COVID-19 pandemic: Time to manage completely remote workforce, suggests VC KU

Srinagar: Vice Chancellor Kashmir University, Prof Talat Ahmad on Sunday said that the prevailing lockdown in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic had thrown a challenge to adapt and find new ways to manage a completely remote workforce across the world.
The Vice Chancellor was speaking at a one-day Webinar (online workshop) organised by the varsity’s Department of Bioresources, in collaboration with Elsevier for faculty and researcher scholars of various higher education institutions and universities in Sunday.

The main objective of the online workshop was to improve the quality of education and student outcomes amid the prevailing lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In his inaugural speech, delivered online, the Vice Chancellor said that in the wake of lockdown, the whole world was trying to adapt and find new ways to manage a completely remote workforce.
Prof Talat said that updating the teachers’ and research scholars’ skills in 21st century from a distance via technology was the best way to boost their productivity and make judicious use of time under the prevailing circumstances.
The Vice Chancellor KU expressed satisfaction that the University of Kashmir was fast adopting to the demands of online teaching and learning.
Prof Talat also stressed upon the need to revise priorities by all stakeholders, including Government, National agencies, Schools, Universities and teacher’s organizations in the face of the prevailing difficult times and urged stakeholders to work together to create a national strategy for education and professional learning that reflects the principles of ‘research-informed clinical practice’.
“We need to pool and share our resources using latest technologies for the collective growth of all”, he added.
Coordinator at the Department of Bioresources KU, Dr Manzoor Ahmad Mir, who was also the Organizing Secretary of the workshop in his welcome speech, said that the varsity was going through tough times in the face of the COVID-19 lockdown, which, he said, had put a lot of strain on academic activities and teaching learning process.
Dr Mir suggested that in order to maintain the academic activities, it was imperative to look out for ways to effectively contribute to educational society and to reach out to scholars, faculty and heads of the Departments and Institutions to provide a helping hand and a support through these kinds of workshops.
Dr Mir informed the Sunday’s Webinar was only part of the series that Department of Bioresources KU has started under the guidance of VC KU in the face of the prevailing lockdown.
Around 500 participants including Heads of Departments, faculty members and research scholars from various institutions from Kashmir and other parts of the country including University of Kashmir, Central University of Kashmir, SKUAST(K), IUST, Aligarh Muslim University, Cluster University Srinagar, SKIMS, GMC Srinagar, BGSBU, NIT, and ICSSR, New Delhi, attended the online workshop.
The technical sessions at the event were led by Mr Vishal Gupta, Customer Consultant, Elsevier, Skilled in Life Sciences, Medical Devices, Database Publishing, Sales Management and Molecular Biology for South East Asia.
Gupta spoke about the use of various Elsevier tools like Scopus Mendeley and Science Direct for planning organizing and publishing the research work.
A statement issued by thr varsity said that the sessions were highly interactive and the participants were informed and facilitated through different social media platforms about the workshop.
The presentations, notes and entire recording of the workshop will also be shared with all the registered participants of the workshop, it said.
It added that the workshop helped the 500 participants know how to practice and use Scopus and Mendeley for referencing, reviewing literature, getting funding sources, collaborations for their researches etc.
The whole exercise guided the faculty and researchers how to improve their competence and sharpen their research standards which will surely enhance their outcomes and better rankings of their institutions, the statement said.
The workshop ended with vote of thanks by Dr Mir, who expressed satisfaction with the way the 500 participants worked together with total social distancing and without any anxiety of COVID-19.
Dr Mir thanked the entire administration of University, particularly the Vice Chancellor, Prof Talat Ahmad, the Registrar Dr Nisar A Mir and the Special Secretary to the Vice Chancellor, Dr Tanveer Shah, for facilitating the conduct of the online workshop.
He also thanked the Elsevier team, represented by Mr. Vishal Gupta and Farah Sidiqi, for the collaboration.
Dr Mir also thanked entire staff of Bioresources Department especially organizing and supporting team led by faculty Dr Bashir A Lone and research scholar’s- Mr Umer, Ms Hafsa, Ms Hina, Ms Safoora Mr Basharat and Mr Wajahat

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