UGC panel recommends change in academic year

News

By

-

April 29, 2020

According to reports, the University Grants Commission plans to follow the recommendations put forth by one of its committees led by Haryana University Vice-Chancellor RC Kuhad which states that the new academic year must begin in September instead of July 2020. The situation arrived due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The panels set up by the UGC conducted meetings through video and audio conferencing and came up with a bunch of suggestions and conclusions based on the interactions with the VCs of the different universities, and principals of colleges.

The UGC has emphasized that the suggestions put forth by the committee are in no way hindering the advisory released by the government.

It further stated that the universities must conduct a thoroughchecking on the travel history of the staff and students.

The committee has also asked for the academic calendar to be re-labelled and declare the suspension of classes from March 16 and the continuation of classes via e-learning from March 16 to May 15, 2020.

The universities are free to declare a vacation from June 1 to 30 and the exams will be conducted from July 1 to 15 with the results to be declared by August 2020.

The committee has also recommended online viva and practical examinations for the students.

Elets Exclusive | Educators call for new ways in teaching methods

Article

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

WhatsApp Image 2020-04-28 at 11.30.45 AM

With COVID-19 rising in India, the Government of India has called for the second lockdown till May 3, 2020. All the educational institutions are closed from mid-March until further notice. The closure can be seen as a huge blow to the education sector. The sector is reeling under huge crisis as there is no uncertainty over the re-opening of educational institutions.

If the educational institutes are further closed down, then it will have a direct impact on the remaining board exams of different states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and CBSE and ICSE. They will be further delayed, which will again impact the ongoing academic session.

Elets Technomedia in association with digitalLEARNING Magazine organized a webinar on “Future of Education- Roadmap & Implementation” with esteemed speakers from the sector. The speakers presented their views over the effects of the Coronavirus epidemic.

Speaking over the issue Skand Bali, Principal, The Hyderabad Public School, said, “One of the biggest challenges is to provide online education in rural India. There will be apprehensions in the mind of parents over safety when the schools are e re-opened. We are facing a financial crisis as these are challenging times for all of us. Schools in the USA and Canada are getting closed. Even, Canada is looking for alternative ways of teaching.”

He also said the govt needs to enhance the connectivity so that students from every corner can get benefits from e-learning. He also said the COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to bring creativity into the education system.

Over e-learning he said online teaching cannot continue for a longer time as physical education is more important.

Lastly, he said everyone has to come together to tackle the crisis and find a potential solution.

Another speaker Kavitha Jain, CEO, MDN Edify Education said “Are we analyzing the outcomes of content that is provided to students. We are waiting for new norms from govt in the education sector to revive. Our focus must be on how can we engage the children and teach meaningful stuff. We need to provide application learning to kids.”

She also said responding to questions of students and parents will be important for educational institutions.

“All schools must be prepared for online teaching in taking parents into confidence. The challenge is how to implicit online learning in our schools and must prepare our children for future”, she added.

Dhanya Bharathi, CEO & Creative Director, Sri Venkateswara Group of Schools said “We have to embrace technology as it is the only option in this crisis. The present scenario is the future of the sector. The first challenge was how to make children learn new things. We have adopted plans to nurture socio-emotional habit with children.”

She also said “Every school has its own way of teaching from urban to rural areas. Education is a part of living and must think about re-designing the school curriculum. We need to change the mindsets of children over online education. “

She also urged schools to adopt a hybrid model and life skills in the coming days.

“We have connected with TV channels and audio lessons are also provided for children. We started giving video lessons and students became mentors for teachers in understanding the new technology” she added.

K Prabhakaran Nair, Headmaster, The Lawrence School, Lovedale, Ooty said ”This was an unexpected situation. The physiological drift is a major challenge within the children and parents. Technology will bring new dimensions to the education sector. The biggest challenge is when it’s going to end as it’s very unpredictable. The post-COVID world will be different for all the children and teachers.”

He also said, “We need to provide emotional support to children as it’s very important in this pandemic. We must take responsibility of children as they are most affected in the lockdown. The children are missing co-curricular activities.”

