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Ronika Angelina   

Shoolini University has taken a pioneering and innovative step in introducing virtual classes and online learning for students in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. This step is in line with similar systems introduced by leading global universities like Oxford and Harvard. 

After initial glitches, due to heavy load on the servers, around 90 per cent of classes were made operational within a week. The University also took the help of other apps to facilitate virtual classrooms through E-Univ. The students are able to attend live lecture through the virtual classrooms. They can also ask questions and get answers in real time. 

Protect the semester

“We introduced the system to protect the semester and ensure that the students do not suffer from postponed examinations, and delayed graduation,” said Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof Atul Khosla.? ? “All lectures will now be held as per the scheduled time table, albeit in virtual space. We shall ensure that not a single day of study should be lost and students should graduate on time,” he added.

Prof Khosla said the system enables the students to interact with teachers who can make use of other technological tools such as graphs and power point presentations. The system includes provision for conducting examinations in a secure environment, he added.   

Explaining the quick transition from regular lectures, he said that Shoolini University researchers and the IT team had been working on the online learning system for the last several months which was an extension of the E-Univ system already enforced in the University. Under the E-Univ system, lectures are recorded in a capsule form which can be accessed by students at any time. 

Despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic, Shoolini University is way ahead in the sphere of placements.

‘Even the lockdown period has not deterred us. Nearly 80 per cent of our MBA students have already found rewarding placements,’” says Director-General Mr Arvind Nanda.

He said the Placement Drive began in October 2019, much before Coronavirus raised its head early this year, and now over 200 of our final year students have already found employment (including 125 MBA and 75 students of Engineering and other programs) with top companies like Airtel and Hindustan Unilever.”

The university is actively pursuing some leading companies and has initiated the hiring processes through video/telephone calls.

The second key advantage at Shoolini is the tremendous credibility that has been built as a preferred institute among many of its key recruiters.

‘This has been possible because our alumni have consistently outperformed others in similar roles. Also, our industry partners have assured that Shoolini would be their top choice once the requirements are re-assessed, post-Corona pandemic,’” Mr Nanda said, adding, ‘it seems imminent that the placement process would get extended this year beyond the usual period.’

He pointed out that an IT company had recently recruited 17 students with a package of Rs 5 lakh per annum. Their online training had begun on April 1.

Mr Nanda said instead of a physical invitation to companies, Shoolini University had now shifted to online tests with video and telephonic interviews.

Also read: Placement Ratio or Skill Development: What is the Focus of Shoolini’s Management School?

Admission team sparing no effort to guide students through career counselling, filling up online forms, taking online exams, interviews, and finalising admissions

Shoolini University is making history! The prompt resumption of classes through e-univ has put our university at the top again, giving a head start to provisional admissions for the next session. There has been no disruption in academics for over 3,000 students, allaying all fears of prospective students and their parents.

Our admission process began in full force last month and has been continuing online after the lockdown in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

The admission team, led by Shoolini University Vice President Ms Avnee Khosla, is sparing no effort to help students get career counselling, fill up online forms, take online exams, conduct interviews and finalise admissions. She said students whose results have not been announced or those who secure a seat can obtain provisional registration by paying a nominal registration fee. “This fee is fully refundable till August 15,” she said. 

“The entire admission process of Shoolini University is now online. Right from filling up your form, to counseling and taking various Shoolini online exams, everything can be done from home. The admission is through JEE/NEET/CAT/MAT and other standard exams or through our own entrance exams for all our UG/PG and PhD courses,” the Vice President elaborated. 

Referring to availability of scholarships, she said, “Our attempt is to ensure that no capable student misses out on quality higher education due to lack of financial resources. We offer a range of scholarships, almost 200 plus, worth more than Rs 2 crore every year.”

Talking about the registration fee, she said the online application fee was Rs 850 and the pre-admission enrollment and registration fee was Rs 20,000, which was completely refundable.

As a multidisciplinary university, more than 100 programmes across 14 schools and 7 faculties are available. These range from deep research centric areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biotechnology, Sciences and liberal arts programmes in Yoga, English and Journalism. 

Replying to a question on new programmes being introduced this year, she said “Our endeavour is to introduce new innovation-led and specialised programmes every year. This year, we have introduced 20 new programmes in areas such as, Mechatronics, Culinary Sciences, Artificial Intelligence, Genetics, Tourism and Data Science.

