Digital transformation in Higher Education

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June 20, 2020

The Covid lockdown gave a great opportunity to educational institutions at all levels, from primary schools to universities and institutions of higher learning to make a rapid shift to digital learning says Prof PB Sharma, Vice-chancellor, Amity University, Gurugram in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

The age of Digital India has arrived and a revolution is already in the making for digital transformation, be it trade, commerce, service, governance or even education everywhere digital transformation is clearly visible. But what is not visible is the emphasis on Integrity, Compassion and Empathy that is Aatmiyata as the “Trinity of Divinity” for organisational effectiveness that govern human behaviour.

India for long was looking for effective interventions to impact people’s behaviour to build responsible citizenship and a community that lives up to its age-old basics of human excellence based on Satyamev Jayate, Service above Self and to its deep rooted conviction in Oneness of Diversity and Diversity of Oneness so beautifully ordained in its Upnishadic thoughts. The time to integrate Integrity, Compassion and Aatmiyata into Digital Transformation is now and we must act fast in India says eminent academician Prof PB Sharma who is the Founder Vice-Chancellor DTU and RGTU and currently the Vice-Chancellor of Amity University, Gurugram.

Also read: COVID 19 impact & ways to tackle- School Franchising Industry

Importance of integrity and Aatmiyata is now better understood in e-commerce and e-business as customer satisfaction and the trust of stakeholders have emerged as prime considerations for the business to grow and flourish worldwide. In governance too the digital transformation should increasingly focus on taking people on board and on Governance with Aatmiyata should become the buzz of Good Governance.

Integration of Integrity and Aatmiyata as non-negotiable in governance shall build islands of good governance that besides catering for governance efficacy shall build trust and pride in the government in a democracy like ours whose constitution guarantees liberty, equality and justice. We should make no mistake that the government in a democratic set up is the reflection of the mood and mindset of people at large and their behaviour largely impact both the formation and also the functioning of the government. As such it is important that we pay a much greater attention to people’s behaviour and their attitude to assure good governance that ensures governmental efficacy and governance with Aatmiyata. This will help us succeed in solving very many pressing problems including long impending issues such as compliance to environmental laws, protection of environmental health, improving poor quality of civic services, loss of trust in governance and above all increasing arrogance and apathy in the society.

In the education sector, the digital transformation has arrived. The Covid lockdown gave a great opportunity to educational institutions at all levels, from primary schools to universities and institutions of higher learning to make a rapid shift to digital learning and the interest with which the online classes, online workshops, online conferences, online panel discussions and millions of webinars that have been conducted during the last 3 months give a clear signal of rapid change in educational space and the role of digital learning shall play to improve the quality and relevance of education from here after.

But let this euphoria and love for digital connect and digital learning does not disappear as we begin to open our campuses in July or soon thereafter depending upon our success to effectively concur Covid pandemic.

We need to increasingly echo and that too loudly the importance of Integrity, Compassion and Aatmiyata as the core human values to build an education system that effectively shall transform a man into a human with humanity, humility and personal and professional integrity at the core of human instinct.

The digital transformation in education should not let go of this great opportunity of integrating integrity and Aatmiyata in digital learning. The time to act in this direction is now and we must act fast to grab this great opportunity that we all educators have with us today, says Prof Sharma who is also the past President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU.

E-learning helped us to tackle the crisis

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

As our University is effectively using ICT tools for education like Moodle, Google Meet and Zoom, we continued our outcome-based teaching-learning without break in lockdown, says Dr Venkatesh A.Raikar, Vice Chancellor, Sanjay Ghodawat University in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

After lockdown announced SGU had taken many measures to overcome this situation. We had been using Learning Management System, Moodle as a regular practice in SGU. This LMS helped us for continuing the learning of students. Each student and faculty members have their own account on MOODLE and it can be accessed from anywhere using internet. Faculties could upload their lessons & notes in the form of PDF or PPTs, or in the form of videos.

Students solved quizzes and submitted assignments which were given by faculties. We conducted CAT-II on MOODLE successfully. On the other hand, faculties used to conduct online interactions with students by using software like ZOOM, Google Meet, YouTube etc. As our university has its own G-Suit account we have facility to use Google Meet account easily without any time limitation and it also works on low bandwidth.

