As the whole world grapples with the pandemic, the faculty members are experimenting with teaching online. The intention of this session is to share our experiences of online teaching over the past few months and to look at the challenges that we are currently facing. We are not attempting to provide any solutions, but are generating a discussion around the relevant questions.

I am thankful to Prof. Anurag Mehra, Prof. Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti and Prof. M. V. Panduranga Rao for agreeing to have this discussion.

Prof. Anurag Mehra has been a faculty with the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay since 1991. He is also an Associate Faculty at the Center for Policy Studies at IIT Bombay. He did B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, and Masters and PhD from the Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai (previously, UDCT, Bombay University). He has been a visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He is a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from IIT Bombay. Prof. Mehra has held several senior administrative positions at IIT Bombay: Head of the Computer Centre, Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Professor-in-charge Administration, and he was responsible for initiating major administrative reforms in the Institute. He writes extensively in popular media, here is a link to some of his articles related to the current pandemic.

https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/online-classes-sound-cute-on-paper-heres-the-reality-2237464

https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/covid-19-homeopathy-arsenicum-album-succusion-ministry-of-ayush/

https://science.thewire.in/culture/media/how-digital-media-weaponised-ignorance-during-a-pandemic/

https://www.che.iitb.ac.in/online/faculty/anurag-mehra

Prof. Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti has been a faculty at IIIT Bangalore since 2013. He did his PhD from the Department of Computer Science and Automation, IISc Bangalore. Sujit has taught courses on programming languages, introductory programming, programming analysis and compilers. Sujit's experience with online teaching comes from several modules taught as a part of PGDSD online courses offered by upGrad and IIIT-B. Sujit has actively contributed to the startup ecosystem of IIIT-B by taking up the role of anchor faculty of a number of incubated startup companies: SunvAI, Vision Empower, Steppify. Sujit's work with Vision Empower on Refreshable Braille Display project has met with wide recognition in the media and in the government. The device designed as a part of this project has gone on to become a commercial startup called Vembi. Prior to joining IIIT Bangalore, Sujit has worked with Philips Research, General Motors R&D and Tata Research Development and Design Centre. In his free time, Sujit dabbles with programming, cartooning, writing blogs and articles and music.

http://sujitkc.blogspot.com/  

https://www.iiitb.ac.in/faculty/sujit-kumar-chakrabarti

Prof. M. V. Panduranga Rao is the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Hyderabad. He is also a faculty with the Department of Artificial Intelligence at IIT Hyderabad. He did his M. Tech. from IIT Kanpur and PhD from IISc Bangalore.

https://www.iith.ac.in/~mvp/

Prof. Gagan Garg has been a faculty at DAIICT Gandhinagar since 2012. He has done M. Tech from IIT Delhi and PhD from IISc Bangalore. Gagan has visited several institutes for research collaboration and for delivering lectures like National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA; Ecole Polytechnique, Paris; Institute for Experimental Mathematics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Bonn; University of Kassel, Germany; Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain; Universite de Montreal, Canada; and Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. Prior to joining DAIICT, Gagan has taught at LNMIIT Jaipur and at IIT Mandi, where he received a Faculty Award for "Innovation in teaching and fostering high ethical standards among students".

https://www.daiict.ac.in/profile/gagan-garg/