Faculty Initiatives on Teaching and Learning
Several innovations in teaching pedagogy across the courses comprising the PGDM program include steps taken beyond the traditional chalk and talk method of imparting knowledge. The faculty envisages active engagement of students in opportunities to learn through doing, and reflection on those activities, which empowers them to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical endeavors in a multitude of settings inside and outside of the classroom. These intend to and also achieve greater student engagement as well as improved learning outcomes.
1. Self-directed learning
- Field Study -Course on Self, Society and Organizations (SSO) in Trimester I Depending upon the interest of the students and available liasioning with various
NGOs involved in social developmental issues, groups are formed and assigned tasks
ranging from volunteering to develop business proposals for beneficiaries of NGO
services. The course involves total 6-8 days of outbound field based learning
positioned as once a week. Each visit is documented by the group members as ‘diary
writing,’ and reported to the faculty-in-charge. Regular reflection sessions with
mentors and faculty strengthen student learning, exploration of societal issues,
ability to think critically along with attitude building. Strong group collaboration
leads to handling conflicts and differences in such projects. Upon competition of the
assigned tasks the students make a detailed presentation of their experience and
achievement to a panel of experts.
- Inclusion of Industry Research Project (IRP) in Trimester II, III In order to enhance research orientation of students and provide an applicative vent
to business ideas in the young minds, students work in groups on an industry project.
The initiation occurs after a personalized mentoring of the interested students to
measure their understanding, viability of the work and assess the strength of their
intention as solution-providers for the decided themes. After presentation of the
proposal to a panel of experts, approved project themes are floated to be performed for the entire duration of Trimester II and III. Periodic review is undertaken through
in-person meeting of the student group with industry-mentor, mid-term
presentations and formal reporting to faculty-in-charge.
- Inclusion of credit earning via MOOCs Students are encouraged to undertake relevant courses available online via NPTEL,
UDEMY, COURSERA, etc. The department prescribes minimum duration and
certification norms for students to avail credits for self-directed learning through
MOOCs. The process encourages students to decide on their own with proper
guidance from mentors to pursue courses relevant to career advancement or skilling
in specific dimensions.
2. Pedagogical Initiatives
- Research orientation The students learn the nuances of social science research, the course on Business
Research Methods (Trimester III) involves preparation of research based projects
which selectively culminate in actual Conference paper presentations (beyond the
college) or as research publications in Journals.
- Field Visit- Mystery Shopping This activity was conducted for consumer behavior courses and its objective was to
explore and understand different patterns of shopping behaviour possessed by
individuals of respective demographics. The visits were conducted at selected stores
multiple times, observing customer behaviour, store layout, promotional activities
and interacting with the staff for any critical information if required. Students made
detailed notes and observation, including customer footfall, average time spent,
popular brands and products, offer’s attractiveness and staff responsiveness. All this
was followed by a class discussion in which all mystery shoppers came up with their
observations and reasoning for the same.
- Product designing using raw material The activity based learning in operation management led student to understand
concepts of product design & development, Knowledge about raw material, finish goods, production system, layout and others to make the create the final product.
- Understanding Markets In Sales and Distribution course, the students went to explore and understand
deeper nuances of organized and unorganized markets. This was a group learning
activity where students studied the local markets and multibrand outlets setting
different products followed by in-class presentation and peer reflections.
- Training Workshops HR students delivered training sessions at Corporates as a part of their curriculum
requirement. The objective was to understand real time training delivery and effectiveness of such programs.
- Industry expert Interview In Performance management, the students conducted live interviews with industry
experts to understand and synthesize how different corporates design employee
performance practices, motivations, rewards and incentives. Once the interview is
conducted, the students share the acquired knowledge through class presentation.
- AI and Technology In Contemporary issues in HR (CIHR), a student learning session was organized in a
company and they were appraised of various technologies used in HR processes such
as talent acquisition and management, onboarding, performance appraisals and
various digitization techniques.
- Theatrics Two courses Organization Behaviour (Trimester II) and Organisational Dynamics
(Trimester III) incorporated theatrics in learning and assessment. It was a group
based assessment activity where students have to identify stories, design
enactments around that under mentorship of course faculty. The final performance
of students was peer assessed and led to deeper understanding of behavioral issues.
- Use of social media platforms Some courses of PGDM have begun to put the conceptual learning imparted to the
students in possible applicative forms with the use of social media platforms.
Specifically, in the course on Organization Behaviour (Trimester II), Marketing
Management (Trimester I, II) and Consumer Behaviour (Trimester III) the students
work on online assignments wherein the assigned tasks take the form of article
writing, blog posting and critical reviews. Uploading their work on LinkedIn, peer
access and feedback entails a multi-directional impact.
- Visualization of concepts Students in Trimester III study Operations Management and are exposed to the
actual operations in manufacturing enterprises through Industry Visits. At least one
trip to an industrial site for students (accompanied by their course
instructor/faculty) is undertaken to acquaint them with the practical side of
operations management. Industry visits in this regard have been undertaken to
Yakult factory and Mother Dairy processing plant in the recent past.
- Collaborative teaching To harness and pool the expertise of faculty members as well as corporate
practitioners, co-teaching is being used in content and delivery for courses on
Business Research Methods (Trimester III), Macroeconomic Management (Trimester
II) and HRM (Trimester III), Marketing Analytics (Trimester IV).
- Practical training Students of Digital and Social Media Marketing (Trimester IV) and Integrated
Marketing Communications (Trimester V) are made to design marketing and social
media campaigns which are formally presented for assessment.
3. Assessment and Evaluation
- Peer evaluation The courses on Organizational Behaviour (Trimester II) and Managerial Competence
and Personal Growth (Trimester IV) incorporate peer evaluation as a part of formal
assessment of students - both individually and as a team for various tasks/activities
assigned for internal assessment
- Expert Evaluation The communication courses are assessed by industry experts
on various dimensions such as presentation, communication, content, clarity, voice
modulation at the end of Timester I, II, III and IV.
- Lab based assessment Excel based courses such as quantitative techniques,
Optimisation techniques, Information systems, Financial Modelling, Compensation
Management and Courses in Analytics like Marketing Analytics, HR Analytics, Data
Visualisation, Forecasting and Big Data Analytics, Data Mining Using R are assessed
through lab based tests.
- RUBRIC based assessment Most of the core as well as elective courses of PGDM involving a considerable degree
of subjectivity in conceptual application involve internal assessment using Rubric
format. Fundamentals of Management, Marketing management, Managerial
Economics, Consumer Behaviour, Organization Behaviour, Services Marketing,
Financial Management, Global Business Environment etc. have brought greater
consistency in the expected learning from the course and objectivity to the
assessment with the use of Rubric based assignments, class presentations and
project work