The first day of college for thousands of Delhi University (DU) undergraduate students turned out to be a new experience sans campus activities, with orientations moving online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both college orientations and department orientations were conducted online by several colleges on Wednesday as the new session commenced.
Ramjas College principal Manoj Khanna said: “Both, the departmental and college orientations, were held online and it went well. A few larger departments faced certain technical glitches due to which the orientation was held in slots so that all students could be accommodated. While timetables and other details were already on the website, they were shared with the students again. Classes will begin in full swing from Thursday.”
Even as interactions with faculty members took place, several students spoke on the physical tours of respective colleges were now replaced with virtual tours.
Kamalkali Majumdar, a student of Miranda House from sociology department said: “The orientation was great and very well conducted. We had a virtual tour of the entire college and what all facilities are there. We even had seniors who spoke to us, members from the various committees and societies. After the main orientation was over, we broke into our own department orientations which was a lot more personal, where we interacted with all the professors and even we got to introduce ourselves. We were even shown videos of what life is like at the college and at the sociology department.”
“Something the college has started for us was that the principal, Bijayalakshmi Nanda, will have open office hours where we can schedule one-on-one meetings with her and reach out which is a great initiative,” said Ms. Majumdar.
With the mode of teaching being shifted completely to online methods as of now, colleges and the university campus bore a deserted look.