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Elets digitalLEARNING

Home Blog Page 632

Khan Academy: Personalised Learning Resources for all Ages

Interviews

Akash

December 20, 2017

Khan Academy through its personalised learning solutions empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom, says Sandeep Bapna, Managing Director, Khan Academy India, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

Please give details about Khan Academy.

Sandeep Bapna, Managing Director, Khan Academy India

Khan Academy is a non-profit organisation with a mission to provide free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. The platform is available online (www.khanacademy.org), as well as on Android and iOS apps. Khan Academy’s iOS and Android apps contain interactive practice exercises and video lessons in subjects such as mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, economics, finance, grammar, preschool learning, among others.

What kind of practices does Khan Academy follow to help learners study at their own pace?

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos and a personalised learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside the classroom. We lay strong emphasis on personalisation of Khan Academy experience to learners. This happens in the following ways:

Our math and physics content is already mapped to Indian curriculum. Since Khan Academy’s content is built with skills as a foundation with well-defined learning goals, it can be used by students of all boards. We already see students from CBSE, ICSE, state and international boards using academy’s content to learn.
At the time of registration on Khan Academy’s online platform, one can choose subjects which create a personalised dashboard for students. You can see your subjects and assigned homework in one place.
A student can now take brief diagnostic quizzes/tests when starting a new topic such as complex numbers in class 11th. These tests identify areas of improvement of a student and recommend lessons for exactly what one needs to learn.

How is the platform empowering parents and teachers to understand the needs of their children and students respectively and help them in boosting their learning?

Khan Academy works for teachers, students and parents. If you are a teacher or a parent, you have access to additional tools and dashboards on our site, which is optimised for mobile usage. The app and website work together seamlessly. For example, a user signed up as a teacher can assign practice exercises on the site and her students can finish them on the app. As students complete assignments, teachers get completion reports. These reports are not only real-time and simple to use, but also are powerful in helping a teacher to assess their students’ performance. The reports make it possible for a teacher to identify the most challenging problems for their class and the learning gaps/needs of individual students.

On what parameters, Khan Academy recruits developers, teachers, designers, strategists, scientists, and content specialists, to ensure world-class content to learners ensures the selection?

Khan Academy started with our founder tutoring his cousins. Several things stood out from those early days that have become core to how we build content on Khan Academy. Typically, Khan Academy content is simple, free of jargon and yet deep. Practice exercises are constructed in several ways such as multiple choice questions, free response questions and interactive graphics to help a student understand a concept deeply.

Please list the government organisations, renowned educational institutions and corporate, Khan Academy has partnered with to expand its global reach.

We are supported by Tata Trusts and Central Square Foundation in India. Khan Academy India has also been working with various state governments.

Khan Academy has partnered with the Government of Karnataka to make available educational content, including videos, exercises, articles and teacher tools, in Kannada (language). Under the partnership, Department of State Education Research & Training (DSERT, Karnataka) will create educational content in Kannada that includes 5,500+ videos and 20,000+ exercises in Math and Science, as well as dashboards, which already help millions of students and teachers around the world. These resources would be mapped to the state curriculum. We have also partnered with the Government of Rajasthan to bring personalised learning to state schools starting from this current academic year. About 2,500 students in 57 classrooms are using Khan Academy resources once a week to practice and strengthen math skills.

Shridhar University Offering Skill Oriented Courses

Article

digitalLEARNING Network

December 20, 2017

Majority of Shridhar University students come from rural area and they look up for employment rather than startup. Since most of our students want job oriented training, we are laying emphasis on that aspect, says Brig Kartar Singh (Retd), Vice Chancellor of Shridhar University, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What interventions the Shridhar University is taking for ‘skilling’ and enhancing ’employability’ of the students?

It is a well-established fact that employment today is directly proportional to knowledge, skill and attitude popularly known as KSA. While a student is put through the prescribed “knowledge” capsule through the prescribed syllabus, he is not given any particular skills as formal input. We, at Shridhar University, conduct “Skill” capsule to include:

Soft Skill including communication skills.
Social Skills.
General knowledge and environmental skills.

