Dear Students,
LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think learning a web-based engineering course through NPTEL will help enhance skills and employability of students and professionals?
BEST RESPONSE
While the move of providing certified online courses by NPTEL is laudable, it is hitherto incomplete. Employability is a factor of basic concepts, practical knowledge and personality. Concept -building is a two way process, of learning, unlearning and relearning between willing teachers and passionate students. An engineering certification is incomplete without in-house training that equips students with application of concepts and nuances of the subject. Also, the way we walk and talk influences our chances of getting employed. The NPTEL courses are inherently deficient in this regard. Also in absence of a written industry backing, increasing employability is not possible.
- Archita Gupta, NL Dalmia Institute of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai.
OTHER RESPONSES
This will largely contribute to visualisation aspect of learning as it is not possible to provide state of art laboratories in all the engineering colleges across India. It has always been a concern for engineering fraternity that Indian engineers immensely lack the practical knowledge which is must for employability. Hence if such platforms are provided, Indian engineering students can reinforce their theoretical learning with the practical application visualisation. This initiative should actually be propagated pan India to increase its reach and faculties at engineering courses should use this platform positively to equip their students with latest happenings.
- Tushar Shah, School of Petroleum Management, PDPU, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
India is already facing the problem of educated unemployment and web based course will further worsen the situation. Every year India produces around 650,000 engineers but only less than quarter of them are employable. The need of the hour is vocational training but these courses will add only to the cram experts. It will surely be able to educate the youth but will not be able to impart the necessary practical skills. Skill gap needs to be filled to increase employability. The ground reality is, web-based course will only churn out people who are educated but unemployable by the industry.
- Kanchan Agrawal, Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.
The reason behind unemployment of students and professionals is lack of proper quality of education. In spite of having talent only due to lack of good content, improper faculty’s teaching method students are becoming less valuable. NPTEL is designed by India's top brilliant mind of IITs, IISc and others colleges/universities along the lines of MIT’s OpenCourseWare programme to help those. It’ll be a very good platform for companies also to judge the talent get hired. Thus, web based engineering course providing certificate as a incentive will definitely enhance skill and employability of students and professionals.
- Sumit Sourav, Regional College of Management , Bhubaneswar.
In India graduation and post-graduation degree were given too much importance over professional courses unlike foreign countries. But as number of seats increased in engineering and technological education in last decade, it is difficult to place in a good company by equipping oneself with only degree. NPTEL offers online web and video-based courses for sciences and engineering. There are freely available 260 courses of 4500 hours for individuals and private institutes. So these professional courses will work as add-on to main degree to get employment and enhance skill.
- Janmey Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM), New Delhi.
Learning a web-based engineering course through NPTEL may help enhance skill and employability of students and professionals.The outcome has not been yet proved.After they offer certificates to users and the users have proved their mettle somewhere else,thereafter it may be confirmed whether NPTEL has helped to enhance the skill and employability of students and professionals.
- Rituparna Saha Ray, Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Management Studies, Navi Mumbai.
A study of web based engineering course through NPTEL will only impart knowledge to an individual but in no way enhance the skill and employability of students. It is because knowledge in a particular field cannot be superimposed with being skilled at the same time. Skills require experience or training while knowledge is just free flow of information available anywhere and everywhere. Thus, to be professionally sound one needs to have vast experience rather than mere knowledge. Learning a course be it web based or classroom teaching, cannot suffice the need of practical training.
- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow.
Web Portal like NPTEL, Coursera, EDx will certainly help students to gain knowledge, strengthen fundamental concept and clear any doubts. These courses are taken by the renowned professors of IITs, IIMs, Harward, Wharton, Standford and other top universities of the world. In the process students will get opportunity to study plethora of subjects ranging from humanities to Science to Management to engineering. Thus, student can cross specialize in different discipline. Besides, Students can study at any time thus making studies more fun based. Thus, it will enhance skill and employability of students and professionals.
- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, IIT Roorkee.
By disseminating curriculum based video and web courses content through all media, a large number of students that are unable to attend scholarly institutions can have access to well develop and peer-reviewed course content. A part of the IIT training, flavor and the rigor made available to professionals and student communities will definitely equip them with sound knowledge and skill, that industry demands and which in turn transforms the county into a strong and vibrant knowledge economy.
- Vivek Patel, Institute of Management Nirma University (IMNU), Ahmedabad.
Government of India has taken a commendable step by sponsoring the collaborative educational programme under NPTEL. The quality of engineering education in India would certainly be elevated by developing curriculum-based video and web courses. Along with Websites, DVD, You-Tube, the courses have also been made available from July 2006 with video lectures being broadcast on Eklavya channel provided by Gyan Darshan (DoorDarshan Television, a Government of India enterprise). All these efforts will lead to hassles-free access to the study material, thus enhancing the skill and employability of students and professionals.
- Saurabh Kumar, Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.
NPTEL is a new initiative to enhance the reach and quality of technical education but a student still needs the practical knowledge along with peer learning which is only possible in classroom.Looking at other side of coin, the interface is very interactive that it becomes quite easy for any online user to learn at any time of day.Also this gives an opportunity to get 24x7 access to the material prepared by IITs and IISc. So NPTEL may not be need of an hour but this will surely be the need of future.
- Aman Suveer, Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.
Learning through a web based engineering course will offer learners unparalleled access to instructional resources, far surpassing the reach of the traditional classroom. It will also make possible learning that are open, flexible and distributed, providing opportunities for students and professionals. As these web based courses will prove to be convenient as well as time saving tool, such courses will also tremendously improve the skills in professionals and students. Moreover, such skills will definitely soar the chances of the professionals and students in gaining different employment opportunities, which will eventually help these professional to explore in the days to come.
- Lokesh Pravin Jain, Vishwakarma Institute Of Management, Pune.
NPTEL program which is developed with the handshakes between IITs and IISc, has emerged as a boon for many stakeholders like students, professionals and much more. Under the umbrella of IITs and IISc, the education provided will be of high standards which will take care of skill and employability factor too. The main motto from learning through web based portal is that it enhances the mobility of the education system. A due care should be taken by NPTEL to provide practical exposure to the candidates in order to ensure effectiveness of the program.
- Harsh Mehta, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.
Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think faculty members should be relieved of administration work at B-schools?