She also emphasized that online education is not the only solution, and need to find creative ways to continue teaching.

She also raised concerns over the situation of teachers in the crisis.

Harsh Madhok, Director, Sunbeam Group of Institutions, Varanasi said “In this hour, we must focus on quality education and keep children engaged. The syllabus completion is another issue and we cannot dilute anything. The scenario is different in India regarding gadgets. We need to revive the confidence of parents after lockdown.”

He also said “We are lucky enough that our sector is successfully running as most of the other sectors are shutting down. Physiological effects can be seen within children and need to address the issues post COVID-19. We need new platforms for children.”

Over e-learning teachings, it’s time for teachers to adopt new technology and need to make teachers comfortable with technology, he added.

Dr. Rakesh Khullar, Chairman, DLF Public School, Ghaziabad said “In my views, it is not the right time to start online education. We don’t have the proper infrastructure for online education in our schools. Our teachers are not trained to provide online teaching and now we have to change the entire curriculum. Financial implications will be the biggest challenge for schools.”

He urged the schools to prioritize the expenses as uncertainty prevails in the education sector.

He also said the govt must step in to help the sector to revive from the financial crisis.

Shilpa Potnis, President, Birla Open Minds Group of Schools, Mumbai, said “There are two major challenges firstly, how to keep the students occupied and secondly, how to keep our teachers keep motivated in this crisis. We don’t know when the crisis will end in India.”

She also said “It will be a huge challenge for new schools to sustain the crisis. For the existing schools providing salaries and maintaining other essentials.”

“We must reduce screen time and focus on worksheets. Not only for students, but teachers can also be called to schools on a rota basis. We must accept the combination of e-learning and physical classroom teaching. The schools must follow one desk, one-child policy, and have staggered break times. Parents are very important as they have to provide proper infra for students to take online classes” she added.

Sandeep Goenka, Founder Trustee, C P Goenka & Swami Vivekananda Group of Schools, Mumbai said “The crisis is here to stay as there is no vaccine for the virus. Lockdown will be the new normal for students. We should cut down on academics and try to develop life skills within a child. We must invest in the non-academic syllabus for students. Students must ready to cope with the new world post-COVID.”

He also said “It’s not possible to complete the entire syllabus online. We have to go for balance teaching and online learning is not the solution. We need to take care of co-curriculum activities. We need to work out on our teaching ways.”

He also said schools can opt one day online and one day offline classes when schools re-open.

While concluding, he said we need to provide proper training to teachers as the situation was unprecedented and no one was prepared for such crisis.

CBSE: No decision taken over Class 10th and 12th exams

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

Putting all the rumours to rest, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) clarified that it has not yet decided on the schedule for remaining board exams for Classes 10 and 12.

The clarification was issued amid huge speculations regarding Class 10 board exams, the CBSE said.

Earlier, the CBSE said that 10 days prior notice will be given to students before the decisions of the exam.

Yesterday, the Delhi government had requested the Union HRD minister to cancel the remaining board exams for Classes 10 and 12 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CBSE in the statement said:” Recently there has been a lot of speculation regarding 10th CBSE Board exams. It is reiterated that the board’s decision to take board exams for 29 subjects of class 10 and 12, stands the same as mentioned in a circular dated April 1, 2020.”

The board also said that “it is difficult for the board to decide and announce the new schedule for examinations at his stage”.

Not only CBSE, but many competitive exams were also cancelled or postponed due to ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the nation.

Recently there has been a lot of speculation regarding 10th CBSE Board exams. It is reiterated that the boards decision to take board exams for 29 subjects of class 10 and 12, stands the same as mentioned in circular dated 1.4.20.@DrRPNishank @PMOIndia @PTI_News

— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) April 29, 2020

Melvano App by IIT Madras Alumnus becomes popular choice for IIT JEE & NEET aspirants

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

Going out of homes has become a real problem during the global crisis. The ever increasing infection & the fear of the Novel-Corona-Virus have made people question their old routines. Similarly, there are concerns in the minds of aspiring students (and their parents), who had to stop going to their Entrance exams coaching classes for JEE Main & Advanced, NEET, CBSE Boards, and other state-level engineering entrances.

