Title of the Practice:
Objectives of the Practice
Skill development is a vital tool to empower graduate and postgraduate students to safeguard their future and for their overall development as an individual. It is an important aspect that enhances employability in the present globalised world. Education and skills should now go hand in hand. Realizing the necessity of skill enhancement, Assumption College Autonomous has developed the ACSAD – a 30 Hours module- Programme for students with the following objectives:
The Context
Professional skills are part of life skills. One of the significant outcomes of higher education is to mould an individual suitable for the job and employment market. The undergraduate and postgraduate students are expected to demonstrate professional skills involving the use of intuitive, logical and critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, not limited to cognitive/creative skills. These skills, behaviour and quality of output enhance employability. Besides knowledge required for a particular job/occupation, and skills are also required for an individual to be gainfully employed for a successful and satisfied life. In this context the ACSAD Programme and the Enrichment Module is developed to make the students ready for employability.
The Practice
Skills development is the process of identifying the skill gaps among students and developing and honing these skills among them. ACSAD is an innovative venture of the Assumption College to impart necessary skills to the students to enhance their market readiness and to make them globally competent. In addition to the ACSAD programme, the college has introduced short Enrichment modules like Oral Communications Skills, Skill Development Programme in Handicrafts, Practice Test Series in Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude, MS Office and PC Hardware, Mushroom Cultivation Technique, Beauty Care, Hand Embroidery, Entrepreneurship Development, Basics in Conservation and Documentation, Fundamentals of Accounting, Personality Development, Grooming of Leaders, Basics of Web Page Designing etc. These programmes encourages students to build confidence in communication skills, group collaboration, cooperation and develop professional skills with joint effort and participation.
ACSAD was launched to motivate the students of the College for acquiring skills in their areas of interests. Its successful implementation has not only created enthusiasm about joining a skill programme but has also developed awareness and motivation among students for their achievements and success. Students get course completion certificates which are an additional qualification along with their UG/PG degrees. Total 15 courses were introduced during the academic year 2018-2019. Initiatives are taken to establish MoUs with external agencies for the successful conduct of these courses. Following are the ACSAD Courses conducted by various departments of the college.
Sl No. |
Name of the Course |
Department |
1 |
Certificate Course in Fundamental Computer Skills |
English |
2 |
Certificate Course in Museums and Archives: Basics in Conservation and Documentation |
History |
3 |
Certificate Course in Malayalam Computing |
Malayalam |
4 |
Certificate Course in Web Designing |
Computer Science |
5 |
Diploma Course in Computational Techniques & LaTeX |
Mathematics |
6 |
Certificate Course in Electronic Equipment Maintenance |
Physics |
7 |
Certificate Course in Modern Physicochemical Instrumental Methods of Analysis |
Chemistry |
8 |
Certificate Course in Mushroom Cultivation and Spawn Production |
Botany |
9 |
Diploma Course in Fundamentals of Soft Skills and Microbiology |
Zoology |
10 |
Diploma Course in Tailoring and Surface Ornamentation |
Home Science |
11 |
Certificate Course in Securities Operations and Risk Management |
Economics |
12 |
Certificate Course in Resist Techniques - Batik & Tie-Dye |
Fashion Technology |
13 |
Certificate Course in Disaster Management |
Social Work |
14 |
Certificate Course in Soft Skill Development Programme -‘U-Turn’ |
Commerce |
15 |
Certificate Course in Business Analytics |
Business Administration |
Classes for the ACSAD programme were arranged after the regular classes. Hence attending these classes were challenging for students due to the locational disadvantages.
Title of the Practice
Green Audit is conducted to make the entire college and the society understand through the students, as to how heavy is their carbon footprint, and help search for remediation and make their campuses and living surroundings as green as anybody can imagine. Green audit can also be a useful tool for a college to know how and where they are using the most of energy, water or other resources. The college can thus plan for the needed changes and ensure savings. It can also be used to improvise their waste minimization strategy. As environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue for the nation, the role of higher educational institutions in relation to environmental sustainability is more apparent. Through the joint efforts of teachers and students, supported by governmental policies, the underlying causes of climate change and its impacts could be studied, the conditions required for sustenance of life on earth preserved, and through them the health of nature also can be promoted. Over a period, the green culture will become the norm in society. Green Audit was conducted to achieve the following objectives:
Green Auditing is a new practice to be followed by all stakeholders including students and the teaching staff. One can speak of an educational campus as “green”, only if the performance audit encompasses the following aspects: Use of Water, Energy, Renewable etc. and the state of Health of all, Environmental Quality, Transportation & Communication as well as assessment on Accessibility for differently-abled, Gender Justice and the Carbon Footprint it leaves through all activities over a year coming under these areas. Green actually denotes a world full of all living beings-human, animals, plants and insects as well as all the useful and harmful microorganisms - that keeps life on this plant in peace, equity and balance. Students as future citizens are the ones going to be affected most adversely if we are unable to ensure the sustainability of our life support systems. They are the people to respond immediately to any upsetting events or calamities. They have also the ability to influence their families and the general public more effectively than anybody else. This audit is conducted to ensure that a Green Policy is followed and implemented in the campus across all academic and non-academic departments and the body of students undergoing studies in the College, so as to make all stakeholders aware of the need for individual efforts in perpetuating green living habits among the people of our country.
In 2018, the Green Audit of Assumption College Autonomous, Changanacherry, was carried out to educate every stakeholder of the institution, on the major contributors tending to destroy and on every step helpful to restoration, leading to the further flourishing of its green status. In order to meet the objectives of the audit, the methodology did combine physical inspection of the campus on several work days and holidays, with analytical reviews of relevant documents and activities, as well as interviews with the Principal, selected Staff and students of the College.
