Mix of online, on-campus classes to continue at MIT

Manipal: Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) has planned a blended mode of education this academic year. However, this can change, if there is a third wave of Covid-19, said Cdr Anil Rana, director, MIT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).
He told TOI, “Presently the students can expect conduct of physical classes and workshop-related activities, continuation of their major projects, and creative pursuits of their ideas in innovation centres and workshops. All this shall be done under strict observance of covid-appropriate behaviour. Special sessions shall also be conducted to clarify the theory-related enquiries from students. Guest lectures by industry experts, adjunct faculty and alumni are being planned. Quizzes, case study discussions, and other methods of evaluation will continue as usual,” Cdr Rana said.
He said in the last year itself their classrooms were fixed with lecture capture modules, which enabled live and recorded streaming of lectures. “We have a campus wide licence of Office 365, which provides an opportunity to use MS Teams in our teaching and assessment process. The faculty members were able to upload all the reading material, adopt the techniques of online learning such as quiz and video observation, and employ innovative evaluation practices. Meanwhile, the faculty too have been able to understand how the students respond to online education, and have tweaked the system accordingly, by conducting quizzes, and discussing case studies, thus giving a break from the monotonous mode of learning. The online mode can never replace the physical mode. We are also looking at at transcription and gamification to be incorporated in online mode of learning,” Cdr Rana added.