Mumbai: When Afsha Qureshi, 20, walked into her classroom at RD National College, Bandra, last month, the third-year Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) student felt at sea. The last time she attended lectures in person was in class 12 – before the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020. In the last two years, Qureshi attended lectures online.

“When college re-opened, I realised the difference between online and physical interactions. It became difficult for me to make new friends and interact with them as I had little to no social interactions. Sitting at home, I became an introvert during the pandemic,” said Qureshi.

For 18-year-old Nehal Aggarwal, a first-year BCom student of NM College in Vile Parle, entering the college building itself was a new experience. The last time she attended a physical lecture was as a class 10 student, in 2020. “It almost felt like my first day of school, anxiety and nerves took over as I tried to fit in with a completely new crowd,” said Nehal, who attended her first class as a degree college student on Monday, August 8. The last two years of junior college were spent studying at home, through online classes.

“Something as simple as the shift from school uniform to causal dressing, the urge to look more mature and independent, was a cultural shock. During online classes, we could interact with each other but I’m suddenly finding it difficult to communicate with my batchmates. I am hoping these are just nerves and things will change soon,” she added.

A large number of undergraduate degree colleges affiliated with the University of Mumbai started regular physical classes for their first-year students this week, and keeping in mind the needs of students like Qureshi and Aggarwal, many institutes have started organising student connect groups to ease the students to regular college activities.

“We created student connect groups as over the last two years, many had missed out on peer-to-peer learning, which is important for their development,” said Neha Jagtiani, principal, RD National College. “Realising that it is vital to ease in the fresh batch into the college system, we are also conducting orientation programs for students to get acquainted with the college and its activities.”

To help and support degree college students’ transition from online to offline learning, several city colleges introduced new initiatives like bridge courses to cope with learning gaps in last year’s curriculum, social and emotional support groups, buddy projects to aid peer-to-peer learning, as well as orientation programs for higher grades to familiarise them with college activities.

St. Andrews College in Bandra has started a ‘buddy project’ for students on a ‘need basis’. “We have a system where teachers identify advanced learners from every class and for different subjects. Tests are conducted to identify learning gaps if any, and then, the bright students are paired with slow learners so they can work together and help each other,” said Shubda Malhotra, associate professor and head of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell. She added that this move is also implemented to encourage peer-to-peer learning.

“To bridge the learning gap, students are currently undergoing a curriculum recap of the previous semester, which will continue for a couple of weeks. The bridge course mainly focuses on mathematics, statistics, and science subjects,” said Krutika Desai, principal, Mithibai College, Vile Parle. “It will take time for us to get students adjusted to conceptual learning. Students now need to be monitored rigorously because they were not monitored at all for the past two years.”

This year, many colleges also organised orientation programs for seniors since third-year students were also considered ‘freshers’ due to no offline learning in the past two years.

“While we have an induction for first-year students, this year we had to organise orientation programs for second-and third-year students as well to familiarise them with the college. During the induction, we noticed that the first-year students are facing difficulty in articulating and will need time to communicate in classes,” said Anushree Lokur, principal, Ruia College, Matunga.

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