As far as “attitude” is concerned it is developed through actual conduct and formal lectures by senior specialists and psychologists.

What are the initiatives Shridhar University has undertaken in the Student Startup domain?

Majority of our students come from rural area and they look up for employment rather than startup. However, we do realise that as a higher educational Institute we should look into this aspect. As we are finding that most of our students want job-oriented training we are laying emphasis on that aspect presently. In case, the need arises, we will take initiatives towards Startup.

Many countries have started introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Coding etc. in the curriculum. What initiatives is the Shridhar University undertaking to make students competent with the emerging technological trend?

Shridhar University is a technology and livelihood-oriented university. As far as technology is concerned we are having collaboration with Computer Aided Designs (CAD) as also we teach cloud computing techniques. However, we have not yet reached the state of AI, and virtual reality level. We do cater for practical, livelihood related and daily useable technology needs as part of our teaching. We teach web designing, CAD and software programmers related to daily and domestic use.

Internship plays a vital role in enhancing the employability of students. Highlight the initiatives Shridhar University has undertaken to facilitate internship for students to provide them hands-on experience within a corporate working environment?

This is our strongest core strength. We conduct internship with industry for a full semester. These internships are conducted with popular names which also help in giving us offer letter during the internship.

Types of Internships Conducted:

Agriculture Students: These students get a RAWE (Rural Agriculture Work Experience) with Krishi Vikas Kendra and rural agriculture based companies in our own States. They see the students working for full semester (nearly six months). Depending upon their performance they give offer letter. Our first B.Sc (Agriculture) has got 100 per cent employment.

Diploma Courses: Our Diploma and post-Diploma courses do a PDPT Training with Government and semi-Government coal fields and during this training they are offered job based on three-month training with the company. Our Diploma – Mining students find nearly 100 percent employment in the coal industry immediately after passing out.

Hotel Management Courses: We do internship, pre-placement training and finally placement training with UEI Global an international brand in hospitality management. Majority of our students find job as per their capability and choice with the help of internship training.

BLURBs

“Shridhar University is a technology and livelihood-oriented university. As far as technology is concerned we are having collaboration with CAD and also teach cloud computing techniques”

Atal Innovation Mission: Envisaging Innovation Among Youth

Article

digitalLEARNING Network

December 20, 2017

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative of the Prime Minister of India, set up by NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country, says R Ramanan, Mission Director – ATAL Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India, in an interview with Rajbala of Elets News Network (ENN).

Technological innovations play an important role in fostering productivity gains and economic growth. What sort of innovation model do we need to adopt for inclusive growth in the country?

Technology is evolving rapidly in multiple areas including software, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Mobility, Inter of Things, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Cloud services, Bitech etc. More importantly they are fusing together to create new application and also creating new disruptive and innovative emerging business models. This is enabling the leveraging of technology to new services, new entrepreneurial ventures in the rural and deprived sections of society by not only empowering them to pursue new livelihoods, improve productivity, but also to access markets that were conventionally thought beyond their reach. For instance, cloud services can enable people in villages and hilly districts to access the country or even global markets for their farm produce or export of their handicrafts and thus can change their economic status as well as integration into society. There is a huge opportunity therefore in leveraging technology for inclusive growth both from an economic perspective as well as from a social impact perspective.

Atal Innovation Mission has two core functions- Entrepreneurship promotion and Innovation promotion. Please describe in brief

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative of the PM of India, set up by NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country.

AIM is also envisaged as an umbrella innovation organisation that would play an instrumental role in alignment of innovation policies between central, state and sectoral innovation schemes, incentivising establishment of an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship at various levels higher secondary schools, science, engineering and higher academic institutions, and SME industry / corporate levels.

To foster curiosity, creativity and imaginations in young minds, Atal Tinkering Laboratories were established by AIM. What are the features of ATL?

