Practices and Innovations in Teaching and Learning
A) University Bridge Program:
Proposed, designed and implemented University Bridge Program (UBP) at RK University for the year 2014 & 2015 .The UBP expertly blends basic pre- requisite skills and understanding on domain required for successful transition of fresh admits into university courses. The primary objectives of UBP are: · To get students ready to learn in a new environment. · To encourage self learning. · To bridge knowledge gaps in core areas. · To bridge communication skills gap. · To promote group learning and teamwork. · To get familiar with active learning. Every academic year for fresh admits, at RKU we begin with student orientation program scheduled for couple of days. After considerable brainstorming we finalized a program of 3 to 4 weeks with 5 areas of focus common to all schools of University and one or two areas specific to each school's need. The common thread running through all modules is that they are designed to be highly active and participatory involving extensive group work and self exploration. UBP is planned as a comprehensive interventional program for all the first year students across all schools of RKU. Students undergo UBP immediately at the beginning upon taking admission in University. Designing and implementing UBP has been no small task. It involved months of course planning and managing huge logistical challenges in implementation. Once we were clear on the goals of this program, we began to identify the courses and design the course content and its implementation. For designing the course content, we started identifying faculty across university familiar and proficient with the courses finalized for UBP. Identified faculty pool finalized syllabus for their respective courses and trained faculty on active learning strategies. UBP is a big hit at RK University. OutReach: Presented paper in ICTIEE 2016,Pune and the paper published in JEET Journal. Source Link: http://www.journaleet.org/index.php/jeet/article/view/85595/0 B). Open Book Examination: Taking advantage of Academic advisory council (AAC) at RK University to improve learning and to challenge the students learning in the course, I had applied time constrained open book examination for continuous internal examination is designed and applied to AAC. The idea is to challenge the students learning and modify instructional methodology based on feedback received from the examination to improve their learning. The proposed assessment model is time constrained open book examination, where students are allowed to carry textbooks, printed notes to the examination hall. This practice is common in foreign universities. It is mostly unheard of in Indian Education system. When we speak about OBE, it looks Radical and puzzling to those who are used to conventional examinations, it is ideally suited to teaching programs that especially aim at developing the skills of critical and creative thinking. The proposed model is applied to AAC for approval. Modifications are employed to the proposed model based on reviews received from the committee. Committee major concern is student’s readiness for appearing Open book examination, which is very new for them. Committee accepted the goals of conducting Open book examination and appreciated for coming up with modern assessment model. OutReach: Presented paper in ICTIEE 2017, Rajkot and the paper published in JEET Journal. Source Link: http://journaleet.org/index.php/jeet/article/viewFile/111682/78253 C). Handling Heterogeneous Student Groups: Classrooms in educational institutions consist of students with varying learning abilities. Faculty delivering a lecture in a uniform pitch in such classrooms will fail to teach and reach the learning levels of heterogeneous student groups. I worked on this problem in my course and proposed Differentiated teaching with active learning strategies to handle heterogeneous learning model. Differentiated teaching means tailoring instruction to meet needs of individual students. In proposed model faculty differentiates content, the process of learning through student centric activities and assessments. Continuous assessments and flexible grouping help the faculty for successful implementation of the model. However, session learning outcomes remain same for every student in the classroom. The faculty is still key to this learning. The session will be both faculty-centric and student-centric and flips between both. Beyond teaching faculty has to facilitate the student activities. Outreach: Presented paper in ICTIEE 2017, Hyderabad and the paper published in JEET Journal. Source Link: http://www.journaleet.org/index.php/jeet/article/view/110585 D). Center for Professional Development (CPD) Core Team Member: I am Nominated and worked as Core team member of CPD. Centre for Professional Development at RK University is envisaged a platform to design and deliver educational programs that contribute to the developmental needs of both RKU and non-RKU audiences. CPD promotes and follows a structured process of design and delivery of such programs that leads to achieving desired outcomes. CPD welcomes all faculties and facilitators who wish to serve RKU as well as non RKU community by offering professional development programs. Source Link: http://www.thinqer.org/centre-for-professional-development-cpd/ E). English as Second Language (ESL) Core Team Member: I am nominated and worked as Core team member of ESL. The major objective of ESL is to rethink long adopted approaches in teaching and learning English. Re-thinking the strategies of teaching and learning English as a second language in the light of researches on non-native language learning (NNL) and Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). We have worked out an actionable and outcome based solution to this problem. A new university level entity, called Centre for English as a Second Language (CESL) is being launched at RKU. The task force nominated helped create this centre and worked hard in redefining English education at RKU. Source Link: http://blog.rku.ac.in/post/116641731590/overhauling-english-language-instruction-at-rk |