Academics and Corona

        Dr. Suwarna Shidore
      Faculty – IndSearch
      23rd April 2020

It’s the beginning of April, 2020. Almost a month before, in March 2020, the arrival of the Novel Coronavirus in India disrupted the normal lifestyle of all the people in the country regardless of their power and position. Only essential services are exception to this case as per the Government Order in this horrible situation in India. Isolation is the ONLY solution to fight against this global enemy in the form of a virus.

Traditionally the months of March and April are very crucial in MBA teaching institutions as teachers are trying to complete syllabus and students are getting ready for submissions and preparing for Mid term and Final examinations.

But 2020 picture is exceptional and unique due to the pandemic…There is a fear…there is an uncertainty….everyone is worried and trying to maintain social distancing….people are opting to work from home, schools are closed, shops are closed, market is closed, hotels are closed and entire society is under threat…

IndSearch, leading MBA Institution in Pune is no exception to above situation…By overcoming the fear and following the order of Government, it was decided to continue academic processes and education using online –real-time – mode as one to one classroom teaching was suspended. Freeconfencecall.com application is used to deliver sessions as per regular time table. Thanks to the faculty member who has designed and developed customized software to monitor teaching-learning process in the Institute. Faculty members are providing lecture notes, question banks and conducting tutorials using this software. With learning resource option in this software, students are using notes and appearing for online tutorials.. A Big Thanks to electricity providers and telecom industry …Students are tech-savvy and all students are having their smart phones with internet connectivity which is very common in this student generation..Attending lectures during lock-down situation has also welcomed from the student community. Teachers are learning this online teaching platform with great enthusiasm and conducting sessions as per the time table. Black-boards are replaced with sharing of screen! This online participative teaching learning process has become simple and teachers are getting feel as-if students are in class asking queries to the teacher.

The online survey on online teaching and learning process by the faculty member of the Institute shows that 80% students responded to this survey. Around 42% students and faculty members were using this online teaching and learning pedagogy for the first time. About 50% respondents mentioned that they are using their laptops and around 41% respondents are using mobile phones for this teaching-learning activity. On the Five scale pointer , 63% respondents responded that they have good and very good experience about online teaching and learning. Regarding issues which respondents faced while using this methodology, apart from internet connectivity, only issue mentioned is of audio quality.

Overall the online teaching and learning process in this unique situation is a blessing in disguise!!

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