Remote Learning Initiatives in Bihar

During the lockdown and uncertainty over reopening of schools, an online learning programme/ initiative namely ‘Mera Doordarshan - Mera Vidyalaya’ has played a significant role to continue the learning process of students across the State. Also “Vidyavahini Bihar App” has been developed and e-textbooks of class I-XII have been uploaded on it. e-contents and other digital learning materials developed by the State are also available on the Mobile App “Mera Mobile Mera Vidyalaya”, official website www.bepcssa.in and YouTube channel of BEPC. These initiatives are supporting the students of class I to XII. State has been carrying out offline and online academic activities and imparting textbook lessons to students as well.

Some of the digital initiatives of School Division

Unnayan Bihar

Unnayan Bihar is a holistic learning project providing quality education in schools through interactive video lectures, supplementing the efforts of school teachers, improving the learning outcomes of the students and increasing enrolment and attendance.

“Unnayan Bihar” program started across the state in 5646 secondary/higher secondary schools during 2019-20. The program was launched on 5th September 2019 by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Bihar Mr. Nitish Kumar. Unnayan Bihar is a multi-platform model which runs online as well as offline.

Offline Model :

In the offline model, following steps are followed for running the Unnayan Class:

• Concept Video: Students are being taught through the animated concept videos which have been developed on the basis of Bihar Board textbook syllabus.
• Daily Test: Once the concept is being taught to the students, a short MCQ based test is being taken based on the concept which is being taught.
• Peer Assessment: Once the test has been conducted, students are asked to exchange their answer copy among themselves and the answers are being assessed by the students themselves. Peer Assessment helps students to better their understanding of the topic in a non-threatening environment.

• Answer Discussion: After the test gets assessed, teachers discuss the correct answers with the students and if any student doesn’t understand the content, the teacher explains that part again to the students with the help of the video.
• Weekly Test: On every 6th day of the school schedule, a weekly test is conducted based on the topics taught in the week. Tests are done on the OMR sheet and those OMR sheets are uploaded by the teachers on the reporting portal where it gets assessed using Artificial Intelligence and the weak spots of the students are identified.

Online Model:

In the Online model, students can download “Unnayan App: Mera Mobile Mera Vidyalaya” from Google Play Store and access the e-content as well as they can ask their doubts on the mobile platform and get their answer from Global Expert.

Reporting of the Program

For reporting of the program, teachers are asked to report on a daily basis using the Unnayan Teacher App which has been developed. Teachers can select the topics taught along with the photograph of the class and attendance of the day. For the weekly test, OMR sheet has to be scanned on the App for each student and the evaluation is being done using Artificial Intelligence on the App itself.

Monitoring of the program:

For monitoring of the program, a dashboard has been created where the detail of each school district-wise and block-wise is available; whatever reports the teachers update on their app, it can be seen on the dashboard realtime.

A State Project Monitoring Unit (SPMU) has been formed which works dedicatedly on the monitoring of the program. SPMU cell has also been formed at BEPC under the Quality Department where SPMU team members are placed.

Unnayan App: Mera Mobile Mera Vidyalaya

1.  “Unnayan App: Mera Mobile Mera Vidyalaya” can be downloaded from Google Play Store.
2. Students can access the e-content for class VI to XII on the app.
3. Students can ask their doubt as well on the mobile platform and get their answer from the respective Subject Expert.

Vidyavahini Bihar App

The Education Department, Govt. of Bihar launched the ‘Vidyavahini Bihar App’ on which all the textbooks of Class I to XII have been uploaded and can be downloaded chapter wise.

Mera Doordarshan Mera Vidyalaya

During lockdown, classes for the students of class I to XII is being run on DD Bihar and 5 hours slot has been allotted by Doordarshan to BEPC.Classes are run on TV in the same manner as it used to run in Schools like stories from Bapu ki Pati and Ek tha Mohan is being telecast like morning assembly, Safe Saturday program is being run on Saturdays and Art integrated learning is being telecasted on Sundays.

TV Channel

• Doordarshan Bihar has allotted 5hours time slot (one hour each for Class I-II, Class III to V, Class VI to VIII, Class IX and Class XI-XII) for digital learning.
• The Department of Education, Bihar has already started the telecast of e-content for class IX-X students from 20.04.2020, for class VI-VIII along with class XI-XII from 04.05.2020 and for class I-II along with class III-V from 01.06.2020 through DD Bihar.

