VIT FFCS (Fully Flexible Credit System) Explained

All about FFCS (Fully Flexible Credit System) VIT

As part of continuous improvement in providing quality education, during 2008, VIT University has taken the right step in this direction by introducing the Fully Flexible Credit System (FFCS™) into its academic curriculum. By this, the students can register courses of their choice and alter the pace of learning within the broad framework of the academic course and credit requirements. FFCS allows students to decide their academic plan and permits students to alter it as they progress in time.

What is FFCS?

Academics at VIT University is based on the Fully Flexible Credit System (FFCS for short), which is VIT's very own academic invention that gives you the flexibility to shape your academic calendar (in layman's terms your daily timetable) to suit your personal needs. This system, allows you to choose courses, faculties and even your class location and timings. Each semester entails a fixed set of exams and quizzes, with a balanced proportion of practical sessions that ensure a holistic all round academic development. It might seem like a complicated system, but hey, your seniors are there to help! Least I can do, being a pass-out is to introduce you to FFCS in a proper way, but I will suggest you make seniors of your branch,& stay updated for good grades and attendance giving teachers.

Another milestone in implementing FFCS is moving from a fixed timetable to a slot based timetable. Under this, a student will be able to choose the time he/she wants to attend a theory class/ lab. Thus, combining FFCS with a slot based timetable, students can make their own timetable and each student in a class may have a different timetable of his/her own. In order to make the learning more effective, Project Based Learning (PBL) was introduced in 2010 in which the student applies the course principles by using analytical and critical thinking and thus have an opportunity to carry out challenging project(s) as part of the course. Students also have the option of choosing courses from a ‘basket of courses’ within each classification. Ample options are given to choose interdisciplinary courses from other programmes which will help the student to develop additional skills. Slow learners will also be benefitted since important courses are offered in both semesters. This arrangement helps the students to reregister the course and clear the backlog in the subsequent semester. Suitable provisions are included to reward academically sound students and to carry out research activities even in their UG Programme. FFCS offers not only wide choice for students to build their own curriculum, but also enhances their skill in planning. A Proctor/faculty advisor helps the student in identifying the courses to be studied in each semester based on programme requirement, course prerequisites, student’s academic ability and interest in various disciplines, past academic history, proposed course offerings and other related criteria.

FFCS will enable you to

• Choice in the order of selection of courses for each semester.
• Choice in timings/time slots in the selection of courses.
• Choice in the selection of a number of courses per semester.
• Choice of preparing his / her own Timetable and Academic Plan.
• Balanced curriculum with engineering, science, humanities and management courses.
• The project-based curriculum which emphasises learning by doing Ample opportunities to do inter-disciplinary courses.
• Soft on slow learners by offering important/common courses in all semesters.
• Optional Summer / lnter-session semester.
• Opportunity to gain undergraduate research experience.
• Value addition with double Major / Honours/Minor option.
• Branch change option in B.Tech. at the end of the first year for high performers.

Understanding FFCS

Honestly, best possible way to understand FFCS is to not try to understand it. However, there are few things you need to know and understand about your timetable (Advice - open your timetable while reading these points to understand it better)- 1. Each working day has been divided into 12 slots (6 before lunch and 6 after) of 50 minutes duration each. 2. The morning slots are christened A1, B1...G1 with corresponding afternoon slots as A2, B2...G2. The same slots have also been divided into lab hours (L1, L2…L30 as morning slots) and (L31, L32….L60 for the evening). 3. Classes run throughout the day from 8 am to 7:30 pm. However, you will only be attending classes for the subjects you choose. 4. Subjects are offered in the slots mentioned above. When registering for any subject, you will have the option of selecting from a number of faculty members and slots. 5. Every Subject has a certain number of credits. The number of credits corresponds to the number of scheduled of theory classes, lectures or labs/practical classes in a week. 6. Schools usually provide you with a course page which lists all courses (in your school) that are offered, along with the number of credits that will be given on the completion of those respective courses. It will have columns with numbers under LTPC (L-Lab, T-Theory, P-Practical, and C-no. of Credits for the course). Refer course page in your VTOP student login for more information. 7. The registration for lab classes is done in the same fashion. However instead of the slots A1, A2 etc. you will be registering for L1, L2 etc. as shown above. Lab and theory slots for a course are registered together. 8. The lab slots you choose will generally be from the slots other than your (chosen) theory schedule, i.e. for morning theory classes, you will have evening labs and vice-versa. Although not necessary, it is recommended that you choose your theory and lab slots for different parts of the day to prevent messing up your timetable i.e. for morning theory classes take evening labs and vice-versa. 9. The fully flexible system is flexible only to an extent. Every course that you opt for may be available in only a few of the slots mentioned, sometimes just 1 particular slot for specialized courses. As first timers, you will have the option to register for only a selected number of courses, pre-decided by your schools. 10. You can opt between 16-27 credits per semester through a number between 20-25 is advisable. Keep your eyes open for extra courses that may open up in ADD/DROP (explained later). Again, do not take very fewer credits because that will mean you will need to increase the load in the coming semesters unless you plan to extend your stay here.

During 2015 - 16, the concept of Curriculum for Applied Learning (CAL™) was introduced in all Programmes of the University under which a project component became an integral part of the course structure. All courses are made student-centric instead of teacher-centric. Learning becomes more ‘experiential’ by carrying out a project (Project Based Learning) as part of most of the courses. ‘Learning by doing’ enhances understanding the concepts discussed in the class and make multi- and cross-disciplinary applications possible. Students will be able to take up real-world problems as their course projects and apply their key learning in identifying better solutions. All courses under CAL were redesigned to bring out the importance of application to engineering/technological problems, creativity and innovation, developing entrepreneurial skills, rather than route learning.

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