Melvano, an Artificial Intelligence-based learning app has emerged as the answer in the COVID-19 pandemic era. It provides a personalized preparation for entrance exams, completely free of costs! It also solves any travel woes, & takes away any second thoughts about a candidate’s preparation journey.

Melvano analyses a student’s strengths & weaknesses presenting the candidate with relevant sets of Practice Questions, Mock tests & Discussions. It provides them with an Intelligent Dashboard matching with their respective learning curves; and Performance Reports, after users go through an assessment test.

Melvano is an all-round Practice tool helping student fraternity. An aspirant need not hassle around for any textbooks, practice books, question banks & sample papers; all available at the finger tip. This interactive app cuts down online distraction, perfectly fitting the times of social distancing & keeping the student community engaged in the practice. Melvano app can be accessed remotely, has the best study materials with one-stop-repository of 40 thousand Practice Questions & detailed solutions with over 10thousand questions being practiced daily. Melvano also provides doubt clearing facility, where students can search their doubts from database of more than 40 thousand Questions and Answers.

Taran_Melvano — **Taran Singh speaking at ThinkEdu Conclave**

Melvano’s CEO – Mr. Taran Singh, an IIT Madras alumnus mentioned that “India has an enormous lower or middle-class student population. It pains me to see parents taking burdensome-loans with heavy interests, just to provide coaching to their children. Melvano was curated to tackle this very problem and help students achieve their dreams. School going students need not attend coaching & can use Melvano app with their current self study routine to crack the exam.

We understand that each student is unique and one-size-fit-all model is ineffective. Melvano was created for providing personalized learning regime for each student. Melvano analyses weak areas of every student and shares it with student for self assessment. Not just that, based on performance, it curates a personalized learning path for their student which helps them target those weak areas and overcome their weak points. This saves precious time for aspirants.

Currently, Indian engineering aspirants are around 2.5 million, out of which approximately 1 million students opt for online content. Melvano has already got a good chunk of 8% market share & aims to cross 1 million students by 2021. We have been experiencing a 2x surge in questions practiced daily on platform since the lockdown”

Melvano also helps students & parents to save on unnecessary high-end expenses on traditional coaching institutes and classes. On one hand, where the renowned coaching institutes charge huge amounts from the IIT aspirants, on the other, Melvano being a free app saves you a lot of time, money and efforts. This app helps both the students and parents who cannot afford such heavy-on-pocket classes or want to stay at home to prepare for exams. Melvano helps students prepare through self-study and practice with added personal guidance to help them cruise through their boats. Melvano cuts down on social distraction and enables candidates to stay safe during the recent COVID-19 pandemic global outbreak.

Melvano, born out of Nirmaan Labs, IIT Madras, was awarded with prestigious Sri Chinmay Deodhar Award by IIT Madras for Most Innovative Project. It enjoys a loyal, fast-growing 80 thousand user-base, with an average-daily-engagement time of 25 minutes. This year two Melvano students were in the top 1 percentile of JEE Main, with Sarthak Diwan scoring 99.968 percentile (around All India Rank 200) & over 20+ Melvano users scored 95+ percentile. Melvano’s easy access, utility and encouraging feel motivates its users to have a rigorous-personalized-practice-regime. This has earned Melvano it’s ever growing, loyal user base. Interested aspirants can download the app from here

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.melvanostudent&hl=en_IN

KIET Group of Institution calls for underpinning global challenges

Article

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

“4 July to 18 August 2019 in German University, Cairo, Egypt, has been a lifetime achievement for me. I belong to a small town and going to foreign lands would have been just a dream for me until I attended the International Education Awareness Week that was organized at my institute in January 2019”, remarks Ashish Mishra, the 3rd year student of the department of Information Technology at KIET Group of Institutions.

Education is at the precursor of international development and globalization has made it easier than ever for students to explore the world abroad for work and study opportunities, thereby the appeal of pursuing international education or taking international exposure has taken good momentum among the youth of India these days.

