GUWAHATI, May 13 - Training and Capacity Building (TCB), a division of Quality Control of India (QCI) New Delhi in association with National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) conducted a webinar � �Covering the Distance from Campus Classes to Virtual Classes� with Prof SP Singh, Vice Chancellor, Royal Global University as the lead speaker along with Karan Kumar, head, IT, OP Jindal Global University and Anurag Shah, Controller of Examinations & IT, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), on Wednesday, said a press release issued here. The webinar was moderated by Vanita Yadav, Director, NABET.
The webinar was attended by more than 600 students, staff and faculty of different universities and schools.
Prof Singh addressing the query on understanding the nuances while adapting from campus/classroom learning to online learning, outlined the transition RGU undertook from March 17 with the active participation and coaching by the IT team of RGU, much before any inkling of a lockdown due to COVID-19. He said the pro-active and well-exposed faculty started to undertake online classes without major glitch, as online classes or internet-backed classroom activity is a much practised norm in teaching pedagogy at RGU.
Faculty and students have been facilitated to avail the various online modes of teaching and learning and digital classrooms through RoyalNet, Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting Skype, Google Classroom, YouTube, etc. Online resources available on SWAYAM, E-PG Pathsala, UG/PG MOOCs, SWAYAMPRABHA and other platforms were also used, Prof Singh said.
All students of RGU were contacted by phone for feedback on online classes, syllabus completion, availability of study material and difficulties faced. Problems of students were resolved on one-to-one basis. Only very few students across remote areas of the North East where connectivity issues were not resolved, were addressed through hard copies of study material sent to them, the RGU VC informed the participants.
Some practical classes which could not be conducted online would be conducted once the university opens in June as per UGC guidelines and if Assam is still in green zone, Prof Singh said. He also spoke about the initial hiccups faced by some senior faculty above 60 years, which through intensive online training videos rid them of their inhibitions and braced them to take online classes at times with the help of young tech-savvy faculty of the same school.
Joining Prof Singh, both Kumar and Shah reiterated that COVID-19 has changed the conventional norms of education and is instrumental in changing the future of classroom teaching and examinations. Secured online platforms maintaining the sanctity of education is the demand which is being addressed by IT firms across the world, they added.