More plus points for Shoolini University Admission 2020

Himachal as a state, believes Ms Khosla, was naturally quarantined, given the geographical advantage, lack of an international airport and lower population density. Going forward too, Himachal will recover “better and faster than the rest of India”. With good infrastructure, outstanding faculty and career-oriented courses, students were bound to repose faith in the University.

Ten-year-old Shoolini University celebrated its 16th Foundation Day today. It was on this day in 2007 that the foundation stone of its first building was laid on the campus at Bajhol near here.

In view of the closure of the campus due to the coronavirus outbreak, no festivities could be organised, but Vice Chancellor Prof P K Khosla greeted the students, faculty and the staff to mark the memorable occasion.

Greeting them on Baisakhi and the 16th Foundation Day, Prof Khosla said he was happy to share that the University had taken a lead over most other institutions in the country in quickly adopting e-learning through virtual classrooms. “We have been able to do so because our IT team has been working on this model for quite some time.

It was several years ago that we embraced e-Univ technology,” he said, adding that the University was able to start online classes within three days of the lockdown.
Prof Khosla said that with little likelihood of return to normalcy in the next couple of months, the University was working on taking end-term online examinations with the aim of saving the Semester for its diligent students.

While examinations for the theory portion of various subjects would be taken online, practical examinations would be taken after conducting special practical classes on weekends or during extended University timings, once the campus re-opened, he stated.
In order to enhance the learning experience of students, the University has also introduced daily Yogananda Webinars for students and faculty.

Eminent persons from various fields throw light on subjects of their expertise through interactive media tools.

Among those who have participated in webinars so far are former Delhi University Vice Chancellor Dr Dinesh Singh, former IAS officer and inspirational speaker Mr Vivek Atray, film critic and technocrat Mr Pavan Jha and the 21Notes Valmiki Ramayan creator Yashoodeep Deodhar.

Thanking the students and their parents, as well as the faculty for cooperating during these difficult times, the Vice Chancellor said measures were being taken to ensure that other significant activities of the University, such as placements and admissions, continued smoothly.

“Our Placement team has been active since October last year — much before the outbreak of Coronavirus — and has finalised over 200 campus placements. It is now continuing the effort through organising online interviews,” he added.

Shoolini University has donated Rs. five lakh to the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for those adversely affected by the outbreak of coronavirus.

The entire faculty and staff of the University, barring the daily paid workers, have contributed one day’s salary towards the Rs. five lakh fund.

The balance of the amount would be contributed by the Foundation for Life Sciences and Business Management (FLSBM), the Trust which runs the University.

Vice Chancellor Prof P K Khosla, while announcing the contribution, said that the University was open for any support that the state government may desire during these difficult times.

Prof Khosla said the University was already taking care of all the labour and daily paid workers who were employed on various projects and was providing them food and lodging free of cost.

In addition, he said, the University is taking care of about 200 students, including foreign students and those from far off states, who are staying back in hostels.

Special measures like yoga classes and skill development classes are being organised for them keeping social distancing in view.

Meanwhile, the University has introduced virtual classrooms for students and regular classes are being taken online with the help of University’s own e-Univ system as well as other social media platforms.

With the ongoing crisis of Corona and resultant delay in academic activities, it’s understandable that we are all worried about the future. Several people have reached out to us and expressed concern about their/their children’s future due to postponement of XII class board exams and results across streams.?

At Shoolini University, we are always working to find solutions to make our world-class education accessible for everyone. Given the extraordinary circumstances and uncertainty, we have launched the facility of ‘provisional admission’. 

If your regular class XII result is awaited, but you have 60% in your X board exam and a valid exam admit card for class XII , we will evaluate your UG admission application for ‘Provisional Admission’ for 2020.?

For admissions into our PG programs, we will consider a minimum of 55% aggregate up to pre-final semester of graduation in relevant stream and provide ‘Provisional Admission’ for 2020.

Please note that provisional admission will be accepted later on qualifying as per eligibility of the selected course. In case of a withdrawal up to 15th August, the University will refund 100% of the fee, except admission form charges.

