The evolving role of teachers and technologies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic – Student Friendly Adaptions of CAU, Imphal

By: Dr. Lokesh Kumar Mishra and Prof. Indira Sarangthem
As of 1st April 2020, more than 3.4 billion people, representing 43% of the world population, were in lockdown in more than 80 countries and territories around the world. The lockdown and social distancing measures immediately had an enormous impact on higher education when the COVID 19 pandemic engulfed the world in its initial phases.
Recent data released by the UNESCO indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost 1.37 billion students across the world – this comprises 90% of all enrolled students in around 138 countries. This pandemic is surely the biggest crisis faced by humankind over the past century. In Indian higher education institutions (HEIs), the crisis has affected new admissions, examinations, student internships, placements and student mobility. An effective strategy is necessary to minimise the adverse impact of the pandemic. India with large student population belonging to diverse demographics, constrained student-faculty ratio, distinct rural-urban divide and gaps in access to digital resources makes the higher education field extremely complex. The pre-existing digital divide among the rural and urban regions was further aggravated in COVID 19 pandemic era. 394 Universities and around 60.53% of the Colleges are located in rural areas of India as per a report published by Association of Indian Universities (AIU). These learning centres lack sufficient digital infrastructure (hardware and software), connectivity, uninterrupted power supply and other resources needed for effective implementation of learning activities in online mode. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that physical campuses having minimal digital infrastructure was not accessible to faculties due to COVID 19 appropriate SOPs justifiably imposed by State and Union Government in the larger interest of minimizing the potential health hazards among the population and lack of personal digital connectivity particularly in non-metro and small cities. Furthermore, almost 50 % of the students coming from economically weaker sections, non-disadvantaged social groups also lack the conducive home environment for online learning or they may be living in areas with poor internet connectivity or irregular power supply that hinders online learning among these students.
Despite the overwhelming consequences of the pandemic, this global crisis has also been an extraordinary time for learning. All stakeholders that include the policy makers, teachers, students and families are learning how to adapt to the evolving situation and work towards making a resilient educational system.
The sudden shift away from the classroom globally due to COVID -19 pandemic and adoption of online learning may in all possibility continue to persist in the post-pandemic world, and such a shift would have huge impact on the worldwide education market. Even before the emergence of COVID-19, there was already high growth and adoption in education technology. The global investments in edtech reached US$18.66 billion in 2019 and the overall market for online education was projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025. There has been a significant surge in usage of digital learning tools and platforms such as language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools, or online learning software, since COVID-19 engulfed the world.The pandemic forced educators to rapidly devise pedagogical adaptations that have proven to be pivotal as the traditional in classroom lecturing models do not translate to a remote learning environment. Lecture deliveries by educators in remote mode through diverse channels like YouTube, Online-meeting platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and Microsoft Teams demand that the teachers evolve their teaching activities in such a way that they can engage students in a creative manner. This becomes even more important considering the pandemic driven frequent lockdowns, which forced every household to become a classroom despite the fact that majority of these households do not have favourable learning environment.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the pandemic has recalibrated how teachers divide their time between teaching, engaging with students, and administrative tasks. In Brazil according to a survey conducted by Instituto Peninsula, 83% of teachers did not consider being prepared to teach remotely, 67% were anxious, 38% felt tired, and less than 10% were happy or satisfied. The pandemic has highlighted the need for flexibility and more time for student-teacher interactions. For example, in Estonia teachers were given autonomy to adjust the curriculum, lesson plans, and their time allocation. 
Almost 90% of countries that responded to the survey of Ministries of Education on National Responses to COVID-19 conducted by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank (2020) supported teachers by sharing guidelines stressing the importance of: providing feedback to students, maintaining constant communication with caregivers, and reporting to local education units to keep track of learning. The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) undertook several initiatives tosupport Member Universities to minimise the impact of COVID-19 – these include online facultydevelopment training for online teaching, national and international webinars, leadership talks andonline workshops on themes such as assessment and evaluation, and fostering social responsibilityamong others. An online survey of HEIs was also being conducted to gauge the preparedness ofIndian HEIs for online teaching.A significant initiative that the AIU worked upon with the O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) to produce “COVID-19 Response Tool Kit for Indian Higher Education Institutions”, which was developed to help build Institutional Resilience for Academic Planning and Continuity.
Faculties adapted several novel methods of teaching globally. In Indian context, the course instructor has always played a central role in traditionalclassrooms by acting as an authority on the subject matter. The online format presents anopportunity to come out of this model and engage with students as active learners, while not beingphysically present within the same space. Instead of delivering a lecture, the course instructors needto focus on using flipped classrooms. In this approach, the faculty can assign the theoreticalcomponent as pre-reads for the class and utilize the classroom time for practical applicationsincluding discussions on real-life case studies, solving numerical problems, or any other practicalcomponent associated with the course.
The teachers have been using the following main methodologies to deliver the online classes suggested by COVID Response Tool Kit for Indian Higher Education Institutions published by AIU in August 2020:
1. Synchronous –Teaching live and having student-faculty interactions
2. Asynchronous–Sharing content in various formats including audio/video recordings, videos, documentaries, movies, reading material, presentations, e-books etc. with students consuming the content at their own pace and time of choice.
