Sapna Sukul conducted a webinar for the schools of Punjab for Edu Start Solution Services in partnership with EducationWorld magazine on January 15, 2021. Bhupinder Gogia, Principal, Sat Paul Mittal School was invited as a panellist at Progressive leaders, Punjab and spoke extensively on the topic, ‘Evolving the perfect Blended Learning Model’.

Sanjeev Sehgal, COO Edu Planet Exams moderated the panel discussion. The panel consisted of Nayati Chitkara, Principal, Chitkara International School Punjab and Manjot Dhillon, Founder, Mount Litera Zee School Amritsar. Bhupinder Gogia expounded her views on the importance of leveraging the strengths of the virtual model to scale more for the equitable aspect. She discussed the tools and applications being used by the mentors at Sat Paul Mittal School. Talking about blended form of learning that combines the digital content along with the one-on-one session with the students, Gogia observed that the children tend to get complacent over the time and that was why they needed to return to schools.

She emphasised that it wasn’t possible for everybody to learn digitally and especially a subject like mathematics. Since, at first, the student turnout was less, they had to opt for hybrid form of learning. Simple devices such as a tripod stand, a mobile phone were used by the teachers to interact with online students while they were teaching to the students in the class. Gamification, was another tool adopted by the school to make learning interesting for the students. Another challenge was the fact that students had fallen out of the habit of writing so the school called students for revision and short tests of 30 minutes and allowed students to use text books, thus providing them a non-threatening environment to learn and practise writing the tests.

She asserted that blended learning could complement the traditional teaching methods to aid students at various levels. It’s time to combine technology and traditional form of teaching to take learning to the next level by providing students extra reading material, extra questions and educational videos to ensure the high stimulation level for the child. A slow learner could be provided with simpler modules along with regular classroom teaching as a support. Through blended teaching learning methodology, students of various competencies could be prepared to take on the world with its myriad challenges.