A Workshop on Quality Enhancement in Engineering Education (QEEE) Phase III
At IIT Madras
11th April 2015
A Workshop of QEEE Coordinators was held on 11th April, 2015 in the Electrical Engineering Block at IIT Madras . It was aimed at gathering college’s views/comments about the Phase III QEEE Program. QEEE Coordinators from all institutions were asked to consolidate the feedback from students, Course Coordinators and System Administrator who were part of the program at designated colleges. Ashwani Kumar represented Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida at the QEEE Workshop.
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala – Chairman QEEE, presided over the Workshop which started at 10:00AM after the registration of the QEEE Coordinators.
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala welcomed all the coordinators and asked the coordinators who were attending the session for the first time to introduce themselves. He said that the QEEE’s “Direct to Student (D2S)” program has completed three phases of implementation across institutions in India. He said that he was also looking at utilizing this opportunity to hear suggestions for improvement and collaboratively evolve the program for the Phase IV scheduled for August 2015- October 2015.
He then started the feedback session, asking each coordinator for their response. Coordinators in general appreciated IIT Madras’s initiative in QEEE and the effort being put in for conducting the classes. Following points came up for discussion.
# QEEE Forum
Prof. Jhunjhunwala suggested that local faculty should utilize the opportunity of interacting with the IIT faculty by using the QEEE Forum. Students should be encouraged to pose their question there.
QEEE CoursePack
Prof. Jhunjhunwala pointed out that not all students and local faculty are using the Course Pack. He said that the course pack contains notes as well as video lectures prepared by teachers of the country. This readily available resource must be put to maximum use.
# Vernacular Spoken Tutorial
Though English is desirable for one to become an effective programmer, Prof. Jhunjhunwala said that it should not become an hindrance for students coming from rural background. Hence QEEE has started Spoken Tutorial in vernacular languages and hence the participation of colleges should be encouraging.
# QEEE Labs
Several colleges pointed out that along with the theory subjects, Labs should also be made available. Prof. Jhunjhunwala said that he has started the discussion at appropriate level, and Labs may soon be included in QEEE.
# Session from industries
In order to give students an opportunity to have a feel of the work culture, requirement and preparedness, sessions with industry people will be organized.
# Syllabus mismatch
Colleges had a concern regarding variation of syllabus for certain subjects for different university. Prof. Jhunjhunwala opined that QEEE platform should be utilized to learn things. Rather than taking it as a platform of completing syllabus as per concerned university, faculty coordinators should take it as an opportunity to learn things being taught at national and global level.
# Mobile App : Mathematics
Prof. Jhunjhunwala said that Mobile Apps for Mathematics will soon be introduced by QEEE. At experimental level. It will be available to only a few colleges, whose local faculty will have to monitor timely submission of assignments by the students.
# Quiz
Quizzes are being removed from the Course Pack after a week of being uploaded. It was suggested and agreed by Dr. Jhunjhunwala that henceforth, the Quiz will be uploaded permanently but the evaluation of only those candidates will be done who submit them in stipulated time. Later on it may be used as reference or preparation by students and local faculty.
# Communication strategy
It was pointed out by coordinators that several mails from QEEE are being sent to concerned faculty coordinator only. Hence it becomes difficult to check its implementation. It was suggested and agreed upon that a copy will be marked to the QEEE Coordinator as well and in case a mail is being sent to QEEE Coordinator, then the copy will be marked to the Head of the Institution.
# QEEE Time Table
Several institutes raised the concern that while preparing the Time Table of QEEE, holidays should be avoided.
Dr. Jhunjhunwala responded saying that the Gazetted and important holidays are being considered while preparing the Time Table. But it was not possible for QEEE team to consider local holidays of each state. Hence such institutes should manage and hold QEEE lectures as scheduled. He also said that a few colleges had requested to reschedule the second half timing from 2:00 – 4:00 to 1:30 – 3:30. But unanimously it was decided to keep it unchanged.
The workshop concluded with distribution of Letter of Appreciation for Local Faculty for subjects where there were cent percent attendance. Letter of Participation were also given to the coordinators.