Turning crisis into opportunity

Does the student fraternity of higher education need to worry about the sudden brake in their academics, internship and placements? No, says Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), who believes COVID-19, like World War I and II is putting human intelligence to a challenging test, from which the latter will once again come out with flying colours. Read on…

“Changes regarding online education began in a big way since the last three to four years. We have not necessarily started online education only because of the pandemic, but it was a vision of our knowledge construction strategy to make part of the education online. Now, COVID-19 crisis would provide the impetus to accelerate this process”

Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, the dynamic Chairman of AICTE sharply analyses the present situation of higher education in India that has also been affected due to the catastrophic pandemic and brings out a positive vision of the Post- COVID-19 crisis, which he says is an opportunity for youngsters to innovate and think out-of-the-box. Corporate Citizen catches up with him to bring information that is sure to bring confidence amongst the student fraternity.

Corporate Citizen : COVID-19 is set to have an impact on higher education too. Which are the aspects where changes are already visible?

Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe: Changes regarding online education began in a big way since the last three to four years. We have not necessarily started online education only because of the pandemic, but it was a vision of our knowledge construction strategy to make part of the education online. Now, COVID-19 crisis would provide the impetus to accelerate this process. We had already adopted the concepts of the blended learning and flipped classrooms which have been implemented in various educational institutions, across the country, may be in a limited way. This methodology involves several permutations and combinations. For example, students are asked to watch videos of the subject at home and come prepared to the classroom, where the faculty would provide further guidance, solve the doubts, converts information into knowledge. The faculty also challenges students by narrating a challenging problem, divides students into small groups and asks them to solve the problem and come out with a realistic solution. Students then collectively evaluate their solutions, learning and in the process, get exposure to enabled experiences to problem-solving.

So would you be laying down a refreshed policy in place to give impetus to online classrooms?

The policy is all in place for the last three years. The AICTE and the UGC have both adopted the HRD ministry’s SWAYAM MOOCs which was initially created by AICTE and has over 2000+ courses online. The students can do 20% of academic credits of their respective university from the SWAYAM courses. SWAYAM platform has courses in all the domains, science, engineering, humanities and social sciences, business, arts etc, ranging from school education till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere, at any time from the best in class. The courses hosted on SWAYAM comprise of four quadrants, viz., video lectures, specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed, self-assessment tests through assignments, tests and quizzes and; an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using high-quality audio-video and multi-media contents and state-of-the-art pedagogy/technology. AICTE is one of the nine national coordinators for disseminating this education. So COVID or no COVID, we were already on the right track!

Do you think there will be a drastic change in the way students attended classrooms?

The teaching-learning would have to be a blended one. Until now, we had the 20% limit for online academic credits transfer, now we could think of increasing this limit to 30% or 40% perhaps. We would be only empowering what already existed in our guidelines to go part online. Many educational institutions were not using this technology-propelled, teaching/learning method as they were either sceptical or not fully prepared for it. Now, during COVID-19 crisis, many have started online classes of their own faculty, started using many learning materials from SWAYAM, and from several companies who have provided their products free. Thus, this mode has become more acceptable and they have fallen in line.

Not only would we be issuing fresh circulars and instructions to educational institutions to adopt online learning, conduct workshops for faculty to make flipped classes and blended learning popular, but we would rely more on having a top-down and down-to-top approach. Which means, we would be conducting training programmes for the faculty as well as the institutional heads who run their respective educational institutions, to make them techno-savvy for online teaching and classrooms, to go hand-in-hand with conventional education. On the other hand, when students would see the faster benefits of the blended and flip learning methods, they would force the management and faculty of the institute to provide them a similar experience. Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital push is all set to receive a major boost in the field of education.

“The teaching-learning would have to be a blended one. Until now, we had 20% limit for online academic credits transfer; now we could think of increasing this limit to 30% or 40% perhaps. We would be only empowering what already existed in our guidelines to go part online”

Would College campuses be the same again?

