TOKYO: Some teachers at Japanese universities and colleges are exhausted by the increased burden of preparing for online classes introduced amid the spread of the new coronavirus.

Reiko Ishii, professor of piano and music education at University of Niigata Prefecture in central Japan, divided her chorus class of some 40 students into groups of four to five students, and coaches them using a video conference app.

She receives questions by email, and such classes "have made me understand individual interests better than normal classes," she said.

But "it sometimes takes until 3 a.m." to prepare for a class at her home while taking care of her three children, she said.

A 35-year-old man in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, who works as a part-time teacher at multiple colleges, have eight classes a week and all of them are held online amid the coronavirus epidemic.

"I can't have small talks with students, and my (online) classes lack humor," he said. He divided a video for an online class into three so that students will not be bored.

It sometimes takes seven to 10 hours to film and edit a video, but he earns about 10,000 yen per class.

"Preparation can be completed in two hours for a face-to-face class," he said. "My salaries don't change but working hours became longer."

A 20-year-old female sophomore at Meiji University in Tokyo said she has become busy with assignments given in online classes.

Such assignments include writing reports and her thoughts about classes.

"Doing these assignments make me feel they are meaningless. The quality of classes obviously dropped," she said.

"One teacher only distributes materials online and provides no lectures," said a 21-year-old senior in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. "It's not fair we pay tuition fees as in usual years, although the amounts we can learn at classes fell clearly."

JIJI Press