Institutional Distinctiveness

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY AND SFGC PARTNERSHIP FOR SPOKEN TUTORIAL MOOC TRAINING PROGRAMME

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, the internationally renowned institution, and Seshadripuram First Grade College are in partnership for software education to bridge the digital divide. This tie-up is a distinctive feature of SFGC- a distinction which has immensely benefited our students and taken this institution to a higher level of distinction. Across academic circles, this institution is the Cynosure of a eyes, thanks to its enduring association with IIT BOMBAY.

The Spoken Tutorial MOOC Training Programme (ST), envisaged and designed by IITBOMBAY, is an initiative of the National Mission on Education through ICT, Ministry of Education, Government of India, and officially launched on 26th January 2010. Its mission is to spread IT literacy all over the country.

SFGC embraced the IITBOMBAY 's ST Programme for the integration of skill-training into regular programmes of the college, and for providing a platform to students to nurture the IT skills, and thereby empower them to face the challenges of their academic and professional career. The letter of, association as Knowledge Partner Spoken Tutorial MOOCS Training Programme has been received by this institution.

The Spoken Tutorial Project's features are remarkably innovative:

• Self-explanatory: uses simple language
• Audio-video: uses multi- sensory approach
• Short duration: better retention
• Leamer-centric: students learn at their pace
• Learn by doing: Learn and practice simultaneously
• Empowerment: Learn a new FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open-Source Software)

This educational content portal enables students to learn Free and Open-Source Software all by themselves. The self-paced, multilingual courses ensure that anybody can learn from any place, at any time in the language of their choice. All course content is shared under the CC BY SA License. The ST courses of IIT BOMBAY are simple and easy to follow. They meet the learners needs at all levels: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. Active learning is ensured through the combination of theory and practice. The software is resourceful in its applicability potential for Engineering, pure sciences, Commerce, Arts and Management. It can be used by teachers to prepare lesson plans, explain abstract concepts and give digital assignments to students.

At the institution level, ST learning is curated by the institution's faculty, who teach students in batches; they teach a particular software for an entire semester, mapping it to the Course / Lab manuals. Regular college timetable permitting, a student can learn up to three different courses in a semester.

End-of course, online tests and certificates are awarded to those who successfully pass the test of their expertise in a particular software. These certificates give an edge to students during placement by increasing their employment potential and stand them in good stead at their workplace.

ST, the audio- video tutorial, is created using the screen cast methodology where the face of the person creating the video is not captured, but the students are shown the lesson to learn. The Spoken part ST is dubbed into all Indian languages, and one can use ST to learn a topic, called a tutorial. This distinguishes ST from other video tutorials. It can be used in offline mode as well, and hence is handy to those who do not have access to the Internet. ST has heightened the levels of teaching-learning in this institution through ICT based pedagogic tools. Indeed, an ST-partnered institution holds all the aces in IT.

The ST Project Team conducts workshops on FLOSS software, using spoken tutorials, and certifies those who successfully complete the programme. Part of the Project is a beginner-friendly FORUM which answers specific questions pertaining to any part of a particular tutorial.

In the academic year 2016-17, the Spoken Tutorial MODCS programme was conducted for the final year BCA students. Members of the Computer Science faculty were deployed to conduct the Tutorial. Training commenced on 10/1/2017. Classes were held in the computer lab on all working days. Study materials were provided to the course participants. This initial batch comprised 77 students. After a six-week training regime, online examination was conducted remotely from IITBOMBAY on 7/3/2017. Those who successfully completed the course, and the exams were awarded course completion certificates. Feedback was collected from the course participants. It is par for the course that the programme elicited very positive feedback.

During the next academic years, the institution carried forward the partnership with IITBOMBAY for the ST Project for the final year BCA students and extended in response to students' enthusiasm - to BSc and BCA students of the second year.

The academic year 2019-20 witnessed an increased interest among students for the ST PROJECT - hence it was extended to final year BCA, BSc and second year BCA students. IITBOMBAY continued to stand by and motivate this institution to train students in computer skills, software and IT, offering Rs 25000 to the college. Exam was conducted online, and successful course participants were awarded certificates. Positive feedback was received from the participants.

Encouraged by the feedback from course participants, the ST Project was carried forward during the academic year 2020-21 – despite COVID – for the second and final year BCA students. Higher programming language JAVA for BCA final year students and Advanced CPP for second year students helped them understand the application level of a higher-level language. The course was successfully completed, online exam was conducted, and successful participants were awarded certificates.

CONCLUSION

The IITBOMBAY – SFGC partnership, spanning several years, has proved to be tremendously beneficial: this institution and succeeding batches of our students have derived colossal leverage from this unique relationship. Besides, this tete-a-tete between two outstanding institutions is an endorsement, a recognition, of the prestige of this institution, its state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, resources – both human and physical – its commitment to academic excellence, that the internationally ranked technology institution, IIT BOMBAY, has come forward for this tryst with SFGC.

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