International experience engulfs the set of cognitive, effective and behavioral skills that are developed through appropriate interaction with global citizens. The development of all these skills happens when an individual goes through an international perspective engaging in new languages, meeting people of other cultures or nationalities, learning new habits and customs along with knowledge exchange, thus he gets prepared to face global challenges.

Advantages of International experience:

Recent research backs up what is generally understood to be the advantages of international exposure: it increases employability by developing transferable skills. Such experiences offer the potential to develop-

· Communication Skills

· Interpersonal skills

· Cultural awareness

· Cultural sensitivity

· Behavioral flexibility

· Foreign Language acquisition

· Self-directed learning

· Community building

· Contributing to social cohesion and many others.

Moreover these attributes add immensely to the personalities of the students, as for national as well as international employers, they offer a more rounded set of abilities & demonstrate deeper experience. Foreign language skills are increasingly treasured amongst international companies, as are communication & interpersonal skills.

However, a report from the MAUNIMO Project also points out, while making the case of mobility in terms of employability:

“The values, skills & international perspectives that mobility generates for institutions, individuals, societies, and business must be well evidenced, and underpin the reasons for investment in mobility.”(Colucci, Davies, Korhonen & Gaebel, 2012, p.57)

Thereby keeping in mind that travel abroad for the purpose of the study is the only element in the internationalization of higher education as it involves various activities aimed at improving the efficiency and competitiveness of higher education institutes, various institutes, and universities in India too endeavor to provide such exposure to its students.

Many top-notch private institutes & universities create an ambience wherein the Indian students experience overall international exposure by means of having international students in their class, meeting & listening to experts from abroad, participating in international events, seminars & conferences and getting a chance to visit foreign universities & industries during their course of study for short term programs. These experiences certainly broaden the mindsets of the students and they become more eager to exploit international opportunities for their masters or doctorate programs.

KIET Group of Institutions, the best Engineering, Pharmacy& Management institute in Delhi-NCR, Ghaziabad (www.kiet.edu ) even believes in preparing global citizens and honing their students with strengths that can equip the students, like Ashish and others, to fight challenges in the world abroad. It has taken a few initiatives to provide exposure to its students of all courses and streams through its International Relations Office.

International Relations Office (IRO):

IRO at KIET harbors all their global relations, collaborations, activities, and internships. There are multiple opportunities that they provide through life experiences and personal connections, complementing and accelerating fluency in speaking, reading, and writing foreign languages. The opportunities include:

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS: Collaborations are a great way to work with other institutions to understand and facilitate learning experiences for students and faculty of a college and its collaborative partner. KIET has aligned with various Universities and organizations as SWOSU, USA, Network N+I, University of Uzbekistan and others for research, publication, conferences & others.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES & EVENTS: Attending distinguished lecture series, Seminars & Conferences within a global community alongside the opportunity for networking with like-minded people from various cultures provide immense opportunities to build an international career after university. The institute regularly organizes these activities which aim at widening the horizons for students, looking for opportunities of pursuing higher education, internships, and careers abroad.

INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIPS/ SUMMER SCHOOLS: International internship programs or Summer Schools provide the student with an opportunity to visit a University or industry or start-up in a foreign country for a period of 6-8 weeks. The student witnesses either some research work or gains hands-on experience with the Startup in that country spends time with fellow students from different countries and gets involved in the real-time projects offered by them for internship/ summer school. During their stay in foreign lands, the students visit industries, business centers, research centers and participate in discussions & interactive sessions among students, scholars, and faculty to explore knowledge.

Internships are a great way for the students to experience and see how ideas work in real life. Taking it one step further, this program to provide international internships to students of KIET ensures global education and personality development. It provides the students a chance to spread their wings beyond the national boundaries.

Moreover, the students opting for international internships can claim scholarships for the internship that they get selected for. This is to ensure equal opportunity to every student regardless of his/her economic condition. The scholarship is granted on the basis of merit, attendance, discipline, and other criteria.

