National Conference on Exploring New Dimensions in Teaching Learning for Quality Education

Different Dimensions of Teaching - Learning

Niranjan S Deshmukh1, Rajendra R Utturkar2
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Technology, Pune 411 043
2
Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Technology, Pune 411 043
1
niru_jan@hotmail.com
2
utturkar.rajendra@gmail.com
Track No. : 1
Track Name : Different dimensions of Teaching-Learning

Abstract significant reason why the engineering education model in

Purpose — The intention of this paper is to acknowledge India must follow OBE model.
the impact of Outcome Based Education and briefly mention To begin with OBE model of education, a systematic
experimentation in the fields of Digital Education, Flipped approach is required. A generalized flow chart for
Classroom, 4G enabled learning with passing remarks on developing OBE model can be of following nature.
Choice Based Credit System.
Scope — Scope of this paper is finite in the sense of
introduction and elementary outset in the field of
experimentation in some of the techniques mentioned in
Purpose.
Approach — The paper is descriptive documentation of some
of the techniques used in the OBE vocabulary along with
experimentation details of Digital Education and 4G enabled
learning,
Observations — Main aim was to note changes in learner’s
(student’s) attitude towards a particular course and
improvising the ambit of reforms to be brought into
practice.
Limitations — The paper is limited in the view of
ongoing experimentation, as a result of improvement of
experimentation parameters over the period of years.
Keywords — OBE, Digital Education, 4G Enabled
Education, Flipped Classroom, CBCS

I OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION

A very effective tool, based on learning outcomes, for
accurately measuring student performance is teaching /
instruction model which focuses on “student” is the gist of
Outcome based Education.
Various knowledge outcomes of competent education
system are related to ‘descriptive’, ‘procedural’,
‘applicability’ and ‘utility’ [01]. The focus of OBE is to
evaluate outcomes of the program with the help of
predetermined levels of the knowledge outcomes, skills Fig. 1 Generalized Flow Chart for Developing OBE Model
and attitude a student is expected to attain after completing
a program and in immediate future in the way of work / In most of the cases, bodies like Technical Boards and
occupation. Universities across India are active in undertaking
India received permanent signatory status of The development of OBE Model. Since these bodies cater to mass,
National Board of Accreditation (NBA) in 2014, enabling the systems within their purview are definite. However each
induction in the Washington Accord. This proved to be of the institutions following respective board or university
upsurge for higher education in India, particularly in the field has flexibility in implementing teaching and learning scheme.
of engineering. A condition put in the accord calls for In this paper the authors wish to describe some of the
following OBE in engineering education in India. This is a techniques used at the parent institution level and observed
changes in the degree of Outcome Achievements.
National Conference on Exploring New Dimensions in Teaching Learning for Quality Education

II DIGITAL EDUCATION to the users (students). This feature can be useful in online
Digital Education is to facilitate the students with tests and assessment process.
learning activity which can be partially controlled by the Another feature of LTE — SON (Self Organizing
students. The control provided is usually in the form of place Network) is also useful, when there is a surge of users
of study, time of the day, participation time at a stretch, (students) during a particular occurrence, like release of time
options available for mode of learning and pace of learning. table for examinations, assignment issue notice flash and so
The Digital Education has certain advantages and also on.
some disadvantages. The most agreeable amongst Yet another feature of LTE technology, albeit new, is
the advantages are : being interactive, detailed and pace Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE). With this innovation the user, in
controlled. However the serious drawbacks are the cost, this case the “Teacher” can place phone calls* over LTE
lack of schedule and discipline. network in the form of data packets called as packet voice.
Smart class rooms, mobile phone apps, online group The packet voice can be shared along a network of several
formation, e-books are a few modes of digital learning. phone conversations. Packet voice can also grant the user
Smart class rooms are expensive and fall under guided the facility to check availability of assignee and alter the
digital learning. Audio-video sessions also are a form of strategies.
guided digital learning but are comparatively cheaper. Use
of mobile phones (smart phones) is the cheapest form A 4G Enabled education - experimentation
of digital learning, as mobile phones have become At rudimentary level, the author issues time
necessity and majority of the students carry mobile controlled assignments for the courses delivered by
phones. him (Fig. 3).
The Second Year Mechanical Engineering Class, in
the authors’ institute in the year 2018-19, had 79 students.
Including 9 staff members there are 82 participants on
the “SYME-I Official” group on Whats App, which
accounts for 92+% of the students carrying smart mobile
phones.