Assumption Green Audit 2018-19 has found that the institution’s per capita carbon footprint for the year is only 0.127 tons of CO2 equivalent, a level only one-twentieth of the current national per capita average, with the potential to develop into a carbon-neutral campus by adopting a dedicated Green Policy and having a commitment to continue its green practices with approved remediation practices in position. The Green Audit process for the Assumption College during 2018-19 involved the creation of a student volunteer corps in the form of Green Guardians Club, and an audit team with students, teachers, members from Administration and Parent Teacher Association, as well as a team of experts who have practised greening for years through the Nature’s Green Guardians Foundation (NGGFn). The results showed that, through the Green Protocol followed and the deep commitment of the management for maintaining a healthy environment in the college, the carbon footprint in 2018 is only at a very low level of 10% of the 2010 national benchmark.
Identifying and quantifying all the green initiatives implemented and practised in the college and the hostel was challenging. Due to location inside a small town, with only limited land area in hand, certain approaches for greening the campus is difficult to work with.
Title of the Practice:
Assumption College Autonomous adopted the outcome-based approach to quality assessment and curriculum improvement in 2019-2020. The outcomes-based approach is completely student-centred which focuses on what students know and can actually do. Outcome-based teaching and learning emphasize on the explicit declaration of learning outcomes which identifies the tasks that the students are expected to be able to perform after completing the course. Sharpening the focus onto student learning outcomes goes beyond mere tinkering with traditional structures and methods. It constitutes a paradigm shift in educational philosophy and practice in modern education system in India.
The objective of higher education is to provide knowledge, skills and aptitudes for students. In this, knowledge can be organized into compartments and taught as courses. Every knowledge area has four components including core basics, exploding volume of empirical knowledge, constantly changing applications, rapidly changing tools. The invariant core consists of fundamentals based on universal laws that provide a description, the empirical knowledge expands and sophistication added to changing applications. The Invariant core provides continuity in education. Outcome-Based Education (OBE) is a student-centric teaching and learning methodology in which the course delivery, assessment etc are planned, to achieve stated objectives and outcomes. It focuses on measuring student performance at different levels. OBE links classroom exercises to the real world by sourcing learners’ realities as contexts of learning and teaching and by making learning a productive learner experience. Classroom activities are thus relevant to a subjective rather than to an externally perceived objective real world.
Traditional education systems are losing their significance in the age of globalization. In order to cope with the rapid transformations in educational methods and techniques, there is a need for the results-based education to overcome the knowledge gap. Focusing on results Outcome-based education generates a transparent expectation of the top results. Students can understand what they expect, and teachers can understand what they need to demonstrate throughout the course. Teachers can structure their classes according to the student’s wishes. OBE help teachers to monitor the development and enhancement of the students over a certain quantity and to help them achieve their results.
In 2019-2020 the college conducted workshops on OBE for the faculty members and p rovided training for measurement of outcomes. Programme Outcomes, Programme Specific Outcomes and Course Outcomes of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes were framed. Question Banks were also developed based on the Bloom’s Taxonomy. Outcome-based education is focusing and organizing everything in an educational system around what is essential for all students to be able to do successfully at the end of their learning experiences. Outcomes are clear learning results that the students to demonstrate at the end of significant learning experiences.
Mapping of learning outcomes to the programme outcomes to obtain accumulative sum of learning outcome was challenging.
Title of the Practice
Objectives of the Practice
One of the common terms heard in the field of Higher Education after the Covid pandemic is the term ‘new normal’. The new normal in education is the increased use of online teaching-learning tools. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new ways of learning. Online teaching-learning provides greater flexibility to address varying learning styles and use different technologies with a student-centric approach. Online learning has the benefit of allowing instructors to focus on individual students. The new normal now is a transformed concept of education with online learning at the core of this transformation. Realizing the significance and demand for online teaching-learning methods, Assumption College Autonomous has initiated the adaptation of the recent trends of Blended learning by combining teaching with digital tools and resources designed to deliver the best possible learning experience in the college. Blended teaching-learning fulfils the following goals of higher education.
Affordability
Efficiency
Flexibility and self-paced learning
Accessibility of time and place
Improved virtual communication and collaboration
Refined critical-thinking skills
New technical skills
Suits a variety of learning styles
A broader and global perspective
All around the world, educational institutions are looking toward online learning platforms to continue with the process of educating students. Today, digital learning has emerged as a necessary resource for students all over the world. Online education is far more affordable as compared to physical learning. Additionally, all the course or study materials are available online, thus creating a paperless learning environment which is more sustainable. It allows students to attend classes from any location of their choice. Online learning offers teachers an efficient way to deliver lessons to students using various online tools and resources beyond traditional textbooks.
Assumption College adopted the online teaching-learning as the process of educating students through virtual platforms during 2019-2020. This type of teaching involved live classes, video conferencing, webinars, recorded lectures, Google classroom, Moodle, YouTube videos, E-texts, E-content and E-learning platforms other online tools. The online applications are developed and designed to facilitate easy learning and better understanding. It is the best way to create a perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student.
Developing online teaching skills are crucial while working as an educator in virtual platform. These skills help a teacher to keep their classroom engaged and interested in learning. Teachers were encouraged to undergo short-term courses and faculty development programmes related to online teaching-learning. Most of the departments conducted online lectures and webinars. The college has developed a depository of lectures by faculty members. Organised departmental association activities, competitions and alumni lectures through online mode.
Students found it difficult to adapt to an online learning environment immediately after traditional classroom learning. Challenges faced while adopting the virtual teaching-learning are technical issues, distractions and time management, staying motivated, understanding course expectations, lack of in-person interaction, adapting to unfamiliar technology and uncertainty about the future.