PD13 - Has it been an year already?

Higher Education Online

Recording of 13th Panel Discussion

Panelists

  1. Jyotsna Jha, Director, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies.

  2. D Thammi Raju, Principal Scientist, NAARM, Hyderabad.

  3. Vikrant Yadav, Post-Doctoral Associate, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University.

  4. K Prahalad, Young India Fellow, Ashoka University

  5. Sutirth Dey, Department of Biology, IISER Pune.

  6. Sujin Babu, Department of History, Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru.

  7. Shubashree Desikan, Science Journalist, The Hindu

Chair: Ram Ramaswamy, IIT Delhi

Moderator: V Madhurima, CUTN

Main Points Shared:

  1. For many of the authors, the articles written for Confluence served the dual purposes of being cathartic for the stresses and also to accept and plan the shift to online teaching.

  2. Almost all of the surmises regarding online teaching have turned out to be true.

  3. Online teaching has lead to a loss of intersectionality and interactions. There has been assumption about homogenized student learning which is not true.

  4. Online teaching has lead to the absence of a literate and serene environment for the students to learn.

  5. Campus interactions that are essential, especially for first generation students, have been lost in the online mode.

  6. Issues regarding access and affordibility remain - even among those whose families could arrange for them.

  7. Knowledge itself has been reduced to bite-sized pieces.

  8. The freedom of and at an educational institute has been severely compromised.

  9. Online mode of teaching seems to be best suited as a supplimentary mode and not as the primary one.

  10. The negative psychological impact was felt more with students of final year UG/PG and PhD students.

  11. There is a need to reassess syllabus, content and delivery modes for online teaching.

  12. Studying over the phone, and in noisy environments has been difficult for students.

  13. Students have lost out on their social skills.

  14. Experiental learning, across fields of study, has been severly compromised.

  15. Simulations, video games and animations were used to make online laboratory courses interesting.

  16. Each of the article in the series has had an average of 2600 views, indicating the far-reach of the articles.

  17. Studies on the impact of online teaching on subjects such as law and journalism have to be taken up.