Choice based Credit system (CBCS): A Vision to redesign Education System

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has taken many initiatives from time to time, for the comprehensive development of the Higher Education System. With the introduction of New Education Policy (NEP) by The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India, CBCS has become the buzzword issued by UGC and followed by Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) that unwraps excellent opportunities to accomplish the learning outcomes of the education.

What is Choice based Credit system (CBCS)?

CBCS is a flexible methodology of learning. In accordance with the regulations of CBCS, students are free to choose their courses from the approved categories, incorporating core, elective or skill-based courses. CBCS pushes the envelope for holistic development of youth by showing them routeways to ability enhancement and skill development by learning the courses of their interest beyond the core subjects.

Need of Choice based Credit system (CBCS)

UGC has always aimed to bring equity, efficiency and academic excellence in the Higher Education System by taking innovative measures in continuous improvement of course curricula, pedagogical practices, examination and evaluation system. Our traditional evaluation system is based on the marks or percentage which obstructs the students’ learning in terms of their choice and mobility, which results in unconfident and under-skilled youth. So, it has become a fundamental necessity to develop a student-centric education strategy and adopt a world-wide followed evaluation system. In light of the present alarming situations, UGC proposed the implementation of CBCS in Universities and devised the practical solutions considering their flexibility and freedom in designing vital academic elements. CBCS will open up the gates of the global mobility and learning of students with best educational practices.

Advantages of Choice based Credit system (CBCS)

∙ CBCS provides a paradigm shift in the Education model from the teacher-centred to learner-centric.

∙ CBCS allows students to embark on the credits, they can put up with in a semester without any compulsion to earn the fix credits

∙ CBCS provides flexibility to students to learn inter-disciplinary, intra-disciplinary and skill-oriented subjects of their own choice and at their own pace

∙ CBCS brings global uniformity in the grading system where students are allowed to earn the combined credits of their chosen courses.

∙ CBCS empowers the worldwide education of students and eases their institutional transfer of credits, if someone chooses to study at different institutions at different times.

How iCloudEMS simplifies the implementation of Choice based Credit system (CBCS) in HEIs?

NEP has emphasised on the holistic development of a child and bridging the gap between academia and industry. So, the accurate implementation of CBCS has become the need of the hour for effective transformation of the Education system.

iCloudEMS assists the institutes in putting their efforts into practice towards methodical execution of CBCS guidelines with its following salient attributes:

• Interactive dashboards for the students to opt their desired core and elective subjects.
• Cloud platform to create and manage units of students to store their data and records in conjunction with their opted courses.
• Intelligent approach towards the effortless course and respective faculty allotment.
• Innovative credits assignment and calculation techniques for different course combinations.
• Computerization of imperative academic operations such as timetable generation, assignment uploading, attendance taking and many more.
• Endorsement of student-centric learning with its unique features to design and map learning outcomes with students’ performance.
  

iCloudEMS takes the utmost care of visionary requirements of HEIs and offers unified solutions to upgrade the institutes on par with global academic standards.

Schedule a demo with us — http://www.icloudems.com/contact-us/

Identifying the Challenges faced by Academics in the Educational Institutions due to Online Classes

With the advent of the online learning system, academics are facing problems and witnessing challenges as it has become compulsory to acquire IT skills for an effective teaching and learning system. Many distinguished researchers have opined that the internet offers a plethora of opportunities and assures flexibility for the learners if they try to explore its aspects and vast management system. In Online learning or education, students remain at home and use their home computers, laptops, mobiles etc. to attend classes. In the recent time of pandemic, online teaching and learning has become trendy as educational institutions aren’t left with any other choice but conduction of effective classes considering all the aspects of Outcome-based education system. Institutes are trying to fill the gaps and minimize the losses of students caused by this unfortunate pandemic but outcomes of online classes are posing some challenges for the learners as well as the educators. 

Challenges faced by the students due to online classes are:

• Adaptability: Students find it tough to get adapted to an online learning environment as they are accustomed to traditional classroom teaching. Due to this sudden change, they didn’t get time to prepare themselves and mould their mind-set accordingly. It becomes very difficult for them to focus in the class and understand the topics being taught 
  
• Technical Issues: Many students are not equipped with a high internet facility that is integral for online classes. Students, who live in interior or backward areas, face difficulties in attending continuous lectures for 5 to 6 hours. In addition to that, it is not necessary that all the students possess IT skills and they can get technical issues by themselves. They have to rely on others for their assistance so that they can attend the classes. Due to serious technical problems, students may face difficulty in downloading subject related information, clear videos, Examination question papers, etc.  
  
