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"So, what do you teach in Srishti?" This has been th...
15
Apr
Tag Archives: Higher Education
24
Nov
The Impact of Virtual Labs during the Pandemic Period
The need to do college laboratory experiments in science and engineering remotely due to the COVID 19 Pandemic became necessary for the entire student community, from March 2021 onward. The Virtual Lab repository built under the NMEICT Program of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, was leveraged for use by students to do simulated experiments. The Virtual Labs made a substantial impact and was used by over 7.0M users to meet their curricular needs. This chapter describes the salient features of the impact and how this impact can be sustained through specific initiatives.
10
Oct
The Many Ways of Doing a PhD
Why is there variation in the degree of independence that mentees have in terms of their research? What are the consequences of this variation for both the mentors and the mentees? Should institutes take this variation into account while hiring or promoting faculty?
05
Sep
NEP 2020 on Higher Education: Wishing Away Structural Problems, Wishing a Magical Solution
The National Education Policy 2020 does not address the structural problems in higher education today. It instead merely rejigs the existing edifice, creates new institutions & reimagines the system, all in the hope that a new, creative one will then emerge.
06
Aug
Can the pandemic catalyse efficient distant and distributed education in India?
I envisage a distant, distributed mode of education which is efficient at teaching and measuring learning. It is of great advantage when applied to cases and countries where there is demand for highly quality educated people – in short, a society striving for more education with only minimal capital and financial resources to deliver them.
25
Jun
Education made Remote: Concerns on Digitally Mediated Education in Pandemic times
The gendered nature of domestic work, most of which falls on women and girls at home, may affect the chances of women students to access their online classes and prepare for assessments and examinations. They may also be negotiating with other family members to access shared gadgets and internet connection and would be affected in case there is selective preference for their elder siblings or male members of the family.
24
Jun
Post-Corona Turmoil in Theological Education
There is a need to broaden the vision – for a theological education without borders – keeping and developing the interconnectedness between nations and cultures. This may point towards finding new ways to merge various world-views, new ways to serve, especially those in needy situations, new ways to even up an increasingly unequal and uneven world. The higher education system for religion studies will have to be more tolerant and inclusive, and this may mean rewriting staunch doctrines.
24
Jun
Education in the time of Corona: Will the system withstand the chaos?
Education is not merely about completing the syllabus in time, or about lecturing on a topic for hours to convey profound bookish knowledge. Gaining experience for life through social interaction and communication is a major component, and this nuanced art of living can only be achieved through classroom learning.
22
Jun
'New’ Directions in Higher Education in India after COVID-19?
It is important to realize that education at all stages is inherently a political process but much more so at higher education stage, where values and ideas are discussed and debated, and the very choice of a course, a research problem or how these are chosen, framed and delivered, is reflective of these ideas and values.
12
Jun
The Choices before Us: Online or Bust?
In broad strokes, online education teaches what you could learn from a book, without any of the subtlety involved in learning. It imparts knowledge, but not a way of thinking. It does not readily permit the formation of learning communities, ones that can critique and prevent people from going way off course. The face-to-face generational transmission of experience and learning is also not the focus of this model – this was what was valued in India as the guru-kula system.
08
Jun
After the pandemic: The precarious classroom
… we are possibly going to have to move entirely online in many cases—at least in the short term. In public universities, this has multiple implications. What we might gain in sterile efficiency, we will lose in the rich messiness of exposure that our campuses provide….. in moving online, we lose that space of social, political and cultural discovery.
07
Jun
Post COVID-19: A Technology-Driven Era for Higher Education
COVID-19 is here to stay. Even after an effective vaccine is found, it will continue to be with us. It has affected all aspects of our lives, and the education sector is no exception. The current situation has forced us into a revolution in the education sector, the widespread adoption of digital technology that can not only cater to the current pandemic, but it is also important when aiming to provide quality training to a country of 1.35 billion people. Although we are not completely trained and equipped to do so just now – this is the alpha version – this is just the beginning. If this opportunity is properly used, the future will be an era of technology-driven higher education in India.
07
Jun
The Survival Cost of Higher Education and the Moral Weight of Our Choices
Bertolt Brecht said “Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon”. Unfortunately, it is often poverty that separates men and women from their books. So what we really have is a forced transition to a virtual platform in the middle of an economic meltdown. The dispossession of education, especially higher education, will be severe. That is where we have to think about the moral choice underlying this transition.