Category: News

May 15

Four-Day Workshop organised on Digital Technologies for ELT Professionals

Kathmandu University School of Education (KUSOED), Department of Language Education organized a four-day online workshop on “Digital Technologies for ELT Professionals” from 26 to 29 April, 2020. The workshop was participated in by over 120 ELT professionals from Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The workshop aimed at giving exposure to the ELT colleagues from basic School to University level as well as freelance trainers and researchers on the digital technologies for teaching language in online as well as offline environments.

In the workshop, Dr. Laxman Gnawali, Head of the Department of Language Education, KUSOED, presented a session on Digital technologies in online environment. Dr. Shesha Kanta Pangeni, Asst. Professor, Department of Educational Leadership, KUSOED introduced Moodle platform. He led the participants with hands-on experience on how to use it and engaged them on Activities planning on Moodle platform. Dr. Suman Laudari from University of Technology Sydney, Australia shared his insights on Teacher presence and Learning facilitation whereas Sagun Shrestha, PhD Scholar at Dublin City University, Ireland involved the participants in using digital tools for Engaging learners in the online environment. Dr. Tikaram Poudel, Asst. Professor, Department of Language Education, KUSOED, shared his experiences on using Moodle for teaching at graduate level. The workshop concluded with a closing remark by

Prof. Mahesh Nath Parajuli, Dean KUSOED highlighting the need for teachers to develop online teaching skills to adapt to the techno-savvy learners of the 21st century. The workshop was coordinated by Dr. Gnawali.

 

May 06

Webinar Opportunities and challenges of integrated curriculum for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers

Kathmandu University School of Education Department of STEAM Education organized a webinar on opportunities and challenges of an integrated curriculum for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers on 5 May 2020. The purpose of the webinar was to share the philosophies of an integrated curriculum, an overview of the integrated curriculum developed by Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), Nepal, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of the integrated curriculum. The webinar was coordinated by Mr. Binod Prasad Pant (Assistant Professor and Acting Head, Department of STEAM Education). The first presenter was Prof. Laxman Gnawali (KU). He shared the overall principles of integrated curriculum and the spaces of English in the integrated curriculum. The second presenter was Asst. Prof. Yadu Ram Upreti (TU). He shared Hamro Serophero in an integrated curriculum. The third presenter was Asst. Prof. Binod Prasad Pant (KU). He shared how mathematics has been integrated into the curriculum. The third presenter was Mr. Harihar Timalsina (Nepal Police School, Sanga). He presented on space of Nepali in integrated curriculum. In the end, Prof. Bal Chandra Luitel (KU) shared on Transversal Skills in integrated Curriculum and the overall philosophy of the integrated curriculum. There were around 185 participants in the workshop. The program was conducted by Mr. Niroj Dahal (KU).

 

May 03

Three days online workshop on STEAM Education

Kathmandu University School of Education, Department of STEAM Education organized a 3-day online workshop on STEAM Education/pedagogy for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers on 22-24 April 2020. The purpose of the workshop was to share STEAM Education/Pedagogy, to share STEAM projects and support participants to develop STEAM projects. The workshop was coordinated by Mr. Binod Prasad Pant (Assistant Professor and Acting Head, Department of STEAM Education). In the workshop, facilitators Prof. Dr. Bal Chandra Luitel shared about the needs of STEAM Education, Asst. Prof. Binod Prasad Pant shared about STEAM pedagogy with some examples, Mr. Indra Mani Shrestha focused on the connection between the cognitive and affective domain in learning,  Mr. Niroj Dahal shared the roles of technology in STEAM pedagogy with some engaging technological tools, Mr. Sanjay Kumar Pant shared the ideas of concept map in STEAM Pedagogy. Mr. Netra Kumar Manandhar and Mr. Rameshowr Aryal shared STEAM projects. From the side of participants, Ms. Parbati Dhungana, Ms. Shanti Adhilari, and Mr. Chandra Adhilari presented their projects. There were 80 participants on day one, 105 on day two, and 120 on day three. Prof. Mahesh Nath Parajuli, Dean of the School concluded the session by highlighting the needs of STEAM Education in the present days.

 

Apr 30

Evaluation Scheme for Master and MPhil Programs

Academic performance of students is evaluated in each semester through (a) Continuous In-Semester Assessments and (b) End-Semester Assessments.  The faculty member responsible for the course evaluates the academic performance of students on a continuous basis through the in-semester assessments that may consist of written tests, quizzes and oral tests, workshop practices, take away or classroom assignments, research paper, term paper or project work, case studies, analysis and discussion, publication review, or any other tests considered suitable.  S/he communicates the entire evaluation schema of the course to students at the beginning of the course and a copy of it will be submitted to the respective Department and Dean’s office.  The concerned department might recommend the faculty some adjustments in the evaluation schema.

There is an Exam Committee in the School headed by the Associate Dean with all four HODs and Exam Officer as the members.  All the activities related to the evaluation of students’ learning assessment is supervised and monitored by this Committee.  As the individual faculties are responsible for the in-semester assessment, the Committee focuses mainly on the end-semester assessment.

Generally, five components of in-semester assessments are recommended for each three-credit hours course.  All these assessments could be independent ones but could also be planned as one main assessment-scheme broken down into five sub-schemes.  Certain marks must be assigned for the presence and active participation in class sessions.  All students must participate in all in-semester assessments and must obtain a satisfactory grade (C+ and above) in each assessment.  Depending upon the nature of the assessments, faculties should provide the chance to students to re-do their assignments and increase the grade.  To get this chance, students must submit the assignment timely as asked by the faculty.