At the school level, AIM is setting up Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) in schools across all 700+ districts across the country. These ATLs are dedicated innovation workspaces of 1,000-1,500 square feet where latest technologies like 3D Printers, Robotics, Internet of Things (IOT), Miniaturised electronics do it yourself kits are installed using a grant of Rs 20 Lakhs from the government so that students from Grade VI to Grade XII can tinker with these technologies and learn to create innovative solutions using these technologies, thereby creating a problem solving, innovative mind set within thousands of students across the country. To date, 941 schools have already been selected for ATL. Additionally it is expected that over 2000 schools would have been selected for ATL Grants before the end of this financial year.

Every school would have an ATL In charge appointed by the school as well as mentors associated to mentor the ATL students. Over 600+ ATL in charges have received training through AIM and its partners. AICTE is partnering with AIM to ensure that the closest universities to a school can also mentor ATL students.

Atal Innovation Tinkering challenges are regularly held in the school as well as by AIM every month to ensure students active involvement in creating innovative solutions to solve problems in their community and in the country.

Recently the ATAL Tinkering Marathon was held in which an estimated 30000+ students have participated and 650+ of the best innovation entries have been submitted in which the Top 100 innovation entries are being showcased in the Atal Tinkering Summit to be held in New Delhi in early 2018, and the Top 30 of these innovations will receive special recognition.

What is the vision?

The vision is to have every school have access to at least one or more Atal Tinkering Labs in each district of the country, as well as to scale the same up with the help of state education ministries across the length and breadth of the country. Also Government / Govt Aided schools, and Girls schools, North East and Hilly District schools get a special preference in the consideration of ATL selections.

The Atal Tinkering Labs has created much enthusiasm and energy in the schools and students and a Balanced Score Card based approach has been designed to monitor and measure the outcomes of the same.

What are the plans to scale-up support and re-enable to establish incubation centres under AIM?

At the university, SME and Corporate industry levels, AIM is setting up world-class Atal Incubators (AICs) that would trigger and enable successful growth of sustainable startups in every sector /state of the country, thereby promoting entrepreneurs and job creators in the country addressing both commercial and social entrepreneurship opportunities in India and applicable globally. AIM is also providing scale up support to existing incubators for scaling up their operations.

AIM is providing a grant of up to Rs 10 crores to successful applicants for setting up Greenfield incubators or scaling up existing ones. The idea is that every one of the 110 named smart cities and the top 5-10 educational / industrial institutions of every State should aspire to have a world class incubator that will provide the youth / startup communities in the universities / industries opportunity to create new startups.

Till date 19 Atal Incubators have been selected. Before the end of 2017-2018 we would have 50+ Atal
Incubators selected. Women led incubators and entrepreneurial startups are strongly encouraged by
AIM.

Again here, scale up with the help of other ministries / states / sectors / public sector organizations would be crucial to create thousands of job creators in India.

How can we strengthen entrepreneurship and create more skilling opportunities in the country?

To promote specific product innovations with social / economic impact, AIM will be launching Atal Vikas Challenges / Atal Grand Challenges in specific areas / sectors of national importance such as Affordable Housing, Rural Microfinance Fintech innovations, Universal drinking water, Swaach Bharat / Swaasth Bharat using Robotics / IOT technologies, Renewal and Clean Energy, Universal Drinking water, Augmented and Virtual reality based distance Education, Battery Technologies etc..

The successful applicants will get a grant of up to Rs 1 crore for Atal Vikas Challenges and up to Rs 30 crores for Atal Grand Challenges.

AIM is also partnering with corporates and other institutions to launch such challenges to stimulate new
product / service development in various sectors. For example the recently held AIM-Yes Bank
Transformation series 2017 Smart Agri Nation challenge had 27000 students from B Schools of India
participating in the same with high quality presentations on the same.

Share the initiatives and schemes introduced under Atal Innovation Mission?

In addition to the above mentioned schemes, to enable a supporting ecosystem of innovation, AIM is setting up one of the largest Mentoring networks in India called Mentor India from the professional and industry community who can help mentor students at Atal Tinkering Labs and AIC Incubators / startups.

Over 4,000+ mentors have already registered and they will be allocated to various ATLs / AICs.

Also a number of corporate / MNC organizations have volunteered to adopt ATLs/AICs in their vicinities to ensure close mentoring and success of these initiatives.