College campuses would, of course, be required to exist, in their present avatar. Online education cannot be and should not be a 100% substitute for conventional education, especially where a lot of laboratory-based and experiential learning are necessary. We need to complement and supplement conventional technical education with the changing technology for the future and not make it competitive with each other. College campuses are essential for collaborations between people to people and physical interaction is most necessary, by abiding by the new normal of keeping safe physical distances. While it has given a boost to online learning, there are many aspects of engineering, for example, that cannot be taught online. Blended learning is the only way forward and maybe the order of the day, soon!

This lockdown period is a temporary period and transitory. However, lessons learnt would be long-lasting, still maybe after six months or one year, college campuses should blossom with lots of sports activities on their playgrounds, become centres of various clubs where students give vent and showcase their creativity in various talents like painting, music, drama, performing arts, photography and so on. The college auditoriums should again bustle with activity of hosting programmes. Thus, college campuses would be the breeding ground for personality development and positivity.

What would be the fate of students for the coming academic session beginning June 2020 and the earlier academic session where exams were to be held in April-May?

A circular has already been circulated by the UGC which AICTE has adopted, superimposed with some changes for standalone institutes. It has directed colleges to stagger examination activity and postpone the academic calendar by one and a half months. They have been asked to adjust the academic calendar by shortening the vacations and stretching the curriculum teaching in a way that it will be completed in a year’s time. So, hopefully, the time loss would be compensated in a year or two.

Would there be a paradigm shift in higher education post-COVID? If so, what would they be like in the short-term and long-term?

I would like to reiterate that three years back, when we worked on the online education platform SWAYAM, we didn’t even imagine that a catastrophe like COVID would come by. Yet, on the lines of how technology was moving, we created the required infrastructure for online education. We have invested largely on e-books to provide knowledge resources on the basis of access, equity and quality to every student, including the most disadvantaged. Initiatives of MHRD such as SWAYAM, National Digital Library (NDL), E-Shodhsindhu, National Academic Depository NAD) seek to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.

We have been constantly raising the bar in terms of increased internet bandwidth requirement in colleges, wi-fi campus connectivity, online payment of fees and salaries to make the best use of digital revolution. We have been conducting Smart India Hackathons for the last four years. This is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. The first three editions of 2017, 2018 and 2019 proved to be extremely successful in promoting innovation out-of-the-box thinking in young minds, especially engineering students from across India. We were all set to hold the 2020 Hackathon but the lockdown came in. We also promoted organisation of Hackathons at the local level, college, university, state level too to encourage students from various parts of the country to innovate. We had two India Singapore hackathons. We have planned Indo-Portugal and ASEAN hackathon.

“College campuses would, of course, be required to exist, in their present avatar. Online education cannot be and should not be a 100% substitute for conventional education, especially where lot of laboratory based and experiential learning are necessary”

What will be the COVID-19 impact on the student community?

The unprecedented outbreak of Coronavirus has caused extreme distress to the students and is a temporary setback to academic activity. They are worried as internships have suddenly stopped and those who got jobs through campus placements suddenly find themselves stranded as their joining date has been postponed or they are unsure of it. Most of them have undergone quality education so they would still be in demand in the job market. They should not lose heart as this setback would be around for only a few months. They should accept the situation as such phases come in one’s life. Life is too long to worry and this crisis is hopefully short-lived or we will learn to live with it.

The crisis has left everyone wondering about their future. Students are constantly worrying about their career and other aspects of their lives. However, the current scenario demands a different approach. Our survival is most important! We all should focus on surviving this pandemic as the first step. The students should follow all the safety norms issued by the government and should focus on staying safe.

Do you think the days of distance and online learning has arrived in a big way?

Distance learning has been on board for quite a long time although it is limited to certain courses like management, computer applications, tourism and travel in the technical domain, while it is popular in other fields like arts, commerce. We would be essentially pushing for taking more courses in the online mode that students can avail of 20% online curriculum in whichever course they are pursuing. Gradually increase it to say 40%. Courses which require laboratory set-up cannot be done online. However, there can be virtual labs in some courses using simulation techniques. For example, the trainee pilots have to undergo training on simulators before taking up flying in real aircrafts. Same is the case of naval trainees who undergo training on simulators. They undergo long hours of virtual training so that they can handle the real engines, more efficiently later. The same could be adopted for courses that require laboratory work by having virtual laboratories.

