Questions/Answers

The Polytechnics are spread across the State of West Bengal and every year 35,000+ students take admission to the Polytechnic education (195 Diploma Institutes) under the WBSCT&VE&SD under Govt. of W.B. Discontinuation or delay of studies may jeopardize the career of the students. Due to the sudden onset of pandemic due to Covid-19, Council has started e-Learning System immediately without any delay restoring the academic year of the students by completing the syllabus. Also the teaching was imparted in audio-visual mode by showing different models and in a way reducing the gap for lack of practical classes. An online channel was created by the WBSCT&VE&SD to lay down a well-defined platform where all students can access the knowledge bank as similar to their regular classes. Several initiatives were taken up through various e-platforms such as development of study materials, Audio Visual contents, implementation of Learning Management System and e-Learning portal. Around 4,000+ study materials have been uploaded in the State Council’s website which has already received 90,000+ responses. Also different audio visual contents have been uploaded in the WBSCT&VE&SD's YouTube channel and are provided in the website for teaching and learning activities. Further to this, operationalizing of online classes through G-Suite for Education, built for teaching and learning by Google has been made available completely free of cost for the teachers and students of polytechnic system of West Bengal. Admission and examination of the students of polytechnic system in this year has been successfully completed though online mode without any physical contact by maintaining Covid-19 protocol. New affiliation or renewal of affiliation of institutes has been made online through virtual verification. WBSCT&VE&SD has taken initiative to integrate from application and examination to certification of the students under the same umbrella through the website www.webscte.co.in

Lockdown due to the widespread onset of Covid-19 has suddenly made all institutional mechanism paralyzed. It has led to a chaotic situation for institutions, teachers and students equally. The institutional mechanism has been alerted and all the strengths were converged together to create the required strengths for converting the entire syllabus to provide education on a platform which will ensure continuity of education for the students. The initiative has ensured that no students were deprived of training even during the lockdown and thus ensuring preparedness with robust mechanism during the time of crisis.

During the lockdown due to on-going Pandemic (Covid-19) which was announced in the month of March 2020, all the polytechnic colleges (Government, Govt. Sponsored & Private) across the State were shut down. Lockdown was a completely new situation for everyone and it made uncertain future of the students undergoing diploma education. In this context, WBSCT&VE&SD launched an innovative e-learning portal to provide quality education for 195 Institutions for 90,000+ students covering 23 districts, 341 blocks and 66 Sub-divisions in the State of West Bengal to support best quality of education. Initiatives: 1. WBSCT&VE&SD issued advisory/guidelines for preparing e-Learning activities at all the Polytechnic colleges. 2. Series of meetings conducted by the WBSCT&VE&SD wherein 1200+ Lecturers from the Polytechnics attended. Guidelines were communicated to them for preparation of AV contents. 3. Faculties worked extensively in developing Audio-Visual contents. 4. AV contents developed by the subject matter experts were uploaded in the G-Suite portal due to unlimited storage facility. The goal ensures that all students will complete their education through innovative e-learning mode maintaining quality. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable technical training, to eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to quality higher education.

Discontinuation of education may lead to delay in completion of the course for the students who were undergoing diploma education when lockdown was announced and such an initiative has lead to assure for the students, their parents and teachers community as a whole about their future career. This initiative was accomplished utilizing all the internal resources, like teachers and inhouse software developers and partnering with G-Suite free of cost the economical sustainability is automatically taken care of. Training on e-learning mode is always user friendly which supports Go-Green initiative by reducing the usage of hard copy resources.

Announcement of lockdown in the month of March 2020 has suddenly left the entire governance structure, public administration or public service high & dry as the situation is completely new for everyone and there was no such mechanism planned or initiated for such kind of sudden eventuality. On one hand the challenges of containing the pandemic was a priority and on the other hand it was also very crucial to provide reassurance for the students and their parents that their education will not be getting affected due to the pandemic. Hence with the guidance of WBSCT&VE&SD under Govt. of West Bengal, entire machinery from 195 institutes across the state has jumped into activity of exploring the E-learning portal. WBSCT&VE&SD has arranged to distribute the print-out of uploaded study materials to the students of remote residences who has no computer or mobile facilities through India Post Service. Additionally initiative was also taken to distribute soft-copies through USB drive for the students who have access to IT Infrastructure having poor internet connectivity in remote places. This initiatives ensured that no students were left behind in Diploma education system.

With the creation of e-learning portal for students of Diploma during the ongoing Lockdown announced due to Covid -19, the teaching has become more accessible with readily available content for the students irrespective of their genders. Keeping in view the context of Indian society and where around 64% of the population still lives in rural areas and around 68% of the West Bengal population comes from Rural areas, sending out girls is still a stigma for technical education on most of the cases.