Also read: Prajodh Rajan, Co-Founder & Group CEO – EuroKids International: Peer learning the most effective way

Our faculties are always in touch with students and parents through WhatsApp and phone to provide all the updates. Our university has already established Swayam NPTEL local chapter to conduct various MOOC courses offered by NPTEL and students are taking benefit of this platform for their learning. We have provided facility to our students and faculties to enroll themselves to various courses offered by https://www.coursera.org/which is USA based MOOCs provider.

We have established Coursera Campus program in our university. More than 400 student and faculties still taking advantages counting 2,562 of learning hours, and 4,680 lessons. SGU had organised Faculty Development Program on “LaTeX” in association with Spoken Tutorial Project, IIT-B in which more than 1400 faculties across India and abroad enrolled and completed this FDP. A number of Webinar on current issues / educational scenario were conducted by faculty and University officers.

In the face of a crippling pandemic, technology has emerged as a major lifesaver. Communication is a major key to our interconnected existence and technology is the driving force that maintains our connections.

For education, that means creating content and delivery systems that harness and utilize technology to its fullest. Perhaps, education may become more flexible and accessible, relinquishing its over- reliance on rigid structures that we currently consider necessary.

OP Jindal University, Raigarh during Covid-19 pandemic

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

This sudden paradigm shift is set to disrupt the university functioning and creating lots of issues, challenges and conflicts, but at the same time it offers an opportunity to evolve ourselves and transform the Higher Education Sector across the globe, says Dr RD Patidar, Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal University, Raigarh in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

COVID-19 pandemic has affected every sector of life across the globe, be it economy, businesses, manufacturing or education. The rapidly evolving situation around the pandemic poses a whole lot of challenges to the functioning of higher education institutes in India. Probably universities and regulatory bodies never thought of such a situation and we did not have a contingency plan in place. The Universities, under such unprecedented situations, don’t have many options and are forced to go online. But the challenge is that all the Institutes and universities of India are not fully prepared to leverage digital tools and technologies. This sudden paradigm shift is set to disrupt the university functioning and creating lots of issues, challenges and conflicts, but at the same time it offers an opportunity to evolve ourselves and transform the Higher Education Sector across the globe.

After the declaration of closing the institution on 16th of March 2020 by government of India and further announcement of lockdown 1.0 on 24th March 2020, followed by lockdown 2.0 and lockdown 3.0, the OP Jindal University (OPJU), Raigarh quickly adapted to the situations and continued all its operation without any interruption.

Also read: Dr Praveen Kukreja, Shemford Futuristic School, Agra: School under huge financial crisis in COVID

OPJU is a multidisciplinary university offers Diploma, Under Graduate (UG), Post Graduate (PG) and Ph D programs across its three schools namely School of Engineering, School of Management and School of Science and have 65+ full time faculties, 10 visiting faculties and 1200+ students. During the lockdown period faculty have undergone the process of technology adoption and students are involved with various online modes of learning. There was lots of fear, anxiety, concern and consciousness among students and faculty regarding COVID-19.

The following major activities have been brought under the umbrella of new functional model for the university operations in order to come out unaffected and stronger during COVID-19 and lockdown:

1. Online Teaching and Learning: At the time when students were asked to leave the campus, the university session was running and the courses were in the middle of completion. It was really challenging to complete the syllabus and keep the students engaged meaningfully. Usually any change is resistive and changing the mindset is difficult, especially of the faculties. The tools used by faculty members during lockdown for teaching- learning online are – Zoom, Google Hangouts/ meet, Skype, Google classrooms, Moodle Learning Management System (LMS), Google forms, YouTube, etc. We conducted online Faculty development programs to gear up to adopt changing pedagogies and instill positivity among faculty during the crisis.