We will be launching new initiatives like mobile Atal Tinkering Labs, ATL Community Tinkering Labs to enable access to these labs to greater number of students and schools in rural areas during the coming year.

Blurb: “The vision is to have every school have access to at least one or more Atal Tinkering Labs in each district of the country, as well as to scale the same up with the help of state education ministries across the length and breadth of the country.”

Madhya Pradesh Building Technically Advanced Generation

Article

digitalLEARNING Network

December 19, 2017

Madhya Pradesh’s Directorate of Technical Education is providing quality education with judicious allocation of available resources to the technical institutions to contribute to the economic well-being and quality of life of communities it serves, shares Dr Veerendra Kumar, Director, Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Madhya Pradesh, in conversation with Divakar Mukherjee of Elets News Network (ENN).

Give us an overview of MP Technical Education Department

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Government of Madhya Pradesh, is a nodal body for implementing technical education policies of State and Central Government, and acts as a coordinating agency between Government, Industry and Institutions to advise and assist the Government in the all-round development of technical education. DTE supports accountability and is responsible in bringing quality technical education in the State of Madhya Pradesh with effective and efficient Management and interacts with external agencies like AICTE, CII, FICCI, R&D organisations and institutes of higher learning for development of educational quality. We are providing quality education with judicious allocation of available resources to the technical institutions so as to contribute to the economic well-being and quality of life of the communities it serves.

How is it being ensured that technical education of Madhya Pradesh matches global standards?

To maintain global standards of quality education, DTE established State Project Facilitation Unit, Madhya Pradesh, a separate unit under Directorate of Technical Education, Madhya Pradesh to run Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme in the State as per the project requirement. The project activities are coordinated through this office by Deputy Director and Head, SPFU, Madhya Pradesh as Project Coordinator, in the guidance of Director Technical Education and State Project Advisor, Madhya Pradesh. The Project Coordinator is supported by following four Cells — Monitoring and Evaluation Cell, Academic Cell, Procurement Cell, and Financial Management Cell.

The SPF Unit started ‘The Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme’ (TEQIP) with World Bank assistance as a long term Programme to be implemented in three phases. TEQIP-III has already been started by National Project Implementation Unit (NPIU), Noida in 2016. An orientation workshop was organised by NPIU on 18th January 2017 at New Delhi. In this workshop, representatives of World Bank, officials of MHRD, Government of India, officials of State Government and representatives of probable Government Funded /Aided engineering institutions have participated and the guidelines were provided to probable institutions of the State to prepare their Institutional Development Plans for the participation the Project TEQIP-III.

What kind of ICT-based initiatives are being taken by the government to boost teaching
learning process in the State?

Pioneering a unique initiative, DTE started ‘eVaani’, a server-based facility which broadcast video-based lectures of experienced faculty members to institutions in rural and far-flung areas to cope-up with staff crunch.

Now DTE is in the process of establishing smart classrooms in all institutions to extend the benefit of eLearning to students of all institutions.

How the State government is promoting entrepreneurship among students? What policies and new initiatives have been undertaken in this regard?

DTE encourages students startups from institutions under its umbrella. The department has invited institutions to apply for establishing new institution based incubation centres to foster startup ecosystem at institutional level.

Digital India and Skill India Missions are two of the most talked about initiatives of the
Government of India. What is the role of department in skilling and providing jobs to
youths under these two initiatives?

In the Skill development domain the department is ensuring implementation of all initiatives under Skill India Mission in Madhya Pradesh. For providing employment, the DTE has signed MoU with CII, West Zone, Mumbai through placement cells they are organising regularly Industry-Academia Meet, Campus Placements Fairs also monitoring the progress of institution based Training & Placement Cells.

What initiatives has the department undertaken to increase environmental awareness in
institutions under its umbrella?

The Directorate of Technical Education has come up with Green campus Initiative under which clear guidelines have been provided to all institutions for redefining its environmental culture and developing new paradigms by creating sustainable solutions to environmental, social and economic needs. Some initiatives under Green Campus programmes are establishment of 10KW Solar Power Station, Wastewater management system, Rainwater Harvesting system, Recycling bin for e-waste, institute, community garden and digital libraries.

