Abstract:

Background:
The pandemic situation placed many challenges before the University. It was inevitable for the University to adopt a blended learning model. The proposed blended learning framework was termed as 'bi-chronous mode' that comprised two modes of delivery: asynchronous and synchronous. As a part of the asynchronous mode, the course content was fragmented into small logical units, and fragments were termed as 'chunks'. For every chunk, videos using a light board or screen-casting were made, depending on whether the content was conceptual or procedural. The recorded videos were uploaded to the Learning Management System (LMS) to facilitate students to watch them at their convenience (time and place). To facilitate doubt clarifications, initiate discussions, problem-solving, and team exercises, students were expected to attend the classes as per the schedule.

Context of the study:
The program is offered for three hundred fifty undergraduate students, sixty post-graduate students with fifty-five teaching faculty members. Adopting a bi-chronous framework at the University level resulted in a ripple effect at the program level. The paper focuses on consolidating experiences, opportunities, and challenges at the program level by adopting the bi-chronous mode of delivery.
The adaptation at the program level was made in three levels: course design, course delivery, and assessment. It included
1. Creating facilities to record a video lecture
2. Training the faculty to structure the content to suit the blended mode of delivery, training the faculty towards video etiquette
3. Creation of video content
4. Usage of LMS, and
5. Design of assessments that suited blended mode of delivery.

Challenges:
The paper describes the challenges encountered at the program level, including 1. It included initial hiccups for faculty and students to adapt to blended learning. Though the faculty had the content mastery, video etiquette was challenging and resulted in multiple iterations of the videos. 2. Despite forming a faculty committee to ensure the quality of content before it is hosted on LMS was challenging due to a large number of courses at the program level. 3. Delivery of hardware labs such as analog electronics, digital electronics, and micro-controllers lab.

Opportunities:
Video content creation was a mammoth experience for the faculty. It created 185 hours of video content for sixteen UG courses during the odd semester and 97 hours of video content for eleven UG courses during the even semester of the semester academic year 2021. The availability of these videos on LMS helped the students, and it was a step towards creating personalized learning. The availability of the video content on the LMS helped the faculty to plan the synchronous classes for doubt clarifications, discussions, problem-solving, and team exercises. The hardware laboratories, like analog electronics, were delivered in three phases that included pre-session, in-session, and post-session. Students were expected to watch the pre-recorded videos (videos focused on the objective of the experiment and the working of the circuit ) hosted on the website and perform the simulation. Attending a quiz acted as a qualifier for the student to attend the in-sessions. Students attended labs in small batches during in-sessions and performed the experiments followed by an assessment. Faculty observed students performance in laboratories was improved with the following approach.

Keywords:

Bi-chronous mode, Synchronous mode, Asynchronous mode, Electronics and Communication Engineering, hardware labs.