2. Examination and Evaluation: The conduct of examinations is now a major challenge for universities in India if the lockdown continues and/or universities remain closed for next few months. University Grant Commission (UGC) too recommended conducting online examinations if the university has the required resources and competencies. We at OPJU are having good IT infrastructure and competent people to conduct the end semester examination in online mode. A pilot project and Proof of Concept (PoC), we have already successfully conducted a mid-semester examination of some of our students in the last week of April 2020. This Pilot project was implemented across all the schools of the university for around 40 subjects from all years and the duration of the examination was 1 hour. Two types of questions were asked in the mid semester examination i.e. Objective type (Multiple choice, True False, Matching, One word) and subjective type (Short & Medium Answer).

3. Internship: At OPJU, an internship is a “Learning by Doing” experience that is aimed at enhancing a student’s academics, career progression and personality development and is part of the curriculum. Every student undergoes minimum 02 internships and we have a provision for a semester long internship as well. COVID-19 situation and subsequent guidelines from UGC and All India Council of Technical education (AICTE) encouraged us to evolve our own model for internships, which is apt for the situation and changing scenario.

4. Campus Placement: We at OPJU could sense the campus recruitment problems during the pre-lockdown period itself and shifted our strategies accordingly. In the sudden change of scenario, we were forced to cancel few of the scheduled drives, but soon we started figuring out the companies whose business is on rise during COVID-19 and quickly adapted to the new online norms. We extended companies all the help and support for conducting virtual campus drives from arranging online tests over OPJU MOODLE to Group Discussions (GDs) and Personal Interviews (PIs) in a virtual online fashion. By the time lockdown started our approx 80% students had already been placed.

5. Research Activities: Working From Home (WFH) has given the university administration an opportunity to engage our faculty not only in online classes but also to sustain their continued interest in research and development. Ph D course work classes are being conducted online and progress of all the Ph D scholars is being discussed and supervised in an online manner. During this crisis, OPJU has been selected by NITI Aayog to establish ACIC under its flagship program Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).

6. Virtual Conferences, Workshops and FDPs: COVID-19 outbreak forced us to cancel scheduled Faculty Development programs (FDPs) and Workshops but at the same time offered us an opportunity to think out-of -the-box and come-up with new solutions, which works in the current scenario. OPJU was quick to shift from physical in- person sessions to virtual sessions. In the process, we researched many online platforms and learnt using these communications tools effectively and intelligently. We conducted many workshops and FDPs over Zoom and skype for faculty and students.

7. Webinar and Sessions: Our leadership team has made this time more interesting and meaningful by featuring webinars on different technical and career oriented topics. Leadership team along with the reputed experts from industries, corporate and academia leaders delivered many sessions to make students and faculties aware of the contemporary and future needs of the industry and market. During this period OPJU hosted around 50 webinars on different topics and our members delivered 10+ webinars as a panelist organized by reputed organizations and agencies.

8. Admission Process: Admissions is one of the most important activities for any university, which directly affects the financial health and growth plans of the university. The pandemic has forced people’s movements and confined them to their homes. This drastic change in behavior of people affected badly the admission process everywhere and OPJU is not an exception. COVID-19 came as an absolute surprise for the admission team, which forced them to work from home and has a major effect on its working style. However, this impact is not just limited to the admission teams but thousands of prospective students and their parents as well.

As we are all witnessing that covid19 has shaken the economies and industries, we see a paradigm shift in skill set and manpower requirements in the recruitment market. In order to address the market demands and make our students’ jobs ready for the post- covid scenario, we at OPJU are revamping our entire curriculum in consultation with industry and academic leaders.

The world after post-covid will be a different one and so the OP Jindal University- Different, Better, Brighter.

Technology plays an important role in countering Covid

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

Technology played a decisive role in unleashing its potential to address almost all crucial issues for SIESCOMS and establish a symbiotic relationship between students and teacher using digital platforms says, Dr Bigyan Verma, Director of SIES College of Management Studies in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

This lesson guided SIES College of Management Studies (SIESCOMS) to deal with the monstrous COVID-19 when it hit us all in the 2ndfortnight of March 2020 and the entire academic plan was brought to a standstill. Mastering the world that engulfed us became necessary to overcome fear, frustration, confusion and the future of students at stake.