Directorate of Technical Education Madhya Pradesh (DTEMP) is setting up Tod-Fod- Jod (TFJ) centres in all its engineering/polytechnic colleges so as to inspire the engineering/diploma students to carry out innovative project work, experiment and participate in hands on activities. The budding technocrats are trained to recycle tools, raw material and also used equipments for development of new prototypes.

BLURB

“Directorate of Technical Education Madhya Pradesh is setting up Tod-Fod- Jod (TFJ) centres in all its engineering/polytechnic colleges so as to inspire the engineering/diploma students to carry out innovative project work, experiment and participate in hands on activities.”

Boosting Student Employability with Internship

Article

digitalLEARNING Network

December 19, 2017

Most graduates are faced with a peculiar situation to be employed in their field of study. In a traditional hiring system, they cannot get a break without experience and this experience cannot be gained until any company hires the candidate. Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network explores employability opportunity for students through Internship.

The trade and industry sector, for instance, conducts its own test while hiring and is not happy with the result. They argue that most universities in India produce graduates, post- graduates and diploma or certificate holders, who are unemployable.

So worrying is the situation that it has set off alarm bells as the number of graduates in the nation continues to increase with no job, and mostly ending up to opt jobs in other sectors – rather adding to the burgeoning unemployment in the country, which is expected to reach 18 million in 2018.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) report suggests the number of graduate students doubled from 11,908,151 in 2008 to 24,593,321 in 2016. As of February this year, 789 universities, 37,204 colleges and 11,443 stand-alone institutions were functioning across India.

Meanwhile, only 641,000 jobs were created from July 2014 to December 2016 in sectors —manufacturing, trade, construction, education, health, information technology, transport, and accommodation & restaurant, according to Economic Survey report.

Although the Government of India has implemented various new initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Startup India, Smart Cities etc., however, are yet to yield results.

Mandatory Internship by AICTE

To enable Engineering and Management students become employable and to bridge the skill gap between the industry requirement and the academia, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Engineering Council of India (ECI) in June this year entered into an MoU for providing “Internship” – commence from Session 2017-18 – across 10,000 approximate AICTE affiliated technical institutions in the country.

Universities like Rajasthan Technical University (RTU), Samrat Ashok Technological Institute (SATI), Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), Sandip University Nashik (SUN), Gujarat Technological University (GTU) have already agreed to carry out this internship programme for the students to provide a hands-on experience within a technical institution and industrial organisation working environment.

The programme has set two summer internships with the industry, for students before obtaining their graduate degrees, of two months duration each. The proviso has mandates to all the AICTE affiliated universities to make internship compulsory and include it in their academic calendar, too.

Under this joint initiative of AICTE-ECI MoU, the web portal (www.eciinternship.com) has also been launched for students to obtain an internship with technical institutions and industrial organisations.

From the official website of Eciinternship, students can avail information about various training programs and internship opportunities in engineering and management programs offered by ECI Member Associations.

Furthermore, ECI is in the process of identifying organisation or institutes, both in India and abroad, and signing MoUs to facilitate the internship programme.

The internship programme for graduating engineering students received a further boost after the current Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, directed his State’s industries to enrol interns – 10 per cent of its total employee strength.

The Gujarat Biodiversity Board has also signed an agreement with ECI in which the State’s 457 pharmaceutical companies have agreed to take four students each as interns.

With a similar objective, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje recently directed the State industries to start enrolling students as interns, ECI Member Secretary Dr PR Swarup said in one of the programmes held by AICTE in Jaipur, recently.

MHRD to roll-out National Entrance Examination for Technical Institutions (NEETI)

Technical education is the key enabler for the development of the country. It is the axis around which the development of industry, infrastructure and economy of the countries revolve. As the number of unemployed engineering graduates continues to increase, the blame-game often points towards ‘curricula’ for creating the skill gap between the industry requirement and the academia.

