Panelists:

Student Panelists:

1.Abhinn Gupta-Ahmedabad U

2.Akshay G: IIT-D

3.Aminuddin Ahmed: Assam University

4.Anisha Dey: Women’s College, Agartala

5.Ashu Kushwaha : IIT-B

6.Debodyuti Kar: CU-Raj

7.Hivreen Kaur: GCWParade

8.Manoj N: CUTN

9.Muddasir Ramzan: AMU

10.Rashmi Gottumukkala: Ashoka Univ

11.Sangeeta Pakhare: IISER-TVM

12.Sanket Kasbale: IIT-M

13.Soching Luikham: NIT Nagaland

Faculty Panelists:

1.Annavaram N: HCU

2.Ashis Roy: Ambedkar Univ.

Chair : Ram Ramaswamy, IIT Delhi

Moderator : V Madhurima, CUTN

Main Points Shared:

1. Lack of devices and internet connectivity continue to be major problems. Some places did not even have 2G connectivity at the beginning of online classes.

2. Some students are travelling as much as 2-hours every day from their homes in rural areas to a town where there is some access to internet for their classes. Sometimes they have to spend close to half-an hour just to open one document, which may or may not be fully useful for them.

3. Some students have had to travel very long distances to give their exams due to internet related issues.

4. Hard-deadlines for exams and submissions are tricky - hard-deadlines add to the stress of those students who have genuine internet issues. Not having hard-deadlines opens a window for academic dishonesty among the students.

5. Online classes are a cause for physical and emotional stresses. Long hours of sitting in front of screens and not having activities such as sports is taking a toll on their physical health. Internet and device related problems are the prime source of mental stresses.

6. Lack of non-verbal cues have reduced the student -teacher interactions and this is leading to a lower participation of students in the online classes.

7. Further, distractions from social media pop-ups and/or browsing other tabs is a serious cause for lack of attention in online classes among students. Some students are handling this by using apps that help them focus (see the end of this section for tips).

8. Online teaching-learning poses additional problems in teaching performing arts with issues such as time-lags in teaching talas etc. The absence of physical proximity adds to the difficulties of differently abled students/teachers of these subjects with such as those with visual disabilities.

9. Online classes in general and laboratory courses in particular are not satisfactory for the students.

10. Students who have internet and devices find online classes interesting since it gives them flexible timings for study, a provision to re-listen to lectures and also saves a lot of time that they used to spend travelling.

11. Some of the positives aspects of online learning include quality time with family, time to spend on personal development including hobbies and not having to be worried about safety during travel.

12. The students are appreciative of the fact that although not all teachers are tech-savvy, they are putting a lot of effort for smooth conduct of online classes.

13. Some students are missing the competitiveness that a physical classroom brings while some are thriving in the lack of it! Similarly, some students have opened up in online classes and are able to ask more questions and interact, while others have become reclusive.

14. In addition to the lack of internet and devices, the lack of library resources is being felt acutely. There is a fear that research may be driven by data that is freely available only.

15. Overall, the students have projected a courageous and optimistic picture of enduring online education. They have gathered themselves very well despite many disruptions.