When professors virtually turn into students

MT.Saju@timesgroup.com 16.04.2020

As the lockdown gets extended to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, many faculty members in Tamil Nadu colleges are registering themselves as students of online courses. Restricted to their homes, the professors are trying to find ways to connect with students and keep their classes going, at least virtually.

Most of them are signing up for online teaching tools and methods. Subha Ganapathy, assistant professor of English at the Holy Cross College in Nagercoil, says she has signed up for a two-week faculty development programme organised by the Ramanujan College of University of Delhi. The course, she says, will help her get a deeper understanding of the dynamics of e-content creation and awareness of open educational resources.

“More online classes will be conducted if the situation continues like this. So I thought of learning some basics on how to conduct online classes,” she said. Subha said even though there are many courses available on online platforms like MOOC (massive open online courses), one should know what course to pursue.

“We are missing our lively, interactive classrooms due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The UGC has intensified its efforts to have a strong virtual engagement with students through email/WhatsApp and hosting lectures using Google Classroom and other video-conferencing platforms. As teachers, we need to be prepared for conducting classes online,” she said.

Like Subha, many lectures and professors have joined various online training courses during lockdown. G Sankaranarayanan, who heads the department of Sanskrit at the Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kancheepuram, said he picked up some basic tips on how to use online platforms productively. “Most of my students come from remote areas of Tamil Nadu. We don’t know when the classes will resume so I have picked up some useful online courses and will pass them on to my students,” he said.

P Aji Udhaya, assistant professor of physics at the Holy Cross College, said she has completed seven online courses which includes student assessment and evaluation and about how to use virtual laboratory and research methodology. “I have been taking online courses for a long time, but I am now focusing on some relevant ones for present needs. We are using Moodle, Google Classroom and Edmodo as learning management programmes in our college. The idea of learning many faculty development programmes is to be myself equipped to tackle the present situation,” she said.

Though online courses are becoming popular but is the academic fraternity on the right track in choosing them? “I support this initiative. It’s good, but we will know how these online courses are going to help the teachers in the coming days only,” said M Ilankumaran, professor and research programme coordinator, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil in Kanyakumari.

KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES: Subha Ganapathy, assistant professor, of English has signed up for a two-week faculty development programme