Colleges & varsities firm up plans for split, hybrid classes

Colleges & varsities firm up plans for split, hybrid classes

Poulami.Roy@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:15.11.2021

From classrooms to laboratories, higher education institutes are in their final stages of adopting the new hybrid teaching mode. Universities and colleges are set to reopen on Tuesday after a 20-month hiatus.

Authorities of different universities held a series of meetings in the last two weeks and formulated their own individual guidelines. The first decision was how many students and which classes are to be called back for offline classes, immediately. It was also decided that both online and offline modes of teaching will continue.

Various departments of technology campus of Calcutta University have planned to call final semester students for two days a week. Some of the departments have been planning to install upgraded set-up for running online-offline at the same time.

Departments with a large number of students like zoology have planned to call students to attend only elective subjects divided in small groups. “Only students of elective subjects will attend physical classes. Classes will be taken in small groups which are not more than five, but core subject classes will run in online mode” said Parthiba Basu, professor, zoology.

The commerce department has decided to divide classrooms depending on its strength. “Class strength will be divided into small numbers, so more teachers may be required for regular classes,” said a CU professor.

“Different campuses of CU have already been cleaned and sanitized. Tables, chairs of each classroom of different departments and buildings have been cleaned properly. We have identified two classrooms for making seating arrangements. Initially, our final year students will come and attend physical classes for two days a week,” said Sankhayan Choudhury, professor, computer science & engineering department.

Apart from the department of chemistry all other departments of Presidency University have decided not to start physical classes initially. Geography, geology and other lab-based subjects will call students for practical classes. Only the chemistry department will start offline classes for theory and practical both. UG and PG final year’s students and second-year students will be called for offline theory classes. Debnil Paul, MA final year student, said, “We want all the classes to start in offline mode and the hostel should open for at least final semester’s students who will attend offline classes.” University is not going to open three canteens and hostels immediately. Central library and other departmental libraries and reading rooms will open from Tuesday. Students are free to visit departmental faculties and can access the library from Tuesday.

Jadavpur University will not call UG first year students from Tuesday. Life science, biotech, geography, electronics department from Science faculty will call PG2 students while chemistry department is still in dilemma. Arts faculty has decided to call one year of UG and one year of PG students daily but first year students won’t be called now. Engineering faculty will call PG1, PG2 to physical classes. PhD and MPhil students will come as per requirement. Authorities has done repairing work, too. Departments of evening courses may complete classes earlier, so that students can reach their house before night restrictions set in.