Institutional Best Practices

Best Practice 1

  1. Title of the practice: College Automation System and e-Governance 
  • Objectives of the practice:

Electronic governance (e-Governance) is implemented using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to design, execute, and monitor various functions of the Mahavidyalaya. The specific objectives of this practice which focus broadly on e-Governance and ICT enabled teaching-learning medium are as follows-

 To provide a more straightforward and efficient system of governance in accounts, admissions, administration, and teaching-learning.

  • To promote clarity and accountability in all the functions of the Mahavidyalaya.
  • To create a paperless (green) ecosystem, maintain and provide easy and quick access to information.
  • To create intelligent classrooms with basic facilities such as Desktops, Laptops, Projectors, etc.
  • To reduce the time for assessing the information and generate various reports on demand.
  • To help monitor the various activities that will help enhance the system’s performance, in general.

 

  • The Context:

The state insists on a digital revolution for all sectors in the current scenario. The e-Governance has changed the administration’s notion, which is adopted to make the system user-friendly, time-saving, and cost-effective. The word “Automation” represents operating and controlling processes, focusing on minimizing the manual workload in repetitive tasks. The education sector is one of the critical sectors looking for a digital revolution. Automation in the education sector has various utilities for the management, administration of teachers, non-teaching staff, and students. If the management follows the conservative or labor-intensive system, almost all colleges in India confront the difficulty in managing and sharing the data. Nevertheless, this difficulty can be avoided via the initiation of modern, sophisticated technology, that is, via the implication of a capital-intensive system in the college arena. The management of rural colleges, such as our Mahavidyalaya, can now bear this burden at relatively lower prices.

 

  • The practice:

The recent advancement in communication technologies and the internet provides an opportunity to transform the old education system and college management in a new digital way, thus contributing to good governance. Almost all the sectors are constructing their way to decide on online and technical operations, which can assist them in moving forward, particularly in the COVID situation. Digital cloud, mobile devices, and other digital technologies accelerate educational transformation in colleges and higher education worldwide. The college has automated the following areas as a part of the College Automation System and e-Governance initiation-

  • Student Admission and Examination system
  • Administrative task
  • Financial audits
  • Attendance system and faculty appraisal
  • Students’ feedback system

In this Covid-19 pandemic situation, our Mahavidyalaya ran primarily through the e-platform or online mode. Most of the administrative tasks are now being accomplished on e-mode. Online classes are organized on Google meet and the Google classroom platform, following online timetables with teachers and subject schedules. Some part of the students’ grading and assessment are being held on Google classroom Learning Management System (LMS). Study materials are uploaded by the corresponding teachers in various digital repositories or the learning management system (LMS), including Academia.edu and Google classroom. The digital repositories also contain previous years’ questions, question banks, etc., for students’ access. Some teachers have also uploaded their video lecture materials on YouTube. Google LLC supports Mahavidyalaya in accessing the Google education tools in free of cost. This has offered various user profiles such as email accounts with our college domain name for general communications, Google drive for data storage, Google Classroom for LMS, and Google Meet for online meetings and teaching-learning, etc. The use and scope of various Google tools are still being explored. The faculty attendance, leave application, and self-appraisal reports are recorded daily in a customized human resource management system (HRMS app) available in Google Play Store for android devices. Our e-Office uses tally software for different accounting and auditing purposes. The students are encouraged to provide their feedback through our well-designed college website.

  • Evidence of Success 

Our Mahavidyalaya has started to realize the benefits of the College Automation System and e-Governance in the following manner–

  • The college administration has become greener and more cost-effective. Paper consumption has been significantly reduced because most of the information is stored and circulated electronically.
  • The administration can now follow up on the staff performance and appraisal quickly and transparently. 
  • It helps the teaching staff and administration to focus more on the teaching and learning process of the students. 
  • The teachers enjoy the benefits of digital education – online learning solutions provide effectiveness for the teaching faculty, allowing them to maximize the potential for individual learning styles within the classroom.
  • The office staff has got new ways to manage information and financial audits. It has enabled their work to be done efficiently and fast. It has reduced the consumption of time during the maintenance of records of college students.
  • The students are now able to optimize their time along with helping them to learn whenever they want, whatever they want, and however they want. They are becoming self-accountable, smarter, and self-motivated.
  • College can now obtain feedback from students to modify course curriculum/teaching style if deemed appropriate by the authorities.

