An Integrated Advance Teaching Learning
An advance integrated approach in teaching and learning allows the student to explore, gather, process, refine and present information about topics they want to learn without the constraints imposed by traditional subject barriers. The institution is much concerned with advance integration in the field of professional education and professional training of the students. The institution is in the co ordination of different teaching activities to make sure the harmonious functioning of the educational process for a more effective advance teaching and learning process.
1. Objectives of the Practice
- An advance integrated approach in teaching and learning allows students to engage in purposeful and relevant learning.
- An advance Integrated learning encourages students to see the inter connectedness and inter relationships between the curriculum areas rather than focusing on learning in isolated curriculum areas.
- An advance teaching and learning program is based on skill development around a particular theme that is relevant to the student in the class.
- This practice helps students to explore multiple perspectives of concepts that they study in their curriculum. It helps the students to develop a bridge between the subjects they study.
- It helps to understand multi-disciplinary subjects and concepts and to carry out inter- disciplinary projects to find a methodological approach for the problem and to find different possibilities of the solution to the problem.
2. The Context
The model of an advance integrated teaching and learning is an inquiry approach. Inquiry approaches allow for students to construct meaning by using their prior knowledge on a Subject and new knowledge gained during the learning process.
Integrated teaching and learning incorporates multiple subjects, which are usually taught separately, in an Interdisciplinary method of teaching. The goal is to help students remain engaged and draw from multiple sets of skills, experiences, and sources to aid and accelerate the learning process. Through this practice, expectations were met by the constant engagement of faculty members and students in online discussions through webinars, seminars, technical talks, and guest lectures. In this practice, clear and measurable objectives were set and activities are carried out to match the objectives. Inline interactive sessions were conducted to emphasize active learning. Students were given assignments and evaluated in front of students for clarity on how assessments were applied and specific measures available in the evaluation process. Frequent specific feedbacks were taken from students for improvisation.
3. The Practices
The following practices are adopted at our VMTW institution to implement an Advance Integrated Teaching and Learning:
- Add on Courses with Industry Experts
- Interaction with Industry Experts
- Innovative Project Implementation
- ICT Enabled Teaching and Learning
Add on Courses with Industry Experts
- Learning add-on courses with industry experts is a good way to get extra credits.
- In case an existing subject is not your forte then you can compensate for your grades by taking up the add-on assignment.
- This way you won't lose on grades, moreover improve on something that you are already good at.
Interaction with Industry Experts
- During the industrial visits, students get to learn how Industry Experts and professionals perform at work and they implement certain industry-specific concepts such as benchmarking, quality analysis, just-in-time production, etc.
- Industrial visits are usually the first point of interaction between a student and a live working industry.
- The students learn about the latest technology trend and make up their minds about their future job or area of interest.
Innovative Project Implementation
- The main idea behind Innovative projects work and its implementation is to make sure that the learner does their own research and comes up with practical solutions to the concept they are trying to learn or the problem that they are trying to solve.
- In this context, project work enhances and helps improve a person's cognitive abilities and making them sharper and more profound over time.
- Project work essentially accentuates a person's inner hidden abilities and makes them better learners.
ICT Enabled Teaching and Learning
- ICT Enabled Teaching and Learning helps pupils to develop new skills and become more creative. ICT stimulates the development of imagination as well as initiative.
- It is a valuable tool for producing work, both in terms of content and form.
- It improves pupils' academic performance as their classroom experience also improves substantially.
- Virtual Labs have been designed to provide remote access to labs in various disciplines of Science and Engineering
Innovative teaching facilities like Smart Class-Rooms, LCD projectors, Seminar hall, Internet facility, and Wi-Fi facilities enable the teachers to teach uniquely and innovatively and make the students inculcate in the proper learning process.
Interactive techniques like quizzes, group discussions, projects, internships, industrial visits, and applications of ICT resources enrich the integrated teaching-learning experience and engage students in higher-order thinking and investigation.
VMTW Institute inspires students learning and creativity by developing Centre of Excellence in the department level in the area of thrust. Institute facilitates digital-age learning experiences by creating smart classrooms, seminar halls, and audiovisual lecturing, and through virtual laboratories.
Specific models (Virtual Labs) were exposed to students to support student learning. Online teaching mode is promoted with students to engage students during pandemic situations. Constant placement training is engaged with students to support their professional growth and leadership skills.
4. Evidence of Success
- Students stated that integrated teaching prepared them to learn at ease and helped them to understand the subject in an improved way. Moreover, the methodology helped them to establish relationships among the subjects they had undergone.
- Virtual labs have the advantages of unlimited time, immediate feedback, experiment repetition, safety for students and the subjects of the experiment.
- Through this practice, the average score obtained by the students in the end-semester examinations was increased. Although the difference in the scores was small, it was statistically significant.
- The number of the students responded well during their placement interviews to the questionnaires raised by the on/off-campus placement drives.
- Analysis of the feedback collected through the questionnaire showed that, for all items, the majority of the students had given positive answers.
- Although the data analysis of passed out students to present students showed that an increase in deep learning it also showed an increase in knowledge of the student in the area of preference.
5. Problems Encountered and Resources Required
- The implementation of an advance integrated teaching and learning had challenges. There were initial problems in creating an integrating teaching process.
- One challenge was identifying faculty compatibility. Another major problem revolved around creating a system for sharing advanced teaching skills among other faculty in the department.
- There were also instances where departments faced problems scheduling classes in the room where the mode of teaching was supported.
- Basic resources required for teaching like teaching aids, software tools, audio, video systems are incorporated.
- The implementation of integrated teaching and learning had challenges. The planning of integrated teaching across departments was time-consuming and involved negotiation with the faculty members.
- Moreover, a lot of time was invested in the development of the integrated models as well as virtual labs; it required inputs from all the departments participating in the process.
