Student Induction Programme Agenda

 

A common faculty argument during Faculty Development Programmes is that the student expectations do not agree with their good intentions and get in the way of their desire to innovate and experiment. This creates an interesting question as to what exactly is the job of a teacher? How does he/she help raise expectations in terms of the institutional practices or the faculty's instructional design? 

Here when I speak of teacher expectations, I confine to matters related to the ways course content is transacted, though it can mean much more than that. When I urge the faculty where I worked, lead or where I visit for talks or trainings, the common burden of the song is, 'students expect us to lecture so how can we not? The students expect only pen and paper test, then how can we....?' 

One thing the HEI leadership should ensure is that the Student Induction/orientation programmes conducted at the beginning of the academic year is an opportunity to also communicate to the major changes in pedagogical strategies while the students move from the Higher Secondary level to the College level. It must include, among other things, detailed description of the following: 

1. The modes of teaching 

This is key. One reason why the students are comfortable with the lecture mode is that they can enjoy their inactive status without having to use thier brains much. Thy can just sit through and see off session after teacher! Hence, as it is necessary to employ experiential, problem based, hands-on teaching methods, it is needed to orient them towards these more participative modes of teaching which the HEI means to follow. Communicate the advantages these methods offer to the learners in terms of skills, career readiness, and higher studies. This will help them be ready for days to come in which everything will not be spoonfed. 

2. The modes of assessment 

Share with the new students the varied modes of assessment which the institution will employ. Explain what those modes are and the rationale for accepting those. What is expected is a very detailed presentaion with examples about the 'how' and 'why' of these modes. If these are going to be linked to their Internal assessment scores, let that too be made clear. Peer, Online, Open book assessments or conducted in a continuing manner: all may be introduced.

3. The self-learning components 

If the institution is setting apart module/modules for self learning, that can be shared with the student inductees. Do impress upon the learners the importance of learning to learn and assure that the support to master the learning techniques will be provided. 

4. The fieldwork/field visit components 

Often the field work/ field trips are treated as casual trips. One way out of this tendency to seek the easy option is to announce how it forms a core element of your academics. Take time to educate the students as to the semesters in which the field work will be involved and more importantly, the forms it can take. The expected outcomes and the student works related to these also must be shared with them. 

5. The project components 

Prepare the new crop of learners for the projects and the processes related to it. What is refered to is not just the end of programme projects, even though that is the most important one for those who opt for it. In the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP), it is necessary that the institution/faculty applies efforts to integrate micro-projects and see if project based curriculum mode may be applied, even if in a restricted manner. The singular benefits of a good project may be presented and ample time given to slowly pick their topics of genuine interest. 

6. The peer taught components 

Peer teaching helps in contributing to the learning experiences in a couple of ways. It offers good space for the advanced learners to try their hand at playing teachers, by extension helping them pick up skills and confidence. Short parts of the prescribed modules may be set up for Peer Teaching and let the students be informed in advance about it. This could be challenging as even seminar presentations are often casually dealt with in many HEIs. 

7. Industry Visit components 

A good share of the Industry Visits (IV) are in fact Tours like most of the Study tours are simply tours! The institution can put in place a procedure and set norms as to what happens in an industry visit. The Takeaways from these IVs must be clearly enunciated, preserving the gravity of the exercise. This will also help in documenting the process. The students are to be oriented about the requirements and the line drawn between IVs and Tours. From the usual practice of mass produced texts which simply 'narrate' what was 'seen', there must be procedures which necessitate applying what they have seen and have listened to. Finally, Let IVs be IVs and tours be tours! 

8. The classroom assignment components 

With the ease offered by the chatGPT, reliability of student-writing is at stake. One solution here is to give short, classroom assignments. These obviously are to be completed in the classroom which will ensure their originality. The coursework may include the same and the students must be prepared, inform them. This can happen as a surprise task or could be announced in advanced. Either way, the students should be made aware of these in the induction programme. 

9. The carry home assignment components 

Not all assignments can be made classroom-based. The coursework can also include carry-home assignments too. The cut-and-paste threat here can be neutralised if the topics/question given are exploratory, analytical in nature. Communicate to he new learners the established norms and protocols involved and let the students be familiar with that. 

10. The Library work components 

For students to be familiar with the use of the institution's library, a walk through will not suffice. For the students to use library, the faculty should use library. This can be achieved by integrating library work to the regular academic work. If the assignments and works given require the reference of specific texts, it will take them to the library. Without limiting this to a mere listing of book titles, chapters or range of pages too may be included. 

To conclude, the undergraduate level is when the young learners are to be handheld to take ownership of their learning (if not earlier!). It's high time they learned to learn. The varied techniques and strategies the faculty member employs should help achieve that. Moreover, a totally lecture-oriented approach will never help them upskill themselves, trigger higher order thinking skills, through applying what they learn. Hence orient them to be prepared for the college class room experiences which are of a different order. 

Babu. P. K. Ph D.