There is no doubt that COVID-19 has adversely affected higher education. The institutions of higher education worldwide, are finding it challenging to deliver normal lessons as everything ended abruptly mid-way through the previous academic year. This gave rise to another opportunity, a way to online delivery of both theory classes and practical. New lab activities are designed to help students with hands-on skills in their subject, which stopped overnight. Suddenly the colleges were not looking the same which they used to be with students everywhere in the campus and academic activities going on in classrooms and labs.
All of our college life was replaced by online activity. We were accustomed to the old ways of traditional teaching and learning. The COVID 19 disruption has opened us to new possibilities which we could never have thought of before this.
And disruptions always bring opportunities with them. So is this time. It gave an opportunity to institutions to think beyond the traditional ways of teaching. The syllabus of engineering remains heavily focused towards content delivery. But is it really required to be teaching all this content? We need to shift some of this content bound teaching aside and focus more on higher level thinking skills like synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of practical knowledge. The changed scenario has made us discover that most of the content that is being delivered to students of Engineering is available freely on internet; be it digital logic design, network theory, electro-magnetic, thermodynamics, construction engineering, fluid mechanics, software engineering, wireless communication. This was not the case two decades ago when physical classes were the only option we had. With the changing times all this has changed. Now the syllabus only present the half glass full picture, as the other half is out their which is not part of syllabus, which needs to be explored. Here comes the online learning. There are definitely few aspects of online system of education that can improve teaching and learning. And here comes the role of a Higher Education Institution. A good Institution is one who adapts to all this with the changing times.
In a short span of 15 years IIMT College of Engineering, the best private B. Tech. college in India has adapted a culture of knowledge sharing and inclination towards research and development. IIMT has put focus on bringing quality content to the table of its students, encouraging them to explore what is beyond the syllabus, encouraging them to explore what is latest trend around the globe in terms of employability. IIMT adopted the online teaching very soon and saw the positives very early. There is no barrier now between what needs to be learned in terms of acquiring the foundational skills. IIMT, among the top engineering colleges in UP and India is also NAAC accredited college, believes that self-directed learning is the key to success. This self desire pushes a student to learn that his interest in building a better road or a better bridge is the key reason for him to take civil engineering program, that his search to know how a communications network works is the reason why he opted for electronics engineering. IIMT, with its teaching practices, has inculcated in its students this approach. IIMT has a vast collection of online video lectures of its faculty which are made available to the students. And this is not a one way communication, students get to ask their queries and solve their doubts. IIMT has acquired latest tools and software for facilitating the smooth conduction of online delivery of course content. IIMT is definitely among the top engineering colleges in UP and India.
IIMT provides a perfect environment to its students to drive their own learning. This way a student is well prepared to have a deeper understanding and knowledge of what they seek to achieve in their learning practice.
Apart from it IIMT has a state of the art research and development lab which has a variety of modern equipments. The biggest achievement of IIMT is that the ministry of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) GoI, has set up an incubation Lab to cater to the needs of young scientists.
In a nutshell, traditional way of lectures remain to be the preferred way of teaching but there are other ways also to get to the same target, with blended learning methods like flipped learning and IIMT has the right mix of both these ways which make it one of the top engineering colleges in UP.