Weekly routine is as follows:

Partnership with Civil Society

Bihar for continuation of Education during COVID -19, a comprehensive response plan was developed. UNICEF provided technical support in developing the plan. The plan includes the following aspects:

• Developed guidelines for Risk reduction communication, shared through the communication channels.
• Conducted capacity building – orientation to all DEO/DPO and education officials both state level and district level
• Orientation of teachers completed through online platforms
• Continuation of education through Unnayan App: Mera Mobile Mera Vidyala for classes 8-12 a mobile application created to support students learning. This application has inbuilt artificial intelligence which tracks individual student learning. Assessments are inbuilt into the system where in student learning is assessed. Students can raise questions and get them answered by teachers as well as experts. UNICEF provides technical support in content development and monitoring.
• A Program on Doordarshan has been developed and MOU signed with DD-Bihar for broadcasting the classes for 1 to12 in five slots from the second week of April 2020. Morning 9am to 12 noon and 3pm – 5pm. These classes are comprehensive in nature, both academic and life skills, safety and security both personal and online safety lessons are provided to children. The academic calendar of Bihar is followed. UNICEF provides support in content development for all the episodes.
• A discussion is initiated with All India Radio to reach out to children who have no access to TV or mobile. Technical content is being developed by UNICEF together with the Bihar Education Project Council. Plans are on to start the classes soon. Audio contents are developed for a graded reading program.
• Educational contents from various NGOs working in the field of School Education, such as - Pratham, Centre Square Foundation, Pratham Books and others have been taken and being used in continuity of learning programs

Social Media Based Learning

Several groups are formed via WhatsApp and Facebook, which carry out online classes for the students of Class 6 to 8 from April 13. Facebook live program is also a part of providing live classes to the students which has more than 25,000 members

Digital Education Portal

Bihar Education Project Council has also created a digital learning platform which is used to telecast the episodes of all the classes Bihar Education Project Council

The portal provides e-based material and live telecast for classes:

• Primary Classes (1-5)
• Upper Primary Classes (6-8)
• Secondary Classes (9 & 10)
• Senior Secondary Classes (11 & 12)

Web based learning

Bihar Education Project council has initiated the YouTube channel to share the digital content for teachers & students, which can be visited using the link given below:

YouTube Link

Bihar Easy School Tracking (BEST) – A Mobile Application for Real Time Monitoring of Schools

BEST Application is a mobile app which is developed with the help of digital technology. The app enables real-time monitoring of elementary as well as secondary schools of the State of Bihar. The education officers from CRC to State level could monitor the schools under their jurisdiction through this very App. All the stakeholders related to education could also monitor schools through the App. The App is available on Google Play Store. This Mobile App is first of its kind in the State. The real time monitoring of schools will be a deciding factor in bringing improvement in work culture, capability and running of schools.

To accomplish this goal the system has two main parts:-

• Android Application : For data reporting
• Website : For monitoring and viewing reports

Mobile Application Features

• OTP based application.
• Role/Designation based user that enables users to concentrate only on their work region
• Easy login, and easy password and username recovery.
• View and edit user profile; user can change the work region.
• School Observation; authorized user is allowed to enter HM/Teacher and Student attendance.
• Besides, there are also some indicators/questions related to school operation and sanitation which the user will answer based on his/her school visit.
• GPS enabled reporting, User location is captured at time of data reporting, which ensures true reporting.
• There is a distance lock and the user can monitor school only if he/she is within 0.5 km of school periphery.
• Offline Functionality - In case of remote areas where internet availability is an issue. This application can work without internetconnectivity. And it will upload the real time data when the internet is available.
• It is bilingual (i.e. Hindi & English) App.
• Notification Application can save the messages which have been sent to him in the application. This notification could be a reminder of the task assigned to the user.

Dashboard

• Profile
• Observation
• Download school
• Notifications
• Upload

Attendance Reporting

Observation

Answers of questions related to schools will be entered after inspecting /monitoring school.

Website Features

• Though website (www.bepcbest.com) can be viewed by any visitors, only authorised user can login and generate the report and perform other admin activities
• Website content is completely customised and can be changed by logged in admin users.
• Dashboard-shows the school GPS locations on a map with various indicator values.
• User Management – Admin can authorize the new registered user. He/she will be able to delete and recover any user.
• Assignment-Admin will assign the task to the user (Govt. officials), regarding when and how many school observations they need to perform.
• Reports-Logged-in user is allowed to generate report based on HM/Teacher and Student attendance and the reports relatedto indicators i.e. Quality of MDM, Time Table, Assessment of Learners, School Cleanliness, Availability of Boys & Girls Toilets and Its functionality Etc.
• Notification – Logged-in admin is allowed to send notification/ messages to any registered users.

Implementation of App-At a Glance

• Launching - App launched by Honaraquo;ble Education Minister, Govt. of Bihar on 17.03.2018.
• Training - All DEOs, DPOs, District MIS I/c, one BEO and one CRCC from each district participated in the training workshop organised at Patna. Districts organised training for all BEOs, BRPs and CRCCs at Block Level.
• Status of Monitoring
  • Elementary Schools - Monitoring of elementary schools was started from 09th July, 2018. In the Academic Year 2019-20, as on 31st March, 2020, 42483 elementary schools have been monitored by education officers from state to CRC level. The online monitoring of elementary schools has played a significant role in bringing improvement in work culture, capability and running of schools. This monitoring has registered enhanced teacher attendance and student attendance.
  • Secondary Schools - Encouraged by the result of monitoring of elementary schools through BEST App, the State has taken a decision to expand the periphery of monitoring upto secondary & senior secondary schools. Required changes have been made to the App. After testing on pilot basis, actual monitoring has been started from Academic Year 2019-20. So far, 272 secondary/sr. secondary schools have been monitored.
• Reports - Reports on all indicators/information gathered through the app can be seen on the website.
• URL: BEST

Source : India Report -Digital Education