INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND DELIVERY

National Institute for Technical Teacher’s Training (NITTTR), Chandigarh always brings many opportunities for faculty members to excel in their career and help them adapt to technological changes and adopt new methods for student’s performance evaluation. A five day workshop on “Student Evaluation: Instructional Planning and Delivery” was organized at Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon through ICT as a nodal center in collaboration with NITTTR Chandigarh from 16th - 20th November 2015. Faculty Members from all the departments of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon participated in the workshop.

Day 1: November 16th, 2015

The event was inaugurated by Dr. P. K Tulsi, Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh, by giving a remarkable speech. The esteemed guests of the participating institutions also introduced themselves. Dr Tulsi continued her speech with the objectives of the event and gave a brief idea of the five day program.. She discussed the technical and vocational education and training system. She stated that India stands second in the talent shortage and stated the reason for the same. She further discussed the global reasons for difficulty filling jobs and stated that of all the engineering graduates only 3.21% are fit for IT Roles.

Dr. Tulsi continued the session with the discussion on quality of output from an educational system. She stated that the instructional process is most important factor. She discussed the importance of feedback. She then discussed the drawbacks in existing system of evaluation and threw light on the criteria for good evaluation.

The next session was on “Evaluation: concepts, types and purposes” by Dr. S P Bedi, Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh. She started her presentation with the definition and relevance of assessments for students and faculties. She then explained the relation between teaching and evaluation. She further discussed the users of evaluation and then gave an explanation of the types of evaluation. She then discussed score interpretation. Dr Bedi continued her session with the discussion on the reliability and validity of assessment.

The afternoon session was on “Designing Rubrics” by Er. Amandeep Kaur, Assistant Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh. She started her session with briefing of the content of the presentation and then discussed the types of assessment. She explained Rubrics which is a tool used for evaluating student performance. She stated the characteristics of Rubrics as transparency, clarity, timeliness and appropriateness. She further discussed the format for Rubric and its different scales for evaluation. She then discussed the types of Rubrics such as holistic, analytical, description type, general type and task specific Rubric. Er Kaur continued her presentation with the stages in constructing a Rubric and explained the factors that make an effective Rubric. The session concluded with the discussion on the advantages of Rubrics for faculty.

Day 2: November 17th, 2015

The second day session started with a presentation on “Writing Test Item” by Dr. Sunil Dutt, Faculty In charge Academic Cell, NITTTR Chandigarh. Dr. Dutt discussed short answer type questions and how students are supposed to answer them. He gave examples of poor items and better items. He then stated the advantages and limitations of short answer questions. The next topic that was discussed was the guidelines for constructing completion type items.

Dr. Dutt continued the session with the discussion on essay type items and then restricted response questions were discussed, followed by extended response questions. He then stated the guidelines for constructing essay type items and multiple choice items. He discussed the advantages of multiple type items. The next part of the workshop was a preparatory session wherein two assignments were allotted and the participants were asked to prepare their answers for the same.

The first part of the afternoon session was hosted by Er. Amandeep Kaur. Each team of participants from the participating institutes presented the rubrics on project work. The rubrics were created for different streams of engineering and science such as Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Humanities, etc. One member from each team explained the rubric and the Er Kaur rectified the mistakes they had made. In the second part of the session Dr Sunil Dutt conducted a presentation wherein the participants had to discuss the question paper that they were asked to prepare. Each team from the participating institutions presented the set of question. Dr Dutt pointed out the mistakes the participants had made and suggested the appropriate modifications. The session was winded up by answering the queries of the participants.

Day 3: November 18th, 2015

The third day session started with a presentation on “Setting Question Papers” by Dr. S P Bedi, Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh. Dr. Bedi discussed how reliable and valid question papers can be set and the steps for constructing a test. She then discussed the Bloom’s Cognitive Domain and described the various levels contained within it. She gave examples of the questions falling in each level. She displayed a sample table of specification which has modified weightage for every topic and the weightage for the levels of remembering, understanding, applying and higher application.

Dr. Bedi continued her presentation with the discussion on the steps for constructing table of specification. She then stated the dos and don’ts for creating essay type questions. The next part of the session was a presentation on “Project Work and Evaluation” by Dr. T N Thukral, Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh. Dr Thukral started his presentation with the contents of practical work in technical institutions. He explained the taxonomies of Cognitive Domain, Psychomotor Domain and Affective Doman. She stated the reasons for the inclusion of project work in curriculum and the challenges that can be faced in a project work. He further discussed the definition, types and significance of projects.

