Panjab University campus
THE DIGITALISATION of Panjab University is likely to invite large-scale intervention, but a majority of its faculty is already using the latest technology in classrooms. A survey by the librarian of Baddi University shows that 87 per cent faculty members use smartphones for three to four hours daily for academic purposes.
On March 1, the PU Board of Finance approved a budget of Rs 73 lakh to set up SWAYAM and SWAYAM Prabha access laboratories. Launched in July 2017, SWAYAM or Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds provides study material free of cost and access to digital classrooms.
On Wednesday, Jatinder Kumar, librarian at the Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology, presented his findings on ‘Use of smartphones for academic purposes by teachers of Panjab University’ during the inauguration of the three-day International Conference on Responsible Research and Innovation in Science, Management and Education. The event is being organised in collaboration with the London School of Management Education with over 90 paper presentation sessions.
The librarian, who has automated libraries over the past eight years as a passion, conducted a similar survey among PU students in 2017. He found that 80-90 per cent of them were using and satisfied with e-resources and online journals. However, the students said that there was a lack of infrastructure to support online learning methods at the varsity.
Jatinder said, “This is where the government’s SWAYAM initiative comes in. Its salient features are availability of video lectures from IIT professors, online journals, national digital library and synopses database that have theses of all PhD scholars who register.”
SWAYAM, he added, was also a platform where professors could submit their credentials and create online courses called MOOC or Massive Open Online Course. For now, the IITs, Indian Institute of Science and Indira Gandhi National Open University, among others, already have SWAYAM access, but PU will soon have it, too.
“It’s a great initiative as students only need internet to gain access to this collection of databases. It also helps teachers in their promotion as an online course is mandatory to apply for promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS),” Jatinder further stated.
But, the challenge was to get expertise from older faculty members, who looked for ways to circumvent technology. “Even during the survey, I got next to no response from older faculty members. But younger faculty were more than happy to share their experiences, especially PU’s engineering department,” he added.
His pool, said Jatinder, was 300 teachers out of a total faculty of 838. He posed two questionnaires to all the teachers, one on demographics and personal information and the other on the main topic, adding that more males responded to his survey.
“Many teachers suggested a common mobile resource learning platform. They also face issues while accessing websites. Some others feel initiatives such as SWAYAM were a breach of privacy as there was a high possibility of data theft and illegal use.”
But, Jatinder concluded, the future was in digital platforms of learning with a dilution in the role of the teacher. These portals disseminate authentic knowledge and fulfil various academic requirements.
“Teachers may be replaced in the near future. Students don’t like attending classes. They’d rather study from the comfort of their home or alongside jobs. It’s now up to our universities to make students more aware of these courses and their importance in the changing scenario.”