Online Teaching: The Role of Administration

On 20th September, 2020

Panelists:

1. Suranjan Das , Vice Chancellor, Jadavpur University

2. Venu Narayan , Chief Academic Officer, Azim Premji University

3. Kalpana Sarathy , Deputy Director, TISS, Guwahati Off Campus

4. R Srinivasan, Registrar , University of Madras

5. Vinitha Mokshagundam Head, Department of History, Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru

6. Pankaj Chandra , Vice Chancellor, Ahmedabad University.

Chair : Ram Ramaswamy, IIT Delhi

Moderator : V Madhurima, CUTN

Major points shared:

Institutional best practices that worked:

1. Flexibility – of time and nature of classes, assessment methods and the extent of syllabus being taught.

2. Provided all faculty with desktops, laptops and internet

3. Institutional digital platforms created for teachers to upload materials.

4. Funds created/collected to bridge the digital divide among students.

5. Students were allowed to convert their regular courses to those that counted to graduation but not to GPA.

6. Tech-team put together a set of online tools that teachers could use for online teaching.

7. Regular training workshops for teachers were conducted.

8. Reduction in syllabus and flexibility in teaching/assessment were formalized.

9. Experimental kits were sent to homes of students to enable them to participate in virtual labs.

Positives of online teaching:

1. Students come prepared for the class, unlike in a classroom where the teacher has to prepare the class.

2. Flexibility in teaching and assessment

3. New databases are being created.

4. Sense of team work – acad-admin-IT coming together

5. Significant institutional learning – accelerate flexibility, change assessment process

6. Pedagogical response with teachers at the forefront of it, including catering to the needs of individual students.

Disadvantages of Online teaching:

1. Pedagogical problems of having to teach to inanimate mics and laptops is a major problem

2. A homogenization of knowledge due to a one-way flow of information through the screens, bereft of interactions.

3. Liberal arts and social sciences suffer since online examination is skill based and not on social impact evaluation. Attending class is not the same as class engagement

4. Problems aggravated for field-work based courses.

5. It is doubtful if online education can create “inclusive citizens”.

6. The opportunity cost of education has gone up, with parents’ loss of livelihood and the loss of job opportunities for students in future.

7. Tremendous psychological distress – and a gender bias to it

a. Girls to not get even to use mobiles – driving them to suicides

b. Hostels, which were shelters to students, were shut down in a span of a day or two, leaving them vulnerable.

8. Online teaching has had a differentiated impact across educational levels and educational institutes and between student communities.

What can the administration do?

1. Make policy decisions to accommodate flexibility, not only of teaching-learning process, but also of issues like signing in. These measures can reduce the stress levels that teachers face.

2. Ensure proper training of teachers to handle online classes.

3. Provide adequate counselling and support to both students and teachers.

4. Have mental health and burn-out management policies drafted and implemented.

5. Financial aid needs to be given to teachers for their expenses towards online teaching; especially for those on management salaries.

6. Institutes have to purchase licensed software and dedicated cloud space

7. Students fee may be reduced since the students do not have access to infrastructure.

8. Students and teachers have to be provided with off-site access to the Institutes digital library.

9. Since online teaching takes more time and effort, administrative support needs to be provided to faculty.

10. Avoid using WhatsApp, especially at unearthly hours, for official correspondence.

Comments:

1. Online teaching cannot be a permanent solution.

2. A fully online administration can lead to more problems than it can solve.

3. A forced, large-scale, world-wide experiment in education is being currently conducted.

4. Flexibility and adaptability seem to be better in private institutes.

5. North-East India has its own geographical problems, with the current one being that a new virtual-semester is being started in the monsoon season, when power-cuts are very common and internet connectivity to remotes areas is very poor.

6. Attending class is not the same as class engagement

7. Empathy needed on the part of teachers and administrators in understanding that the domestic situation of students may be far from ideal.

8. Attendance should not be made compulsory for students to pass a course.

9. There is no substitute for on campus socialization and collective learning.