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Challenges and Opportunities Kalyan K. Banerjee 24 May 2014 JNTU, Kakinada 1 Education = 360 degree engagement

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Exam Structured Disciplines Hour by hour schedules Rewards for the Smart Content added to keep pace with change Fixed Time, Variable Quality 2 Education as we know it

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Regulation Fixed Syllabus Failure is not an option Focus on Scale Equal courses, equal pace The show must go on! 3 Education as we know it

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The Changing Nature of Challenges 4 High Quality, Too few seats Increasing Opportunities, Not enough quality talent Surfeit of Universities, Not enough faculty Wheres the education 20102000 19901980

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Biz focus Content ++ Concepts Motivation Exposure Scalable Exams Constrained by Syllabus Do More, With less Speed, Higher Degrees 5 Reality Check

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Learner in the Centre Teacher as a Mentor Technology as an aid Find a Purpose Custom Progress Variable Time, Fixed Quality 6 The New Education

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Challenge in Modern Society 7 7 Time Abundance of Knowledge No Barriers to Access Low attention span Confused in decision making Plenty of connections, too few friends Join the gang! Focus on Speed over Substance Short Term Focus More wisdom than we can absorb Guidance

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Inspiration, Purpose, Nation Builder Sharing Empowered Skilled, Confident 8 Outcomes we expect

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Mentor Inspiration Student as Apprentice Helps solve problems Custom Support Provides direction 9 New Age Teacher

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Problems are Many Solutions are Few Education for Nation building Beyond the Degree Long term Not just the degree Parents and Society Inspiration and Aspiration Responsibility and Accountability Ethics, Empathy and Inclusion Theres no failure only different challenges 10 What we did

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The Five Principles 11 Exposure Learn from Diverse Sources Concepts Environment to Fail Purpose Show possibilities. Show alternatives. Show conflicts. Show role models. Exposure builds Aspiration. What do I want to achieve, Why? Why am I studying, What are my priorities, what can I avoid? Mistakes are a critical element of learning. Are we allowing that to happen? Or are we preventing it? What did I learn? Where else does it apply? Why this way? Question. Where to apply it? Less, not More! Reading Diverse, Diverse friends, diverse hobbies, Learn from Peers

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Define the ten Levels Assess where you are Take your own targets Set intermediate targets Simplify the programming challenge Variables and Operators, If-else, Loops, Arrays Structures, Functions, Files and Pointers Do not Copy You must fail if you have to learn Come to me when you make mistakes 12 Teaching Programming

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Groups and Captains Students move at different pace, and thats a blessing Group incentives Custom Feedback Custom attention, variable time 13 Teaching Programming

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Most of these experiments did not work! 14 The catch

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Excursion off-site to learn programming 17 students of 2 nd Year B. Tech. CSE opted Students opted for the program (i.e. not selected by faculty) 24 days off-site, Dec 18 to Jan 11 Primary Objective: Experience the joy of programming Measurable outcomes: Students remain engaged every day, till midnight or later Students retain the programming habit even after return While the improvement in programming capability has been dramatic, We observed tangible changes in self confidence, communication skills, questioning ability, 15 The Programming Excursion

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Secondary Objectives: Exposure to diverse areas Group learning Teamwork Reflection, introspection, self assessment Fun, informal and voluntary attempts at improving communication skills Tangible Outcomes Confidence in Programming Visible difference to spoken communication High confidence Questioning instinct 16 The Programming Excursion

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Core tasks Write a program for the Sudoku Solver Break down the large problem into multiple small tasks Code the small tasks Debug the code Discuss and compare Integrate code with code written by others Compare timings and explain the differences Program for buzzword analysis, i.e. find most common words and phrases in a text 17 What we did

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Students can fail They can take their time Teacher sits with them, through their mistakes shows them how to find bugs When mistakes are common, they learn from others who made the mistakes ahead of them They can choose their own methods Allow them to wander Aggressive targets are needed To push them Keep putting aggressive targets from the first day Programming styles evolve Pushed them to merge with others programs, that forced them learn effective programming style 18 The programming experience

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Activities beyond the technical engagement Psychometric instruments for self assessment Discussions with industry leaders, and academic leaders Wellness programs Outbound games, experiences and learning Outdoor games, e.g. cricket and volleyball Structured Fun Scrabble Panel discussions Quiz competitions Videos Consequences High confidence Visible difference to communication skills 19 What else we did

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After a while, students took all the responsibility They set the agenda They set the schedules, and worked beyond those They refused the breaks, and the games They collected and consolidated feedback And acted on those They reflected on what went wrong, or what does not work, and informed the faculty 20 Students called the shots

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Just 24 days of intense engagement and diverse exposure made a critical impact What was the difference? Students exposed to variety of thought And these were debated in fun style like panel discussions on TV And when students were shy, they were drawn out with informal and personal attention Students empowered to create their own schedules, own learning plans, and who they worked with Students provided their feedback, and were also given responsibility to track actions on their feedback Students were made responsible for varied tasks on rotation and they took the responsibility seriously Mistakes were encouraged they were repeatedly told: you cannot learn if you do not make mistakes. Students were encouraged to question 21 Conclusions from the experiment

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Other observations (relevant to communication skills) The grammar has not improved, but they are speaking more fluently We need to move one step at a time trying to be perfect too soon probably keeps them back. First you speak, later youll figure out how to speak. Responsibility for doing well should be passed on to students Mentors need to show them meaningful purpose, inspire them, and be behind them specially when they make mistakes Only one out of 17 students had even heard of Scrabble So we need to focus on improving exposure We need to gently influence their non-academic habits as well Now around half the students voluntarily want to play Scrabble We allowed them to look up the dictionary while playing 22 Other observations from the experiment

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Students were empowered to take responsibility Students found a Purpose Exposed to role models Variety of experiences Students did not feel the rush Even though they had targets, and knew they had Students had the freedom to choose When to work Who to work with How to work Activities at one stretch No fifty (or 60) minute capsules No continuous context switching They could fail ! 23 Success factors

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Not everything we planned for, could be achieved Thats ok, not everything can be achieved in 24 days Not much interest in Hollywood movies Movies with sub-titles can help Students have not written diary (or blog) every day But probably they understand the importance (now) Newspapers, blogs, and dictionary (with English usage tips) should become their habit not yet We cannot impose, but we can inspire Involving them in our activities will help the cause in a big way Faculty must outsource some of their work to students 24 Other observations from the experiment

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Its possible, even scalable! With technology + intelligent Mentors with Empathy Lets focus on Skilled workers, not shaky degrees With continuous knowledge upgrade path Memorizing details from 50 courses is more difficult than writing an original 2000-line program Focus on the magic of numbers, rather than struggle with differential equations everyone does not need them Teach concepts Teach little Teach little, can never hope to teach everything Apply concepts, only then will people learn Create exposure Show possibilities, show role models, Inspire them Create Purpose Learning is a Lifelong journey Create the motivation and the foundations 25 Summary

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The future of education is here! Can we shape it together? Kalyan K Banerjee Centurion University kalyankb@cutm.ac.in 26