Along with many educational institutions all over the world, we too had to abruptly halt our functioning to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, especially at a time when we were about to complete the last-minute rigmarole of teaching, assessments, capstone viva, enrolments, research activities and preparation of new academic calendar. Driven by the mission that imparts quality education should never be interrupted, no matter what, SIESCOMS used the lens to mitigate immediate challenges and prepare strategies for the future.

Also read: COVID-19 impact: Online learning initiatives in Birla Open Minds International School

A holistic response to COVID-19 challenge

Technology played a decisive role in unleashing its potential to address almost all crucial issues for SIESCOMS and establish a symbiotic relationship between students and teachers using digital platforms. While regulatory bodies were still grappling to look for a solution to handle learning outcomes and assessments, SIESCOMS addressed all such deliverables in several innovative ways in the first fortnight of April 2020 itself. The onset of pandemic affected not just the existing students and also the ones who had dreams to pursue management education from a prestigious business school like us. Series of lockdowns complicated the matter for even further. Remote digital tools were quickly adopted to conduct personal interviews for new enrolments. SIESCOMS joined hands with Coursera, a world-renowned platform for offering MOOCs and made it an integral part of curriculum.

Internships are a critical piece of experiential learning in business schools. However, one of the most painful fall outs of COVID-19 was the absence of a traditional format of face-to-face internship experience. Without losing time, internship offers of corporate were changed to virtual internships for all students to expand their knowledge and experience of working in an organization. For students, what could be better when they often find that there is no end to the workday (and learn) when one works remotely.

The Responsible B- School

COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of many poor people and communities. Collaboration at this hour to tackle the menace in unison remains most vital for all. Driven by the values of South Indian Education Society (SIES), we continued to work at the highest level of its emotional quotient (EQ) and spiritual quotient (SQ) to help the weaker sections of people in our neighbourhood. In addition to donating thousands of masks and beds made of cardboard, member of SIES society, students and faculty went out of their way to donate food, sanitary pads to underprivileged and needy also donations for PM Care fund.

As we continue to live in the world of many unknown unknowns, planning for the future in these uncertain times is tricky, at best. Extrapolating the scenario that prevails today, our experience of how we handled the crisis will help us deal with the future in the most effective way. Walt Disney was right when he said “All our dreams come true if we have the courage to pursue them”.

Digitalization a new phenomenon in Higher Education

Article

By

Pankaj Kumar Samantaray

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June 20, 2020

Lockdown changed the perspective of schools. With schools closed for months, e-learning came to the forefront, across the world. Even in developed countries, students have been the primary movers of this initiative. Teachers followed the new trend, hoping to return to the classrooms soon. Here is a detailed report by Pankaj Samantray of Elets News Network.

Education plays an important role in the development of stable and civilized society, polishing human skills, developing the personality of individuals. With technology as a catalyst, education is moving from a knowledge- transfer model to a collaborative, active, self- directed, and engaging model. Due to the Corona crisis, there is a surge in digitalization witnessed in higher education. Technology is stamping its authority in higher education day by day.

The modes of teaching in higher education have drastically changed in last few years. While some old guards still stay with the old chalk and talk technology, it is very rare that in these days professors do not use some modern technology in class-room delivery. But with Corona crisis, faculty members are compelled to use technology in education. Abundant information on any subject is available on such sources as Youtube, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Google.

Also read: Innovations paving way for quality higher education in Rajasthan

In India there are many institutions that have in recent years opened satellite campuses abroad or have signed MOUs with some foreign universities to offer online education.

By 2030, India will be amongst the youngest nations in the world. With over 140 million people in the college-going age group, one in every four graduates in the world will be a product of the Indian higher education system.

Over the last two decades, India has remarkably transformed its higher education landscape. It has created widespread access to low- cost high-quality university education for students of all levels.

With well-planned expansion and a student-centric learning- driven model of education, India has not only bettered its enrolment numbers but has dramatically enhanced its learning outcomes.

With the effective use of technology, India has been able to resolve the longstanding tension between excellence and equity.

Digital technology classrooms require a shift from a teacher-centered to student-centered environment where the faculty member must take on multiple new roles.

