Though it has its pros and cons, my shift to online learning has been good so far. For lectures, I have been using both synchronous and asynchronous delivery, whereby students join for live lectures over Webex, and then have the option to review the recorded sessions. Assessments, however, are proving more challenging considering the poor internet connection in the country, and the extra time that preparation demands. Tools like Blackboard, Respondus Lockdown Browser and Monitor are proving indispensable here.

In parallel with teaching, research has continued – almost unaffected – from home. We have submitted a project proposal to the Lebanese Council for Scientific Research, which offers tools to help tackle the COVID-19 crisis in Lebanon. The first objective is to detect and predict would-be crowded areas so as to advise people to schedule visits accordingly, while the second objective uses GPS and Bluetooth technology to keep track of people who come in contact with a COVID-19 patient, for faster and more reliable contact tracing in the future.