Himachal-based Shoolini University has taken a pioneering and innovative step in introducing e-classes and online learning for students in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

Lectures would be delivered through a special platform developed by faculty and students of the University through the Internet.

The students would be able to attend the delivery of the live lecture through virtual classroom.They would also be able to ask questions and get answers in real time.

“We have introduced the system to protect the semester and ensure that the students do not suffer from postponed examinations and delayed graduation”, said Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Atul Khosla.

“All lectures will now happen as per the scheduled time table, albeit in virtual space. We shall ensure that not a single day of study should be lost and students should graduate on time”, he added. Fortunately, Shoolini University researchers had been working on the online learning system for the last six months which was an extension of the e-Univ system already enforced in the University.

Under the e-Univ system, lectures are recorded in a capsule form which can be accessed by students any time. The live lectures introduced now would be recorded and would also be available for the students later.

Prof Khosla said the new system would enable the students to interact with the lecturer who can make use of other technological tools such as graphs and power point presentations.

The system includes provision for conducting examinations in a secure environment, he added.

Dr. Sandeep Ratnam, head of Indo Japan study centre, IIM Bangalore, explained the characteristics and behavior of leadership with students of Mechanical Engineering Department of Shoolini University.

He also described the Eisenhower Matrix for designing daily activities schedule for time management.
Shoolini University has Regional Centre of Excellence of VLCI (Visionary Learning Community of India). In this centre, students learn and practice lean tools in the industry.

They work on the live problems of the industries in Solan and Parwanoo regions. This is the first batch of VLCI which is going to graduate in June 2020. The students are ready for industry manufacturing leaders which can improve the productivity of the industry by reducing waste.

Dr. Abhilash Pathania Head, Centre of Excellence of VLCI, told that they have introduced the VLCI modules in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum so that the students who are going to be pass out from Shoolini University will be well trained to improve small-medium enterprises.

The centre is also upgrading the teachers so that they can do the consultancy programs to improve the production of industry.

One-day workshop on “quality and maintenance in the industry” was organised for the final-year mechanical engineering students at the Shoolini University. Ratnakar Acharya, DGM, Anand Group, and Archana Sharma from Parwanoo Industries were the key speakers at the workshop.

Ratnakar Acharya dwelt upon the Six Sigma and its value in the industry. The students were also introduced to the maintenance of measuring tools and their calibration. Acharya explained the schedule of maintenance of machinery in the industry and its importance.

The purpose of the workshop was to prepare students for placement, said Dr Abhilash Pathania, Assistant Prof, Mechanical Engineering. He said, “Shoolini University believes in quality and industry-based education and workshops are beneficial for students for their future career as well.”

Taking its mission to equip students with the best innovative methods and provide hands-on training, Shoolini University on Thursday announced participation in AWS Academy, a new Amazon Web Services (AWS) programme with a ready-to-teach cloud computing curriculum.

Students will now be able to sign up for specialised courses, especially designed for higher education institutions that will help them pursue industry-recognised AWS Certifications. This will pave way for a brilliant career as the curriculum is designed to meet industry requirements.

Students from the engineering and management departments can avail the courses free of cost. Later, students from other departments will also be offered these courses, which will run for an entire semester. After clearing the AWS Certification examination, students will have another feather in their caps as they will be AWS Certified.

Proud to make the AWS Academy curriculum available to the Shoolini students, Vice Chancellor Prof P K Khosla said, “Cloud computing has become the new normal for organisations around the world, and the technical skills that students develop through this programme will position them well for their careers today and in the future.”

Apply for a Scholarship and join this course!

The AWS Academy curriculum is developed and maintained by AWS subject matter experts, ensuring that it reflects current services and up-to-date best practices. Courses are taught by AWS Academy-accredited educators who are trained by AWS to help students become proficient in AWS technology.

“We created AWS Academy to develop the next generation of cloud computing professionals by working collaboratively with higher education institutions and industry partners,” said Scott McKinley, AWS Academy Global Team Lead, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Our goal is to build a pipeline of AWS-trained professionals who can help drive innovation as cloud computing becomes the new normal.”

Also Read: Artificial Intelligence: Youth Differ Over Impact On Jobs

AWS Academy courses help students develop in-demand cloud computing skills and gain hands-on experience in order to pursue employment as a cloud computing IT professional or earn industry-recognised AWS Certification.