What are the new skills that the students should learn for a better prospect of job opportunities in the current scenario?

For any job opportunity, there are certain competencies that the students have to possess in current scenario or anytime later. They are universal and for all times. Students must be equipped with life skills, communication skills: oral, written, reading, listening skills, prepared to work in a team, time management, problem solving ability, adaptability, analytical ability, critical thinking, creativity, leadership, have a holistic idea of the curriculum, its connection with other domains, connect between individual, society, community, nation, mother earth, environment, nature etc. The student must realise that for a better life in a society or workplace one must have ethics, values and the right attitude. They should learn how to change and adapt oneself to any situation and be confident.

“Those who have not invested in online technology now have a lesson to learn. Hopefully, they will learn their lessons now and gear up to put technology in place on their campuses”

There are many universities and institutes in the country which are not well equipped with IT infrastructure before the national lockdown, what is your advice to them?

Those who have not invested in online technology now have a lesson to learn. Hopefully, they will learn their lessons now and gear up to put technology in place on their campuses. Of course, there are issues of Internet connectivity in remote areas, which the government is addressing.

What is your overview of the Corona pandemic and its impact on the world?

The larger picture is that one need not be cowed down by this once in a lifetime event. A lifetime crisis is a lifetime opportunity. Many new solutions come from such challenges and we have seen them in the last couple of months. There has been intense research and so many innovative products of healthcare like masks, ventilators, sanitizers, PPEs, mobile Apps and so on have been developed by students, faculty and entrepreneurs. We saw this happen, post World War I and World War II too. Man has come out of dreaded natural disasters like storms, cyclones, earthquakes and Tsunamis. We will certainly come out of the COVID-19 pandemic too, with Homo Sapiens being the highest species of biological science/nature has immense potential and her/his intelligence is being once again put to test.

How are you keeping busy during this pandemic?

We have been extraordinarily busy, having already conducted workshops online on Universal Human Values, Student Induction Programmes, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), 3-D printing, Cyber Security, Data Analytics etc in emerging areas, exam reforms workshops and so on. I’m busier than before when I used to have a stream of visitors who would walk into my office. Now, it is a continuous interaction with people through workshops online through Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Google Hangouts, Jitsi etc - depending on which is convenient for whom.

To ensure the continuous learning of the students we gave shape to our online learning platform. Enhancement in Learning with Improvement In Skills (ELIS) portal has been designed by AICTE in order to foster digital learning and support the student community across the country. Many companies have come forward to give these free of cost for students. AICTE itself has developed an online helpline portal.

AICTE has devised online scrutiny of documents and online institute inspections using Microsoft team without physical visits for giving approvals to new colleges. Internships, interviews and placements have also gone online to address the present challenge. The placements are being conducted online by various companies and institutions. IIMs are conducting interviews through online medium amid the crisis.

We started conducting online workshops for the faculty as their inputs play a crucial role in the online mode of knowledge transfer. We have already conducted 40+ workshops in the last two months. There are three main focus areas for our workshops:

• Workshops for faculty on universal human values and three week student induction programme for the first-year students: These workshops cover a part of the development of life skills, attitude, honesty, integrity, awareness about self, family, society, nature, environment and essence of happiness. These workshops also covered all the life skills such as Leadership, communication that is important to cope with the crisis and will be important for the future as well.
• Workshops on various technical skills and soft skills which will be in demand: These workshops covered various emerging technical skills that are going to become all the more important post-COVID such as AI, IoT, AR, VR, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Robotics, 3D Printing, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, and Data Analytics. The technical skills were offered by eminent experts from academia and industry.
• Workshops for preparing the faculty for AICTE’s examination reforms: These workshops are about the significance of examination reform, why, what and how. For the last few years, we are talking about the changes in examination patterns as our current examinations are unable to assess the students on various important factors such as application of knowledge, problem-solving, analysis and synthesis, creativity, innovation etc. Hence, preparing faculty for the exam reforms is significant.