The institute, in association with AIESEC, IAESTE, and other associations, endeavors to provide genuine and quality internships to students. More than 12 students have been to countries like Egypt, Malaysia, Germany, Indonesia, and Kenya. Their testimonials can be read at https://www.kiet.edu/international-relations-testimonials

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AWARENESS WEEK: An International Education Awareness Week followed by the International Education Fair is conducted at KIET every year. IEAW provides a platform to its students where they can interact with the national and international speakers and get accustomed to all the information regarding education abroad, internships and global career opportunities.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSES: KIET students have got the privilege of learning the German and Japanese languages on the campus itself and prepare themselves to become globally acceptable.

To gather, these initiatives of institutes like KIET are encouragingly exceptional as their International Relations Office provides a pool of opportunities & resources to the students, by bringing together students, teachers & academicians from around the world for rich & diverse exchange of knowledge & culture and preparing them for global challenges. More information about international experience at KIET Group of Institutions can be fetched through the link: https://www.kiet.edu/Global-Exposure

Reference: Colucci, E., Davies, H. Korhonen, J. & Gaebel, M. (2012). Mobility: Closing the gap between policy and practice. Brussels: European University Association. http://www.maunimo.be/images/Oslo/eua%20maunimo_web.pdf

AP SSC exam to be conducted after lockdown lifted

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

Putting all such rumours aside, the state education minister Adimulapu Suresh confirmed that AP SSC Exam 2020 will be held two weeks after the lockdown is lifted.

Furthermore, he also said that AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked the Education Department and BSEAP to make preparations in accordance with it.

He also added the board will lay special emphasis on social distancing to ensure safety and wellbeing of the students, while conducting exams.

AP Education Minister also confirmed that the in line with the HRD Ministry’s guidelines, the state government has decided to continue mid-day meal scheme even during the Summer Vacations.

With national lockdown in place, the mid-day meal scheme for school students will be run during vacation period as well and students will be provided ration at their doorstep to ensure that they get proper nutrition required for their well-being.

To facilitate this, the state government has also requested MHRD to release the pending funds to Andhra Pradesh.

Elets Exclusive | Dr Swati Mujumdar calls to integrate skills in education

Article

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

The Coronavirus pandemic is the defining global health crisis of the time and greatest challenge, mankind has faced since World War-II. Since its emergence, the virus has spread to every part o the globe, and cases are rising daily in India. The Indian govt has declared a complete lockdown across the nation till May 3, 2020, to curb the menace.

From end-March, most firms have resorted to one of these three decisions—sacking people, asking employees to go on leave without pay, and pay cuts. Emotional and distressing emails about jobs and wage cuts were dispatched from their corner rooms by CEOs to employees, some of whom had worked in the same firms for decades. The skill-oriented jobs will be in demand after the COVID-19 crisis. The small skilled jobs are high risk over the crisis.

During a webinar with Elets Technomedia and digitalLEARNING Magazine, Dr Swati Mujumdar, Pro-Chancellor, Symbiosis Skills & Professional University on “Developing skill-oriented learning for better future”, said Symbiosis Skills and Professional University, Pune is first of its own kind and the university has over 40 thousand students from 82 countries. We don’t decide the courses of our own, we decide it according to the industry needs. It is the skills that a student acquires during his education which is more important than a mere degree. The varsity imparts 70 percent of its teaching through hands-on practical based pedagogy. It offers sector-specific programs including retail, data science, arts, automobile, architecture, logistics, arts, construction etc. University works closely with the industry through joint training programs.”

She also said, there must be a social acceptance of the skill-oriented courses rather than conventional degree courses.

She said it’s high time to integrate skills in the education sector which will be beneficial for the students.

He also said every year students are put to two months internship and six months last year, which provided them almost one year of hands-on industry experience.

Over shifting to online classes Dr Mujumdar said “We continue our focus on Excellency in teaching and added skills to our routine. For existing students, we have started online classes. The academic calendar has been shifted to online. Parents and students have well received it. For new students we have shifted our admission process to online, from virtual campus tour to faculty sessions for students. We have also started ‘Chai with parents’ and ‘Chai pe Charcha’ with students to address the queries. “

She also said virtual classes cannot replace physical learning.