There are huge challenges in digitalization of higher education:

Resource and Internet connectivity:

One of the main challenges for digital education in India is poor internet connectivity in rural areas and some part of urban areas. Majority of population across India has still no access to internet and a large population in rural areas is still illiterate in the field of digital technology.

Shortage of trained teachers:

There is a shortage of teachers, formally trained on digital technology. In some of the academic institution in rural areas, school teacher and college professors are not interested in using digital tools for conducting classes. With Corona crisis, many of them have adopted the digital learning.

Language and content related challenges:

Language is one of the main barriers for the development of digital education in India, there are several different languages in different state have been spoken all across country, pushing all the digital content in all these regional languages some time becomes difficult for the agencies. Most of the ed-tech content is available in English which can be constrain for many.

Poor maintenance and upgradation of digital equipment:

In rural areas maintenance and upgradation of digital equipment is one of the major challenge. This is largely due to budgetary constraints.

Insufficient funds:

Digital education involves effective and efficient usage of appropriate and latest hardware and software technology available in the market. In developing countries like India, digital technology implementation into education systems is a difficult task as it requires huge funds and infrastructure..

In this corona crisis a trend of emerging digitalization education has emerged:

Teachers teaching in the classroom can capture the students and the full strength in the class by digital screens, thus facilitating each child to get the same base content and input from the teachers. This feature of digital era has increased the student engagement as it combines various instructional styles. The aim of must be to engage students.

Video based learning:

Video- based learning is a part of digital marketing has geared up in Indian Education Sector and has made education engaging, entertaining and exploring. It enables learning with a pedigree of learning out of leisure with creativity, fun and entertainment on cards via the wonderful Apps, podcasts, video, interactive software, e books and online interactive electronic boards.

Massive open online course (MOOCS) & Other distant learning programs:

A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. India is considered to be the biggest market for MOOCs in the world. Since the population of India is huge, massive open online course (MOOC) are said to gateways for a lot of Indians in term of bringing an educational revolution. Online distant learning programs give a great opportunity to avail high quality learning with the help of internet connectivity.

Digital classrooms are considered as the vital element in promoting and improving the traditional methods of teaching and learning. So all universities must focus on it, and try to attract more virtual students. So they apply the most friendly user software and technology with skillful teachers and engineers to fulfill this aim. In fact digital class transforms the education process, and cause universal interactivity between teacher and learners as well as among learners themselves, all around the world.

Covid Impact: Online teaching is the only solution

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

With a few exceptions where the faculty or the students do not have adequate internet access the theory part of all the courses have been covered to our maximum satisfaction says Dr Harcharan Singh Dhaliwal, Vice Chancellor, Eternal University, Himachal Pradesh in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Most of the faculty, staff and students of the Eternal University from 19 states of India had gone home during mid-semester Holi vacations for a week from March 8-15, 2020 and could not return and join the University due to closure of all the educational institutions in Himachal Pradesh from March 16-31, 2020. We had extended our Even semester of the Academic Session for fifteen days till 30th June, 2020 by reducing the summer vacation accordingly. All the postgraduate and Ph. D. students staying behind at our residential campus were allowed to stay in the hostels as per the notification of the Himachal Pradesh Government. As you are aware that the educational institutions have still not been opened in the country due to series of lockdowns from March 22 onwards till to date and are still likely to remain closed for longer time. Keeping in view the last and crucial semester of our nearly one-third students, like any other HEI in the country, we directed all our faculty and IT staff to find the ways and means of teaching the students online all the courses of all the colleges as per the academic calendar of the university with effect from April 1, 2020 and were asked to submit their weekly progress reports.

With a few exceptions where the faculty or the students do not have adequate internet access the theory part of all the courses have been covered to our maximum satisfaction. In fact the COVID-19 has proved as a blessing in disguise as the faculty and students highly reluctant to online learning and teaching of MOOCs, SWAYAM, NPTEL portals resorted to the use of Zoom, WhatsApp, Learnea, EULearning portal and email etc. from home. It has, however, been not possible to teach the practical parts or laboratory courses online due to the lack of expertise, practical videos and virtual laboratories but the same will be dealt with as soon as the universities open and the faculty and students come to the campus before the declaration of the results. We have also conducted the mid-term examination of all the theory courses online using a very safe and secure software for the same developed by our own staff.