Time-and-again, a debate is raised to provide industry-focused curricula and projects to enhance the employability of the undergraduates.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development is planning a major reshuffle in India’s technical education through the implementation of single National Entrance Examination for Technical Institutions (NEETI) from January 2018, which includes teacher training and annual revision of curriculum, among others.

Once implemented, the institutions will have to make suitable changes in the curriculum every year to meet the industry requirement.

Rising trend of Internship providers

In recent years, the country has witnessed a rising trend of private companies providing internship and training to the students in verticals such as engineering, applied arts, architecture, law, hotel management, website development, marketing etc.

University of London: Inculcating Skills to Nurture Future Leaders

Interviews

Akash

December 17, 2017

In today’s rapidly evolving job market, it is very important for students and professionals to upgrade and learn new skills, says Chris Cobb, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Operations) and Chief Operating Officer, University of London, in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Along with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Coding and other industry needed skills, what kind of other skills students should focus on?

Chris Cobb, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Operations) and Chief Operating Officer, University of London

We are in the age of Information Technology which is leading to the automation of services and processes and more use of robotics. As a result, people have to focus more on acquiring the skills needed in future along with the traditional skills to adapt with changing world. Artificial Intelligence will have a significant impact. But it largely relies on predictive actions based on previous experience. AI is less good at adapting to new things that haven’t been encountered before. It’s also less good at the things that humans excel at: the ability to think critically; discern reality from rhetoric; develop an argument; be persuasive; lift morale; motivate; innovate; think creatively and be ingenious, in other words to be human. These are the skills that students of tomorrow will need and that we should focus on developing.

The University of London is a global education hub of knowledge and education. What are the university’s expansion plans in developing and underdeveloped countries to bring students at par with modern education?

The University of London has strength of around 170,000 global students from almost every country of the world. 120,000 of them are on campus in London, while 50,000 are pursuing our degree courses in their own countries. To enhance our engagement globally and to widen the provision further, we are trying to open up study opportunities in better numbers for professionals in key sectors such as business, finance, law, education, health and international development.

Internship plays a vital role in enhancing the employability of students and provides a hands-on experience within a corporate working environment. Please tell us about the initiative started by University of London on similar lines.

Our Business Observation Placements scheme began as a pilot in Singapore and has now been rolled out in India and Pakistan. There are plans to extend this further in South East Asia and other regions where we have significant number of students. The scheme offers our undergraduate students a unique opportunity to take a bespoke short-term placement in the sector relevant to their study, be it business, law or other field. We recognise that academic learning is an important part of a student’s journey of becoming a professional but to develop industry oriented skills along with work related learning is most important. Employers who work with the university recognise and respect the quality of education we provide. Many of the entrepreneurs are graduates of the University of London, and happy to reinvest in future generations of professionals.

Graduates often face difficulties to get employment in their respective field of study. What suggestion would you like to give these students before starting their careers?

Clarity of purpose while choosing a particular occupational path is always important. It will be difficult to succeed in areas which may be attractive for other reasons but ultimately don’t fit with the interests, motivation and skills of the individual. In a crowded market, develop oneself as a “brand” is important. This could be made up of educational branding (so the University of London would be a good example of a well-known global brand) and employer and experience branding. The latter is where internships can be very important. Creating and using networks both personal and virtual (such as Linkedin) are very significant. The creation of a network is only part of this. Networking is a skill which needs to be worked on and developed.

Manipal University Jaipur Encouraging Innovation through Better Placements

Interviews

Akash

December 17, 2017

MUJ considers placement as an important outcome of efforts to provide latest in innovation and research to the students. To make it highly productive, MUJ undertakes one-to-one relationship with large number of industries and reputed institutions says Dr Sandeep Sancheti, President, Manipal University Jaipur, in a conversation with Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).

What are the interventions Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ) is taking for skilling and enhancing the employability of students?

Dr Sandeep Sancheti, President, Manipal University Jaipur

Manipal University Jaipur has been conscious of the fact that jobs in the industrial set up are available to the students who are skilled and competent of handling real-life situations. Curriculum has been designed to include skill development courses for gainful employability. Further, MUJ has strengthened the delivery of all laboratory activities with deeper involvement using many high-end and precision equipment to enhance students’ hands-on experience and exposure. Efforts in the form of tinkering labs have also added new dimensions to experimental learning.

