During the Covid Pandemic, if you were in-charge of running your college, what would you do?

During this pandemic situation of COVID-19, I would be hiring the medical kits, for the college so that during any circumstances it may be useful. As I am the student of hospitality and tourism, I would allow to call upto 10 people to the college by giving them the pass to travel and by cooking food for the needy. I would help the community to live and survive, not let them starve. Regarding taking exams, I would just ask the students to help the needy ones, whosoever helps would be promoted.

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The students should be called only for practical subjects with alternate roll numbers and other subjects can be done through online class.

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There needs to be a medical staff permanently stationed in the college who are aware of all the protocols of ICMR. Since this virus is taking a heavy toll with psyche of the students, it would be in the fitness of things that psychologist or mental health expert is part of the medical staff in the college. It would be desirable to install voice control devices so that buttons need not be pressed which are multi touch. The culture of handshaking has to be replaced by Namaste. The contact sports like Judo Karate, Kabaddi, wrestling, etc. Should not be allowed to such time the virus is neutralized. The parent teacher meeting should be conducted on video conferencing. All these suggestions are relevant to the prevailing circumstances. With the passage of time and changes in the situation, they should be reconsidered as we are in a dynamic and not a static situation. Students have to be sensitized that they should observe all the precautions all the time. Even one small omission in taking the precaution can lead to higher infection growth rate. There should be effective monitoring of the classes on CCTV cameras to monitor that the students and faculty members are observing all the precautions. The another alternative can be that half the classes which do not require a person contact of the students can be taken online via various video conferencing applications and notes can be circulated to the students online. Education is not learning of many facts which are already available on the internet and books, but the training of the mind to think.

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Education is going to be a big challenge post Coronavirus Pandemic. The education system will be transformed. This is the digital era. All textbooks which are in printed form need to be digitalised. Time period of Active form of Covid-19 virus on different surfaces period of Active form of Covid-19 virus on different surfaces on textbooks is up to 4 Days. The textbooks should be replaced by electronic devices it should have the hard books available in them in both the visual and audio format. This can be done in a phased manner but on a priority basis by the concerned authorities. Since "Do Gaz Ki Doori" will be the new normal. The students, faculty and other college employees would necessarily have to be stand for fever to check for symptomatic barriers at the entry point to the institution. Institutions would have to ensure that there is adequate supply of sanitizers and water and that students should come to the institution wearing mask and face shield. They would have to make soap dispenser and water flow contactless by putting electronic sensors. The entry can be regulated facial scans. The doors can open and close automatically based on movement detectors. It is important that the students set inside the classroom at the prescribed distance from one another. In order to implement the safe distancing it would be desirable to run the educational institutes at half the capacity. The institutes can run in double shifts so that all the students can be accommodated. This may be necessary till such time vaccine is found and people are vaccinated. It would have to be insured that air conditioning is safe and there is inbuilt external ventilation. Window and split ACs are considered to be safer as per expert medical opinion. It would be desirable that all students have medical insurance backup. Necessary legislations have to be in place so that the students cannot sue that educational institute once it gets clearance by health authority. Since colleges are place of large number of students together it would be desirable that there should be periodical testing of the students, as this would help in keeping away the asymptomatic students from spreading the infection. However, there needs to be strict guidelines for not stigmatizing the students who are quarantined and isolated in cases where they are infected.

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I will make digital classes compulsory, and assignments/ assessments to be shared on digital platforms only. Of course there will be some strictness. Teachers will be asked to take sessions on video calls and make them as interactive as possible. Assignments will be more of student talking about topics or explaining some topics using diagrams or through PPTs. Tests will be mainly based on objective type questions. Even assessment will have more weightage of assignments and presentations than exams. Assessment methodology to be changed. It must be based on how a student understands and vocalizes the knowledge. I hope if we are continuing with online classes then some drastic changes need to be made in the education system.

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Covid Pandemic provides opportunities to learn more about online teaching platform and make the system resilient. I will make sure that students are having proper internet facilities and ancillary items for the exam. If yes, then for sure we go with the decision of taking the exam. Assignments and quizzes can be taken in a fair manner, more appropriately weightage could be given higher to former and later, as compared to the final examination. We can rely on online examination, it is not our compulsion rather it is our choice. Let’s go back and see our system in the ancient system where GURU- SHISYA parampra was there. There was continuous assessment throughout their studies in Gurukul. On the same line, faculty members can give their honest opinion of the students. They can give less weightage to the final exam and at the same time, we can give leeway to students who do not have an internet connection or poor connectivity. Those students could be evaluated based on their continuous evaluation and previous performances in the minor examination.

