Vamnicom and International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) recently conducted “Online Roundtable on Cooperative Training and Education Remote Learning”, Ed tech & Covid. Scores of leading co-operators and academics from India and abroad attended the event, informs a press note.
In his introductory remarks, Dr. D.V.Deshpande talked about the paradigm shift caused by Covid 19 in training and education.
Initiating the discussion, Dr K K Tripathy mentioned the challenges being faced during covid-19 and possible mechanisms to overcome them. He added that VAMNICOM has held brainstorming sessions with faculties and other members of the Institute on how to grapple with the challenges.
Dr Tripathy urged the panel members to guide on how activities of training in cooperative education should be carried out in India. He also called for guidance in aspects like awarding participation degrees, what should be the minimum qualification.
Dr Balu Iyer, RD of ICA AP exchanged his thoughts and said that participants are missing face to face interaction and field visits. He said that education is counter- cyclic this time, various issues are emerging such as HR laying off people, cutting off salaries etc which have adversely affected the system.
A leading academic from Australia Dr Sidsel Gramstad said universities in Australia are much more reliant on Indian students. She said Universities of many other countries faced declines in their income by 40%. She further said that institutes can attract students from abroad by designing specific industry-oriented courses
She also said “Finance and Employment” are the crucial factors which hinder creation of new things. Faculties of institutes can conduct live workshops/record lectures, upload study material etc. Their positive point is that students are receptive and tech-savvy nowadays, Gramstad added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Burhanuddin Abdullah shared a presentation which focused on impacts of Covid 19 and said online teaching is proving less effective in communication.
Yet another foreign participant Mohd Roslan Bani Amin said that Covid 19 is a tragedy for all our world. Institutes have to shift to virtual learning. They have to be creative in designing Online courses.
Dr Harekrishna Misra said that absorption of technology in daily life has become essential. He shared his experience of his institute that how he faced a traumatic situation as it was challenging to vacate around 300 to 500 students from campus during the Covid 19 outbreak and to make sure that they have reached their destinations safely.
Dr. V.K.Dubey shared the presentation and expressed his views on the quality of programs, how to cope up with expenditure of organization and other aspects. While concluding the program, Mohit Dave, Program manager (ICA) thanked the speakers, sponsors, participants and Vamnicom for providing support for conducting this program.