. Finance is taught primarily from a theoretical basis, so competitions like the CFA Institute Research Challenge allows students to apply their knowledge to case studies. The application of theoretical knowledge in a practical way further enhances their skill sets and prepares them for their careers.

When reflecting on the competition, she found that meeting online was more convenient than trying to find a meeting room on campus. As long as everyone in the group was available at the same time, it was easy to arrange a meeting through Zoom.

The competition was highly rigorous, needing considerable time and effort to prepare reports and presentations. Once the team advanced to the Asia-Pacific regional round, they had to work together to develop a more professional presentation. It required the team to finish their tasks promptly while supporting each other to make sure that their presentations and reports were of the highest possible quality.

The team knew that the Q&A session would be vital for their progression to the Asia Pacific Regional Final. A significant amount of time was spent refining their preparation for that section.

Chin Chin pointed out that the Asia Pacific Regional Final was conducted virtually. The SUSTech team was selected, at random, to be one of the first teams to experience such an event. She believes that organizations will take advantage of the cost and resource benefits of holding events online compared to getting everyone in one place.

In this new digital learning environment, Chin Chin is, like all other SUSTech students, taking her classes online. She has managed to adjust to studying at home despite the distractions that surround her in Kuala Lumpur. However, this has not stopped her from being a good student and submitting everything on time to her usual high standard.

Given that Chin Chin was studying and taking her classes remotely, she believes that telecommuting (working from home) will become a norm in the near future. As a result, learning online from home allows students to prepare for this new situation of working and conducting meetings outside of an official workplace.

In reflecting on her online learning experience, she quickly adapted to the new paradigm. “It’s kind of bizarre thinking about how schools worldwide are now giving online lessons, when just two months ago, only schools in China were doing so.”

While Chin Chin does prefer face-to-face lessons for their increased interactivity in the classroom, she has found that learning from home has given her the additional time to move from class to class, without physically having to travel across campus. Referring back to her experience in the CFA Institute Research Challenge, meeting online was far more convenient than trying to find a space to meet on campus, which reduced the sunk cost associated with the assessment.

Technical issues will plague any online system, and Chin Chin got caught out once. She has learned from this unfortunate situation, and encouraged her classmates to ensure their assessments are submitted in the system.

Chin Chin has been working tirelessly from her home in Kuala Lumpur, avoiding distractions and concentrating on her studies. She believes that online learning is a trend that will become common with universities across the world, as part of an integrated online-offline educational environment.

Tips for online learning:

Be organized and get familiar with the technical issues as soon as possible. Make sure you properly submit assignments through the system and get your confirmation that your assessments have been correctly submitted.

Work with your groups early to find the best time to meet and agree on the same program to have your online meetings.

Editors note: The University of Sydney ultimately won the Asia-Pacific Regional Final. SUSTech was one of only four mainland Chinese universities that qualified for the Asia-Pacific Regional round. SUSTech’s semi-final was with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, National Taiwan University, Thammasat University (Thailand), University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), and the University of Melbourne (Australia).