New Delhi: O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) has won the “Digital Innovation of the Year” award at the distinguished Times Higher Education (THE) Asia Awards 2021. JGU was the Only Indian University to be shortlisted for the “Digital Innovation of the Year”.
JGU’s win is a recognition of JGU’s successful digital transformation and impact over the last two years. This award is also a reflection of JGU’s commitment to ensure continued education for its students during the ongoing pandemic. In March 2020, we were faced with one of the most unprecedented crises of our time. However, with the collective effort put in by the faculty, students and staff and the digital governance led by our IT team, by December 2020, 24,000 online classes were completed, 1,250 unique online examinations were conducted and 69,000 assessments were submitted.
The Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University, Prof (Dr) C. Raj Kumar lauded the recognition and said, “It is a proud moment for JGU to be featured in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Asia Awards 2021. We are the only Indian university to be awarded in the category for Digital Innovation. The Covid-19 Pandemic created an unprecedented crisis and JGU created innovative technological solutions for continued learning for the benefit of our students and ease of teaching for our faculty. Despite several lockdowns and suspension of face-to-face teaching, we ensured that our students could continue their education in a seamless manner. This involved smart technological solutions and quick implementation of online platforms which could be easily accessible. This recognition for JGU has come when we have just stepped into the second decade of our journey. Winning this award at the competitive The Asia Awards 2021 is indeed a moment of great pride. Therefore, I feel humbled that our effort to create an impact for our students, and our nation, and driving initiatives to make education more accessible particularly during unfortunate times of this pandemic have been recognized globally.”
Times Higher Education outlined in its introduction that Universities are extraordinary institutions that transform the lives of their students, produce research that changes the world, and deliver untold benefits to society and economies. “We want to recognise, support and incentivise this excellence. By recognising outstanding leadership and institutional performance across a range of categories, we hope to celebrate excellence in Asian higher education in all its diversity. The winner in the Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year category, India’s O.P. Jindal Global University, created a free, cloud-based application to help schools and universities manage data – especially useful given India’s digital divide.”
Further, to broaden the impact of JGU’s internal digital innovations to other institutions, the university also translated (e)learnings into a detailed “Covid-19 Response-Toolkit for Indian Higher Education Institutions: Institutional Resilience for Academic Planning & Continuity”. This toolkit was made possible by the efforts of academic and research teams at the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and the International Institute of Higher Education Research & Capacity Building (IIHEd) at JGU. Being released by Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), President of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development enabled us to broaden the outreach and impact of the toolkit. Having transformed the education experience at JGU with technology, JGU has decided to extend our technology capability and innovation to make a broader social impact. The institution has realized that when it comes to technology, ours – Schools’ and the University’s, needs are very similar.
This is when JGU innovated the application ‘Tou, which is an amalgamated version of the internal software tools that JGU uses to operate the University online. Tou was born with a vision to create social impact: A school of 2,000 students would have to pay more than Rs 15 lakh per annum to get a similar solution from the market, which JGU is providing at zero cost to the schools. Tou has enabled digital transformation of educational institutions across 12 states of India: by enabling over 20,000 assignments with nearly 3 lakh submissions, Rs 4 crore fee payments, and 30,000 results automations.
(IANS)