If month six of the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that we are in this together. The government has divested itself of responsibility and declared that self-reliance or aatmanirbhar Bharat is the way of the future. Another way of declaring that the powers that be simply aren’t powers… It has been so long since we went into this isolation, I have even gotten used to the fact that nobody really knows where we are headed. The pleasant educational Sunday sermons we are exhorted to hear are very much on ABC: Anything But Covid.
The new academic year has started over the past month in different institutions, but choppily and all online. There has been no reasonable option to do anything else, given that losing an academic year is not desirable and safe work practices are impossible to implement in person in all our institutions for the kind of numbers we need to address.
Having to switch from the physical classroom to the online class in the middle of a pandemic has not been ideal, to say the least. Most teachers have been caught unawares as have students, but the latter group has quicker response times and are much more comfortable in the digital world. And as the move online has been happening, we are quickly learning some of the main issues that we need to grapple with.
The same problems seem to be faced by all of us – from the cutting-edge IITs to small colleges in small cities: There is a significant digital divide in the country- access to the internet is very heterogenous from state to state, and within states. Access to classes delivered online is a major issue, with most students not having a reliable combination of internet and power, or suitable devices, smartphones, tablets, or laptops. And there are other issues, discussed at length on the website Confluence in a series of articles on New Directions in Higher Education in India after COVID-19.
This is clearly a community in the making, of teachers trying to do their jobs as best as they can, with little external support. We therefore came together to form DFOT, the Discussion Forum for Online Teaching. This is an informal group of people who are trying to navigate the choppy waters of online teaching in India, keeping our local realities in mind. And the principal realities are 1) that all courses at all levels in all institutions have gone online for now (this includes some lab courses too!), and at least for this semester, students will not be coming back to residential campuses or to the campus classroom. And 2) that teachers (and students) are pretty much on their own, sink or swim as best as you can.
This is not a short- term fix. The pandemic and its after effects are going to be with us for quite a while.
As far as higher education is concerned, therefore, self-reliance or aatmanirbharta should really be interpreted as autonomy, and as I have remarked in a recent talk, one of the side-effects of this pandemic is that when we return, we are going to do so with a very different take on teaching and learning. In the socially distanced classroom, the teacher will not be able to plead with students to learn. The responsibility will be shared: Every student will need to understand that if they are there for an advanced degree, the primary responsibility for learning is theirs. Too many teachers spend hours in their classes trying to teach the uninterested and unwilling to learn, and that cannot go on online!
But such a teacher needs to be in a department where the responsibility for the curriculum and syllabus is devised internally as well, and this cannot be something that is part of a diktat issued by the UGC, AICTE, or MoE… And they must be led by an independent university administration that has the confidence in their own autonomy, leaders who will stand up for the rights of their students and their teachers. Very unlike the situation on the ground today, where instructions and ukases issued at the headquarters are followed blindly.
And inappropriately. The country is far too large for one size to fit all: Self-reliance cannot come unless there is a serious attempt at federalism, and federalism here devolves upon trust. This is the one thing that is lacking in all our attempts at democratic functioning. Post-COVID, there will be more than ever a need for trust. As is getting painfully clear, we will all have much less money, for one thing. And the money will be worth less too, as the world realizes the full effect of the pandemic on the economy.
Given this background, DFOT is our attempt to get a community response going. We can all teach each other and learn from each other. There is, of course, a website. And a SLACK channel as well, links given below.
We are not quite sure that this is a better mousetrap, but this is something we need here and now. If you teach online at the College/University level – regardless of subject – you have something to give, something to share, and something that others will find useful. All the things that are making your teaching experience easier at your institution are possibly unavailable next door… and could easily be replicated. The information landscape in our country is very rugged and uneven.
We have organised one panel discussion, on How to Engage Students in Online Classes, the report on which (plus YouTube links) is here. The second, on Online Evaluation and Ways of Evaluating Online Classes is scheduled for Sunday, 6 September 2020 at 3:00 pm. There typically are four speakers who mainly flag issues, and these are from diverse types of institutions and subjects. For the first, our panelists were from JNU, Shiv Nadar University, Central University of Punjab, and University of Hyderabad. And the subjects ranged from Economics, to Computer Science, Ecology, and Communication, taught to undergraduates and Masters levels students. At the next Panel, speakers are from IIT Delhi, TISS Mumbai, NCERT and Aligarh, teaching Chemistry, Education and Zoology.
In these panel discussions we share opinions, experiences, and possible solutions. More are planned, on The Role of College/University Administration, The Fate of Research in the Experimental Sciences, and Research in the Social Sciences. And even more, depending on the need of the community, so please write in!
One need of the community is for advice and pointers in the mechanics of lecturing. How to place the camera, how to talk to a disembodied class, lighting, etc. A set of 10 useful tips for online presentations is given here. And there is community feedback, opinion, miniblogposts, etc.
It is simple to join the SLACK Workspace via the DFOT main page, or write to us: dfot2020 @ gmail.com
Or visit the Google site and see what’s happening.
I’ll keep updating this post as and when needed, so come back here as well. Like I said above, you may or may not need us, but we surely do need you!
And then 