The teachers of Bethune College acknowledge the importance of using innovative ideas in teaching so that students' learning experience can be more comprehensive. Teachers always endeavour to make the best use of technology in the teaching-learning process. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is an effective tool for acquiring and disseminating information from multiple sources to help students to enhance their knowledge. Use of ICT enabled tools helps to develop digital literacy and it encourages high quality thinking skills among students.
Since past few years, use of ICT tools has seen a gradual increase in this college to a considerable extent. This has resulted in better communication and it also made learning more interesting to the students. Wherever found feasible, teachers use laptops and LCD projectors in classrooms to make it easier for students to understand a subject from different perspectives. Bethune College has smart classrooms with projectors, smart boards, microphone etc. which help in e-learning process. Well - equipped computer laboratories of this college also assist in ICT based teaching.
Teachers of Bethune College regularly use ICT tools in the form of PowerPoint presentations in classrooms. Microphone connected speakers are also used whenever found necessary to enable teachers to reach all students effectively. College library also provides students computers with internet facility and access to e-journals and e-books through INFLIBNET is provided to students of all departments. Faculty of some departments also use ICT tools like Beamer, SPSS, Mathematica, Oracle, Iris - Intellispace Software, MS- Excel for statistical analysis and RDBMS for practical database creation for subjects like Computer Science.
In the Covid-19 Pandemic era, ICT has proved to be the preferred medium of teaching learning. During this trying times it helped in maintaining good student-teacher relationship thereby mitigating the hardship faced due to Covid related restrictions. Teachers have started taking online classes on platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, Teamlink, Skype etc. Teachers also attended special training programmes and workshops on the use of ICT tools for making themselves well- equipped in Learning Management System (LMS). One Faculty Development Programme on 'Online Teaching and E- content Development for In-house teachers of Bethune College' was organized by College IQAC for seven days. In this FDP, teachers received training on some advanced features of Google Classroom, Google Form, Edmodo/Testmoz and similar kind of platforms, Canva, OBS, Pear Deck etc. Faculty also acquired ICT related knowledge in two such certified training programmes. Two days certified online workshop on Mastering Virtual Classroom Teaching was organised by College IQAC and Department of Mathematics in collaboration with Classle Skillnet. Teachers of all disciplines also received training on use of various ICT enabled tools in another One Day Training Programme on "Orientation on MOOCs and E Content Development".
During the course of online teaching, teachers of Bethune College also have shared e-books through email, WhatsApp and Google Classroom which are found to be very useful to the students as visiting libraries was impossible for them in the lockdown period. Teachers also regularly upload e- contents and learning materials in Google classroom and College website. Study materials and videos from Open Educational Platforms like SWAYAM, SWAYAMPRABHA, E-PG PATHSALA, SHODHGANGA etc and different documentaries from online archives are regularly shared with students. YouTube assisted learning is also being practised. Audio lectures recorded by teachers in voice recorders are also being shared with students via WhatsApp, email , Google Classroom and Google Drive. Google Forms are being used to take examinations and for arranging Internal Assessments.
Students are encouraged to form WhatsApp groups to promote
effective peer learning. Students are motivated by teachers to
use these groups to upload and exchange their works ,
assignments, educational videos, innovative ideas and in this
way a collaborative online thinking is promoted by teachers
among students of this college. Teachers are not only adapting
to usage of ICT tools to provide quality education to students,
but also students are guided to use ICT like powerpoint
presentation in different student webinars and workshops. Thus
increasing use of ICT enabled tools is helping in effective
teaching learning process and assisting students in various ways
to enhance their knowledge.