Students seeking admissions to first-year undergraduate courses are asking colleges to provide them with details of the online teaching facilities available in the institutions.

Students are keen to know the information, mainly because they are not sure when colleges will reopen, principals of several colleges have said.

Many students are telling colleges that even if the institutions reopen after a few months, they may find it difficult to use public transport from faraway places. So, they will have to depend on online classes.

Jaydeep Sarangi, the principal of New Alipore College, said an applicant had called him on Saturday. The student told him he lived in Subhasgram on the city’s southern outskirts and that he would have to travel by local train to attend classes.

The student said his parents would not allow him to travel on crowded trains every day to prevent the risk of getting infected in these times, Sarangi said.

Students want to know whether online classes will be held for all subjects, whether they can access libraries online or how many days in a week will online classes be held or how long will such online classes continue, the principal said.

It is not possible to tell students how long online classes will continue because the government will decide when to reopen colleges depending on the Covid-19 situations, the heads of some colleges said.

But the queries have prompted many colleges to upgrade their online teaching facilities.

Students are asking questions about online teaching facilities because of anxiety, Siuli Sarkar, the principal of Lady Brabourne College, said.

The college, though, wants to ensure online classes are student-friendly. “We are trying to upgrade our online teaching facilities. For example, we are making the online teaching of theoretical papers as much informative as possible in all subjects. Out teachers are already working on it,” Sarkar said.

Many students have expressed their concern regarding practical classes, saying they can’t visit campuses when colleges are closed.

“So we are preparing power point presentations on topics taught in the practical papers of all lab-based subjects such as physics and chemistry to be used in online classes,” Sarkar said.

Ashok Mukhopadhyay, the principal of Jaipuria College, said the online teaching facility needed to be upgraded because online classes might continue for a long period.

“Even when colleges reopen, all students can’t be present on campuses every day to ensure distancing rules are maintained. So, students will have to attend online classes,” Mukhopadhyay said.

A senior teacher of Asutosh College said online classes had been held in all subjects in the past four months. First-year applicants are being told of the benefits of online classes, the teacher said.

Some colleges said they had started training teachers on how to prepare online timetables and how to monitor the day-to-day performance of students in online classes.

Most colleges conduct online classes on platforms like Zoom and Google Meet.

Many colleges have been trying to use digital platforms to store class lectures for students’ future reference.

The state government has announced that colleges would start the online admission process by accepting applications from August 10.

The principal of a college in the Sealdah area said most students in his institution were from the city’s southern and northern outskirts. These students mostly use local trains for their daily commute to the college.

“In previous years, students were more bothered about the admission criteria. This time, they are more concerned about online classes,” a college principal said.

“This is because students believe it won’t be possible to attend colleges regularly even if campuses were to reopen in the next few months,” the principal said.