Our robust mentoring system has immensely aided in instilling a culture of self-learning, says GNVSIOM expert

Maharashtra is the epicentre of Covid-19 in India and is struggling to contain the spread of the pandemic. Amid the national lockdown, Mumbai-based GNVS Institute of Management is trying hard to cope with the current situation. The faculty and students both are trying to accept the change and adapt to online learning system. In a conversation with Shiksha.com, experts at GNVSIOM talk in detail about the significance of blended learning on higher education in the future, which will also lead to increase in demand for online certifications and short-term courses.

Here is the edited excerpt from the conversation.

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

A: The Global pandemic has significantly disrupted the higher education sector both nationally and globally. This sudden outbreak of Coronavirus has not only resulted in temporarily closing down of educational institutions but also impacted more than 285 million learners in India. It has also triggered unknown economic and social consequences. We are treating this incident extremely seriously and our top priority is the health and safety of students, staff and those who make up our wider community across the country as well as to facilitate the continuity of education for all our students through remote learning. I think very few of us fully anticipated the range of impacts that this virus would be able to cause.

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: This is a challenging time for students and staff and we have been swiftly responding to a rapidly changing situation. We have proactively mobilised Digital Learning Management Systems such as Edmodo, Google Classroom, Moodle and Skooler to enable the creation of collaborative and sharable digital learning resources with our students and to keep them engaged, motivated and participative. Our robust mentoring system has immensely aided in instilling a culture of self-learning and it is paying-off the dividends now. As a matter of fact, a majority of our students prior to the crisis have enrolled in various MOOC courses, including Alison, Coursera, EdX and Future Learn, and are now seeing the silver lining in this situation. We are also making the most out of collaboration platforms that support live-video communication such as Hangouts Meet, Skype, WhatsApp and Zoom for the purpose of video and audio conferencing, faculty meetings, chat and webinars. We are also motivating our students to utilise National Digital Library, which offers access to 1.70 crore books, periodicals, journals and thesis to avid learners without any cost.

Social Media and Branding Committee comprising of Student Ambassadors and Faculty Mentors have taken the task of playing its civic role by creating informational and educative content on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on society. The institute is vigilant enough in tracing the Governmental Advisory on the present situation and passing on the information to student’s community from time to time. In this line, the institute has rolled out remote study strategies to maintain motivation and avoid heightened feelings of isolation or anxiety among students. The strategy includes creating study space, developing a routine, planning and scheduling, building peer networks, setting Goals and recording progress.

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

A: In compliance with AICTE and Higher Education Regulatory Authorities, GNVSIOM is conducting continuous learning assessments via online presentations, case study exercises, video presentations and group activities. We have designed the Dissertation Project evaluation through the online format. Internal faculty and external expert will collaborate to make this happen. The conduct of final exams is going to be uniformly based on Bloom's Taxonomy and each faculty has meticulously prepared the test papers by keeping in mind programme and course outcomes without affecting the quality and coverage. It includes testing students on different levels of cognition — thinking, learning and understanding.

Q: How are students responding to new initiatives?

A: Students have embraced the principles of being adaptive, nimble and inclusive to all initiatives that will optimise our collective effort. The response is overwhelmingly positive and the learning so far is mutually inclusive. They are always excited about new posts of videos and assignments by the faculty and immediately respond to academic demands. At times, they are the ones to initiate discussions in the dialogue box and to make incisive comments on case studies and research papers. Despite the impediment in broadband connectivity, the students have been letting the momentum at a pace.

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

A: Online learning can present challenges to educators. More so, barriers to online learning are manifold in terms of learner motivation, time and support for studies, cost and access to the Internet and technologies. We can expect issues relevant to how students learn, but Online learning also offers a host of very powerful affordances to educators. Sufficient levels of deep and meaningful learning can be developed, as long as one of the three forms of interaction — student-teacher, student-student and student-content — is at a very high level.

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

A: Seamless learning implies that students can learn whenever they are curious, in a variety of situations. They can easily switch from one scenario to another using their personal device as a mediator, and can maintain the continuity of their learning across technologies and settings. Having said this, our best practices include adopting Digital learning management systems, where individual learning, with another student, a small group, or a large number of students online, with the active involvement of teachers is made possible. We are able to capture the opportunities for supporting learning across a variety of contexts offered by technologies.

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

A: Although online learning affords a vast potential for education delivery, we too firmly believe that the most critical component of formal education consists of interaction between and among multiple actors, humans and agents included. The challenge for teachers and course developers working in an online learning context is to construct a learning environment that is simultaneously learning-centred, content-centred, community-centred and assessment-centred. Institutions of higher education need to consider whether they are ready to meet growing learner demands in the coming years. We certainly believe that blended learning will have greater significance in higher education in the future and there will also be enormous growth in online certifications and short-term courses.