Enhancing ICT Skills of Faculty Members from Higher Education

Abstract

There are 1.2 million teachers in the higher education (HE) system in India who are expected to help the 21st Century learners to develop appropriate digital skills. The Education 4.0 expects the teachers to have mastery over the ICT skills so that these 21st century learners will use these skills for learning. Do the teachers from HE have required mastery over ICT skills? Are they integrating ICT tools into their teaching-learning-assessment processes? Could they be guided to integrate ICT into their day-to-day teaching? This paper is based on data collected from the participants of a workshop on Flipped Learning. The participants were expected to use appropriate ICT tools and also train at least 50 faculty members each within next year. The data was collected before the workshop started and after one year. // The questionnaire had 8 questions related to use of ICT in Teaching Learning Process (e.g. Use of Blog, Google Drive, Slideshare, Presentations, LMS, Mobile etc.) Maximum score 17 and minimum 0. The average score for the whole sample (60) was 7.37. The data showed meagre use of ICT skills. // After the workshop, next one-year, Local Community of Practices through Handholding (LCOPH) was created and used through whatsapp platform, emails, phone calls. The results are very encouraging. Data received from 70% participants showed integration of ICT Skills into day to day teaching to a great extent. The paper also discusses relationship between ICT use and Extent of reach (number of faculty members trained) and also between the Social presence on LCOPH and the reach. It could be concluded that LCOPH created after the workshop (though not direct intervention) enhances the use of ICT tools among the faculty members of higher education. // Paper ID 219