He then stated the important considerations for project work and then mentioned the skills that are essential in an effective guide.

Dr. Thukral continued his presentation with the discussion on the way to organize project work effectively and how to monitor the project work. He suggested the structure for project work and then specified the phases of project work. Dr Thukral discussed the process of evaluation of project work and its types and purposes. He then stated the various assessment practices and the different criteria on which a student can perform self-assessment of his project.

The afternoon session was hosted by Dr. S P Bedi. Teams from the participating institutions presented their table of specification and a question paper on the subjects of their domains. The question papers were supposed to be designed as per the weightages specified in the table of specification. Dr Bedi gave her feedback of their presentations and rectified the mistakes they had made. Dr Bedi concluded the session by stating the mistakes that are most frequently made while designing a question paper.

Day 4: November 19th, 2015

The fourth day session started with a presentation on “Planning Organizing and Assessment of Practical Work” by Er. Amandeep Kaur. Er Kaur started her presentation with the definition and types of practical work. She elaborated the experience, exercises, investigation and demonstration type of practical work. She then stated the purpose and advantages of practical work. She further discussed the various problems in skill development and how to plan a practical work. Er. Kaur stated the various criteria of planning for assessment of practical work and the different view which are required to be considered for assessment.

The second session was on “Ethics in student evaluation” by Prof. P K Tulsi. Prof Tulsi started her presentation with the discussion on the various characteristics of good evaluation like reliability, validity, feasibility, objectivity and usability. She elaborated the purposes of ethics. She further discussed the use of unethical practices by students and the various aspects of ethics in evaluation. She stated that lack of professional competence, mass copying, leaking of papers and liberal marking are the major ethical issues. She elaborated on the various areas of ethical issues like test construction, test taking and administration, marking, feedback and correctives. Prof Tulsi concluded her session with the discussion on the principles of ethical evaluation.

The third session was a panel discussion on “Changes needed in examination system” hosted by Prof. P K Tulsi. Various dignitaries from the participating institutions joined the panel. Prof. B L Kaul were invited as a panellist in the discussion from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida. Prof. Kaul gave his views regarding the current examination system and the changes which can be made in order to make student evaluation more effective. He stated the roles and responsibilities of the evaluators. He mentioned the issues with the marking system and the need for step-wise evaluation of the answers. Dr. Tulsi emphasized on comprehensive evaluation using a variety of assessment techniques. She mentioned that the technical graduates now days have low acceptability in work field due to lack of skills. Dr. S P Bedi kept her views on the examination system. She mentioned that strong formative evaluation can be made by introducing effective measures. The next part of the session involved questions from the participants to the panellists.

Participants from the various participating institutes asked questions regarding the effective way of evaluating project work, quality of the question papers, different means of assessments of student performance, etc. Dr. Tulsi concluded the discussion by summing up the roles of faculties and evaluators in the student evaluation. She made a note that each and every individual has a power to make a change in the system. In the end she thanked all the panellists for their views and the participants for their involvement in the discussion.

Day 5: November 20th, 2015

The fifth day session started with a presentation on “Feedback” by Dr. T N Thukral. Dr. Thukral started his presentation with a discussion on the purpose of education. He clearly defined learning as a process of acquiring and integrating varied forms of knowledge and skills. He stated the purposes of giving feedback and then gave a broad division of feedback as intrinsic feedback and extrinsic feedback. He then threw light on the evaluation and nature of feedback. He further differentiated between summative feedback and formative feedback and then gave instructions for writing an appropriate feedback.

Dr. Thukral continued his presentation by stating the properties of a feedback such as unambiguous, accuracy, balanced between positive and negative comments. He emphasized on giving feedback that assists learning. He stated that a feedback should begin with a positive comment and should provide constructive information about strengths and weaknesses of a student. He further discussed on the types of graders. Dr. Thukral concluded his presentation by summing up all the important aspects of an effective feedback.

The next session was on “Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness” conducted by Er. Amandeep Kaur. Er gave an assignment to the participants to note down their views on various parameters for effective teaching in the 21st century and the various strategies to improve teaching methods in class room environment. Participants from all the participating institutions actively took part in the session and suggested various ways of implementing effective teaching methodologies.

The STC ended with the validatory session. The participants and the chief guests from the participating institutions gave their suggestions and feedbacks of the workshop. All the sessions of the workshop had been very fruitful and interest-arousing.