Dr Arunashri
For Dr. Arunashri, learning is not a phase that ends with a degree, a job, or a certificate. It is a way of staying alert – to her profession, to her students, and to the world around her. An assistant professor of Anatomy at Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangalore, she has built a relationship with online education through NPTEL, returning semester after semester to explore subjects that might make her a better teacher.
Her journey began in 2019, when she enrolled in ‘Basic Course in Biomedical Research’ provided by NIE, ICMR. What started as a course connected to her professional field soon became a habit of discovery. Since then, she has pursued two or three courses each semester, following her instinct to search for something new. “I am always curious,” she says, dismissing the idea that she needed a dramatic turning point or a source of motivation. For her, curiosity is all the motivation she needs.
That curiosity exists alongside a crowded life. She teaches anatomy to medical students while also managing the responsibilities of raising two children. In her years of study, she would use every available gap between lectures to hurry to the library and watch recorded classes. After the birth of her second child, that routine became harder to sustain. Her approach changed, but her commitment did not. She began choosing courses that were feasible within her circumstances, completing assignments and learning in the time she could claim for herself.
“I wouldn’t say I’m doing it all right,” she admits. “But I’m doing it my way.”
She does not present herself as an ideal student with unlimited time. She describes herself as an ordinary, working learner, someone who must fit education around teaching, family, and institutional commitments.
“We were good students when we were only students,” she observes.
Now, she is also a student while doing many other things.
Her purpose reaches beyond personal achievement. She studies to improve her classroom. She has explored Educational Leadership, Positive Psychology, Yoga, Outcome-Based Learning, and other subjects that may help her understand how students think and how they can reach their goals. Her question is simple: how can she help a struggling student to do better?
One course on ‘Accreditation and Outcome-Based Learning’ by Prof. Anup Kumar Ray and Prof. S. K. Das Mandal of IIT Kharagpur stayed with her, not for the subject, but for how hard the two professors worked to reach a mixed audience: blackboards, slides, patient explanations, nothing rushed. That care, she says, is what made students want to show up prepared.
NPTEL has also given her a way to guide students toward affordable opportunities. She points them to courses in areas such as Psychology, Sports and Exercise Physiology, Medical Humanities, and Artificial Intelligence. The platform’s accessibility matters to her, especially for students who cannot travel to an IIT or afford expensive international courses. Learning, she believes, should not become another burden on their parents.
She is now enrolled in courses such as ‘Introduction to Medical Humanities’ from IIT Patna and ‘AI for Clinicians’ from IIT Madras – subjects that challenge her, but also attract her. Her goal is to remain a lifelong learner and open to whatever interests her next. In that persistence lies her quiet message: education becomes most powerful when curiosity turns into service.
~written by Elsa Prasad