New Age Universities should Foster New Age Learning Environment -Experts at Amity University Haryana

Atwo-week on-line refresher course on Digital Skills and Competencies for University Teachers: With a Special Focus on MOOC’s and E-Content Development collectively organized by Amity University Haryana and Association of Indian Universities, Academic and Administrative Development Centre in collaboration with Academic Staff College, Amity University Haryana to equip academics with the Twenty first-century digital abilities essential to design, develop, and ship MOOCs successfully in order that they should be at par with nationwide and worldwide requirements and have the power to assume critically and creatively, to collaborate with others, to obviously and successfully talk with college students. The program was held efficiently from June 09-22, 2023.

The course attracted a major variety of registered members, together with deans, heads of establishments, school members, and a complete of 146 members from varied universities, institutes, and schools in each India and overseas

The program commenced with opening remarks by Prof Sanjna Vij, Deputy Director, Academic Staff College, Amity University Haryana and Chief organiser of the Program. In her remarks, Prof Sanjna Vij emphasised that in at present’s quickly altering world, digital abilities have develop into important in our day by day lives. As educators, it’s essential for academics to remain up to date and geared up with the required instruments and competencies to successfully navigate digital landscapes. Highlighting the significance of embracing digital abilities, Prof Vij quoted, “Illiterates of the Twenty first century is not going to be those that can not learn and write, however those that can not study, unlearn, and relearn.” This quote serves as a reminder to academics that embracing digital abilities and expertise shouldn’t be a one-time effort however an ongoing means of studying, unlearning outdated practices, and relearning new ones.

Delivering the Keynote tackle, Prof. P.B. Sharma, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Amity University Haryana, emphasised on creating a brand new age studying surroundings inside Indian universities. Prof Sharma highlighted the importance of occasions like this and harassed the necessity for utmost seriousness. Prof Sharma acknowledged that such gatherings signify the eagerness and dedication of the educating neighborhood to organize for the challenges forward, significantly within the digital age. In this new age, it’s essential to actively contribute in direction of establishing an academic surroundings that maximizes the potential of digital instruments and applied sciences within the realm of educating and studying. Prof. Sharma underlined the necessity for academics to foster an surroundings that helps three key attributes: innovation, collaboration, and enterprising strategy. By embracing these attributes, academics can create a dynamic and efficient studying surroundings that prepares college students for the challenges of the digital age. Prof Sharma additionally acknowledged the significance of producing new utilized data and expressed enjoyment of having esteemed useful resource individuals current throughout the course

The Chief Guest, Prof. S.N. Sridhara, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai in his presentation titled “Revolutionising Education: The MOOCs,” supplied a complete overview of MOOCs. Prof Sridhara delved into the historical past of MOOCs, distinguishing between cMOOCs and xMOOCs. Furthermore, he mentioned the event of MOOC firms within the United States, akin to Udacity, Coursera, and edX, in addition to these in Asia, together with SWAYAM, NPTEL, and JMOOC, and Europe’s FutureLearn, EduOPen, and MOOC.fi.Prof. S.N. Sridhara additionally highlighted the success story of SWAYAM MOOCs and elucidated the necessities for creating MOOCs. He elaborated on the 4 quadrants of LMS, which encompassed elements akin to synchronous and asynchronous engagement, E-content, AI-assisted evaluation, and peer studying. Additionally, he addressed the problem of attrition in MOOCs and supplied insights into the underlying causes for it.

Prof Vikas Madhukar, Pro-Vice Chancellor, AUH throughout his tackle emphasised the necessity for contemporary educators to remain aligned with new technological developments. Prof Madhukar talked about the significance of incorporating the National Education Policy (NEP) into the tutorial curriculum. The NEP locations explicit emphasis on the SWAYAM MOOCs platform, which was created by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in 2016. This platform gives Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that may profit each academics and college students by providing versatile and accessible studying alternatives. By incorporating the NEP and leveraging platforms like SWAYAM, educators can improve their digital abilities and competencies, in addition to develop e-content that aligns with the altering academic panorama. Prof. Madhukar emphasised that by embracing these applied sciences and platforms, educators can create participating studying experiences and cater to the various wants of scholars within the digital age.

Dr. B. Shadrach, Director, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, Commonwealth of Learning, New Delhi, emphasised the importance of understanding the learners and their particular person studying kinds for educators. During the presentation, Dr. Shadrach mentioned the significance of academics understanding the theoretical grounding of their educating practices in addition to their sensible orientation. By having a robust theoretical basis, academics can design and ship efficient digital studying experiences for his or her college students. Additionally, understanding the sensible elements of educating permits academics to align their digital abilities and competencies with the wants of their college students.

Dr.BrijuThankachan, Executive Director, Educational Technology Society of India& Ex-Visiting Faculty, Educational Technology, IIT Bombay touched upon the paradigm shift within the training system and launched the idea of the knowledge age paradigm, which highlights the altering function of academics from being mere info suppliers to turning into facilitators of knowledge. Dr.Thankachanalso emphasised that within the info age, academics are now not the only real repositories of information. Instead, they play an important function in guiding college students in accessing and critically analysing info. The focus has shifted in direction of creating abilities akin to digital literacy, info analysis, and problem-solving.

Dr.AmrendraPani, Joint Director & Head, Research Division, Association of Indian Universities, Delhi throughout his tackle emphasised the significance of AIU’s goal to modernize digital training via the introduction of on-line actions for academics, akin to educating, studying, and integrating expertise into the analysis and revolution means of educating and studying.

During the two-week occasion, wonderful and fruitful deliberations had been shared by esteemed audio system from varied domains included – Jake Olivier, Adviser: Higher Education at the Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, Canada, Dr. Fawzi Baroud, Chairholder, UNESCO Chair on Open Educational Resources (OER) for Access and Success, Assistant Vice President for Information Technology, Notre Dame University -Louaize (NDU), Lebanon, Dr Md Shuhel Miah, Deputy Dean, Brittany University, Malaysia, Prof. Uma Kanjilal, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, Prof Sameer Sahasrabudhe, Professor of Practice (Design), IIT Gandhinagar, Prof B.S. Balaji, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Prof Ramesh C. Sharma, Associate Professor, School of Global Affairs, Director, Human Resource Development Centre, Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi, Ms. Subha Das Mollick, Independent filmmaker, visiting school Aliah University and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Prof Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Director, Symbiosis Centre for Online Learning (SCOL), Symbiosis Skills and Professional University, Pune, Prof. Kushal Sen, Indian Institute of Technology Department of Textile Technology Hauz Khas, New Delhi and plenty of extra esteemed audio system throughout the occasion contribute to the general targets of the NEP-2020, fostering a tradition of lifelong studying, skilled development, and efficient pedagogy amongst academics.

Overall, the 2 weeks of the refresher course had been full of a wealth of knowledge, knowledge, contemporary views, and cherished recollections.

Maj Gen (Dr) J.S.Dhull, VSM (Retd), Director, Amity Institute of Defence Technology & Deputy Director, ASET, AUH delivered Vote of Thanksexpressing gratitude to all of the dignitaries, organisers, and members.