01

Fig. 3 Issued time controlled assignment

The assignment has ‘issued on date’ and ‘complete by

date’ mentioned in the assignment. The assignment does
not open for the users (students) after the complete by date
is over (Fig. 4).

Fig. 2 Participants on “SYME-I Official” group

III 4G ENABLED EDUCATION

4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is completely changing
the way the OBE education model is evolving. Users of 4G
LTE technology experience improved and faster streaming,
downloads and uploads. It is safely assumed that average
LTE download speed worldwide is about 13.5 Mbps.
The same technology can be put to use in institutes by Fig. 4 Time expired assignment
establishing WAN. A great feature of 4G LTE, namely
Priority and Preemption can ensure controlled data release * Instructions / Explainations etc.
National Conference on Exploring New Dimensions in Teaching Learning for Quality Education

The assignment is usually mailed to the students in PDF. z complete the assignment / practical work / home work
For this purpose a ‘Contact List’ is prepared on mailing during next conventional classroom session.
system (Fig. 5). As the students access the assignment on The teacher helps the students during actual classroom
mobile devices, it is important to check what PDF features session to apply the learned content and put it into practice.
are accessible on mobile phones. The concept of Flipped Classroom promotes several favor-
able options which are not available in conventional class-
rooms.
z the students can go back and review the contents till
they are satisfied / understand the content,
z feedback is immediate (not at the end of course),
z more time is available to the students to digest the
contents,
z 1 : 1 interaction is possible.
Fig. 5 Contact list for posting assignments / instructions
While planning a Flipped Classroom session it is
necessary to decide the part of the course where this
It is noticed that some structural information in the form technique can be used. After selecting the content part, it is
imperative to choose the technology to be adopted.
of tables loose formatting. Some navigation controls are also
For Flipped Classroom to be successful, in-class
not available. It is therefore necessary to design the material
activities are needed. These activities can be performed in a
to be sent to the users (students) with care and check the
group (not more than 4 students) or individually. It is
contents and layout of the material to assure that the essence
observed that group activity benefits effective learning
is preserved.
through push - pull reaction.
It is also important to take feedback from students
B 4G Enabled education and MOOC
before advancing and completing the content part in a series
Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOC) are assisted of flipped classes. Sometimes the students feel more
and are finding new dimensions owing to 4G Technology. comfortable in conventional classrooms.
MOOC is about learning, working and collaborating — A Flipped Classroom is a big responsibility. The teacher
locally as well as globally. MOOC is intended for anyone has to assume the students participating in the session need
and everyone who wishes to participate (with certain pre- to work out from root level. This calls for extending the
requisites). There are great possibilities to use MOOC for curriculum beyond prescribed content with a few supporting
education, work and for personal enrichment. additions.
Lifelong learning is an essential PO of OBE. MOOC
connects workplace and higher education making lifelong A Flipped Class - experimentation
learning possible. One of the laboratory exercises in the course of Fluid
4G technology offers high data transfer rate. With high Mechanics and Machinery (FMM 22445) is “Dismantle and
definition mobile device capabilities and higher resolution assemble a reciprocating pump”.
digital cameras, this technology is proving useful in video Because of complexity of the exercise and considering
blogs. Video blogs (Vlogs) are interactive and descriptive. the dexterity required for undertaking the task, the author
Video blogs enhance persuasion ability and are more decided to use Flipped Class technique.
effective as teaching tools. NPTEL and www.edx.org offer Professional videographers were hired to shoot entire
many courses where vlogs are effective used. dismantling and assembly process. Competent technicians
The technique is also quite useful in conventional from the pump servicing company were invited to perform
system of OBE. A GOOGLE search result is presented the exercise.
below (Fig. 6) as an example. Small snippets of videos were recorded without voice
over. These videos were indexed and numbered in order.
The videos were shown to the students during a video
lecture session. The author gave running account of every
step taken by the technicians (Fig. 7).
Fig. 6 MEEM Vlog: Video Blog Archive of Mechanical Engineering at
Michigan Tech

