Lockdown brought clarity on e-learning

M.P. Poonia, vice chairman, All India Council for Technical Education

61-Poonia

The lockdown has caused much turmoil within the education system.

Our biggest and immediate concern right now is how to conduct examinations for students. There are options for online assessments, but how do we manage the practicals? We are awaiting guidelines from the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Meanwhile, we are encouraging continuity in learning through online portals. We are organising over 15 faculty development programmes (FDP) on key emerging subjects like Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things through webinar sessions.

The government had launched the National Educational Alliance for Technology in January to bring all technical educational products on a single platform for personalised learning. There are 13 companies providing 45 products as of now, and student registrations peaked after lockdown; we have 68,000 students registered with us.

Will the lockdown impact the next academic year, too, since entrance exams have been postponed?

I do not think so. Admissions continue till mid-August; we have time in hand for that. Our priority is the examinations. Students should not lose a semester.

Online education has emerged as a success story of the lockdown.

Undoubtedly. While we have been working on e-learning methods to reach out to more students, the lockdown period has certainly brought a lot more clarity on how feasible this is.

Under the proposed new education policy, the target is a 50 per cent higher gross enrolment ratio than at present. In the conventional classroom format, we are lacking in hard infrastructure like classrooms and teachers, and the target is difficult to achieve. But online and distance learning options can bridge this gap swiftly. The UGC, in 2019, had announced that institutions [should] register with it for online courses, and around seven institutions, like Amity, had already begun the process. More should now get encouraged to do so. 

The Work from Home concept also got a boost.

Yes. This WFH experience has really opened up our minds on how much more efficiently a lot of work can be done virtually. Traditionally, we send teams to inspect colleges, but a lot of that work can be done via videoconferencing link-ups, leaving only a small amount of the work to be done physically. A lot of what we are using as improvisations today will [become] routine once things return to normal. 

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