Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of remote learning, says Director of SIES College of Management Studies

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Director of SIES College of Management Studies Dr Bigyan Verma share their strategy to fight with the current pandemic situation due to COVID-19.  Dr Verma answers to all the queries related to curriculum delivery, examinations to be conducted and contributing to corporate social responsibility by creating awareness among the society.

Here is the edited excerpt of the conversation

Q: How has today’s scenario of lockdown and global pandemic impacted your education system?

A: According to UNESCO, more than 1.525 billion learners have been affected due to lockdowns thus impacting 99.9 per cent of world’s student population, the teachers and their families, and support system with apparent economic and social consequences thereof. Like most Higher Education Institutions, we too had to abruptly halt our normal activities to contain the spread of the pandemic, especially at a time when we were about to complete the last-minute rigmarole of teaching, assessments, enrolments, research activities and preparation of new academic calendar. This affected millions of new learners also who had plans to pursue higher studies in the next academic year.  Even though institutions are trying their best to mitigate the impact of the lockdown by adopting remote learning tools, the impact of lockdown will be felt during the next academic year too.

Q: What are some of the interesting initiatives your institute has taken to make it easy for your students and also contribute to the eradication of this pandemic?

A: Without wasting time, we embraced blended learning using technologies to complete the portion of courses through various applications such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Cisco’s Webex and Microsoft’s Team. Several rounds of classes and interactions were initiated by faculty and a Google Form was circulated to capture all the activities conducted by SIEC College of Management Studies (SIESCOMS) faculty. In addition to mentoring and holding Capstone viva, faculty used technology to remain connected with students, albeit using online platforms. Student members of our Social Team also went out of their way to post do’s and don’t many a time to educate people for keeping Corona virus. Their posts and animated messages on portals like Instagram, FaceBook, Linkedin have been appreciated by many.

To ensure that our students remain connected with industry stalwarts, we organised several webinars like the one by Alok Sheopurkar – Group HR Head of HDFC Asset Management Company. We also encouraged students to complete a few good MOOCs using online portals like Swyaam Prabha. It is heartening to mention that SIESCOMS has also partnered with Coursera and Harvard to offer free MOOCs for its students and faculty.

Q: How is the institute planning to conduct exams, evaluate and declare result online?

A: Taking a clue from AICTE’s Examination Reform Policy Handbook issued in November 2018, SIESCOMS conducted time-constrained ‘virtual open-book examination’. Faculty used their creativity to test skills in application, analysis and evaluation, i.e. higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Questions have been designed more on problem-solving, application of knowledge and higher-order thinking rather than simple recall of facts.  Assessment questions were also based on real-life situations that require comprehension, information retrieval and synthesising skills of the students to solve.

Q: How are students responding to new initiatives?

A: Gen Z children are extremely sharp and open to experimenting with new methods. By and large, students have been extremely cooperative and we may continue with some of these activities in the future too when normalcy returns. However, the absence of robust digital architecture and net connectivity are a few last-mile bottlenecks for the effectiveness of such endeavours. 

Q: What impact will it have on students’ interpersonal, team management skills?

A: Remote learning solutions have become the cynosure of all eyes. However, they are also accused of lopsided one-directional learning and lack of information about what students learn and retain. Its impact can be considered effective only if several conditions are adequately met. In the long run, a hybrid model for onsite exposure and experiential learning will become crucial for building several managerial skills that are needed to excel in the real world.

Q: What are the best practices that the college is adopting to ensure seamless online learning?

A: In order to ensure seamless online learning, some of the best practices adopted by institutions include robust availability of digital architecture and outcome-based content, pedagogical preparedness for remote learning, integration of hybrid model for onsite exposure and experiential learning., digital support for fair assessments and monitoring and objective assessments by independent auditors. 

Q: How will today’s situation revolutionise online learning in India and abroad?

A: COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of remote learning and many positive outcomes are expected in the future for upskilling teachers and students, heralding to a new era of the sustainable and meaningful learning ecosystem. Almost all world-class institutions like Harvard, ISB, INSEAD, Sloan, Oxford and MOOC providers like Coursera, Edex, Udemy and others have jumped into this foray for making the best use of this opportunity. It is heartening to note that remote learning in the form of distance education mode is already a popular option for many Indian students for reasons such as locational flexibility, the convenience of time as well as study schedule and reduced cost.  According to the Ministry of HRD, the number of hits after the outbreak of COVID-19 and lockdown on key online portals like Swyatam Prabha, Virtual Labs, FOSSEE and E-Yantra has gone up five times. Blended learning will change the entire ecosystem of traditional educational institutions.