OPTIMIZING THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AMIDST THE PANDEMIC

The COVID 19 pandemic spelt havoc on every walk of life. The education sector too was dealt a blow with the lockdown being imposed in response to the outbreak, keeping students away from schools & colleges. As the sector adapted to the demands of the situation & shifted online to continue the dissemination of knowledge, its expansive physical infrastructure remained unused & vacant during the period. The emphasis shifted on building digital infrastructure on the foundations of cloud computing,/) and other Health Sciences Institutes (/) back in 2017 itself. Hence the institute could combat the challenges posed by the pandemic with the delivery of online education & blended mode. It could also successfully conduct the ÿnal year University Examination and provide for timely publication of the results. The teaching materials would get uploaded in the LMS. While synchronous online lectures would get conducted using Google meet and Big Blue Button tool embedded within the Learning Management System. Course learning outcomes would get assessed through online assignments, MCQs and tests. The institute deployed its studio to record the lectures. Established in collaboration with IIT Madras and NPTEL, the studio would record and deliver course content to registered students. Due to the limitations of statutory regulatory authority and council guidelines however, credit transfer and online testing stayed restricted to Continuous Internal Assessment (CIA).