IV FLIPPED CLASSROOM
To put the concept in simple words, a Flipped Class-
room can be described as where the students will :
z learn the new content outside the conventional class-
room,
z note down the difficulties they have during understanding
the content,
z work out on the set goals prescribed by the teacher, Fig. 7 Video lecture session - part of Flipped Classroom
National Conference on Exploring New Dimensions in Teaching Learning for Quality Education

These videos were made available to the students after extra efforts on a particular assignment / experiment.
the video lecture and a period of one week was given to the The marking scheme C,P and A (Cognitive, Psycho-
students to learn the contents. motor and Affective domain marks) helps to reduce attribute
During the next conventional classroom session the part from the assessment.
students were asked to perform the exercise in group of four As one other method of ensuring the effective content
students each. transfer to the students, the author maintains course content
It was observed that, barring a few exceptions all the coverage record. This record addresses to CO as well as UO
students performed the exercise with alacrity. for individual units (Fig. 9).

V ASSESSMENT
Although various techniques are used to follow OBE in
engineering, the aim of entire task at hand is to produce
competent engineers.
The level of competency of the students at the end of
the course decides success rate. The data available at the
end of course is mostly of attribute nature than of variable
nature. This is due to the case that the course outcomes are
described as : “The student will be able to ......”, without any
mention of proficiency.
To make the students aware of what exactly is expected
of them and at what level of proficiency, the author uses a
cover page, designed so as to make the students alert about
the expectations (Fig. 8). The innocuous information on the
cover page : Total number of pages helps students to decide
whether they have taken shortcuts or spent unnecessary

Fig. 9 Course content coverage record

V CHOICE BASED CREDIT SYSTEM

To bring uniformity in assessment policies across all
central as well as state universities in India the UGC
proposed Choice Based Credit System.
The system has four types of courses that a student can
select. These are Core, Elective, Foundation and Non Credit
courses.
The Credit Count and Grading is in compliance with
global grading system.
The CBCS has numerous advantages, namely —
z Cafeteria approach
z Preferred learning
z Pace matching
z Possibility of acquiring additional credits
z University migration is easier
z Skill enhancement scope is higher
z Improved job opportunities
z Grades have same cognizance
However, the CBCS has some drawbacks also, like need
of strong and proper infrastructure; uncertainty in utility of
acquired credits and unavailability of proper teacher for a
Fig. 8 Cover page for assignments and experiments particular credit course.
National Conference on Exploring New Dimensions in Teaching Learning for Quality Education

VI LEARNING - UNLEARNING - RELEARNING http://www.me.mtu.edu/videos.html

The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study,
experience, or being taught culminates to learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJOESS9VSzw
Learning is done mainly for survival, fear and carrying
out rituals. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/9/a-rubric-for-evaluat-
The perspective of learning experience may change over ing-e-learning-tools-in-higher-education
a period of time. This transition may be is a result of shift in
required skills, departure from concepts or discord.
The mechanism involved in above mentioned process
is unlearning and relearning.
Unlearning is to make an effort to forget your usual
way of doing something so that you can learn a new and
more effective technique which helps you to survive or over-
come fear or to relinquish rituals.
A fresh approach to old problem / situation, demands
exploring different avenues; start thinking in diverse
manner for achieving or acquiring the goals.
Most of the times, the procedure of phrasing questions
for exploring contents of acquired knowledge leads to
relearning. Relearning is basically to learn something again,
which may be forgotten and to do so in contemporary
manner to befit current needs.

References

Book (e-print) :
[01] Biggs, J. 2007. ‘Designing intended learning outcomes’
[Ch. 5, # 72]. Teaching for Quality Learning at University,
(Ed. 3). Society for Research into Higher Education. Open
University Press, McGraw-Hill Education, McGraw-Hill
House, Shoppenhangers Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, En-
gland SL6 2QL

Web reference :

https://www.myklassroom.com/blog/4-things-to-know-
about-outcome-based-education/

http://www.ascd.org/publications/curriculum_handbook/
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Based_Education.aspx

http://cei.ust.hk/teaching-resources/outcome-based-educa-
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https://thejournal.com/Articles/2014/02/03/10-Major-Tech-
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https://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/india/digital-educa-
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https://edtechnology.co.uk/Blog/five-ways-4g-lte-technol-
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https://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/
Long-Term-Evolution-LTE