We are preparing a question bank to convert into online MCQ for students, says ISMR expert

Maharashtra being the epicentre of Covid-19 is finding it difficult to contain the spread of the pandemic. Amid the national lockdown, Pune-based ISMR - International School of Management & Research is trying hard to fight against the current situation. The management is teaching faculty to learn to deliver lectures online using webinars without the use of board or marker. In a conversation with Shiksha.com, ISMR faculty shares details about the initiatives taken to ensure the academic session is ongoing for its existing 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: It is fortunate that the global pandemic and lockdown imposed at the end of the academic year, though, final evaluations in terms of examinations have been hampered along with placement activities. In a view of the global scenario, this global pandemic may create new opportunities for career and will generate new business opportunities. Though everybody has to keep patience.   

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

A: On part of academic progression, we have scheduled a number of lectures for our students after an internal preliminary survey of our students with the intension to understand technical feasibility to conduct the session on web portals. We also approached renowned speakers from industry and arranged their valuable sessions on the aspects such as career opportunities after this pandemic, industrial situation after COVID-19 etc.  

On the part of the contribution, we choose to stay at home and also requested to our students to stay at home. We hope the government is doing well for the eradication of this pandemic and for this we have to cooperate by staying at home only. Secondly, we asked our faculties to donate a certain amount to the government relief fund formed to help needy the current situation. It needless to point out that they have donated funds on the direction of ISMR B-School.

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

A: The fact is we are having two programmes such as MBA in affiliation with SPPU, Pune and PGDM approved by AICTE. Thus, we have to act as per the directions given by the higher authority. Though, we made certain estimates for guessing future probability regarding the structure of the exam. With this homework, we are prepared with a question bank that could be converted into an online MCQ test. This will be easy to evaluate the answer sheets in minimum time and declare the course results. Though, we preferred to share it on personal IDs of students for data security.

Q: How are students responding to new initiatives?

A: It is surprising to note the increased satisfaction of our students for online webinars arranged for them. This is very useful in this situation of lockdown and also added value to ask more questions during online classes enabling the learning at their doorstep.

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

A: We keep online sessions enabling video mode so that everybody can see each other, get a feel of the classroom and interact with each other, too. Also, this is the small piece of time as compared to the entire two years programme, thus as per my opinion, it may not impact much. Though, whatever loss students feel on this aspect of interpersonal and team management skills, we as ISMR B-School are committed to organising specialised refreshment outbound trainings to develop these skills up to THE NEXT LEVEL.   

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

A: First of all, we scheduled webinars in such a manner so that maximum students can join the sessions seamlessly. We use tools such as Zoom Meeting app that can be used on mobile phones as well on the desktops. Also, we organised a mock drill on the efficient utilisation of this platform for students as well as for professors. We followed the guidelines given by the Cyber Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs published in April 2020.    

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

A: It basically depends upon what time period it will take for the situation to get back to normal. If it will take long term then structural changes, the telecom companies may have to enhance the bandwidth to increase connectivity. Also attending one hour of online sessions consumes almost 2GB data per participant. Thus for long term considerations, the cost is more important. Further, teachers also have to learn the way of webinar delivery instead of using whiteboard and markers. In online teaching, face reading skills may vanish and as a professor with over 15 years of teaching experience, I strongly say that confidence of teachers in terms of assessing the level of understanding of students by face reading will certainly vanish. In fact, teaching is not only speech and presentation but it is basically hypnotism to attract the attention of students to the topic.