“The tools you would like to use are the tools you’ve got before the crisis hits.”
In India unfortunately, we all are finding ourselves in extraordinary times with the outbreak of COVID-19. This has meant that variety of academic establishments have had to shut for time and variety of scholars and their families have had to self-isolate and therefore owing to COVID-19, most professors and students suddenly notice themselves forced to use technology as they teach and learn.
Given that faculty and educational units scrambling to maneuver courses on-line, it’s currently painfully clear that academic establishments have to be compelled to have had additional sturdy disaster-preparedness plans in situation within the event of interruptions in their field operations. However, as a result of several academic establishments didn’t have such plans in situation and don’t have nice infrastructure or resources to create sensible on-line courses space, on-line learning is getting ready to get a foul name at several academic establishments, I suspect.
So if that is the worst outcome, what ought to establishments do to forestall that? The support they have to show and learn on-line, the higher education institution has traditionally been seen as slow to adapt. However educators, featured with unexampled urgency I feel there certain principles to follow and precisely we are attempting to implement at our institute.
* Where attainable, produce active learning experiences-ones within which there’s synchronous communication, needed category sessions, frequent opportunities for college kids to answer queries and defend answers, discussion their peers, tackle issues, and therefore the like Zoom/Hangout/Google Class etc.
* Bear in mind that on-line learning is not concerning put the college member front and center just like the MOOCs did. Meaning that teaching bound ideas may not be best accomplished through lecture-capture technologies, however instead by showing a transmission clip, use from NPTEL/SWAYAM/YOUTUBE, however do not overload students’ memory with ample modality and visual effects. Keep the medium straightforward and interesting.
* Begin session with a stimulating question or contradiction, and so weave a story along to assist illustrate the lesson. Students learn best after they have a puzzle that they require to resolve, and that we retain ideas through compelling stories.
* There are tools to form science lab and different live experiences on-line – through things like Labster, or rising VR/AR technologies.
So now we all have to be compelled to move towards merging learning being the norm as ancient campuses move on-line platform to deeply integrate students’ work-life experiences into their program of study.
(Dr. Arun Kumar Singh, Head-School of Management of Studies, JIMS Engineering Management Technical Campus, (Affiliated to GGSIPU, New Delhi), Greater Noida.)