E-learning has been facilitated for all the students from the Diploma Institutes through the above initiatives taken by West Bengal State Council of Technical & Vocation Education and Skill Development (WBSCT&VE&SD) under Government of West Bengal. 1. Readily available questionnaires and teaching content through e-portal. 2. Accessibility of training through e-learning portal. 3. Improve their technical skills and abilities. 4. Awareness of social media tools to discuss among themselves on various topics. 5. Idea about various online app i.e. Google Meet, Zoom, Webex, webinar, etc. for B2B or B2C interaction which help them a lot in their future. The students who are above the age of 15 years can be benefited through this initiative for their future career regarding job, higher education and entrepreneurship after completion of Diploma education.

The initiative was conceptualized during the time of Pandemic when the teaching was at the state of halt. The implementation of the initiative drew a lot of parallel activities both at the policy and ground level. Sensing the emergency circumstances and need of quality education in the difficult hours, virtual meetings were arranged among WBSCT&VE&SD under Govt. of West Bengal as well as Principals of the Polytechnic colleges. With deliberate efforts, strategic and operational plans were discussed and designed. The most feasible plan got selected in consensus and Drive to upgrade the existing infrastructures started. Simultaneously convergence meetings arranged to reach out to different stakeholders and mobilization of faculties as well as candidates were done. Social Media proved to have played empirical role in reaching out to candidates with new idea of training them without keeping them outdoors. The existing faculties were trained on the lines of technical delivery of the lectures. The parallel communications with G- Suite for education and inhouse software developers were done to ensure effectiveness of the initiative in real time sessions. The monitoring and evaluating committee were formed to cross check the realities at the ground levels. The systematic approach towards monitoring and evaluation at all the levels were put into practice through laid down guidelines and strictly abiding by them. The internal stakeholders (Teachers / Principals along with subject matter experts) were closely given hand holding support and monitored for successful implementation.

Interruption in lectures due to low Internet Connectivity -was a major obstacle in remote areas. WBSCT&VE&SD has arranged to distribute the print-out of uploaded study materials to the students of remote residences who has no computer or mobile facilities through India Post Service. Additionally initiative was also taken to distribute soft-copies through USB drive for the students who have access to IT Infrastructure having poor internet connectivity in remote places. All the web portals are made mobile device friendly and the students can easily access the e-Learning portal easily with the help of smart phone.

India- a country where more than 90% of the teaching is done through conventional (physical) mode, introduction of e-learning system has drastically shifted the paradigm. With the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic, where the whole academic system was jeopardized, the approach of WBSCT&VE&SD in creation of e-learning online content, channelizing the in-house resources has stabilized the academic session for students enrolled. Accessibility to the e-learning content was a major challenge to a section due to lack of internet connectivity and technological advanced gadgets which was catered by WBSCT&VE&SD in ensuring delivery of printed form to the students of remote areas.

E-learning has become an advanced way of learning in many developed and developing countries. But in a vast country like India, especially in the state of West Bengal where more than 80% of the land falls under the rural belt, the applicability and acceptability in changing from conventional mode of training to e-learning was a challenge. WBST&VE&SD‘s initiative in blending the e-learning mode of training with the State’s context by involving the trainers, staffs and other resources though inspired from developed nations to match with the modern era but with the constraints has proved to be a unique approach.

WBSCT&VE&SD’s plan in integrating emerging and frontier technologies were crafted in a way that the approach remains cost-effective. WBSCT&VE&SD has engaged its inhouse software developers to upload the digital content to its server which can be accessed by the students through the WBSCT&VE&SD’s website www.webscte.co.in. WBSCT&VE&SD has also attached with Google with no cost to deliver video conferencing through Google’s platform – G-Suite for education. The platform is used to finalize contents to be uploaded by conveners/subject matter experts and also performing online classes for trainees by respective faculties.

As on date the approach has not been transferred or adapted by any other context, though the same has been well appreciated by other organizations in the Government of West Bengal and may be adapted soon for the delivery of classes.

The scope of e-learning has widened over the period of time. The contemporaneous era has enhanced the accomplishment of new and complementary competencies eliminating borders between people and knowledge through the proliferation of e-learning worldwide. The e-learning system could and is bound to become one of the most efficient and accessible method for acquiring knowledge, a resource that has become educational institutions’, companies’ and other entities main asset. In context to the state of West Bengal, future plan are in process to implement the model to other departments such as Directorate of Industrial Training, Directorate of Vocational Education & Training, Higher Education Department and School Education Department to cater the candidates on digital content over physical learning.

As mentioned NO financial cost were involved in implementing the e-learning initiative under WBSCT&VE&SD. WBSCT&VE&SD has optimally utilized the internal human resources in terms of creation of e-content through its Faculties and inhouse software developers. The Officers from the administrative wing were utilized in conceptualizing the initiative and reaching printed format of contents to the students who didn’t had access to the online content. WBSCT&VE&SD associated with Google to use the G-Suite platform for live streaming interactive session completely free of cost. Additionally open-source software were used to Audio Visual Contents.