 

  • Problems Encountered and Resources required

Despite the success mentioned above, there are a few obstacles to implement the e-Governance initiation in our college, given the environmental and social challenges, economic challenges, and technical challenges. Environmental and social Challenges include Low IT literacy of the college staff, struggle to change or willingness to adopt the new system, confidence in new technologies, and privacy for personal data. Economic challenges are relevant given the cost of the high-end IT devices, maintenance of installed electronic devices, and limited financial resources in our Mahavidyalaya. Mastering new technology is always complicated, especially for the staff unfamiliar with the e-Governance and automation software or modern information technology. They may become overwhelmed with the complexities of the new IT system and instead turn to regular old pen & paper processes. The college requires to organize more orientation programs with a well-trained technical team headed by a suitable professional background. The new post should be created, and the Government should come forward by providing prudent funds to this remote and rural college for its endeavor.

 

Best Practice 2

  1. Title of the practice: Implementation of e-Library facility
  2. Objectives of the practice: 

An electronic library or e-Library defines a library where the library’s contents and administrations are organized in electronic format. The library service is made available over the internet so that end users can access them remotely. The main objectives for the implementation of the e-Library facility are outlined below.

 

  • To assemble, consolidate and classify books, lecture notes, and research journals in the electronic form to provide seamless access to the targeted users.
  • To gain an in-depth understanding of students’ digital literacy and to organize tutorials/workshops/seminars for the users including teachers to effectively utilize the facilities and resources available by the e-Library.
  • To engage the students in continuous learning even beyond class hours and in a pandemic situation.
  • To preserve unique and antique collections through digitization for the coming generations.
  • To collaborate with other regional, national, and international facilities to exchange information to enhance the scope of the e-Library.

 

  • The Context:

The inevitable effects of globalization and the advent of technological revolution have changed the ways of Indian education system. The library is an integral part of this system and has welcomed such changes. In the old form of education, students used to study and write consistently, and approximately the total flow of education was unilateral. In recent years, through the development of information and communication technologies, a new form of schooling appeared named e-Learning. So, the library’s role is to provide the relevant information at the right time to the right user. Thus, apart from the regular work of the libraries, development of library networks, and massive e-resource development have become a practice. Many workshops aimed to improve the skilled workforce, creation of user profiles, and provide user education about e-resources are to be considered. Implementing e-Libraries will help to enhance the overall academic environment.

  • The practice:

The following practices are adopted to implement the e-Library facility at the Mahavidyalaya successfully. An extensive digital repository has been created containing in-house journal publications, e-Books, and other academic resources in digital format for more complete and uninterrupted access. User profiles are created to access the e-Library facility for all the staff members and students satisfying the user information needs. Through the library retrieval tool OPAC, the status of any book may be known whether the book was issued, lost, or returned, and an acquisition order may be available. The user can search the resources from the networked computers. The e-Library facility is equipped with ICT-enabled services like library software with a multi-user LAN facility, bar-code technology, monitoring usage statistics, an online database search facility, Wi-Fi Connectivity, etc. The Institute library became a member of national level consortiums such as UGC Inflibnet N-List and many other e-collections that constitute a good part of the e-Library. Apart from online collection, there are about three thousand e-Books in digital form. Alongside the usual computer technologies, the library also uses a variety of cutting-edge ICT hardware to operate within a modern digital environment, including a high-end scanner for digitisation and OCR of documents for the Institutional Digital Repository.

Orientation is one of the best practices of our library to create awareness among the students about the e-Library. By conducting regular user orientation programs at the beginning of the academic session, newly enrolled library users get acquainted with the library system, resources, facilities, and services. During COVID -19 pandemic, the Institute library tried to utilize the available IT infrastructure of the library to serve the students at home. Through online library orientation programs, awareness among new students increases about the different types of documents, e-resources, services, digital library facilities, other ICTs used in the library, library rules, library times, membership procedures, etc. Apart from these, hands-on training sessions for teachers and researchers on information retrieval techniques are conducted throughout the year as per their needs. The aim is to refurbish their knowledge of the latest innovations in the library, discern what is a good information source, use new technologies, and ultimately help them to use the library maximum. In general, efforts have been made to integrate technology into all aspects of library activities and services.

