Dhenkanal: To ease the process of conducting and attending online classes, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal, has come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the teachers and the students.
The SOP was e-released through a live session on Facebook by Professor and Head of IIMC, Dhenkanal, Dr Mrinal Chatterjee on Monday.
It has been released simultaneously in five languages including English, Hindi, Odia, Bangla and Telugu.
On the occasion, Chatterjee said, “As a national institute of the country, it’s our mandate to facilitate not only media teaching but also the teaching in general. As the face-to-face teaching-learning process has been impossible during the Covid-19 lockdown, online mode of education is the only option available. Since it is the ‘new normal’ and we think it is going to stay even after the lockdown gets over, we thought we should come up with a guide for the teachers and students on what to do and what not to do while attending an online class.”
The SOP contains guidelines for both the teachers and students regarding the technical and non-technical things to be checked before the class, the way to present oneself and the etiquettes one needs to maintain when the session is on, how to make power point presentations and conduct question-answer sessions among others.
Dr. Jyoti Prakash Mohapatra, Assistant Professor, IIMC Dhenkanal, who translated the SOP into Odia said, “During the initial days of lockdown, teachers, students, and their parents were concerned about how to continue with the teaching-learning process. Then the universities and the primary and higher educational institutes announced switching to online classes. However, many of the teachers are not trained to conduct such classes. Most of the students are also not familiar with the online digital platforms. This SOP in regional languages will help them to tide through these difficulties.”
The SOP also suggests alternative ways to reach out to the students through various other means when there are problems of connectivity or other digital logistics.
“We know the internet penetration is still not high in our country and there are problems of connections and data usage. There is an apprehension that online classes may increase the digital divide. That is why we have suggested some alternatives to live online classes which can be adopted by the teachers and the students when such problems come on the way. We should use technology according to its availability among the target audience,” said Assistant Professor, IIMC-Dhenkanal, Sambit Pal.
This SOP has been designed in such a way that it will help those participating in any kind of online seminars or webinars.