Interpersonal relationships have been impacted but management skills have improved among students, says HOD

In an exclusive interaction with Shiksha.com, HOD School of Legal Studies, Apeejay Stya University Shobhna Jeet talks at length about the institutes’ strategy to continue to focus on delivering quality education amidst the nationwide lockdown due to Coronavirus. She elaborates on the initiatives taken, transition journey to the virtual classrooms, examinations and the evaluation methods chosen virtually and the impact on students’ interpersonal and team management skills. Though she believes that online learning and virtual platforms have proven to be a blessing in disguise, the essence of traditional classroom learning can not be replaced. A blended pedagogy will help.

Dr Shobhna Jeet is one of the founder faculty members of the Department of Law at The Central University of Haryana. She is a qualified Law professional with PhD degree from Mody University of Science & Technology.

Read the complete interview below:

Q: How has today’s scenario of lockdown and global pandemic impacted your education system?

A: In terms of our classes and teacher student’s relationship it could not impact us much. We were already working on the online portal Moodle where we upload all the course material and notes and even attendance of the students. So, immediately after the lockdown was announced except for physical classes nothing much was changed.

Q: What are some of the interesting initiatives your institute has taken to make it easy for your students and also contribute to the eradication of this pandemic?

A: In these days people are suffering more from mental pressure than pandemic. People are more disappointed and frustrated. To ease it out our students are regularly organising webinars to stress out. We are organising virtual activities for them such as International and national seminars where they get a chance to hear Chief Justice of India Justice Dr KG Balakrishnan (Former Chief Justice of India). As far as eradication of this pandemic is concerned, our other Schools such as Pharmacy and BioScience are working proactively on it.

Q: How did the institute manage to conduct exams, evaluate and declare results online?

A: As mentioned earlier also, we are working on online software Moodle, where we are regularly sharing all course materials with students. The quiz, Assignments and other small activities we were conducting online. So, after lockdown also we took online exams on Moodle which was a huge success for us. The exams were proctored to ensure all students were evaluated fairly. 

Q: How are the students responding to the new initiatives?

A: Our students were already familiar with the online learning concept as certain credits in the curriculum have been dedicated to the value-added courses so neither the transition nor adaptation was difficult for both our students and faculty. But, yes what was impacted the most was the student-teacher relationship. Though the pandemic has put online education at a fast pace but the classroom learnings will always have an edge as it encourages interactive sessions and peer-learning.

Q: What impact will it have on students’ interpersonal, team management skills?

A: Like, if we talk about the interpersonal relationship this, of course, has been affected. Whereas the management skills have been improved rather. Last month we have organised an International E Seminar where students were the organisers. They could bring more than 2,500 registrations and 1,500 participants in the seminar. They were regularly in touch with all the participants through mails or WhatsApp or Messages. The student's committee was also responsible for preparing online digital certificates for the participants. This was proved a blessing in disguise for my students.  

Q: What are the best practices that the college is adopting to ensure seamless online learning?

A: Considering the infrastructural issues with many of us, we have built more digital classrooms with wifi connectivity to let faculty members deliver online classes from the campus while students can attend the session from their home. And, once the classroom learnings will begin, we are all set to begin the lectures on campus with all social distancing regulations being taken care off. 

Q: How will today’s situation revolutionise online learning in India and abroad?

A: This online teaching and learning are helping in developing various other technical managerial skills among students and teachers. Teachers who were not at all aware of the hard-core technology and its glitches, now they are becoming habitual of it. The major revolution is coming in the relationship between teachers and students, where teachers are coming online and discussing emotional aspects also. The major crucial role of the teacher is to encourage the students to come online and attend the classes.