The end-semester assessments are conducted as per the schedule and the procedure decided by the Exam Committee.  Accordingly, the Exam Office will publish the schedule and the concerned faculty will conduct the assessments.  The Exam Committee will ask all the faculties (through Exam Office) to submit their assessment-scheme (including two sets of question papers) for end-semester assessments.  After getting the scheme, the Committee will then review it and if found necessary will revise.

The Exam Office manages all activities related to end-semester assessments and the Exam Committee supervises and monitors all activities.  After the completion of the end-semester assessments, the concerned faculty submits the final grades to the Exam Office of the School within one week of assessment and this should also include in-semester assessment grades.  In the case of the MPhil, after submitting the final grade to the Exam Office, the faculty herself/himself could share the final grades with the students after consulting with the Exam Committee/concerned department.  All faculties must submit the final grades in the Excel sheet template provided by the Exam Office, both soft- and hard-copy.  The hard copy must be duly signed and dated.

Generally, in-semester assessments carry 50% of the weightage and the other 50% is for the end semester assessments.  However, depending upon the nature of the course, the weightage could range between 60% (in-semester) and 40% (end-semester) in the Master level and 70% (in-semester) and 30 (end-semester) in the MPhil level.  Concerned faculty should make it clear about the weightage to be given to in-semester and end-semester assessments in the course plan that s/he will develop at the beginning of each semester.

Grading Scheme

In each course, students will be evaluated on a 4-point scale as follows:

Grade A A- B+ B B- C+ F
Grade Point 4.0 3.7 3.3 3.0 2.7 2.3 0

The grades indicate the quality of a student’s performance as follows:

A A – B+ B B- C+ F
Outstanding Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Fair Failure

Apart from the letter grades mentioned above, students can also get the following remarks in any of the courses s/he appeared.

W INC AB NC
Withdrawn Incomplete Absent Non-Credit Course

‘W’ indicates that a student has officially withdrawn from a course without grade or penalty.  During the regular semester, a student seeking to withdraw from a course must do so before the final end-semester assessment with the permission of the concerned faculty member.  ‘W’ will not be processed after the final end-semester assessment.

‘INC’ indicates that a student has not completed all the in-semester assessments required in a particular course.

‘AB’ indicates that the student has remained absent in the end-semester assessment in a particular course.

‘NC‘ indicates that the student has officially attended a course till the end and completed it successfully but for which no credit will be given.  A student can take the non-credit course only in addition to the credit hours required for the fulfillment of the degree.

All students must register for the courses offered in a given semester within two weeks of the commencement of the semester.  Failure to do so, students are not allowed to sit in the end-semester assessments of the courses.

The concerned faculty member will submit the final grades of each student within two weeks of the end semester assessment to the Exam Office.  Final grades of each student will then be entered into the computer program of the Examinations Information System of the University for preparing and publishing the result of the semester, to be announced by the Exam Office.

If a student gets ‘F’ in any particular course s/he will have an opportunity to reappear in re-assessment (re-examination) of that course.  The Exam Office will organize the re-assessment within one month of the publication of the result and the concerned faculty will conduct the test.  If a student gets again ‘F’ in that course, s/he is required to repeat the course whenever offered by the School by paying the necessary fee for the course.

The case concerning all ‘W’, ‘INC’, and ‘AB’ must be settled by the students in consultation with the concerned faculty member within one month from the date of announcement of the result of the end-semester assessments.  Failing to do so, a student’s ‘W’, ‘IN’, and ‘AB’ will automatically be converted into the ‘F’ grade.  Once these grades are converted into an ‘F’, the concerned student needs to re-register for the course and attend the course again.  Therefore, it is expected that the concerned student remains aware of the submission of her/his grade by the concerned faculty before the stipulated time.  Likewise, it is the responsibility of the HOD to ensure that the concerned faculty submits the grade of incomplete works before the stipulated time.  If a student gets ‘W’, ‘INC’, and ‘AB’ in a particular course, s/he won’t be awarded ‘A’ grade afterward in the same course.

There will be no re-assessment for any student who is absent during the final end-semester assessments.  However, in special cases such as child delivery (in case of female students), need for staying in kiriya because of the death of the father/mother (if in some case daughters-in-law are to be in kiriya they will also get this benefit), and critical illness requiring hospitalization, the Dean can arrange for appropriate deferral and a separate date for the re-assessment can be scheduled.  To get such a facility, the student must inform the Dean as soon as possible of such incident or even beforehand whenever possible (e.g., in case of child delivery).

A student requires to complete all the requirements for the Master’s degree and the degree of Master of Philosophy within four years from the date of admission into the program.  Failure to do so, all of the grades and cumulative grade a student acquires will be canceled automatically.

Graduation Requirement

To graduate students must maintain at least a 3.0 CGPA securing the grades of C+ and above in all the courses.  No student can graduate with ‘F’ in any of the courses he/she has taken.

Recognition for Academic Achievements

High scholastic achievement of students is recognized upon graduation by awarding Graduation with Merit-based on CGPA.  Such achievement is noted by including the Students’ names on the Dean’s list for the semester.  Students who earn a GPA of 4.0 during the semester are eligible for inclusion in the Dean’s list.

20 April 2020