How to design the course file and how iCloudEMS simplifies its generation

Outcome-based Education(OBE) has become the buzzword in context with delivering quality education in Higher Education Institutes.The effective execution of OBE model demands the relevant curriculum design and effective teaching-learning processes that can demonstrate the acquired skills in students at the end of the program.

What is OBE and what is its need

William Spady is considered as the father of Outcome-Based Learning(OBE)and he might not have thought that his brain child would bringt ransb formation in Education sector. The basic principles of Outcome Based Education implementation include:

• Learner-centric – Learner governs his own learning and can measure his proficiency in his desired skill-set over time.
• Clear Expectations-The predefined specific outcomes clear the expectations of learning and foster the focus of learning.
• Scientifically design and delivery – OBE approach necessitates the curriculum design and delivery with a clear definition, including the expected outcomes and continuous mapping of the outcomes with the student’sperformance.
• Highexpectations–The ultimate focus of OBEis to enable learners to give the highest level of performance for which teachers should always be available as facilitators to motivate and guide to lead the path of success.

• Diverse opportunities –OBE does not allow to follow ‘One size fit all’ approach, thus make the students learn at their own pace. Such flexible learning expands the range of diverse learning opportunities according to their interests and needs of students. 
  

Thus, Outcome based education (OBE) is learner-centered education framework that tracks the learning trajectory of students by measuring knowledge, skills and attitudes of students through learning outcomes during the course of the program. The accreditation bodies such as NAAC, NBA etc. have mandated the OBE implementation in Higher Education to empower the practical and flexible learning than memorize and reproduce the content.

Various features of OBE include:

• OBE framework focuses on the right teaching-learning of students in line with the skills they should develop after they are taught.
• OBE encompasses the framing of curriculum, teaching practices, assessment and results that can clearly reflect the capabilities or qualitiesof students rather than mere a credit count.
• Discourages traditional education approaches based on direct instruction of facts and standard methods.
• It encourages the demonstration of acquired knowledge and skills of students that they have learnt during the program.
  

Limitations of our traditional Education System are:

• The instruction content and delivery are more schedule and time based rather than results based.
• More focus is on rote learning than the achievement of 21^st century competencies.
• The graduates do not get the sufficient exposure to soft skills, interpersonal skills, analytical skills and working attitude.
  

Measures to implement OBE in Higher Education Institutes are as follows:

• Define Vision and Mission statement of the department taking the reference of Vision/Mission statement of the Institute.
• Next Program Educational Objectives(PEOs) and Program Specific Objectives (PSOs) are designed considering the defined Vision and Mission statements.
• Map Mission Statements with Program Educational Objectives(PEOs)
• Design program outcomes considering the expected analytical abilities of students.
• Map Program Educational Objectives with Program outcomes
• Define course outcomes in compliance with Bloom’s Taxonomy for each Course
• Map COs with POs appropriate to the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Design instructional strategies for each topic
• Map topics of a course with its Cos.
• Derive test items or rubrics for each CO of each course
• Define delivery methods for each topic/COs
• Prepare session-wise plan for the courses
• Design questions in the framework of Bloom’s Taxonomy levels & other guidelines outcomes related guidelines.
• Track students’ performance by proposing proper remedial measures to redesign teaching strategies.
• Map and evaluate students’ performance against CO threshold,course-wise
• Semester-wise mapping and evaluation of students’ performance against PO parameters.
• Incorporate direct/indirect assessment tools to measure the attainment of each PO.
• Compare PO attainment for the previous three academic years and take remedial actions for continuous quality improvement
• Finally assess the attainment of Program outcomes and Learning objectives.
  

The approach to implement Outcome based learning can be summarized as:

• Systematically design and develop Outcome Based Curriculum.
• Develop appropriate ICT based Pedagogy Framework Tools to train faculty members to design, develop, monitor and review curricula based on the Industry / Expert feedback.
• Include references to appropriate learning material for all define outcomes, include case study, unsolved problem and resources in the respective outcome.
• Include adequate number of nontrivial practice problems, assignments etc. matching every course outcome to allow students to test their learning success.
  

