Faculty development programmes move online

Coimbatore: After they were forced to cancel the annual faculty development programmes (FDPs) held during April and May due to the Covid-19 lockdown, engineering colleges, arts and science colleges, and private schools in the district have now launched week-long online FDPs.
Institutions have formed teams of tech-savvy teachers who can efficiently plan and execute Zoom meetings and upload them on YouTube for future access.
Last week, Sakthi Institute of Information and Management Studies in Pollachi conducted a seven-day FDP titled ‘Post Covid-19 Challenges and Opportunities – A Global Perspective’ on Zoom and streamed it live on YouTube.
“It was the first time we held an online FDP. To organize this, we formed a team of three faculty members well-versed in tech stuff,” said the institute’s director P Subramanian. “Each session uploaded on YouTube got around 3,000-4,000 views.”
This is one of the advantages of online sessions, said academics. Unlike face-to-face sessions, where the number of participants is restricted, they can reach interested people across the globe.
K P Dhanabalakrishnan, head of the Aeronautical Engineering department of Hindusthan Institute of Technology at Othakkalmandapam, said he makes it a point to ask faculty members who organise online sessions to upload them on YouTube. “Participants might face issues with links or network. So, if there is a recording, they can access it later as well,” he said.
The institute plans to conduct a webinar on ‘Career Scope in Aeronautics’ this week and an FDP next week, Dhanabalakrishnan said.
While the number of participants is limited for interactive sessions, organisers provide a livestream link for any number of people to view without actively participating. “In personal mails, we can invite 10 people and in our college domain ID, 250 people. So, we post the livestream link, using which any number of people can watch the sessions,” said G Abel Thangaraja, assistant professor of Computer Science, Shri Nehru Maha Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science at Malumachampatti.
Lockdown and digital workspaces have also brought out many innovative topics for FDP sessions and webinars. “I have been seeing topics such as ‘Campus-corporate Connect’ in aerospace sector, which is new as far as I have seen, and ‘Opportunity for Students in ISRO’,” said Dhanabalakrishnan.
Apart from technical topics, online FDPs also focus on applying for funding and patents, stress management and soft skills.
While everyone agrees that online sessions can never be a complete replacement for chalk-and-talk and live interaction, higher education institutions are making the most of their technological wherewithal, for the benefit of students and teachers.