Roorkee, The country is in a state of lockdown upto 14th April and the classes are suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. IIT Roorkee has resumed teaching learning utilising digital content sharing with students over the internet.
While recognizing the fact that e-learning cannot replace classroom learning, the institute has given faculty various options of imparting distance education. While keeping in mind that different portions of the syllabus may be suited to different digital forms, faculty has been asked to leverage live video, interactive live video, video files, ppt, ppt with voice or text commentary, pdf, doc, jpg mode for making the teaching as effective as possible.
The following are some of the options which can be used:
(i) Real-time lectures through Google classroom/ Webex/Zoom/Microsoft Teams etc.
(ii) Mapping of the content remaining to be taught to specific video lectures available on NPTEL, SWAYAM etc.
(iii) Sharing of PPTs/pdf with or without voice/text commentary
(iv) Uploading of content on Facspace or Channel-I.
(v) Use of WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc. for sharing content as well as sending messages.
(vi) Sharing of reference sources, lecture notes, book chapters, assignments, presentations, case studies etc. If some content is not available in digital format it can be scanned to gets its digital equivalent. With the availability of mobile phones, scanning can be done just by taking pictures.
(vii) Any other digital form or platform that is convenient.
“While sharing of digital content need not necessarily be live or interactive, and hence the students will be free to go through that content at their convenience, regular interactive chat/video/email-based sessions can be organized to answer queries and clear doubts. As far as possible, live sessions shall be organized in the slot which is assigned to that course in the current semester’s timetable. The pace of instruction shall be slightly slower than the pace we are used to in classroom teaching,” said Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee.
All students do not have regular or high-speed access to the internet. However, moderate, or intermittent, access to the internet is available to a large fraction of the students. Hence such students will get the content after a delay of a few days or maybe weeks. The Institute will take this factor into account while finalizing the time of examination. The students who get full/partial fee waiver will get up to Rs. 500 (five hundred) reimbursement to help them improve their access to the internet. They can avail of this reimbursement after normal semester activity is resumed.
