The Department of Education, Tezpur University, recently organized a day-long webinar on ‘Reorienting academic leadership, pedagogy and research in the time of crisis’.
Prof. Nil Ratan Roy, the HoD of the Department of Education, delivered the welcome address while the inaugural speech was delivered by Prof. V.K.Jain, Vice-Chancellor, Tezpur University.
Prof. Jain emphasized the need to redesign the pedagogy as per changing needs of the teaching- learning environment.
Four technical sessions took place during the webinar.
While the first session was moderated by Dr. Yesmin Sultana, the second session was moderated by Dr. Gopal Singh and the third session was moderated by Mohammad Asif.
The fourth session was moderated by Dr. M.S. Siddiqui.
In the first session, Prof K. Pushpanadham of M.S. University, Baroda, deliberated on the topic ‘Emerging models of academic leadership during and after COVID-19’.
He raised pertinent questions such as “to what extent the higher education is higher” and “what kind of leadership is needed in the institutions of higher education”, said a release issued by the media cell of Tezpur University on Monday.
In the second presentation presented by Prof N. Bhagawati, a former professor at Gauhati University, spoke on the topic ‘Post-COVID effect: Socio-psychological and economical aspect of learners’.
She elaborated on the linkages between the pandemic, students and education, and helped the participants to understand the impact of the pandemic on learners and education.
She also suggested strategies to cope up with the impact of the pandemic.
The resource person for the third session was Prof. Amruth G. Kumar of Central University of Kerala, who has spoken on “Rethinking educational landscape: Teaching, learning and assessment”.
His focus was on data-driven education and use of data in educational decision making.
Kumar argued that in place of the teaching-learning process to guide the assessment, it was the assessment that started dictating the whole educational process and elaborated on how it has led to standardization, homogenization of educational experiences, and uniformity in the system.
The topic of the fourth session was ‘Engagement in social science research in a socially distanced world”.
The topic was discussed by Prof. S.C. Panigrahi of M.S. University, Baroda.
He placed the question of research in broader situations prevailing in society due to the corona effect.
A total of 1,985 members registered for the webinar from 27 states across India and over 9,500 people watched the session on Facebook Live.
Prof. Nil Ratan Roy, HoD, Department of Education, Tezpur University, was the programme director of the webinar.