WORKSHOP

A  one day Orientation Workshop of the Remote Centre Coordinators was organized on 30th March 2017  at IIT Bombay. The purpose of the workshop was to ponder upon the FDPs held so far and discuss and plan future activities of ISTE sponsored NMEICT workshops for the next year. A discussion on the financial support to be provided to Remote Centres through the NMEICT project was also planned. Mr. Ashwani Kumarattended the workshop on behalf of Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida.

The Workshop started at 9:45am after the registration of participants. Padam Shree Dr. Deepak B Phatak, Principal Investigator – NMEICT Project and Professor, Dept. of Computer Sc. and Engg. IIT Bombay, welcomed his counterpart from IIT Kharagpur, Prof. P.K.Biswas, Prof. S.K.Varshney and Mr. Subrat Nayak. He informed that out of the 353 RCs 245 had sent their RCCs for the workshop. He thanked all for their support and enthusiasm for contributing to the national initiative of teachers’ empowerment. He said that more than 1 lakh teachers have already benefited by such effort.

Dr. Phatak highlighted the following other issues:

1. The national mission has been extended for one more year (till March 2018).  The extension in the project has been possible due to the effort of Mr. R. Subrahmanyam - Additional Secretary (TE).

2. SAP India came forward and helped in part - funding.

3. 4000 candidates registered for the non-funded,  like 1. Use of ICT in Education and Blended Learning 2. Technical Communication.

4. Participants for all future ISTE workshops will have to submit a copy of their Aadhar Card while registering.

5. Rs. 1.4Lakh additional fund will be released to the RCs which can be used for the upkeep of the existing A-View hardware. RCs will have to submit a simple Utilization Certificate against the fund.

6. A-View facility acquired through funding should be made available for other workshps/events if so desired by any stakeholders of NMEICT.

7. Briefly discussed KOHA, first open - source Integrated Library System (ILS), NVLI - National Virtual Library of India.

8. Digital Library of India (DLI), a digital collection of freely accessible rare books collected from various libraries in India.

9. 36000 librarians from colleges and another 30000 from Public Libraries are to be trained on Library software and platforms.

10. Project Seven Million Solar Lamps, scheme launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), GoI. The scheme aims to provide 70 Lakhs solar lamps to as many rural school students in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam, with emphasis on ‘localization through skill transfer’ and ‘entrepreneurship development’.

11. J.P.Morgan College to Corporate Program, meant for 3rd and 4th year engineering students.

12. Eight FDPs to be conducted in the next year, 3 by IIT Kharagpur, 5 by IIT Bombay.

13. Training of Teachers in ICT must be made mandatory, AICTE may come up with some enforcement.

14. Online submission of Quizzes and Assignments are subjected to Peer Review. Several duplicate submissions were identified during “Use of ICT in Education and Blended Learning”. Teachers copying assignments is a very sad matter. All such teachers were made to upload an apology letter.

Post Tea - break, Dr.Kalpana Kannan, Senior Project Manager, Department of CSE, IIT Bombay,  conducted a session on “Implementing MOOCs through IITBombayX.  She said that IIT Bombay first launched Distance Education Program in the Year 2000, CDEEP in 2002, eklavya in 2005, Teach 1K Teachers in 2009, T10KT in 2012 and then came up with IITBomabayX in 2015 so that maximum students and faculty may reap benefit . She pointed out that though there are several other online platforms for  engineering education like edX, Coursera, Udacity and FutureLearn but IITBombayX has been designed with an Indian touch. She also put forward her apprehension that even though the enrolment is fair enough on such platforms but the final course completion percentage has been lying between 8-10% only.

Post Lunch, Dr. S.K.Varshney and Dr. P.K.Biswas, both Co. PI – IIT Kharagpur, gave a glimpse of the ISTE workshops conducted by IIT Kharagpur so far. He informed the RCCs that the notification for nomination of Workshop Coordinator for the forthcoming ISTE Workshop on Electrical Power System has been issued.

The one week ISTE STTP for Coordinators workshop will be held during 1st May to 5 th May 2017.  Post the Coordinator Workshop, 6 days ISTE STTP on Electric Power System will be held during July 10, 2017 to July 15, 2017under Blended MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) model. The Main Workshop will be conducted by Prof. N K Kishore, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. S A Soman , Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay and Prof. Gautam Bandyopadhyay, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIEST Kolkata.

The participating teachers will have to complete the equivalent of two - week full time work online, spread over 6 physical weeks where video lectures and assignments will be uploaded beforehand. Some selected Main Workshop participants will also have to make video lectures for peer faculty and students. There will also be a system of students' feedback in the Main Workshop.

IIT Kharagpur session was followed by a session on A-VIEW by Mr. Sajjan Dixit & Mr. Sushant from IIT Bombay and Mr.Subrat Nayak from IIT Kharagpur. They explained how to use the A-View hardware. They also urged the RCCs to let teachers use AView for their lectures. He also informed that in order to help understand the use of A-View locally, a demo session is being planned in the month of May 2017, for the A-View coordinators.

Ms.Shweta and Ms. Aditi from IIT Bombay gave a demonstration on Blended MOOCs. They said that the use of platforms like SWAYAM, IITBX and NPTEL should be encouraged amongst students. If certain percentage of Internal Marks is attributed to the use of the MOOCs, students will be motivated to learn from these sources. Dr. Kalpana said that Educate, Engage, Entertain and Empower are the elements of MOOCs.

During his session, Dr. Sameer S.Sahasrabudhe, Senior Project Manager, Dept of Computer Science and Engg., IIT Bombay gave a description of Skill Development Course on Animation that he is conducting. He shared some of the success stories of his students. He reaffirmed that there is no pre-requisite to enroll for his Skill Development Course on Animation. The only thing required is self - motivation. Students can enroll and persue at their own pace. A person of any age and any academic background can enroll for Animation course. Dr. Sahasrabudhe said that he will next be starting a course on Gaming but having successfully completed the Animation Course will be a mandatory eligibility criteria to enroll for it.

During the Session on Action Agenda, Prof. Phatak, said that 4051 participants enrolled for the FDP on Use of ICT in Education which was held during May - June 2016. Out of these 4051 participants, 2193 successfully qualified for the certificate out of which 383 had excelled. 253 participants from among these were chosen for the cash award.

Dr. Phatak advocated use of Blended MOOCs and  Flipped Classroom for the active learning of the students. He said that there are plans to add Remote Centres from the state of Bihar, Eastern U.P., and North - Eastern States. He also advised the Remote Centres to become Educational Hub and share technology with the schools and colleges in their vicinity which do not have such facility.

During the last session of the day, Prof.Kannan Moudgulaya, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, gave a demonstration of “PLICKERS”. He said that Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real - time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. It c an be used for quick checks for understanding to know whether students are understanding big concepts and mastering key skills. It engage all students in critical thinking and gives  them a chance to participate and engage in learning without feeling self-conscious.  Use of Plickers eliminates the need of students to log-in on a computer or even open the right app. Plickers integrates seamlessly into the way teachers already teach.

He advised teachers to transform from “Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side.”

The Orientation Workshop for Remote Centre Coordinators ended with the Vote Of Thanks proposed by Dr.Kalpana Kannan.