• Lack of Computer Knowledge: Acquiring computer knowledge and becoming techno-friendly is the need of the hour. There are many students who can’t work on basic computers with MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint and in case any technical issue arises, they are unable to resolve it. There are so many steps to be learnt before and while attending online classes like timely login, usage of appropriate icons, joining the class, answering in between, writing texts, understanding communication related apps and websites, creating and submitting work, communication with friends and teachers, browsing study materials etc.  
  
• Time Management: Online learning is completely new for everyone and demands intensive work. Students find it difficult to manage their time with online classes as they need a scheduled planner to organize their time in an effective way. Although online classes provide flexible timings, still there are possibilities that few students may face difficulties in adjusting to the time required for online classes. 
  
• Self-Motivation: Accepting the fact that your home has become your space of work is quite difficult for the students because they nurture new hopes and dreams related to university campus. Coming to college, attending classes, meeting friends, interacting with teachers etc. all play an integral role in personality building which is not possible by staying within the four walls of one’s home. 
  
• Lack in Communication: Students’ communication skills weaken during online classes as teachers give assignments based on reading and writing but what about speaking activities. During online classes, only few students interact with teachers and the rest remain silent for various reasons. They feel shy to communicate with their teachers and friends due to the new model of learning. It might happen due to lack of interest, poor technological skills with apps and video calls or unable to express themselves via live chats, emails or text messages.
  
• Need of Feedback: Every student requires feedback for their performance presented during the online learning process so that they can improve themselves. In traditional mode of teaching, teachers give regular feedbacks based on students’ class tests, semester exams, practical exams etc. but in online classes students hardly take efforts to go to their portals and see the suggestions and comments on their assignments and as a result it becomes difficult for them to understand the remarks and improve their performance by implementing the suggestions. 
  

Challenges faced by the teachers due to online classes are:

• Engagement of students: Keeping students engaged and interested in online classes is a big challenge for all the teachers. They tend to get distracted and lose focus mostly because teachers are unable to see each and every student onscreen at one time. Many students keep their videos off which creates a sense of dissatisfaction as teachers can’t know if all the students are understanding the topics or not. 
  
• Communication gap: The more detailed the syllabus, the easier to communicate to the students. Sometimes teachers are not given enough time for the preparation of content for their students. And also there are students who avoid communication with teachers during online learning. Online teaching is like communicating without body language, so students might misunderstand and can result in their poor performance. Sometimes students might ask for an extension for their work or give any excuse for the delay. 
  
• Assessment & Evaluation as assessment of students and their grading play a key role in the education system. In online learning, students are provided with MCQs which is still feasible but not actually effective. Real learning is measured by subjective questions for which teachers have to design questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and direct students to upload their answer sheet in the virtual classroom. But if that teacher teaches different subjects in different programs, it would be an uphill task for them to download all the answer sheets, evaluate them and then upload the marks. 
  
• Gaps in the Course Content created according to Outcome-based education system: Teachers are supposed to deliver the lectures, design activities, conduct assessments which can lead to outstanding results and successful mapping of Course outcomes with Program outcomes but there are few Program outcomes which require industrial exposure, practical knowledge etc. which are difficult to accomplish during online classes. Moreover, students won’t take such activities seriously and will try to finish them by copying from different resources as their focus will shift from self & skills improvement to getting passing marks. 
  

To conclude, we can say that it is high time for all the educational institutes to make an effort towards enhancing the efficacy of fully online and blended learning in order to achieve students’ learning outcomes. Many faculty members are unaware of the fact that online classes can result in effective learning gains in comparison to physical classroom teaching. Hence, they should be given proper training so that they can equip themselves with IT tools for creating innovative teaching activities for smooth functioning of classes. This is the reason, educational institutions are getting inclines towards ERP Software and iCloudEMS has emerged with its automated digitized products to manage the services of College & University ERP which can enhance student learning making class schedule management easier, fast uploading & downloading of assignments, projects etc., proctored online exams conduction etc.

New Education Policy (NEP): A Pledge to bring all round excellence in Higher Education

New Education Policy (NEP): A Pledge to bring all round excellence in Higher Education

Imparting high quality Education to an individual, shapes the bright future of the society, the nation and the world says iCloudEMS. The mission of our Indian Education system has always been the universal access to the best educational practices for comprehensive development goals on the subject of economic growth, civil rights, technology advancement, national integration, and cultural preservation.

