Moving to e-learning is not a radical shift, it was underutilised and now overutilised, says Dean of CMS Business School

The sudden uncertainties caused due the outbreak of Coronavirus has had an adverse impact on students for whom classes abruptly moved online, causing anxiety among many. Though the curriculum is important, it has become imperative to engage with students on a regular basis and help them develop interpersonal skills is also equally important. Hence, CMS helps students in enhancing their team management skills and interpersonal skills by letting them interact with peers through group projects and facilitating them interactions with counsellors. In a conversation with Shiksha.com Dean of CMS Business School, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Dr Harold Andrew Patrick talks in detail about all the initiatives taken by the institute to ensure students’ and their staff safety with quality education delivered to students.

Here is the edited excerpt of the conversation

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

A: The current scenario of lockdown and social distancing has challenged our education system. We, at CMS Business School, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), have embraced this as an opportunity to innovate and bring in newer ways of learning. The face-to-face classroom learning has got replaced by online sessions without compromising much on teaching effectiveness. Students and faculty are oriented to place themselves on newer platforms for learning teaching methods. Student engagement through such online sessions is achieved through proper planning of each session in minute detail. The current situation of Covid-19 has made us innovate on the way we assess students through relevant and apt assignments.      

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: We took all possible steps recommended by the regulatory bodies as well as certain initiatives to keep our students and employees safe. This is enabled through very compassionate initiatives including making the counselling accessible to them by VISHWAS, a student counselling cell. Counsellors are continuously engaged to speak and counsel students and employees, though remotely. Also, a series of webinars are conducted in this regard to strengthen the engagement of the students during the pandemic.

Another initiative taken was to help students to complete their internship or research projects by being at home. We made most of the library and other learning resources available digitally to them. 

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

A: The University is adopting licensed versions of a couple of platforms to conduct online exams. We have our own in-house ERP system with full-fledged programmers who host these exams online, results are announced online by ensuring full security of the data. 

Q: How are students responding to new initiatives?

A: Our students are responding very positively to the new initiatives. Thanks to the technological developments that made this possible. With newer ways of learning, we have seen increased levels of participation by them - whether it is attending many sessions in a day or higher levels of engagement within a session. 

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

A: This situation will explore and experiment with virtual collaboration and competition. The facilitating and interactive tools for teaching and learning by Zoom, Google and others are being used to simulate these skills. Students are less defensive to explore in a virtual space and so some of these skills can be honed especially virtual presence, presentations, asking questions and other behaviours that are usually inhibited in physical space

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

A: We have adopted effective online platforms to take scheduled sessions. Preparatory material is shared with students well in advance so that students can prepare and join online sessions and become part of peer discussions. We have almost moved closer to simulating the actual classroom kind of learning. Yes, there do exist certain challenges such as proper control over students during the online sessions or absence of non-verbal communications from teacher or students discussing in groups et cetera.

We set processes to plan and deliver courses effectively through online as well as blended formats so that students will have a seamless experience. We productively utilised LMS and other platforms to give students experiential learning as well as sessions for developing identified skills and competencies.

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

A: Online learning which was in the background has gained centre space. It is not a radical shift, it was underutilised and now over-utilised. If a pilot can learn to fly only using a simulator in reality then online will be the new medium. However, if it is not, a blend will become the norm and what type of blend will be customised to individual learners felt deficiency and required industry competency.