Abstract:

This paper delves into the currently established methodologies on remote teaching and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India (BITS, Pilani). This is an area, which BITS Pilani, as a university, has effectively leveraged to its advantage. Ranging from initiating the very first computer based online entrance exam in India, to developing superior MOOC, BITS has been a pioneer in this field in the Indian context. BITSConnect 2.0 is a brainchild of BITS Pilani Vision 2020. Vision 2020 is quintessentially a mission to revamp the 50 year old campus and legacy of BITS Pilani. BITSConnect 2.0 is a multi-million dollar project, bringing state-of-art collaborative networks and telepresence across all the four campuses of BITS Pilani. The paper would address the methodology, of as to how BITS Pilani has efficiently utilised the concept of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to ensure transparency, flexibility and speed in its administration, curriculum planning as well as decision making.

BITSConnect 2.0, is essentially an alumni initiative, aimed at alumni-alumni collaboration and alumni-BITS collaboration for benefit of the students and faculty alike. Currently, it deploys the largest Cisco based WebEx infrastructure, for any university in India. The approach, is effectively three-fold, which includes complementing the BITS courses through high quality video lecture series, to facilitate collaborative research projects between alumni and BITS and lastly, to expose students to current research trends and provide guidance & support in pursuing research and development projects. This venture has facilitated the faculty in teaching students across all the four campuses of BITS Pilani and the leadership is also able to better engage in the decision making process through real-time web & VOIP based conferencing techniques. This paper would provide an in-depth study on the integrated real-time tracking of core academic & administrative processes, via the means of electronic & web based data management tools that have reaped rich dividends for BITS Pilani.

BITSEmbryo is another initiative, developed under the umbrella of BITSConnect 2.0 to foster strong collaboration of BITS students and BITS faculty with the alumni and friends of BITS Pilani. Through BITSEmbryo, students have online access to live video lectures, delivered by the alumni as well as expert academicians of different fields. Instead of spending resources and time in physically inviting lecturers on campus, through BITSEmbryo, students can successfully overcome the monetary expenditure, time constraints and geographical barriers involved. Issues relating to quality and scale of BITS Pilani’s on-campus & off-campus programmes will be elaborately discussed. Bridging the gap between the academia and industry, through means of telepresence will be emphasized upon in the paper.

BITS Pilani has elevated the standard of flipped teaching in the Indian context with the introduction of Any-Learn which is a customized platform, tailor-made for 12,000 BITS students, and spread across all the campuses of BITS Pilani. Any Learn, launched by BITS Pilani and an initiative of Vision 2020, has been formed on similar lines as the OpenCourseWare (OCW) developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The paper would also take a fore step in describing as to how exactly it is that BITS Pilani aims to expand its own MOOC programme in India.

Keywords:

Flipped Teaching, Video Conferencing, Open Courses, Telepresence.