FDP on “MOOCS: Instructional Design, Development and Learning Analytics”

Chandigarh: 

Centre for Academic Leadership and Education Management (CALEM),
Department of Education, Panjab University Chandigarh started the
seven days’ faculty development programme on “MOOCS: Instructional
Design, Development and Learning Analytics”. In this workshop 81
teachers from 14 universities are participating.

Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University inaugurated the
session and he shared that there is dire need to orient the teachers
about the online mode of teaching. He said that this is one of the
innovative program which is being organised in online mode and it
will motivate the teachers to develop MOOCs and to use online portals
to interact with the students. In this down period due to COVID-19,
the responsibly of academia have increased manifolds as those have to
guide the students to do academic work, be constructive and to
maintain their mental health on right tracks.

Prof. Raj Kumar stressed that various university departments have to
take initiative to guide the teachers of colleges about using of the
online teaching learning platforms for interacting with students.
Learning of usage of online platforms will boost the collaborations
among teachers and researchers of different universities, so that
those can share their learning and teaching resources with each other.
MOOCs is an innovative platform which provide opportunities to
students to join variety of courses to boost their knowledge and gain
mastery on the subject. MOOCs provide opportunities to diversify. He
applauded the initiatives of CALEM team and organisers for planning
this program n very short duration.

Prof. K. Srinivas Head of ICT & Project Management Unit of National
Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) delivered
the key note address and dwelled on the Digital Initiatives of Govt.
of India in Higher Education in redefining the role of teachers in
21st century classroom. He stressed that teachers have to do efforts
to develop courses on MOOCs by taking the one topic at a time.   He
elaborated on the six verticals of MOOC- Ecosystem i.e. course design,
course development. course delivery, course transaction, motivation
and engagement of the learner, creating assessment and discussion
forum. He cleared all the queries of participants related to copy
right issues, use of YouTube content for teaching and developing MOOC
courses.

Prof. Jatinder Grover, Coordinator CALEM and Dean Faculty of
Education, Panjab University, shared that this online faculty
development programme is made possible only due to able guidance and
dynamic leadership of PU VC Prof Raj Kumar .

Dr. Grover acknowledged the participation of teachers from various
universities. He said that teachers have to change their teaching
patterns and should use technology, however technology can’t replace
the teacher. But to counter present day conditions, technology is a
boon for all of us related to academics. On MOOCs platform, we can
find anything ranging from  biotechnology to  modern mysticism .
The whole program is being organised through ZOOM cloud and teachers
are being oriented about the usage of Google Classroom and teaching
interactions through ZOOM cloud and other related software’s.

Dr. Vishal Sharma (Coordinator, Swayam) and coordinator of the course
welcomed all the participants and introduced the resource persons with
the participants.  Dr. Kanwalpreet Kaur (Chairperson, IETVE) proposed
the vote of thanks. Participants participated very enthusiastically by
posing questions to experts.

The inaugural session ended with a message from the Vice-Chancellor-
Stay Home, Be Safe and Do academics.