The initiative taken by WBSCT&VE&SD has utilized internal resources such as teachers & subject matter experts from its own pool led to minimum financial investment. The other technology input was Server and platform G-Suite to deliver the same was done at no cost and thus in terms of financial sustainability it’s an initiative at zero-cost and hence it financially viable. The initiative is also widely accepted as a platform which can cater to mass students at a time has got long term acceptability by students, teachers community and educational institutions as a whole making it sustainable in long term.

Yes

Routine Evaluation (every 15 days)-During this, Evaluating Committee considers the following: -Daily attendance of the Students and Faculties. - Scrutiny of fortnightly course plan and class duration. -Internal assessments. During this process, the evaluator login to any of the online classes and may check the quality of the lesson delivery apart from all the parameters which are being checked in the routine evaluations. training. The direct interactions are also being made by the candidates related to lessons taught. The reports of the evaluation are being sent to the Council and Principal of the respective diploma institutions.

• Attendance tracking of students and faculties on daily basis • Tracking percentage of lesson plan accomplished • The online class recordings/Back up data availability and accessibility of study materials by the candidates • Proper online guidelines and platform to ensure candidates are being enrolled in online classes and are receiving regular trainings • Documented technology blue print including e- security measures, password protection, encryption, secured online exams etc. The tools used are G-Suite for Education and Learning Management System developed by inhouse software developer.

The main findings are the engagement rate of faculty and candidates, responses in accessing available online study materials by candidates, retention and drop out of the candidates, optimal use of resources, cost effective analysis, time utilization and challenges of online classes, mobilization of more than 1200+ faculties, trainings to technically challenged faculties and candidates to make them tech savvy, internet connectivity as challenges in the remotest part of the State. Based on the findings of the evaluation, dashboards are being prepared fortnightly and are shared with respective principal of the colleges to help them understand the focus areas to be taken care of while implementing the initiative. The findings are also being shared with the Council for policy changes as well as mitigating challenges regularly. Evaluating committee updates the norms and guidelines timely to ensure quality and sustainable education. Quality education is also being judged on the results of all the internal assessments of the candidates Sustainability review and future scope of education are also being reflected and reviewed through evaluation findings.

The initiative of e-learning across all the Polytechnic colleges in the State is embedded in the on-going process of learning. E-learning portal has been designed by inhouse software developer which covers reading materials and online examination system. In the conventional mode of offline classes, the candidates get benefit from only one faculty for any relevant topic. However, in the e -learning, the candidate can access learning materials from different faculties on relevant topics from recorded sessions. Hence, knowledge sharing becomes more easy and widespread. E-learning system conveners are experts who regularly contribute to the study material and thus the study database are more enriched. Further, the industry experts from different leading giants also motivate and provide specific lectures through webinars on diverse topics to the students & faculties. These lectures are compiled and uploaded on the portal to provide real time counselling and subject specific sessions by the experienced personnel. The alumni of the colleges are connected through a common portal and regular alumni meetings are organized by the respective colleges to bring in the experience sharing sessions and motivations to the enrolled candidates.

There are multiple stakeholders involved at different levels to ensure end to end process of the e-learning initiative. The different stakeholders are: The technology, operational policy and strategies are designed by the West Bengal State Council of Technical Education. While implementing stakeholder is G-Suite for Education which provides free shared calendars, online document editing storage and video sessions with live chat options. The guest faculties, alumni, industry experts are the another level of stakeholders who are available on webinars, online workshops for the Polytechnic candidates. Further, the principals and the faculties are other important stakeholders involved in looking after training through online mode as well as mitigating operational challenges on a daily basis. ELS Conveners created separate committees against subject of every discipline to provide vast knowledge to the candidate. The evaluating stakeholders are the members from the evaluating team of the council who regularly monitors and evaluate the on-going processes and shares the essential findings with the designing and implementing stakeholders. Each stakeholder is playing a very mighty and crucial role in successful and sustainable implementation of the initiative to achieve quality education with constant efforts.

The non-technical faculties and candidates are now technical savvy and ponders to learn new technical glitches less hesitantly. The e- learning mode of teaching and reading has served to be more effective in cost utilization. The maintenance, infrastructural, traveling expenses are now less. There are around 195 institutions and all of them have become digitally enabled post launch of this initiative. The regular tracking and updating of study materials have given access to candidates with dual responsibilities of earn and learn. The monitoring of learning is more effective in the online mode of classes. To further improve the initiative, the organization plans to incorporate more stringent ways of monitoring and evaluation and ensuring quality education. The geographical areas where the inequalities (if observed) prevails shall be given proper care and help the students to choose required courses well. The pool of top faculties may be recognized. The candidates from remotest locations shall be connected to nearest polytechnic colleges to access study materials in hard copy if there exists any network glitches. The organization also plans to improve profound nexus between students and employers through regular sessions ,workshops & webinars.