Also read: Home schooling in Covid-19 times: Dr. Sangeeta Srivastava

Being a residential campus Baru Sahib, a single entry with thermal monitor has been maintained since the lockdowns with very strict quarantine facility in the 200 beds Akal Charitable Hospital. Some very crucial field and laboratory works by faculty and research scholars at the campus have been taken by strictly following the safety guidelines and social distancing. All the faculty and students have been advised to use Aarogya Setu apps for monitoring and avoiding their contact with any potential Coronavirus affected person. Wish the lockdowns should have been planned well and launched very carefully with advanced notices without affecting the teaching and examination work in the nation. It will be better to open the educational institutions at the earliest without any loss or delay of the academic year and admission for the next session. Nearly one-third of the final year students of all the HEIs in the country must get their degrees by July end by completing all the requirements which can never be done online and hence the HEIs must open within June. I am very happy to share the good news that due to the commitment and efforts of all the stakeholders not a single case of COVID-19 has occurred among the families of our faculty, staff and students.

PIL filed in SC for one board one nation

Schools News

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) demanding the implementation of uniform education for all students in India. The PIL suggests common syllabus and curriculum and one nation one education for all the students.

The PIL sought directions to consider the merger of Indian Certificate of Secondary Education, ICSE Board and the Central Board of Secondary Education, CBSE Board to one board one nation.

The plea propagates Article 21A – free and compulsory education by implementing a uniform education system inclusive of a common syllabus and common curriculum. The syllabus needs to be same for all the educational institutes be it public, private, government-aided or non aided.

“Children may not be able to exercise their fundamental right under Article 21A unless the Centre and the states provide value-based uniform education,” the plea read.

Also read: Aadhaar not mandatory for school admissions: Supreme Court

At present every board has its own syllabus so the prevailing system doesn’t provide equal opportunity to all students, as per the plea.

One more thing that came out for common notice was that even though the students were taking advantage of the right to education.

Sparkling revolution in Higher Education

Editorial

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

In COVId-19 pandemic, each level of education sector faces its unique challenges, it is the higher education segment that may end up, triggering a learning revolution. Universities are distinctive in that their students are both old enough to handle the rigours of online work and technologi- cally savvy enough to navigate new platforms. the real challenge lies for the higher Educational Institutions. can traditional, campus-based universities adapt by choosing the right technologies and approaches for educating and engaging their students? the successes and failures that unfold should give us all a better grasp of what is possible.

Video-conferencing apps like zoom, Microsoft teams google Meet are throwing universities a lifeline. however, teachers are still struggling to maintain the same depth of engagement with students they could have in a classroom setting. they need to find solutions — and fast — to avoid a dip in the quality of education they are providing. Online education platforms can play a useful role by tapping their expertise in online programme design, choice of tech platform, and digital marketing to develop the best content either with or for the traditional players.

Education institutions have quickly realized that remote learning is just a baby step experiment in the long journey to offering online education that has been conceived as such, which includes effective student engagement tools and teacher training. Some of the partnerships sparked between universities, online education companies and tech providers may continue beyond the pandemic.

Also read: Higher Education: Pathway for economic development

In this month’s issue on top higher Education Listings, we have tried to highlight how higher ed- ucational institutions have tackled the pandemic. With admission and placement season almost over, how the institutions have tried to inculcate the effect of coronavirus.

Our special story talks out the challenges and opportunities for higher education institutions. With dedicated listing pages for placement, infrastructure and admission, this issue of digital- LEarNINg Magazine will help parents and students to select better.

With host of articles by industry leaders and special story, we hope our latest endeavor would evoke invaluable feedback of our esteemed readers.

Effective digital learning during lockdown

Article

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

With the advent of digital data many of the above roles of education appear baseless. It is now well understood that Education is nothing but making our students knowledgeable or Wise says Dr Balakrishna Shetty, Vice Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

For a long time we thought Education is Teaching and Learning, Data Collection, Grasping, Memorizing, reproducing in the Exams and getting good marks etc. With the advent of digital data, all the above roles of education appear baseless. It is now well understood that Education is nothing but making our students knowledgeable or Wise.