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I will give instructions to all the teachers, staff members and students to stay at home and conduct online classes. If we talk about semester exams, they are not possible by software applications available on the Play Store due to network issues. However, I suggest teachers to take Class Test through Google classrooms so that the students can be prepared for their exams. I also suggest students to improve their hobbies by learning new languages, for e.g. Russian.

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Hi, I think the question is in wrong tense. What would you do is future tense. I would rather speak about what we have done. We are already at the end of the academic year. So, we immediately need to shift our timetable 100% online. We moved online much earlier than most - 16th March 2020 to be precise. That is NCU Gurugram for you. It took us three days flat to identify that Microsoft Teams was a much better platform than Zoom and a few others. Not more than a week, and three faculty development webinars to reach about 90% satisfaction level with our new initiative. To compensate, we extended the academic year by one week. All continuous assessments was also online through LMS and OTMS. We have seen demonstration of several online proctored examination service providers and have scheduled online exam for the final year students on 4th June. Teacher orientation for the innovative approach to question paper design and questioning pattern to match student experience and expectations have already started. Student training and mocks shall be conducted much before the actual exam. Challenges will be there and many have been already identified and we have prepared for mitigating them. The mood is buoyant and positive among these most trying times humanity has faced. Our team of excellent faculty members and support staff have achieved a near seamless transition to the new normal. NCU is poised for grand success in near future. No exclamation mark here.

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We are in present scenario when we have come to realisation that our education system is more like "One Size Fits All" kind of thing. Firstly remote classes. It’s not a matter of false claim that virtual classes are impossible. The thing is, it is possible but our present economical, social and telecom infrastructures are to the point of deep regret to make it a reality. Physical classes - There are many subjects and streams including Engineering, Medical Science, craftsmanship where any virtual class will only suffice theoretical knowledge making just 40% of the readiness to be a professional. Our population boom and resource scarcity have really endangered our lives. So what can colleges do is partnerships that students get exposure to what society and general public needs, like we see in any medical college cum hospital. However, we need to increase work on practical exposure and virtual stimulation techniques. So prime focus as of now is to stimulate real life scenarios via virtual classes or telephony. Promote effective study group culture among students. Create a healthy bond in virtual classes. Make televisions more effective to learn complex topics of subjects. For examinations - we need to focus more on complex practical scenario based examinations where focus is more in following protocols, innovation and use of mind rather then writing long subjective lengthy answers on paper. We need to focus on students, guardian and institution based cooperation to set up more stringent examinations with innovations welcomed to suit the changing scenarios.

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If I were in charge, I would try to postpone the semester exams as taking the online classes would end up in chaos because all the institutions are taking online classes on Zoom app and it has security patch issues. All the institutions or students cannot be perfectly on time in online classes, especially those in rural areas due to network issues, so it would be better for the students to just learn and when this pandemic situation gets over then exams can be conducted.

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As a college in-charge, I would take the following steps: 1. Switch the classroom sessions to online classes using webinars. For those students who don't have access to good internet connectivity, send out the learning content in form of scripts or pdf version of PPTs compressed to a file size which is easy to download using WhatsApp. 2. Convert the descriptive tests into MCQs - thanks to the advantage, Google Forms provides with all the settings to conduct such test sessions. 3. Annual assessment of students to be divided into Assignments + MCQ examination - 50% weightage to each. Assignments to be situation based, simple yet requires students to share original thoughts or understanding of the concepts. The online examinations can be kept fair by ensuring the questions are kept confidential, the interface is time bound to respond to the questions, create 3 different sets of MCQ question papers and randomly assign them to student roll numbers, send the unique link to Google Forms to assigned students on their identified emails, allot time slots for taking up the examination.

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If I were in charge of running my college, the first I would do is cancel the end-semester exams. Motivate pre-final students to study for placements and the 2nd year students to prepare for their summer internship drive. This is no news that more than 50% of the students aim to get placements in future. Constantly worrying about college exams during these difficult times of pandemic is not what the students need right now. They need support from authorities to prepare themselves to fight these stressful times. As a hoax dean, I would advise my faculty members to quickly complete lab and project vivas by a given deadline. I would partner up with online course providers to get discounts on various courses for the students to learn from and develop their skills according to their interests. I would convince the placement cell to hold online group discussions which would improve the communication skills of the students. Moreover, the programming club of the college could also hold contests for students to continuously brush up their programming skills and learn new things. Since the programming club used to be very active in taking sessions for juniors, I would ask them to continue the trend by taking online sessions and get the 1st year students started with DSA. There are many things I want to get done if I would have been in charge.

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If I were in charge of running my college during COVID pandemic, I would ask students to take up new skills that would help them know more about their interests. I would organise prize events that would motivate them to take part in different online courses.

