Academics in Pandemic- The NorthCap University rising through the crisis

The day is Wednesday, the 11^th of March. It is the last day of Holi break for the students of The NorthCap University. But Covid-19 had other plans for them.

In light of rising concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and calls to contain the virus, The NorthCap University was quick on its feet to break this chain reaction and stop the spread of the virus. The university took the necessary steps which include suspending all the regular in-person classes from 16^th march 2020 as directed by the govt and in the meanwhile properly sanitizing the campus regularly and encouraging social distancing.

The challenges that university faced thenceforth were how to continue on with the academics and how to keep the students and the teachers in the loop. Being a tech-savvy university that it is, the staff and the faculty came up with the solution that all lectures and practices would be in a virtual setting by commencing with online classes till the suspension.

Emails were given out to students and faculty for the same and the IT specialists of the university started to figure out options as everything was to be set up within 4 days. This was an important step as the platform to be used, must be equipped with many powerful features and tools for the faculty as well as the students for a smooth experience. A well-known platform ‘Microsoft teams’ was agreed upon and demo classes were scheduled as soon as possible to get the people familiar with the interface. Mr. Deepak Satyarthi of the team faced many issues from the students and the faculty as well but he managed to leap through all of them by his expertise and constant cooperation with everyone through emails. Things were up and running within 2 days.

The live interactive online classes started right from day one without any hiccups. Everything was at par with face to face classes. Timely presence made each session interactive and students could still slip in shenanigans keeping the class live and interesting.

The statistics speak for themselves; the teachers and the students are on time for the lectures, the attendance of all classes have never been higher, the assignments are submitted on time by the students by using NCU’s proprietary learning management system (LMS) and all this is possible in the comfort of home. All hardware-based labs are being taught by a video demonstration of the equipment and the software-based labs don’t feel any different as the contents are screen shared with all the students. The numerical problems were solved by the teachers using ‘Whiteboard’, a feature which is available in Microsoft teams, enabling teachers to write on the screen using track pad and stylus. The classes are also recorded on a daily basis and the student can access it, later on, to prepare for examinations.

The online interactive session works so well that we at NCU see this as a backup solution for situations like these that might happen in the future. Now that we see this being practically implemented, can be executed in the future in such circumstances. Faculty can also keep a backup of all the sessions using Teams which can be used by new batches every year in the absence of any faculty member. The possibilities are endless.

Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson said “As humans, we like to think we're in charge of our own corner of the universe. But every now and then a microscopic entity reminds us that we are not.” In this situation, all that humans can do is adapt and this flawless example of The NorthCap University adapting to this situation with the tools at hand.

By Satvik Aggarwal (Student of 2^nd Year BTech ECE)