In this context digital learning is increasingly becoming popular with students. The present situation in India and abroad has given an opportunity for all of us. Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education has taken special measures to help the students:

Also read: Vijaya lakshmi Goswami Lahiri, State Head, Dream India Schools, West Bengal: Need to stay positive in lockdown

• All faculty members are requested to outline the curriculum for the 21 days and asked to prepare their online lectures. Where ever not possible they are asked to identify similar lectures from National or International Universities/ Digital Education providers.

• Answer first and discuss next methodology: All students are asked to study the subject, prescribed by the faculty through digital lectures of our University. About 15- 20 questions were given to all students at the end, answers collected and common mistakes are clarified by the faculty members through online chat software.

• Flipped Class Rooms: Instead of one-way lectures in the classrooms students are asked to learn at home from online lectures. Lecture notes and PPTs of the faculty members are shared with the students whenever necessary.

• Student and faculty members involvement are evaluated on daily basis by the HOD/ Academics Head.

These methodologies will:

• Flip the education from Classroom to Home and Teaching to Learning.

• Remove the apprehension in the minds of faculty members to finish the syllabus. This concept is known as uncovering the syllabus instead of covering the syllabus.

• Remove the compulsion of attendance.

• Enhance the intellectual energy of students, improve the level of understanding, help in grasping the concepts easily, ensure better comprehension of crucial concepts and learn Practical Applications.

• Changes the students’ mindset from data Collection to Knowledge and Knowledge to Wisdom.

Finally, the faculty members had an inherent apprehension in implementing digital education and this forced lockdown has enhanced the opportunities for digital education and better acceptance by the faculty members.

Mapping digitization through learning

Special Story

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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June 20, 2020

Chitkara University encouraged students, parents and other stakeholders to remain active through various online modes says Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Pro-Chancellor, Chitkara University, Punjab in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many sectors to shift their bases online including education, where numerous schools and colleges have started teaching their students through online platforms all across the world. In India, however, when most of the educational institutions were in search of alternate way of teaching, Chitkara University was equipped with its own initiative “Online Chitkara University” for giving on-line sessions on streaming, trending and state-of-art topics to the students to support their educational and employability skills. Sometimes these sessions were planned as a series of hands-on sessions. Experts from outside were invited to give industry perspectives on emerging new normal. At times, simulations packages were run online for giving insights into a complex topic. Very many cases of team teaching could be witnessed in these live seminars, thus benefitting the students multifold.

To start with, all departments at the university uploaded complete calendar for the online classes. This was done to save the students getting overwhelmed with too much coming their way. For live turorial sessions, the varasity used GotoWebinar, Zoom and Microsoft platforms. Live tutorial sessions / lectures were then planned in line with already announced time-table for the online university. Prior to this, live training sessions were given to students and faculty members for their complete preparedness. The students were incentivized to ask questions during these sessions and if they took part in online discussions. These sessions were recorded and the recorded sessions were available as the repository for the students. An administrative policy was framed and announced for safe use of IT infrastructure.

A year back, when the concept of team teaching was introduced at the University, they started recording the lectures of some excellent teachers. These recorded lectures came in handy when the Online University initiative was launched. These, along with other prerecorded lectures from the MOOC platforms such as NPTEL, Swayam, Coursera, Udacity were used to evolve blended learning models. Pre recorded lectures were also used to set up flipped classes, where students attended the online class after seeing the video lectures, and the synchronous session was conducted for fruitful discussion based on the lecture. The flipped approach witnessed an increase in the engagement of the students.

“We realized that in addition to webinars, and one way seminars, the students needed to engage in one-to-one sessions with the faculty members – especially to clear their doubts. These sessions were named as doubt-sessions. Besides these doubt sessions, other one- to-one sessions included conducting viva voce and other formative assessments to gauze the engagement levels of the students”, said Dr Madhu Chitkara Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University.