In order to bridge the skill gap, MUJ was one of the first Higher Education institutions to sign an MoU with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). NSDC has developed a unique model to integrate skill-based training into the academic cycle of the University. These trainings are being provided on the basis of National Occupational Standards set by industry through sector skill councils. The job roles offered are designed to be progressive in nature on National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).

Keeping in view the available infrastructure and job prospects, six sectors, namely, Vehicle Testing, Software Development, Tourism, Acting, Banking and Fashion Technology were identified by the University. Manipal University Jaipur also partnered with agencies like Manipal City & Guilds to jointly organize a skill development program on variety of topics.

What are the initiatives Manipal University Jaipur has undertaken in Student Startup domain?

Entrepreneurship is not only a buzzword but also happening in the University Campus proactively. Manipal University Jaipur has been fostering entrepreneurship since inception. In order to promote entrepreneurship among students and encourage entrepreneurial culture in the University, an Entrepreneurship Cell has been setup that mentors guides and incubate entrepreneurial business plans of the students to enable them to start their businesses. Students and faculty members are nominated to various events relating to entrepreneurship including B-plan workshops, B-plan contests, seminars, workshops and conferences.

The University has also created endowments to offer financial support to some of these innovative ventures through their own resources. The University has already incubated 20 new start-ups in a short span of 2-3 years. Incubates are provided office space, business and legal support, access to all lab facilities and facilities like 3D printing etc. The University proposes to set up Technology Business Incubators (TBI) and has also applied for Government. sponsored Atal Incubation Mission.

Many countries have started introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coding etc, in the curriculum. What initiatives is the Manipal University Jaipur undertaking to make students competent with the emerging technological trend ?

Manipal University Jaipur has always been committed to provide knowledge to students about emerging technological trends by introducing the new concepts in the curriculum. To enhance coding and problem solving, we have started ACM Coding Club which meets regularly on week-ends. The common problems found in contests (Hackathons, Online contests etc.) are discussed. Many of these problems can be solved using different methods through the illustrations and comparison of varied parameters by deliberations.

Through a project-based learning which emphasizes on hands-on learning, students are encouraged to look around for problems confronted by them. They are then helped by the faculty mentors to arrive at practical and feasible solutions and demonstrate through rapid prototypes or virtual models using many modelling and simulation tools like MATLAB, COMSOL and CATIA. To solve the complex problems and arrive at solutions, supercomputers like PARAM SHAVAK with power of 3+ teraflops are available to the students.

To evolve quick solutions, a variety of platforms are available to the students in state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IOT) lab with a plethora of sensors for ECG, Heart Beat, Ultrasound and Wireless communication paradigms like Low power Bluetooth (BLE), Low Power Radio (LoRa), GSM/GPRS, Wifi (802.11a,b,d,n). Using these, students can quickly conceive and test solutions for various applications like Smart transportation, Smart building, Smart energy, Smart health, Smart agriculture etc. A number of gateways with varying processing power are made available for intermediate data processing and uploading the same to clouds like AWS, Azure, and Blue Mix etc. for further processing and analytics.

Internship plays a vital role in enhancing the employability of students. Highlight the initiatives Manipal University Jaipur has undertaken to facilitate internship for students to provide them hands on experience within a corporate working environment ?

MUJ considers placement as an important outcome of efforts to provide latest in innovation and research to the students. To make it highly productive, MUJ undertakes one-to-one relationship with large number of industries and reputed institutions. The effectiveness of the academia – industry inter relationship underlines the use of the latest tools and techniques to make the pedagogy effective in all facets of its activity. Internships play a very important role in skill development and further increasing the employability of the students in the diverse domains. As such emphasis on industry component in the academic curriculum is made. The University offers basic and advanced training programmes to its students and exposes them to related research in contemporary and futuristic technologies by way of continual improvement and innovation.

