ENVISIONING UNITED NATION SUSTAINABILITY GOALS 2030 -A LECTURE SERIES

LECTURE ON ‘OVERVIEW OF OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION’

As a part of its lecture series, the Department of Commerce, Sri Aurobindo College, organised a one-hour lecture on ‘Overview of Outcome Based Education’ on August 22, 2022, from 3:30 PM on Google Meet. The speaker for the lecture was Prof. Namita Rajput, Teacher in charge, Department of Commerce. The lecture was hosted by Ms. Aakriti Saini, faculty member, Department of Commerce. Prof. Rajput introduced the concept of ‘Outcome Based Education’ (OBE) as a learning paradigm that focuses on the outcomes instead of results, by way of using restructured curriculum and innovative teaching learning and assessment methods.

Prof. Rajput highlighted that OBE lies at the heart of the New Education Policy (NEP) and Learning Outcome-based Curriculum Framework (LOCF). It was pointed out that OBE has succeeded input-based education and focuses on preparing students not for college but for their lifetime. Innovative classrooms were described as the need to replace the ordinary traditional classrooms to shift from low order thinking skills (LOTS) to high order thinking skills (HOTS). Under the format of innovative classrooms, all the material, videos, and documents are shared with the students in advance, and students are exposed to hands-on experiences in the class. This is needed for the students to learn and implement the contents taught in a course. Pedagogy needs to be revolutionised to be able to realise the learning outcomes of the course. Yesteryears witnessed assessment through a series of annual examinations of the notes and content taught to the students. Adequate emphasis is required upon if the students actually learnt the implications and practical aspects of the curriculum taught in the course. For achieving that, assessment can be comprised of placement assessments (to place students in a course according to their abilities), formative assessments (involving feedback on teaching learning process for making improvements wherever needed), diagnostic assessments (to identify student’s current knowledge of a subject and their skill set and capabilities), and (traditional) summative assessments (such as unit tests, mid-term exams, and final exams that take place after teaching-learning process is complete).

Recommendations of Prof. Rajput involved rewarding students and teachers (for using innovative teaching methods and for research related achievements). The session covered various issues in higher education such as those related to accountability towards students, needs of the industry, maintaining academic standards, accountable to grant providing organisations, and accreditation. It also covered issues in teaching and learning such as student intake, staff’s competence, teaching process, assessment, courses, and facilities. The speaker also explained ‘Washington Accord’ with respect to the feature of accreditation. Knowledge, skill and attitude (KSA) was described as the focus of OBE, the knowledge domains of which would be covered in the subsequent sessions. The current session also covered the steps to implement an OBE framework in an institution. Adequate emphasis was made on creation and mapping of vision and mission statements, student outcomes, programme objectives, and course objectives. It was recommended that the student should be able to accumulate mastery and learning in problem solving and practical implications of a course. Personal attention of the teacher was prescribed to be extended to each student for each student to feel confident about approaching the teacher for anything related to the course. OBE was explained as a self-reflection for a teacher as to what he/she is doing for the students. Among other aspects, experiential learning featured in OBE was claimed to enable ‘deep learning’ over ‘surface learning’. The essentials of OBE were synthesised as follows: curriculum, staff, and facilities and innovative teaching learning processes blended with continual quality improvements for creation of graduates with outcomes.

The event received registrations from over 94 participants across India with few beyond the geographical boundary including Canada and USA. Majority participants (64%) attended the workshop as faculty followed by students at 26%, 3% research scholars , 1% attendees from corporate and 6% as others. Participants were from states and universities including University of Delhi, University of Rajasthan, Amity University, Galgotia University, University of Canada and more. The workshop witnessed participation from different departments including Commerce, Electronics, Humanities , Psychology, Mathematics, Management , Botany, Accounts, social sciences to name a few. The students learnt a great deal from this workshop as it upskilled their learning.

Towards the end, Prof. Vipin Kumar Aggarwal, Principal, Sri Aurobindo College, appreciated the timing of the session in the wake of launch of NEP and emphasised upon the importance of the agenda covered by the session. The session was closed by the remarks of Ms. Radha Bhola, faculty member, Department of Commerce. The session was well received by the participants, and they acknowledged the speaker for having spared her valuable time to share the much-needed insights on OBE.