Structured feedback practices were introduced to take feedback on the online sessions. The survey was conducted in two modes – filling of online forms and the other in online one-to-one sessions. The questions were included to guaze the students understanding of ease of use of technology, ease of understating of online-material, and overall feedback on other online sessions. Sometimes these feedback sessions were conducted in small groups. Another purpose of these sessions was to mentor them and counsel them, if the students struggled with any psychological issues due to home confinement. The teachers also gave them feed back on their online performance.

During this pandemic when most of the Universities and HEIs were closed, Chitkara University encouraged their students, parents and other stakeholders to remain active through online mode. The University’s timely investment in IT infrastructure supported this move and as a result most of the students were able to complete their internship through online mode with collaborating industry partner.

Also read: Chitkara University, only University from Punjab to make place in THE Impact Rankings 2020

Chitkara University started the new online “Explore” series of lectures and interactions with eminent personalities Chetan Bhagat, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, mythologist and illustrator Devdutt Pattanaik and many illustrious speakers addressed the students and staff. Thanks to the rebust IT infrastructure of the University.

Chitkara University has added many achievements in its list:

1. Chitkara University is the only university from North India to feature in the top list of the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020 and ranked 59th rank globally in SDG- 07: Affordable & Clean Energy. Apart from SDG7, the university was able to secure good positions in other SDGs also, 101-200 in SDG5: Gender equality, 201-300 in SDG09: Industry, Innovation and infrastructure and SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities for development for making progress in ‘social impact’ aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

2. Chitkara University was recognized as first Indian university for E-Learning Excellence for Academic Digitization (E-LEAD) Certification from QS IGAUGE, the Indian arm of global rankings and ratings agency Quacquarelli Symonds for its readiness & excellence in online education.

3. Chitkara University was the only University from India to have made it to the top 8 finalists for the category – ‘Technological Innovation of the Year’ for the prestigious Times Higher Education Asia Awards 2020. Touted as the “Oscars in Higher Education”, in which 150 globally renowned institutions across 30 Asian territories participated, Chitkara University proudly announced achieving this milestone, third in line this year, among the league of top recognitions and rankings it has bagged thus far.

4. Chitkara University was ranked in top 100 universities by NIRF with 38th rank in Pharmacy and 75th rank in Management.

Chitkara University, Punjab has been very active in supporting its five adopted villages and distributed ration packets amongst the families of Jhansla village who could not provide for themselves in this lockdown. Apart from this, “the university has supported more than 1 Crore Rupees to PM Care Fund, CM Relief Fund, District Administration and Corona warriors through cash and kind. The New generation Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (NewGen IEDC) supported by DST, GoI at Chitkara University is also making face shields and cloth masks for onward distribution to front line corona warriors. “It is our responsibility support the national fight against COVID 19, in all possible ways”, said Dr. Archana Mantri, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University, Punjab.

Another major initiative in the line is Radio Chitkara FM 107.8, only radio station in India and world now, broadcasting round the clock programmes on Corona awareness for the community in the region including five adopted villages of Chitkara University in Punjab state since last week of March 2020. Radio Chitkara identified immediately that the priority was to disseminate information regarding spread of coronavirus, its symptoms, and possible preventive measures to be taken by the public for avoiding community transmission in India.

Ever since initiative was taken by Radio Chitkara, the response from the audience (Patiala District, Mohali District in Punjab and Ambala Cantt District of Haryana) has been great to the station. 24 x 7 ongoing transmission within a diameter of 15 kms covering three political constituencies has reached more than 1.5 million listeners through terrestrial transmission.

State government’s efforts for people during the Corona crisis are highlighted and do’s and don’ts to stop Coronavirus is played again and again in radio to reinforce the habit among the audience. The spots of central, state government on Covid-19 is also played in between programmes so that information can reach to listeners in crisp form.

Efforts of Radio Chitkara are fully supported by Chitkara University Leadership Team. Recently, Chitkara University Chancellor Dr. Ashok K. Chitkara and Pro Chancellor Dr. Madhu Chitkara have declared funding support of Rs. 1 Crore (more than hundred thousand US Dollars) through CURIN (Chitkara University Research and Innovation – Centre of Excellence) for NOVATE+2020 which was the biggest platform in the region where innovative project ideas from all over the country were showcased to find the solutions for problems arising because of the pandemic.

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