March 20th & 27th, 2021
Teaching Learning Center, BITS Pilani, Pilani, Rajasthan
In my long journey of 41 plus years of challenging and rewarding experiences in teaching , learning from senior professors, peers, students is ongoing. I would like to share my main takeaways about teaching from this long learning period . Three keywords in teaching : Knowledge + Preparation + Connect, and all three need to be nurtured, adapted to with changing technologies and needs. Learning the subject, understanding basic concepts, physical intuition behind maths, graphs/curves, relating knowledge to real world problems is the first and core task. Preparation for class, giving thought to what to teach, how to teach, in which sequence to teach, use of technology to make teaching interesting, coherent, relevant, engaging is also equally important. Enthusiasm and energy for teaching learning and sincerity, integrity and honesty in teavher’s behavior has a n infectious, transforming and positive effect. Considering formal and direct feedback from students’ eyes, body language helps in improving the content and style. Giving time to students when they come for counseling , guidance on professional and personal issues is a most worthy investment of time. It leaves lasting impression and has most positive impact on students. Apart from teaching course content , ensuring that students possess adaptability and capacity for lifelong learning. Last but not the least duty is trying to make them appreciate a wider scope of life other than just getting grades, building in them health consciousness, scientific temperament, sensitivity towards saving environment, empathy towards underprivileged, encouraging zeal to discuss, change unjust systems, dream of a world free from fear, prejudices, narrow minded loyalties .
Twenty-first century education should be outcome-based, leading to development critical core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, problem solving and self-learning. The students should apply knowledge to new situations, analyze information, collaborate, solve problems, and make decisions. So the objectives of the faculty members are to make higher education system more learnercentric. Introducing outcome-based learning allows learners to follow the courses at their own pace and learning styles. Developing and delivering lessons by teachers are integral in the teaching process. It is hence important for teachers to know three domains of learning from Bloom’s Taxonomy - cognitive (thinking), affective (emotions or feeling) and Psychomotor (Physical or kinesthetic). Designing the course learning outcome is the important because it helps the teacher to identify not just content but what changes they want to see in his students. The curriculum should incorporate higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and multimedia, communication skill and self-learning methodology along with authenticated scientific assessments and evaluation. To write the instructional objectives is the major part of ITW. Instructional objectives must be written to communicate realistic, measurable, and learner centric outcomes. We mainly focus on three component of instructional objectives – performance, condition and criterion. To write the course learning outcome using the Action Verb is the major part of this training session. Additionally, the participants will also be introduced to various components expected in the course handout which is being followed at BITS Pilani.
Teaching, learning, and evaluation processes at BITS are considered to be indivisible entities. While the faculty member has the freedom to adapt his/her style of teaching, it is his/her responsibility to carry out student evaluation in a continuous manner, so that the overall teaching-learning process for a course becomes effective. Through our past experiences, we have evolved different ways of teaching-learning and evaluation. All elements viz. expertise, skill sets, resources, technology, administration, etc. have been integrated to exchange the knowledge through teaching, learning, and assessment tools for courses, which are essential for all academic programs offered at BITS Pilani. In this presentation, some salient features of the Academic Regulations of BITS Pilani would be illustrated with the current best practices. Finally, the evaluation and grading processes adopted at BITS would be discussed. Thus, the presentation would highlight certain important experiences and best practices that have been adopted in teaching, learning, and evaluations at BITS Pilani.
Flipped mode of lecture delivery is considered to be one of the options to enhance the teaching and learning process especially in higher education institutions. This model helped in tiding over the crisis in the education sector due to pandemic situation. Many research has gone in to understand the effectiveness of this model. While this mode has distinct advantages over the regular mode, effective implementation may be challenging as the prior preparation from the students end before coming to the class is very essential for successful implementation. Flipped mode of lecture delivery was implemented in BITS through its WILP since 2013. Analysis of the data based on offering the course through flipped mode will be presented in the session along with interesting case studies during the session. Detailed discussion on opportunities and challenges of offering courses through flipped mode will be the major focus of the session. Presenter will also share his own experience of delivering a course both through regular mode and flipped mode to make the audience understand the measures to be taken for effective implementation of flipped mode of lecture delivery.
Technology will not replace all teachers, but the teachers who use technology will probably replace the teachers who do not use the technology. The students and teachers are gradually adopting online education. This trend accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where teachers are forced to use online tools to deliver lectures. The use of technology in teaching is not a compulsion that has arrived due to pandemics. Instead, it can greatly enhance the teaching and learning experience through its effective integration with classroom and online teaching. Technology is rapidly being used in every aspect of teaching, such as content creation, content delivery, and student engagement, class interaction, assessment, and evaluation. In this session, we will learn various tools, techniques, and platforms required to effectively conduct all these teaching activities. In particular, we will learn our own Learning Management System (LMS) called NALANDA, online class platforms such as google meet and Microsoft teams, a student engagement platform PIAZZA, and certain tools and techniques which will allow you to perform many activities effectively that are involved in conducting a course
One important and integral part of effective teaching involves assessment and evaluation of students. A faculty member needs to ensure that the assessments and evaluation are credible, reliable and valid in all respect in both single- and multi-section courses. Therefore, one needs to conduct different evaluation types, e.g. tests and quizzes, tutorials and assignments, lab experiments, and case studies. While some of these are extensively used in certain domain areas or subjects, a faculty interested in teaching and evaluating in an innovative way can implement some of these in other domain areas or subjects too. This session will provide an overview of all these different evaluation components and elaborate on the various parameters that you can use for each of these.
Student engagement is one of the defining characteristics of quality Teaching Learning at an educational institution. Both Learner and teacher play a very crucial role in the entire student engagement process, both inside and outside the classroom. For holistic development of students, it is essential to have a more nuanced understanding of student engagement from all the three universally accepted dimensions of student engagement i.e. affective, cognitive and behavioral. Having more focus on academic performance, unfortunately the student- teacher engagement has reduced to marks and other measurable achievements. The present module, therefore, focuses on building a discussion on how to engage with our students by creating a supportive environment with flexibility, openness, and acceptance, without compromising on rigor, discipline, integrity and accountability. The session will also include discussion regarding the challenges of dealing with students when they return to campus. This will be an interactive session involving brief case studies and activities.
