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Journal of Engineering Education Transformations, Special Issue, eISSN 2394-1707
University Bridge Program: Innovation at the grass
roots of learning in higher education.
RajaniKanth Aluvalu1,
1Department of Computer Engineering School of Engineering, RK University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
1rajnikanth.aluvalu@rku.ac.in
Abstract: In India universities and colleges typically
assume that students entering their first year of higher
education are sufficiently prepared to be successful in
college level studies. However, many studies have
conclusively shown that most students perform at
significantly lower grade level during graduate courses
compared to their actual grade in 12th standard. Students
from various geographical locations, boards of study,
economical back grounds and medium of study will take
admission to university courses. Faculty teaching university
courses will experience heterogeneous student groups in
terms of proficiency in pre-requistes for university courses.
We had designed a unique program at RK University
(RKU) to overcome the above challenges, which is
discussed in this paper. This program has achieved great
success in improving students learning in university
undergraduate and post graduate courses to get head start
on their academic goals. In this paper, we will explore the
design and implementation of University Bridge Program
(UBP) at RKU.
Keywords: Higher education, Educational equity,
globalization, active learning.
RajaniKanth Aluvalu1,
1Department of Computer Engineering School of
Engineering, RK University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
1rajnikanth.aluvalu@rku.ac.in
1. Introduction:
Indian Higher education system, like in many other
countries is under pressure from various directions to
improve its performance [3]. Faculties teaching courses at
university level are not satisfied with the prerequisite
knowledge, skills and learning behaviour of entry level
students. Faculties believe that "most" of the students they
teach lack the basic skills for university-level courses.
Usually students taken admission in university courses
come from various learning environments and even their
medium of education is different, particularly in India
where we have many regional languages. Many students do
not have an understanding on domains and courses of study
[3]. Knowing domain applications is very much important
as courses offered at university level are professional,
which leads to employment. Indian Higher education
system is facing severe competition on account of
globalization and preparing world competent graduates
[3].The educational priorities started changing due to the
changes in the relative influence of stake holder groups and
new forces like globalization [10]. To overcome the above
challenges students require broad understanding on
fundamentals with critical thinking skills. At the end of
graduation students are required to acquire the below
graduate attributes to become globally competitive.
A. Graduate attributes [12] :
Good understanding on domain fundamentals.
Multi disciplinary, systems perspective.
Basic understanding of the context like economics,
environment, society.
Good communication skills in terms of written, oral,
graphic and listening.
Ability to think critically and creatively- both
independently and cooperatively.
Curiosity to learn in life.
Understanding on importance of team work.
As mentioned, teaching graduate/post graduate course to
these heterogeneous student groups is a challenge to
faculties many students fail in catching the context of the
course, because of lack of fundamental understanding of
domain they are studying and skills required for graduate
program at University. There is a need of conducting a pre-
requisite course for all the fresh entry students to university
courses for basic skills preparation.
2. University Bridge Program:
We at RK University have consistently observed
significantly low college-readiness among students which
seems to be a nationwide systemic issue [11]. Being a new
age university we had to find a way to come out of this
problem. “The problem is twofold for RKU in particular.
On one front we have to make sure that students have
necessary domain knowledge to successfully grasp
concepts beyond their previous grade level. On the other
front, we need to ensure that students are ready to study in
an environment that is polar opposite of they would have
experienced in school. RKU is moving towards outcome
based education with active learning teaching and learning
methods throughout all courses and programs. Our
pedagogy emphasises self learning, group work and
participation” [8][13]. Most classes are activity based
requiring team work and self guided work. Active class
participation is necessary for success at RKU. These active
learning methods are a standard in all top universities
across the globe but are a rarity in India [1][4][6]. We are
spearheading this approach to teaching and learning at
RKU. But it would be unwise to expect the students, who
are habituated to passive learning modes for a decade
during their schooling to start participating and thriving in
active learning approach without any programmatic
intervention. This is where UBP comes into picture. The
UBP expertly blends basic pre- requisite skills and
understanding on domain required for successful transition
into university courses [5].
The primary objectives of UBP are:
To get students ready to learn in a new environment.
To encourage self learning.
To bridge knowledge gaps in core areas.
To bridge communication skills gap.
To promote group learning and team work.
To get familiar with active learning.
3. UBP design and Curriculum offered:
Every academic year for fresh admits, we begin with
student orientation program scheduled for couple of days.
We had identified orientation program with a stretch of 2-3
days is simply not enough time to get to the depth we
needed nor to even begin to scratch the surface of the
paradigm shift in learning approach we envisioned. If we
were going to intervene, then it had to be a full throttle
approach. After considerable brainstorming we finalized a
program of 3 to 4 weeks with 5 areas of focus common to
all schools and one or two areas specific to each school’s
need. For eg. School of Engineering has a four week UBP.
The common thread running through all modules is that
they are designed to be highly active and participatory
involving extensive group work and self exploration. We
had planned UBP as a comprehensive interventional
program for all the first year students across all schools of
RKU. Students undergo UBP immediately at the beginning
upon taking admission in University [13]. Designing and
implementing UBP has been no small task. It involved
months of course planning and managing huge logistical
challenges in implementation. Once we were clear on the
goals of this program, we began to identify the courses and
design the course content and its implementation. For
designing the course content, we started identifying faculty
across university familiar and proficient with the courses
finalized for UBP. Identified faculty pool finalized syllabus
for their respective courses. University academic board had
valuated and approved the syllabus designed [13].