With the expansion of the world’s knowledge sphere in the dimensions of latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and many more, it has become inevitable to produce a skilled workforce with multidisciplinary knowledge.

New Education Policy (NEP)-2020

Our current education system is lagging behind to cope with the fast pace of globalization and technology advancements. The Union Cabinet approved New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 with the vision to provide High quality Education to all irrespective of social and economic background. NEP paves the way towards scientific innovation and quality enhancement to make India, a knowledge superpower at global level.

Higher Education and NEP

Higher education has its significant role towards sustainable national and global progress. Our current Higher Education system lacks the ability enhancement and skill development of youth, and there has also been no changes in the Education policies for thirty-four years. So, empowering equity, efficiency and academic excellence in Higher Education has become the need of the hour.

On July,29th 2020, first education policy of 21st century was sanctioned under the aegis of The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to bring transformational reforms in Education sector. NEP 2020 replaces the current National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and focuses on the holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary culture in Higher Education to bring out the unique capabilities of individuals.

The major area of thrust in NEP 2020 is related to the interdisciplinary, flexible and tech-savvy ecosystem in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). Following are the major reforms to be introduced in the present Higher Education System in line with new policy:

• Increase GER: The aim of NEP 2020 will be to escalate Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education including professional education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2030.
• Quality Enhancement in Universities and Colleges: The major steps undertaken towards all round Quality Enhancement of HEIs include:
• Heading towards growing the number of multi-disciplinary HEIs with at least one in or near every district;
• Moving towards a more interdisciplinary undergraduate learning;
• Working towards faculty and institutional autonomy;
• Revision and Revamping of all vital elements including curricula, pedagogy, assessment, evaluation and student support
• Establishment of a central body titled as The National Research Foundation to seed and cultivate quality research culture in universities and colleges.
• Board of Governance. to govern Academic, administrative and financial autonomy of HEIs.
• Establishment of an Academic Bank of Credit to digitally store the earned credits of individual from different HEIs.
• A single ‘light but tight’ regulatory framework for HEIs to protect integrity, transparency and resource efficiency.
• Motivating Inclusion, Access and Equity through various innovative measures comprising open schooling, online education and Open Distance Learning and scholarship provision at private/philanthropic universities for needy students.
  
• Upgraded Institutional Structure
  

A multidisciplinary and vibrant Higher Education culture has been envisioned with large and well-resourced institutions. Transformation of HEIs into large multidisciplinary universities and colleges to end fragmentation that offer undergraduate and graduate programmes and aiming to have 3,000 or more students. Universities will allow a range of institutions from Research Intensive Universities, Teaching-intensive universities and Autonomous degree granting Colleges (ACs) that will offer high quality teaching, research, and community engagement. Affiliation system will be eased in upcoming years and autonomy to colleges will be granted through a transparent and stage-wise mechanism of graded accreditation will be granted Accreditation. Over a few years every college is expected to develop into either an Autonomous degree granting College, or a constituent college of a university.

• More focus towards Holistic development
  

Holistic Arts Education is at the centre of NEP 2020 for all-round development of students. To strengthen holistic development, the choice of students will be preferred in opting engaging courses by multidisciplinary universities and colleges. Curriculum, pedagogical practices, assessment and evaluation, all vital components of academics are revamped taking cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary thinking into account and for significantly less rote learning. Students will be provided internship opportunities with local industry, businesses, artists, crafts persons, villages and local communities, etc., to enhance their practical learning skills and for better employability options. Students will also be able to undergo research internships at any HEIs or research institutions.

• Internationalisation
  

With a multidisciplinary and flexible approach, NEP 2020 aims to increase students’ mobility at global level to study, transfer credits, or to do research at foreign institutions or vice versa. India is aimed to be promoted as a global study destination offering affordable premium education. High performing Indian Universities will therefore be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries and top foreign universities will be motivated to operate in India. A legislative structure will be composed for such universities and special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms will be given to them on par with other autonomous institutions of India.

• Student Participation and Support
  

A large number of participation opportunities in sports, culture/arts clubs, eco-clubs, activity clubs, community service projects, etc will be offered to students at all levels. All HEIs will have to make sure of the high-quality medical facility along with a counselling system to handle stress and emotional disturbances. More efforts will be put to galvanize merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs. Private HEIs will be encouraged to offer considerable number of scholarships to their students

• Reframing Teacher Education:
  

Considering the significance of creating a team of motivated and energized faculty members, NEP gives equal importance to reframing teacher education also. To prioritize integrity and credibility necessary to meet the prestige level of the teaching profession, the regulatory system is empowered to pull the plug on inoperative teacher education institutions that are not capable of meeting fundamental educational requisites.