  • Evidence of Success

Combining the technology and information resources to allow remote access, breaking down the physical barriers between resources, the e-Library facility of the Mahavidyalaya is helping the staff and students with enhanced knowledge sharing, even beyond the formal learning environment. Not all the library users in traditional learning settings use information resources beyond their scheduled curriculum and syllabus; the e-library facility of the Mahavidyalaya now offers all types of users to share electronic resources, enhance collaborative activities and expertise for their mutual benefit. The e-Library facility is helping our rural students of the Mahavidyalaya to become critical thinkers, information gatherers, and savvy digital media users.

Implementing the e-library facility at the Mahavidyalaya has tremendously advanced research activities and academic excellence in conjunction with the newly set up research center by providing relevant information resources to the users. Our e-library collects, stores, and organizes educational resources in digital form; promotes instant and efficient delivery of information to the users; encourages academic collaborative efforts in the research centers; plays a key role in generating and disseminating knowledge.

  • Problems Encountered and Resources required

New technology has brought a lot of opportunities to the library users for the digital library, but simultaneously it also has faced a lot of obstacles. To retrieve and read the information stored in digital form, we need more high-end hardware devices, which are too costly for our Mahavidyalaya. However, building suitable intellectual infrastructures for digital libraries is even more challenging as the Mahavidyalaya is situated in rural/remote and underprivileged areas. Despite the specific role of e-Library, many users of the Mahavidyalaya still face challenges in accessing the e-resources, which grossly affect effective and collaborative research activities. If advancement and innovation for easy access to e-resources are not considered, the library users would be afraid to patronize the facility, resulting in low academic output. This e-Library facility has been implemented in the Mahavidyalaya with the internal sources of the fund – the essentially limited college fund. The Mahavidyalaya requires substantial financial assistance from the Government or any other external agencies to carry on the noble endeavor of the Mahavidyalaya.

Year-wise Best Practices

Academic Year: 2022-23

  1. Environment-friendly campus and conservation of Biodiversity and Ecorestoration  Practice
  2. Participatory Resource management.

Academic Year: 2021-22

  1. Different steps for the quality initiatives of Academic and administrative concern through e-governance at the institution level.
  2. Reform and upgradation of Library to equipped with modern facilities facilitate up to the student’s fingertips.
  3. Research Centre integration with the Central instrumentation lab.
  4. Installation of Ground Water Recharge System within the campus.
  5. Establishment of Language Laboratory for Soft-Skill Development.
  6. Reordering and upgradation of the Waste-Water Effluents of the Laboratory through updated tertiary treatment system.
  7. Establishment of new Conference Hall with full of modern gazettes along with ICT enables system.
  8. Regularized Students’ Meets along with the teachers and administration for better understanding.
  9. Installation of High Must LED Light within the campus

Academic Year: 2020-21

  1. Endorsement of Online appraisal and attendance system for all staff.
  2. Different steps for the quality initiatives of Academic and administrative concern through e-governance.
  3. Regularize and upgrade the e-Governance system at the institution level.
  4. Redistribution of the Office management and scattering of the section into the new office building.
  5. Endorsement of the online financial transaction.
  6. Beatification of the College Campus with plantation.
  7. Establishment of Guest House & Professors Hostel within the campus.

Academic Year: 2019-20

  1. e-Resource Repository and Real-Time e-Class Room Program.
  2. Endorsement of Online Feedback Systems.
  3. Renovation of the Vidyasagar Auditorium Hall, Swarupananda Boy’s Hostel and Nivedita Girl’s Hostel.
  4. Establishment of dedicated Controller Section of the Mahavidyalaya.
  5. Installation of A/V system and/or PAS in the larger Classroom.
  6. Installation of ICT enabled Interactive Classroom facilities in some classrooms.
  7. Upgradation of cabled LT Power supply within the entire campus.

Academic Year: 2018-19

  1. Differently-abled friendly college campus i.e. hurdle-free college campus.
  2. Mentor-Mentee programme.
  3. Segregation of the departments facilitating with the departmental office adjacent to the classrooms.
  4. Meetup minimum requirements of the Classrooms those are essential for the smooth teaching & learning.

Academic Year: 2017-18

  1. Getting Familiarized with the Political Culture of Democracy through the Participation in Youth Parliament Competition.
  2. Installation of On-Grid Solar Power System.

Academic Year: 2016-17

  1. Regular participation of the students in the Youth Parliament Competition at the Division level, District level and State level.
  2. Arrangement of remedial and tutorial classes.

Academic Year: 2015-16

 

Academic Year: 2014-15

  1. Field excursion
  2. Blood donation camps organize by NSS unit of the college

Academic Year: 2013-14