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Jitendra Sharma
B.Eng.[Mumbai], M.Tech. [IIT-Kanpur], Ph.D.[Cantab]
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Teaching is like a family profession to me. My grandfather, my father and my mother were all teachers. I have been very fortunate to have some of the best teachers in the world during the course of my educational journey -- my physics teacher at the junior college Mrs. Sandhya Kulkarni, my math teachers at B.Eng. Mr. Kalra and Mr. Perreira, my M.Tech. supervisor Prof. Madhav and my Ph.D. supervisor, Prof. Malcolm Bolton to name just a few. |
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[Some of these websites require U of S NSID and Password for access.]
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My Teaching Philosophy
The philosophy and style of my teaching have been influenced by my teachers. I have drawn inspiration from their committment to this noble profession. My teaching philosophy can be summarized by the word POKE -- Persistence, Organization, Knowledge and Enthusiasm. As many of my students will gladly agree, a lot of poking in the form of questions or discussions goes on during my lectures. As a teacher, it is important to recognize that each student is different. Some students learn the course material more efficiently than the others. A good teacher must never give up on a student. He/she must be persistent and should try out a variety of instructional methods to help those students who are having learning difficulties. Efficient organization is the key to effective teaching. A teacher who is not organized cannot expect his students to be organized. A course that is well-designed and organized helps in conveying the course material to the student in a logical manner. A teacher must be knowledgeable about his subject. With knowledge comes flexibility to present the course material in the most effective manner and to improvise if the students are finding it difficult to understand a particular concept. Last but not the least, a good teacher must be passionate about the course. This passion easily translates into enthusiasm during the lectures. An enthusiastic teacher makes learning experience enjoyable for the students. It is common knowledge that a happy student receives information much more efficiently than a bored or stressed out student. In the words of my colleague and friend Professor Amin Elshorbagy, a good lecture is like a good movie or a good stage performance in which the teacher tries to convey a message to his students. Obviously, the message won't go through if the lecture is not interesting, badly organzied and delivered without any enthusiasm. Back to Top
My Teaching Portfolio at U of S
CE328.3 Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering Classification systems and a review of phase relationships are provided. The fundamental concepts of effective stress as applied to volume change, shear strength and consolidation are emphasized. Both steady state and transient seepage analyses are used to develop concepts of pore water pressures that are incorporated into volume change and shear strength analyses. Concepts of stress state as applied to saturated and unsaturated soils form an integral part of understanding soil behavior. An introduction to foundation engineering that provides a survey of lateral earth pressure, bearing capacity of shallow and deep foundations, settlement and slope stability are provided. This course does not provide students with a facility for design in foundation engineering. However, it will furnish a basic grounding in the fundamentals of soil mechanics for application to more advanced courses. [I have been teaching this course since September 2002.]
CE466.3 Geotechnical Modelling Analysis, design and construction of various earth structures, encompass virtually every aspect of geotechnical engineering. Topics for this course include embankments, geosynthetic reinforced steep slopes and retaining walls, earth and mine tailings dams, deep excavations and tunnels. The role of instrumentation to ensure the safety of earth structures and check on their performance is also presented. Application of key concepts is emphasized during hands-on computer sessions based on the state-of-the-art geotechnical software. [I have been teaching this course since January 2002.]
CE495.6 Capstone Design Project This course is run over two semester and provides the final year undergraduate students with practical design experience using real-life engineering projects. Senior engineers from local engineering firms participate in this course as clients. Students are grouped in teams of three to four students. Each team write a project proposal, a preliminary design reprot and a final design report. For certain projects, production of detailed drawings and tender documents is also required. The course culminates with each team presenting their design project in front of the students, the faculty and the representatives from the local industry. [I was a member of the conception committee for this course.
I have coordinated this course for past two years: 2005-06 & 2006-07.]
CE855.3 Advanced Soil Mechanics The course focuses on fundamental aspects of shear strength and volume change behaviour of saturated and unsaturated soils. It also includes theoretical and practical aspects of primary and secondary consolidation, settlement analysis and pore pressure parameters. An introduction to critical state soil mechanics and constitutive modelling of soils is also provided. [I have been teaching this course since September 2003.]
CE852.3 Advanced Geotechnical Laboratory The course encompasses practical aspects of geotechnical laboratory testing. It includes tests for determining index properties, strength and compressibility charactersitics of soils and rocks. The course requirement includes critical review and discussion of test procedure and results as well as background literature. [I have been teaching this course
since September 2003.]
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My Teaching Experience
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Web-based Instructional Methods
During my tenure as Senior Research Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of technology [ETH] at Zürich, I got the opportunity to develop web-based instructional methods for the introductory course in Geotechnical Engineering. The project was called CALICE -- Computer-Aided Learning in Civil Engineering. The CALICE project was a part of the ETH World -- the virtual campus of ETH. It was led by Professor Sarah Springman of ETH with considerable content development by Dr. Leslie Davison of University of Western England at Bristol, UK. Links to the CALICE website as well as samples of its content are given in Useful Links section on the right. I have continued to develop the web-based instructional tools further and I use these tools for the two undergraduate courses that I teach. These tools provide flexibility in learning and therefore, have received overwhelming support from the students. Back to Top
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© Jitendra Sharma. All rights reserved. |
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