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If I were in charge of running my college, I would suggest students to learn new skills like communication skills, soft skills, verbal ability, aptitude, decision making, etc., for upcoming the placement session. Due to this Covid-19, employment opportunities became low. Therefore, to overcome this we must give tough competition to the other aspirants. Also, I suggest students to participate in events like group discussion, online mock interviews, etc. I also suggest students to improve their skills and utilize these holidays in a proper manner. Apart from education, I also suggest to participate in all extra-curricular activities.

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Along with ongoing lectures, I would recommend all the teachers to encourage the students to learn any additional skill through MOOCs or other resources. I would strongly suggest all the students to constantly stay in touch with their student clubs/committee or any other activity groups just through social media or WhatsApp groups. The activities like just sharing opinions on the latest news in the corporate and educational world or the ongoing pandemic which can make them engaging and consistently keep them interactive with the fellow students.

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I would suggest on sharpening the soft skills of the students which have mostly been neglected and given least importance. Instead of sticking to the normal syllabus, which is honestly difficult to keep up with (even through online classes). Students should be assessed on the basis of soft skills by giving them fun activities or asked to present a model or a normal PPT would be great. As well as it would be easy to grade students on practical basis.

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I believe that in the relation of a teacher and a student, their home is known as classroom, their livelihood is knowledge. They share all of these based upon the same philosophy reflected in the above-mentioned lines of Rumi. Let us try to create a field/space where each of our student’s feelings, thoughts and insights could be enlightened. All of this needs to be done not only for our future, but for the future of our nation, for the sake of humanity.

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Students must be missing the classroom environment. Right now, it is not possible for them to be with their friends. But let me tell you respected teachers that imagination has no limits. Memories have no boundaries. Try to repeat some of the content you have already discussed in the class and that too with certain good, positive and funny incidents associated with the same (if any). The type of language a teacher uses in the classroom creates a great impact over students. Try to use optimistic and hopeful words in your discussion. As far as the assessment is concerned, there are number of ways to assess students. Something which has not been done so far can be started now. We can go for open book examination. Trust that your students have faith in this young generation. Instead of giving them memory based theoretical questions, develop analytical questions. Allow them to use book/study material for the same with certain conditions like avoidance of plagiarism or negative marking for the same. These questions can be circulated online and answers can be received the same way. Another way out is by making the subject 100% objective type where deep study of the topic is required. MCQ can easily be conducted online. Another method which comes to my mind is to suggest them few online courses through platforms like Coursera, NEPTEL, UDEMY, etc. These courses should cover at least 90 percent of your syllabus and have protected mode of online exam. So these are the few ways to assess students in the ongoing phase of this COVID19. Please try to understand that students have left not only the studies in the campus but they have also given up their upcoming cultural events, sports meet, group lunch, new experiments they were involved in and so many dreams. Try to talk about all these things in your online classes and suggest them how they can be continued now and afterwards. Let them realize that their success is your success and of course, the struggle in a student’s life is the struggle of his/her teacher’s life. Here, I would like to share a few lines by a Persian poet Rumi, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

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I very often say and believe in the notion that human touch cannot be replaced by any virtual aid. Though the virtual world has proven to be an effective aid to run different aspects of our life, and one of the aspects is education. Each one of us is trying to get connected to our students through different means so that their study could run smoothly. But is it only the academic life being affected due to this COVID 19? No, the mental state of a child, emotional state of a child is getting affected due to this ongoing phase. We, being teachers or monitors, are not only responsible for their academic growth but we own the responsibility of their overall wellbeing. A student's life revolves around his/her classes and assessment. Now due to this ongoing pandemic both the above-mentioned activities have been transformed through the utilization of advanced technology. In my opinion, the virtual education system needs to be associated with the human element so that we could have one new dimension to our existing education system that is the human-virtual approach. Only technology would not make it happen and a human touch cannot be into existence due to this pandemic. So why don't we try both that is the human-virtual approach. Here I would like to suggest a few points which will make it happen and would reflect the significance of the human-virtual approach in conducting classes and assessments for the school or college going students. Talk to each of the students over the phone along with maintaining connections through WhatsApp and email to make them feel that you are always there for each one of them. Entertain their doubts and queries not only during online classes in a scheduled slot but give them the freedom to call you anytime whenever they feel like. I know teachers also have their personal life but it is a matter of pride that you people are also one of the COVID19 warriors who is helping the nation in developing its future. Make them realize that change is the part of life and you people are lucky enough that nature has done it in a way so that number of essential realizations can be made. The ongoing situation will make you to face other uncertainties of your life with more confidence.

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I will ask students to undergo any training programme that they like and enhance their skills that will be strong enough to compete in the society. So that they can withstand in this storm, this situation will be similar to the survival of the fittest.

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