Additionally, by 2030, the 4-year multidisciplinary and integrated B. Ed will be made as a minimum degree qualification for school teachers.

• Professional Education
  

Professional Education will become an indispensable element of higher education and thus it must also involve multidisciplinary knowledge and research. The existing stand-alone professional education institutes such as technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities are envisioned to become multi-disciplinary institutions by 2030, either by introducing new departments or by evolving into clusters. The standards of professional skills viz. technical, health and legal education are to be reconstructed to meet the globally competitive challenges.

• Enkindling High Quality Research
  

NEP 2020 focuses on catalysing high quality research culture in HEIs of India to find the solutions of real-world challenges. National Research Foundation (NRF) will be set up as an apex body to support funding and recognizing outstanding research in institutes. It aims for the comprehensive initiatives to permeate through universities and higher education institutions across India. NRF aims to cultivate research environments at State Universities and other public institutions where to expand their research capabilities. NRF shall also empower research in all academic disciplines viz. science, technology, social sciences, arts, and humanities to enhance multidisciplinary research and innovation across India.

• Technology-driven Education
  

NEP 2020 includes various innovative measures to nurture the mutual relationship between Technology and Education. Extensive use of technology to improve teaching and learning practices is to be promoted that eliminates language barriers for better educational planning and management. National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be established as an autonomous body to enhance the intellectual and institutional capacities of technology use in teaching and learning by providing a platform to enhance technology-driven landscape in HEIs. New directions will be formulated for Research and Innovation to ensure the integrated educational technology in an active learning environment. The accessibility of wide variety software will be increased for both students and teachers at all levels. Schools and HEIs will be motivated to incorporate Technology-based education platforms, such as DIKSHA/SWAYAM for utilizing user-friendly and qualitative e-content at their own comfort.

• Online Education and Digital Education:
  

Preparedness for online and distance education in terms of digital content, infrastructure and capabilities as an alternative mode will be safeguarded to support uninterrupted learning through unprecedented situations of epidemics and pandemics when chalk-and-board model does not work.

• Restructuring Regulation Mechanism
  

Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be evolved as a central entity to promote the synergy among the four essential functions of regulation, accreditation, funding, and academic standard with independent bodies towards common goals. It will cover four dedicated verticals comprising National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) as a single point regulator at prime matters for the higher education sector including teacher education and excluding medical and legal education. Second is the ‘meta-accrediting body’, called the National Accreditation Council (NAC) for standard setting and supporting graded accreditation. Third vertical of HECI will be the Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC), which will consolidate funding and financing of higher education based on development plans and execution on the same to maintain transparency of the system. The fourth vertical of HECI will be the General Education Council (GEC), which will structure expected graduated attributes or learning outcomes for higher education programmes in sync with the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) working towards the skill enhancement in Higher Education.

The regulatory body will function through an unbiased involvement through technology for regulation & will have powers to chastise HEIs not compliant to guidelines.

• Promotion of Indian languages
  

More programmes in Higher education will be promoted to ensure the use of mother tongue/local language as a medium of instruction, and/or offer programmes bilingually, on account to improve GER and also to empower, usage, and vitality of all Indian languages.

• A National Mentoring Platform shall be created, with a large team senior/retired faculty who would be willing to facilitate short and long-term mentoring/professional support to teachers of colleges and universities
  

Some ground implementation challenges faced by HEIs in course of the implementation of NEP includes:

• Increasing GER demands the opening of HEIs at an exponential rate which is actually a herculean task.
• Redesigning of curriculum, which demands a number of trained faculty staff to understand the advanced pedagogical needs to deliver the required values.
• Supporting an inter-disciplinary system in HEIs calls for a cultural-shift from a traditional departmentalized paradigm to a multi-disciplinary one in all aspects.
• Digitization of campus is not a cake walk for the institutes in rural areas and requires a considerable time and investment of the resources.
• No fixed pathway or deadlines to bring uniformity in following the guidelines of New Education Policy nationwide.
  