She even said the university started e-internships for students so that they can work it out in their homes.

We have developed technology which helps us to take online tests without any fuss, she added for exams.

Over teachers, she said the role of the teachers have changed drastically and now they are facilitators. The teachers need proper training to cope with the ongoing change in technology.

Central University of Punjab launches info portal over COVID

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

To empower people across the world to fight against COVID-19, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (CUPB) has launched India’s own unique COVID-19 Information Portal at CUPB City Campus.

The portal consists authentic information and sources are available for the references, research, and common understanding of the phenomenon. CUPB has taken initiative to develop a unique information portal for internet users under the guidance of honourable Vice-Chancellor Prof R.K. Kohli, where all the important information and official links are provided at one forum.

This portal will provide exclusive authentic information to scientists, medical practitioners, administrators, media persons, bureaucrats and diplomats.

CUPB COVID-19 Information Portal will be updated automatically. This information portal, provides authentic information & official resources related to Global COVID-19 Updates, India COVID-19 Dashboard, Health Guidelines (Issued by WHO, CDC, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GOI), along with MHRD E-learning Initiatives, COVID-19 Research Funding (By National and International Agencies), Details of PM Cares Fund, Arogya Setu App, and other essential information, which can be accessed by visiting https://cupcovid19.info.

On this occasion, Vice-Chancellor Prof R.K. Kohli mentioned that during this crisis, people are notonly struggling to fight with pandemic but also with infodemic due to ample amount of verified and unverified information related to COVID-19 available on the internet.

He added this portal would serve as gateway for exploring research funding, research publications, global updates, government announcements, and best strategies to beat COVID 19. He also informed that this information portal will serve as an important tool to prevent the spread of fake news related to COVID-19.

He added, this portal would also help students by providing access to authentic E-Learning Material approved by MHRD. Apart from this, CUPB COVID-19 Information Portal will also help media houses, news channels and broadcasting mediums to report authentic and accurate information by cross verifying the fact.

CBSE not to conduct remaining exams for Class 10

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 29, 2020

Putting rest to all rumours over 10th and 12th class remaining exams, CBSE chief secretary Anurag Tripathi has said that the remaining examinations of class 10th board will not be conducted now. Earlier, the CBSE had postponed the class 10th and 12th class exams due to the spread of Coronavirus epidemic across the country.

The CBSE chief secretary also said only exams cancelled due to tension in Northeast Delhi will conducted and the remaining class 10th examinations in the entire country, grades will be given to students based on an average.

Oven 12th class remaining exams, Tripathi said in the remaining 12 subjects of class 12th board examinations, only important examinations will be conducted, as soon as the situation becomes normal.

Earlier, the Union education minister asked the CBSE to start evaluating copies from homes.

According to the CBSE, it will take at least two and a half months to check the copies and then the result will be declared.

Not only CBSE, but many exams were also postponed or cancelled due to Corona epidemic across the country.

NITIE conducts final year exams through online

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 28, 2020

In the wake of Coronavirus pandemic, the National Institute of Industrial Engineering Mumbai (NITIE) has conducted semester examinations for its final year students online. A total of 128 students participated in the three-hour long examination.

NITIE is among the few institutions which have taken the online route to conduct exams.

Director, Manoj K. Tiwari, its director, told the institute used a digital platform which was designed and tested to give the students an experience of writing exams from home during the ongoing COVID -19 lockdown.

The institute also plans to publish the results within one month on its website.

“We are happy that all the 128 students that appeared in the exam yesterday submitted their responses on time,” Tiwari said.

The semester examination was conducted in three parts and students were given time for each section and after three hours they had to submit their answers.

Students were also given 25-30 minutes to go through the questions. Some of the other universities in the country have also started to conduct examination through digital mode, recently Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) started its mid-semester examinations online.

LATEST NEWS

Top Trending News

Top Trending Categories