A. Common courses include:
Life skills focusing on creative thinking, critical
thinking, and emotion control etc.
Soft Skills focusing on communication skills,
relationship skills, etc.
Personality Development focusing on developing a
“contributor" personality.
Information Literacy for 21st Century focusing on
Google Apps (deployed at RKU), LMS (Edmodo),
office applications, etc.
Yes+Happiness (Art of living course) focusing on
meditation, ethics, stress relief and sudharshan kriya
etc.
B. School specific courses include:
Refresher course on physics and mathematics focusing
on fundamentals of physics and mathematics with their
applications.
Introduction to engineering focusing on understanding
of all core branches of engineering. Offered to all
Engineering students.
Introduction to pharmacy focusing on basics of
pharmacy helps as pre requiste for B.Pharm students.
Professional orientation of physiotherapy focusing on
basics of physiotherapy helps as prerequisite for B.Pt
students
4. Training faculties on active learning methods:
“Active learning”, in short, anything students do in class
related to learning other than passively listening to an
instructor’s lecture [1]. In active learning model faculty
divides the whole session into segments and usually each
not more than 20 minutes and teaches for short time and
then gives time to the students for discussion/activity.
Active learning helps students develop cognitive and
Journal of Engineering Education Transformations, Special Issue, eISSN 2394-1707
higher-order thinking skills. The UBP course work is
planned to be delivered using active learning techniques.
The faculties at RKU were trained on active learning
techniques by Mr. Mohit Patel through a short term training
program Learning Experience Design (LED) [4][2]. Mr.
Patel pursued his MS in education from Harvard University,
USA. UBP courses are allocated only to the faculties’
undergone LED program training.
Faculties had prepared micro lesson plans for each
session. Each lesson plan includes learning objectives,
assessment and set of activities to be carried out with
specific time. All the lesson plans prepared by faculty will
go through peer review process. The entire faculty team
teaching particular course of program has to follow the
same lesson plan. Lesson plans helped us in achieving
uniformity in course delivery across multiple classes in
university by different faculty.
5. UBP Implementation:
We had started offering exhaustive university bridge
program (UBP) from the academic year 2014-15.Students
taken admission from the said academic year had started
experiencing UBP that no other student has experienced at
RKU before [13]. The University Bridge Program (UBP) is
so unique and comprehensive that students and teachers
both have been surprised by the engagement that new
students have felt during this program [6].
After detailed planning, the big issue that we had to
confront was the logistical challenge of delivering the
program effectively. Planning involved the correct mapping
of faculties with modules, managing extremely divergent
time tables coupled with different commencement dates of
different programs, managing existing faculty load of
higher semesters, and coping with ever changing admission
schedules. Truly, the implementation is an operational
masterpiece. Without the incredible efforts of
all faculties involved in planning and execution, UBP
would not have been in existence.
6. Result analysis:
We had taken feedback from students after completing
UBP. The student response has been unanimously positive.
We are ecstatic by the feedback. Students felt ‘weightless’,
without any burden, when they are involved in activities.
The feedback responses indicated us that we are on the
right path. We had analysed the academic results of these
students in further semesters and found overall
improvement in student performance.UBP helped the
students in successful transition into the admitted university
courses.
We had taken feedback on various parameters. Figure-1
shows feedback given by students on UBP course content
and organization, 96% of the students are satisfied with
course content and organization.
Figure -1
Below figure-2 shows students attendance in UBP. Active
teaching methods in UBP and course content motivated the
students to attend the lecture regularly and 80% of the
students had attended more than 80% of the lectures.
Figure – 2.
As the complete UBP delivery is based on active learning
strategies we had taken feedback on students’ contribution
and participation in class activities such as roleplays,
discussions, quiz, comprehensive writing etc. Figure-3
shows the responses, 98% of the students had actively
participated in the activities planned by faculties in sessions.
Figure-3.
We had also surveyed student satisfaction on learning
environment and teaching methods. Figure-4 shows the
responses given by students. 97% of the students had
expressed their satisfaction with the learning environment
and active teaching methods followed by faculties for
conducting sessions. Students mentioned that activities
helped them in learning the fundementals easily.
Figure -4
We had evaluated performance of UBP instructors and
the feedback responses are very positive. Figure-5 shows
the responses on instructor evaluation. 97% of the students
are satisfied with the faculties.
Figure-5
Conclusion:
UBP is one of the many systemic grassroots innovations
that RKU is spearheading. Students at RKU started
experiencing active learning. Now our faculty during their
regular courses experiencing participatory class from the
UBP students. Only a teacher can tell you how hard it is to
make classes truly enjoyable. Every year we will make
necessary modifications to UBP course structure based on
the feedback received from students and Faculty. We have
taken on this challenge and if UBP feedback is an
indication, then we are on the right track, doing the right
thing.UBP can be Implemented in various Higher education
institutions in India.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank all the people who contributed to the
work described in this paper. I am also indebted to Mr.
Mohitpatel, who deserves the credit for initiating, designing
UBP at RK University. Every result described in this paper
was accomplished with the help and support of
management of RK University and UBP core Team.
References
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[2]. Mohit Patel (2014). Learning experience design,
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[3]. Sanatkaul (May, 2006), Higher Education in India:
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Journal of Engineering Education Transformations, Special Issue, eISSN 2394-1707
[4]. Meyers, C. and T. Jones. 1993. Promoting Active
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bridge-program-innovation-at-the