The solution to overcome the above-mentioned challenges is to utilize the resources in creating a technology-enabled infrastructure to reform the educational framework. An integrated Education management system can help HEIs to enter in a digital era and cater the needs of all stakeholders while ensuring integrity, transparency and security of the system.

iCloudEMS is a market leader, offering a versatile cloud-based platform that provides unified solutions to furnish all the requirements to align the workflow in accordance to NEP regulations with its following key features:

• A web-based digital space to store massive data and records for quick and effortless access and process of required information.
• Innovative services to Empower the student-centric learning paradigm by designing and mapping learning outcomes with students’ performance.
• Smart solutions to perform imperative academic functions such as attendance record, timetable preparation, assignment uploading and many more with a couple of clicks only.
• Endorsement of opting and allotting desired courses and associated credits pursuant to holistic and multidisciplinary culture.
• Computerization of groundwork of regulatory exercises to save valuable time and efforts of the staff in performing repeated and tedious tasks.
• Student-lifecycle management system, to integrate the entire academic journey of all students on a dashboard.
• Interactive Learning management system to create engaging courses and delivery with modern teaching-learning practices.
• Online Classes and Examinations system to overcome classroom barriers and promising high-quality education even during critical situations.
• User-friendly and Easy to understand portal with full time training and assistance for the end users.
  

We are witnessing the power of technology in a global pandemic and now it’s the best time for the Education Institutes to invest in the digital empowerment of the campus. iCloudEMS can be a boon companion to improve the institutional management and streamline the institutional activities to upgrade the administrative and non-administrative standards with its cutting-edge technologies.

Various Challenges and Solutions to overcome them in using Learning Management System

In today’s world of technology, E-leaning has become an integrable organ of Education System and to reap the benefits of E-learning various versatile digital platforms have been developed, Learning Management System (LMS) is one of them.  LMS is a cloud-based technology that is designed to improvise pedagogy as it offers creativity and innovation in teaching and learning practices.

Despite the benefits of incorporating LMS in education system, there are some challenges or barriers faced by the institutes while implementing LMS. Here are some issues that are essential to recognize before implementation.

1. Training of Instructors

It is essential to provide complete training to the instructors before using the technology. An adequate training will increase confidence and comfort of the facilitator which can overcome the frustration and save the time for more important assignments. But the training provision is generally overlooked and instructors deal the issues themselves with hit and trail approaches.

2. Integration with traditional methods

A new technology is always developed to save the time and effort than that was consumed with the existing ones. But at many places, it has always observed that people like to stay with the hybrid approach. So, the teachers must be comfortable to use their own resources integrated with LMS to cater to personal requirements and save their precious time.

3. Management of Education content

In the era of remote learning the digital platform must be well-equipped with the features of organizing and distributing education content. So, the LMS to be used must be versatile in providing course content creation and distribution feature so that both teachers and students can share and access the information anytime and anywhere that can eliminate the limitation of face-to-face interaction for effective learning.

4. Interaction between Teacher and Students

An efficient learning platform is one that allows effective communication between teacher and students and bridges the learning gap. So, effective interaction is a common issue which is required to be considered to avoid undesired confusion and achievement of learning goals.

Solutions to prevent the Issues

The Challenges mentioned above are difficult to face for an institute but with the adequate planning and implementation we can go for right LMS and the experienced facilitators to serve the required purpose.  The following measures can be taken to avoid daunting experience of LMS in the institute

1. Proper Leadership

The implementation of LMS must be supported by proper leadership of the institute to ensure that  staff and students have access to right information and its understanding every time which can be beneficial for both students and teachers.

2. Knowledge of workflow

It is very important to be thoroughly aware of the workflow and work culture of the institute before implementing the LMS, to ensure the path of Blended Learning which can enable E-learning and also improvise the classroom setting using digital platform for course creation and delivery to adopt the hybrid system chosen by faculty member for their comfort and enhancement of their productivity in achieving their goals.

3. Features of Existing technology

The Institute must explore all the features of existing software before choosing and making use of new technology to ensure the best use LMS by either its sole implementation or integrating it with the existing one. By doing so, one can be benefitted with itsall capabilities and avoid any unnecessary issues caused by its limitations.

4. Provision of Training and Support Structure

The successful execution of technology is possible with its adequate training to users. So, there must be provision of support structure in an institute so that the adequate training of LMS can be offered to staff members. The information and training provision should always be available when required by staff members so that system can be benefitted with maximum understanding of the features and efficiencies of LMS.

Conclusion: With the growing use of information and technology, integration of software like LMS has become the need of the hour for education sector. There are many daunting challenges expected to be faced with the use of LMS but these can’t become the barrier in learning if the technology is implemented with proper planning and preparation as mentioned above.