Many accreditation bodies such as NBA in its criteria 2 has asked the details of  program curriculum teaching-learning processes undertaken throughout the semester and such data is to be maintained for several years that mandates the faculty of Higher Education Institutes to design a compiled documentation that comprises all the details of batch and its various attributes like curriculum design, delivery, assessment, evaluation, reinforcement of Teaching/Learning Processes, and continuous improvement records to reflect the level of attainment of course outcomes. For the actualization of OBE model in Higher Education Institutes, it is necessary to have all the data and reports of students and courses, so that the learning trajectory can be tracked and effectiveness of program can be gauged according to the results of outcomes’ accomplishment.

The course file is enriched on three dimensional scales of all the academic and details of the course taught in a semester. But creating and maintaining course file is challenging and a time-consuming effort of the instructors. iCloudEMS is a digital assistant of the instructors in simplifying the rigorous procedures in the present technofix era. We offer leading-edge products to automate all the imperative academic functions including course file generation. Our cloud-based platform provides unified solutions to store, access and process huge amount of generated data and records of courses, faculty and students. Faculty can retrieve all the necessary details with a couple of clicks only and can tailor their course file under the framework of OBE and Bloom’s taxonomy.

Checklist of the necessary details and statistics that are required to be hold in a course file

• Vision and Mission of University
• Vision and Mission of Department
• Academic calendar of University and School
• Time table faculty & Class
• Course syllabus
• POs, PSOs, PEOs & COs
• CO-PO-PSO Mapping
• Lecture plan
• List of students
• Tutorial Sheets & Assignments with sample solutions
• Question Paper for Quizzes, Sessional and End term Examination
• Evaluated Answer Scripts with award sheets to reflect attainment level of outcomes.
• Award sheet of assignments and End-semester examination with attainment.
• Study material for content beyond syllabus
• Innovative Teaching/Learning techniques used
• Attendance Report of the desired period
• Exhaustive Question Bank
• Sample Lecture Notes
• Course Exit Survey
• Various reports including Final Attainments, Result Analysis, and Feedbacks.
  

Role of iCloudEMS in generation of course file:

iCloudEMS allows to have an eagle view to all the latest and previous records on the dashboard of a faculty member that can be accessed with their specific credentials. Faculty can select and customize the data in accordance with the subject and batch of the required course file. With the help of iCloudEMS, it is no longer necessary to spend your important hours on this laborious task that can be easily completed in seconds only.

• We offer dashboard entry of students’ database with all their necessary personal and academic details at the admission stage that can be easily fetched any time for maintaining and updating records.
• We have automatic time table generation system to prepare multiple type of timetables i.e., class wise, room wise, faculty wise without any clashes and redundancy.
• We provide computerized course allotment utilities that assist to choose the desired courses with its associated credits scheme that can be retrieved and utilized for the required reports.
• Our OBE supported functionalities help the faculty members to design and map the assignments, question bank and end term examination in the framework of OBE and Bloom’s taxonomy that aligns the workflow in line with OBE guidelines.
• We deliver personalized learning management system to create online repository of lecture notes and other study material that can be easily downloaded for documentation of course file.
• We restrict the attendance marking on portal unless uploading of the digitized copy of lesson plan of with all the necessary details of the courses, that enables the instructors to easily create and access this important file.
• Our cybernated attendance marking system provides the statistical attendance reports at any time during the program.
• We provide managed services to the ERP of Higher Education System to automate and simplify the administrative and non-administrative tasks of Colleges and Universities.
• The Online Examination system of iCloudEMS fosters all examination and evaluation related data and reports in the OBE paradigm including all imperative COs-POs mapping analytical reports to gauge the abilities of students and empower continuous quality improvement.
• We deliver multiple survey and feedback features with powerful reporting tools to maintain and fetch as a course file component and enrichment of academic standards.
  

In a nutshell, it can be mentioned that iCloudEMS is built to offer hassle-free management of all the important activities in the Higher Education Institutes. It enables faculty members to be more creative and channelize their efforts in more productive way as we are here to take care in aligning their workflow in compliance with the visionary requisites and guidelines.