3. Hybrid –During live virtual classes, most sessions are happening at present with videos remaining off for students or even course instructors due to internet bandwidth constraints. Even audio remains patchy in most cases making interactions among course participants a difficult task. Thus, the body language related cues remain largely unavailable to the instructors. This makes synchronous discussions challenging. Thus, faculty have the option to explore hybrid means to conduct classes and can use the following means to create/ add an element of interaction to the asynchronous means:
* Social Media – The faculty can utilize Social Media platforms includingWhatsApp or Facebook to create course specific groups and use these for engaging students in asynchronous discussions related to the course.
* Discussion boards – The students can also actively share their learning, resources they find insightful, and ask questions that can be answered by their peers or teachers. Free platforms like Piazza (www.piazza.com) that have been created for academic discussions can also prove very useful for asynchronous discussions, asking and responding to questions (including options for doing so anonymously), and sharing resources. Such spaces can be made accessible to next batches also and can prove useful beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
Technology interventions have enhanced teacher engagement with students, through improved access to content, data and networks, helping teachers better support student learning all over the world. Despite several shortcomings related to connectivity, Digital-Divide, health concerns due to increased screen time and inadequate learning environments at home for learners,globally institutionsare adopting technology driven teaching and evaluation systems.
Central Agricultural University a premiere institution for Higher education in Agriculture and Allied Sciences in North Eastern India has been at the forefront of adopting technologies for remote learning, academic management and evaluation systems. The institution having it’s headquartering at Imphal, Manipur has 13 constituent colleges in the seven North Eastern states.
The College of Agriculture, Iroisemba, Imphal is the oldest constituent college of Central Agricultural University, Imphal. Established in 1979 as Manipur Agricultural College it acted as the foundation for establishment of Central Agriculture University, Imphal on 26th January, 1989. Since its inception CAU, Imphal has produced 3836 graduates, 1344 post graduates and 75 Ph.D. students. Currently, the College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal has 379 undergraduate, 113 post graduate and 30 Ph.D. students enrolled for various degree programs.
The College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal with dynamic and decisive leadership of Hon’ble Vice Chancellor took several measures to mitigate the issues that have been confronting the academic atmosphere in view of COVID-19 pandemic. The College faculties have worked tirelessly to evolve novel teaching methods for the benefit of the students. Many of the teachers have created their own YouTube Channels where specific lecture topics are uploaded. The College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal also created its own YouTube channel where faculties were provided facilities to upload their video lectures. When the first lockdown was enforced the College had to send the students home on 16th March 2020. The faculties swiftly adapted towards online teaching platforms like Google Meet and Zoom. Considering that many students live in remote corners of North Eastern States the faculties created whatsapp groups for each course through which lecture notes, reading materials and practice tests were disseminated. Evaluation methods using Google Forms for quiz was adopted widely for efficient feedback regarding the progress of learning among the students.
All the constituent colleges of Central Agricultural University including the College of Agriculture, Imphal adopted online admission procedure in the academic year 2020-21. A robust online academic management system (AMS) hosted by Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute, New Delhi has been adopted for paper free academic management. All the colleges are working towards adopting the system and it is targeted to completely move to the AMS platform. Central Agricultural University, Imphal also adopted and Online Examination platform developed hosted by a private service provider to conduct the end term examinations of the academic year 2020-21.
All these measures during COVID -19 pandemic ensured that academic activities of the Central Agricultural University, Imphal were conducted efficiently. The College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphalensured that academic activities were carried out with all sincerity. This allowed 60 undergraduate, 25 post graduate and 03 Ph.D students to complete their degree during the pandemic. This included 05 students of foreign origin.
All these collective efforts of faculties, supporting staff, university administration and most importantly students has yielded its benefits. In the recent ICAR rankings of Agricultural Universities 2020, Central Agricultural University jumped from 25th position to 13th position. In coming months CAU, Imphal is going to admit students in UG, PG and Ph.D. program in 13 different constituent colleges of the university located in seven different states of North East India. A huge rush for the seats of CAU in these programs is anticipated in this year also as has been a trend. Students can get admission in these courses in three modes a) by nomination through NE state governments b) through ICAR c) through CAU entrance examination for PG and Ph.D. program. Few seats at CAU, Imphal are also available under high payment category however it can be claimed only by students having good rankings in ICAR, CAU entrance examinations. Detailed information regarding admission at CAU, Imphal can be accessed from www.cau.ac.in.
The pandemic and the extended closures of educational institutes have changed the role of teachers and most of them were not prepared for such change; a comprehensive strategy is required for socio-emotional monitoring and psychosocial support to ensure teacher wellbeing. Similarly, students need the continuous support through these tough times to ensure that overall learning activities continue with high quality. Recently Central Agricultural University, Imphalcelebrated its 30th foundation day where it was stressed by Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Dr Anupam Mishra that all the constituent colleges of CAU, Imphalshall work in mission mode for excellence in academic, research and extension activities so that the farming community of north east willfinds us inseparable from their profession.
(Dr Lokesh Kumar Mishra is Associate Professor/Incharge of Academic Cell, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur. He is also working as Member Priority Setting, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Cell, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur.and Prof. Indira Saranthem is Dean College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal. She is also the Chairperson of Faculty of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal and is working as member in several committees of CAU, Imphal and Manipur State Government)