CEMCA Building Capacity of Higher Education Teachers of West Bengal on Use of Blended Learning Approach for Teaching
An integrated workshop on “Enhancing the Capacity of Higher Education Teachers” was conducted by Commonwealth Educational Media Center for Asia (CEMCA) and Netaji Subhash Open University (NSOU). The workshop was of three days duration from 25 th March 2022 to 27 th March 2022. It was organized at the head -quarter of NSOU in Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal. Total 82 (Male 53 and Female 24) teachers and academicians from Universities and Colleges of West Bengal participated in the training workshop.
The program was inaugurated on 25 th March 2022. Welcome address was delivered by Professor (Dr.) Anirban Ghosh, Director of Center of Internal Quality Assurance, NSOU. He extended heartiest welcome to the participants for ensuring their presence in the workshop. He explained the logical rationale of the workshop and portrayed the philosophy of NSOU in reaching out to the unreached populace of the society by judicious application of different mechanisms He conveyed thanks and gratitude to CEMCA for the continual support extended towards the different educational projects of NSOU.
The Presidential Address was delivered by Hon’ble Prof. Dr. Subha Sankar Sarkar, the Vice Chancellor of NSOU. Through his eloquent speech he portrayed the vision of NSOU. He placed emphasis upon inclusive education covering people from every stratum of the society. He attached importance to the principles and practice of Lifelong Learning, highlighting its beneficial significance. He also illustrated the cause-effect relationship between Education and Sustainable Development, referring to the Sustainable Development Goals 4.
In the First Day, the Facilitator Mr. Purandar Sengupta engaged the target audience with different psychosocial interventions like Human Process driven Interaction, Appreciative Inquiry and Fishbowl Exercise. Through these interventions he tried to foster Collaborative Learning, Inquiry based Learning, Problem-Based Learning and Experiential Learning among the proactive learners.
On the first half Second Day, Prof. (Dr.) Shaunak Roy, administered different digital tools that can facilitate the learners to achieve conceptual clarity and enhance operational precision in any subject. On the second half of the Second Day, Sri Purandar Sengupta portrayed the beneficial significance of Motivational Case & Success Story. Eventually he facilitated the Higher Education Teachers to frame Motivational stories which can trigger enthusiasm among their learners.
On the third day, Mr. Purandar Sengupta facilitated the Higher Education Teachers to demonstrate different techniques of facilitation, following the principles of Scaffolding. Thereafter the Higher Education Teachers were asked to design courses on their relevant subjects through participatory planning with other experts in the same field. In the concluding session Dr. Shaunak Roy administered a digital quiz.
In the valedictory ceremony, Prof. Dr. Kajal Dey, Director School of Science, NSOU, appreciated the tools and techniques of Facilitation that have been deployed in the Workshop. The Vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Papiya Upadhyay, Project Associate & Assistant Professor of NSOU, School of Education.
