Teachers are doing their best to make sure the semester is saved and academics are not affected: Donika, DAIICT

These are first-hand student accounts on how our young population is managing to keep their exam prep or college course work going from the confines of their homes. In case you want to share your lockdown study experience, write to us at publish@shiksha.com.

First of all, let me give a little background. Our mid-sem exams ended on 6th March and we had Holi break from 8th to 16th March. As coronavirus cases started surfacing in India, the government suggested immediate closing of all the educational institutions. Since DAIICT has students from all the parts of India and not just Gujarat, it was not at all possible to reopen the institution after the Holi break. Hence, our vacation was extended up to 30th March. As soon as the lockdown was imposed, the Holi break was further extended and given the situation, it might get even more extended.

The month of March was expended to no purpose. The students had many apprehensions and anxieties arising out of the prolonged mid-sem break like

• I miss my lectures, labs, tutorials, course instructors and teaching assistants.
• I have made a perfect plan to improve my CPI/SPI during this semester and raring for the semester to begin.
• I have an internship offer from an MNC with a definite joining date. Will the semester be over by then?
• I did very well in the assessments of my courses so far. God! let there be no end-sem exam in these courses.

Most of the students initially blamed the authorities for not giving any solid information about reopening, final exams, curriculum, changes in labs and practical viva, etc. But the authorities maintained their calm and answered all the queries. Not only that, but the faculties also started online classes to cover the portion missed and keep a check on the project/lab work.

It took quite a time before the online lectures could occur smoothly because the institute had to consider if all the students had the necessary facilities at their end to participate in an online lecture session. In addition, they took into consideration how much of academic activity is required and remains to be conducted; to what extent can the institute recompense for the loss of the semester. They sent out a Google Form to get answers from our side and finally, the lectures began on 22nd March.

Some used Skype, some Google classroom, and some Zoom meetings. They used different means to communicate but the common goal was to never stop learning.

Initially, there were difficulties and technical issues but once the flow began, there was no looking back. Now, we have regular lectures based on a revised timetable, they teach and solve doubts and even the project meetings are held smoothly. The faculty members are quite approachable and this is the main quality that made online learning possible. The pace is obviously slow and hence not much portion is being covered but the plus point is that they did not leave us hanging. Obviously, something is better than nothing.

We had 5 elective subjects and 1 core subject. The core subject is software engineering, which also contains the semester-long project. Discussion about the project with the faculty happens once in 10 days. Since I am a pre-final year student, we have on-campus placements coming up in the next semester. Even the faculties understand how important the placements are, and therefore instead of taking up all our time, they advised us to use this “free” time for preparation of placements. Honestly, they are doing their best to make sure that the semester is saved and academics are not adversely affected. There is no information about the end-sem exam, but we learned to leave these decisions on them because any kind of retaliation would not help.

I always wondered what work from home would be like. Now, I got one. To be honest, it feels liberating.

You get no stage fear during presentations or no formal dress code during project meetings with the faculty. It does get difficult to collaborate as talking to someone physically is more impactful in every way. The semester-long project consists of a team of 13 members. Some are just sleeping members and it was possible to get them to work when physical meetings happened.

Virtual meetings are a success only when people are willing to work. Of course, there is freedom and deadlines are a little blurred out. It is based on our convenience and there are fewer distractions. Some days I cross many things off from my to-do list and some days I get lazy. So, I can’t make a solid judgment about the relation of productivity with WFH. Different people react differently to a situation, while I am taking this as a learning opportunity and trying to adapt to whatever is required.

The lab work is an integral part of each subject as it gives practical knowledge about the theories learned. Since labs in the college are equipped with the required software and tools, the labs designed are intensive and even evaluation used to take place. Now, we are given a detailed guide about the installation of a particular software and then, we have to submit the solution files on the Moodle portal. For subjects like operating systems and compiler design, the faculty did not give us any lab work.

We have a group project in Organizational Behavior, which included a field visit to a company and learn about their hiring process, the chain of command, communication, and negotiations. But now there are restrictions to visiting the company and hence we are conducting interviews of employees through Skype and Zoom meetings. This way, the project work is ongoing and we might be able to finish it before the deadline.

The most important thing that the college is doing is - they are constantly sending out emails to us. They are concerned about our well-being and health; they made a new plan to begin the academic session close to 1 June.

The placement cell is in constant communication with companies regarding summer internship offers of the pre-final year students. The decision regarding that is yet to come out. The sports committee mailed the diet plan and exercise routine that needs to be followed to build up our immune system. They are taking good care of students who are still on the campus, cleanliness is maintained and good healthy food is provided to them. The pre-placements are held regularly to make sure the placements do not get affected. The programming club of the college continues to make contests and many fun activities are organized by the press club. These kinds of activities keep us connected to the college.

About the Author:

Donika Juthani is pursuing BTech in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) from DAIICT. She is also an upcoming summer intern at Goldman Sachs. Donika is an ML (Machine Learning) enthusiast and skilled in Python, HTML, CSS, and MySQL. She is a member of the programming club at DAIICT and responsible for organizing SisCode, an initiative to motivate and guide female students in competitive programming.