The Impact of COVID-19 on Education: A New Normal in Teaching and Learning at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Anthropology and Sociology Section

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered an incredible phenomenon globally, including Malaysia. It has a significant impact on all industries, including tertiary education, specifically the teaching, learning and evaluation of students. The Anthropology and Sociology section is no exception as educators strive to ensure that the outbreak does not affect the teaching and learning process and disrupts the curriculum that was planned before the outbreak. The pandemic has forced educators to embrace the new normal where online learning has become the main medium to deliver the curriculum. Although the online learning approach is not new, educators are required to fully rely on applications such as WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Team as well as social media like WhatsApp and telegram to deliver their lesson and communicate with the students. This has created several challenges as online learning has become the mainstream tool during this crisis. Hence, the aim of this article is to discuss the implications of Covid-19 pandemic, specifically, the changes and modifications made to the teaching and learning facilitated by the lectures in the Anthropology and Sociology section of Universiti Sains Malaysia, as well as how to deal with this crisis.