NEW DELHI: The human resource development (HRD) ministry has asked top higher educational institutions, including IITs, to create e-learning modules for self-use and open source courses for the larger education eco-system amid the disruption caused by the covid-19 outbreak.
The ministry has asked them to adopt credit transfer to bring cohesion among institutions and make online and offline education seamless during this crisis.
The ministry has also advised them to prepare facilities for the covid-19 situation. At least two central universities–Aligarh Muslim University and Benaras Hindus University–are readying quarantine facilities in case the local administration needs them.
During internal review meetings, authorities in the HRD ministry has asked the institutions to ensure that maximum number of students are covered through online courses. Institutes have been asked to place the courses on the government’s online platform called Swayam and work on credit transfer mechanism. It will enable students to pursue a course online and successful completion of such courses will be counted as part of their formal coursework by their institutions.
Several top institutions including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), some Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), central universities like Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia have started adopting the model on suggested line.
“The education calendar has got disrupted…as the central education ministry we are asking institutions to gear up for the challenge. We had review meeting including one with all the IITs directors, and we believe education delivery will improve via technology adoption,” said a HRD ministry official who declined to be named.
Jamia authorities said they have already on the job “The University will organize a seven-session JMI-Online Faculty Development for the benefit of all faculty members of the University. It will evolve and facilitate alternative ways of engaging with students through online teaching-learning process,” Jamia said in an email.
“All faculty members are advised to use interactive tools extensively like SWAYAM in addition in to Skype, Webcast, Google Hangouts, and Google Chats to engage students for online teaching and evaluation,” the university added.
Most of the IITs including those in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, and Ropar have told the ministry that they are in touch with students. “Institutes are offering online courses to make good the time for the students who are not able to attend regular classes. Faculty Members have been directed to prepare and preserve the online material provided so that the students who do not have access to Internet at present can use the same later on,” the official said citing IITs.
The ministry official cited above said most of the courses available on the Swayam online platform are open to be used by others and they have the information that across disciplines it is gaining traction.
“There is no point re-inventing a wheel. Some good courses are available on Swayam platform of the union government, and other private course aggregating platforms. We have started using some courses developed by IIM-Bangalore for our own students during the current lockdown period. We shall gradually increase our online course usage in coming months,” said A.K. Dey, a professor at the Birla Institute of Management and Technology (BIMTECH) in Greater Noida.