MUJ encourages the students to go for summer internships which form the backbone for final internship during the final semester. Final year students are mandated to work for their Projects in the industry to get hands-on experience, through the Practice School concept. Campus recruitment process is conducted for providing internship as well as job opportunities to the students. MUJ insists on Industrial visits to be undertaken by students which provide a good industrial exposure which eventually helps them during their internships. The students are also encouraged to take certifications as per the industry requirements which help in getting desired internships and often leading to Pre-Placement offers for some students. The University facilitates students for short duration stints abroad under more than two dozen mutual agreements signed with reputed global academic institutes to expose them to the culture and work ethos and prepare them for global placements.

Punjab Engineering College with ESRI India to foster geospatial technology

News

digitalLEARNING Network

December 14, 2017

Punjab Engineering College (PEC) has inked MoU with ESRI India to foster Geospatial Technology in the country.

Under this partnership, PEC aims to disseminate information and awareness about Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing and Digital Mapping.

Along with the project and consultancy, the association of PEC and ESRI will work towards capacity building for geospatial technology. Moreover, this step reinforces the vision and mission of PEC to enhance itself as a Centre of Excellence in technical education and research.

This initiative is in line with the visions of Central Government’s flagship programmes like Smart Cities, Digital India and Clean Ganga, among others.

On this association, PEC Director Prof Manoj K Arora said, “The future lies in the study of geospatial data. Due to unavailability of the expertise in the relevant field, the need for such a centre assumes greater significance.”

ESRI is also working with various institutes to address the needs of building GIS and take it to higher levels.

ESRI India President Agendra Kumar said, “ESRI is also working with colleges, universities and research institutes to build GIS capacity and address changing skill requirements and resource shortage.”

Geospatial technology is among the modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping, analysis of the Earth and human societies. It includes a variety of technologies like Remote Sensing, GIS, Global Positioning System (GPS), internet mapping technologies, etc.

Pradeep Negi among top 50 contenders for USD 1 million global award

News

Akash

December 14, 2017

Pradeep Negi, a differently abled teacher from Uttarakhand has placed himself among the top 50 contenders for an USD one million global award.

Pradeep Negi is a teacher of economics, social science and computer science at Government Inter College BHEL Ranipur, Haridwar, Uttarakhand.

Out of 30,000 nominations and applications from 173 countries across the world, Negi has been shortlisted among top 50 for the annual Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2018.

“It is unbelievable. I am proud that I have been chosen as one of the top 50 teachers. It has motivated teachers in our community,” said Mr Negi.

“I am handicapped but it hasn’t stopped me from succeeding and I am glad that I can inspire other disabled people in India. I have developed a lot of innovative work in ICT for my poor children and I am glad it has been recognised,” said Mr Negi, who was physically disabled at the age of two due to polio.

Overcoming his adversities, Negi used technology to make subjects like economies and social sciences compelling to the students. He has been chosen for his fighting spirit. Negi has helped train more than 1,200 teachers in his state.

“Congratulations to Pradeep Negi for reaching the final 50. I hope his story inspires those looking to enter the teaching profession and shines a spotlight on the incredible work teachers do all over the world every day,” said Varkey Foundation and the Global Teacher Prize founder Sunny Varkey.

“We intend to keep this momentum going as our journey continues to return teachers to their rightful position as one of the most respected professions in society,” he said.

The Global Teacher Prize was set up to recognise one exceptional teacher every year who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.

Delhi Government strict against the fee hike in private schools

News

Akash

December 14, 2017

The Delhi State Government has called a meeting of all the legislators and officials from education department to toughen its stand against fee hike in private schools.

Following the complaints from parents about the hike in fee by private schools along with demand of arrears, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia – who also holds the education portfolio – met at the Delhi Secretariat.

According to an official, Kejriwal and Sisodia have discussed the issue in the meeting with all the MLAs and education department officials.

The official also revealed that the legislators will get the data of complaints of fee hiking registered against the private schools of their respective.

The Directorate of Education (DoE) had also written to schools recently asking them to refrain from any “unjustified” hike in school fees in the name of implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

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