Our Curriculum is Designed with a Holistic Approach to Management, says Dr. Shalini, Professor at ABBS

 

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Dr. Shalini H S, Associate Professor, Acharya Bangalore B-School talks about ABBS's different teaching methodologies such as the ICT method of pedagogy that includes interactive touchscreen-based LCD projectors, case-based teaching-learning methodology, and experiential learning through club activities. This differs from other colleges as we provide a more interactive and hands-on approach to learning.

 

Dr. Shalini H S has a doctoral degree from VTU.  Her research center is PESIT-South Campus, Bangalore. She completed MBA in Finance and Banking from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore; affiliated to VTU. Her area of research is on Option Trading Strategies in Derivatives. Currently, she is working as an Associate Professor at Acharya Bangalore B-School. 

Q1. What are the salient features of the teaching methodology adopted by your college? How does this differ from others?

• At ABBS we adopt ICT method of pedagogy where in we use interactive touch screen-based LCD projectors specifically for MBA Business Analytics students which will make them to get a better overview of the analytical procedures.
• We make use of case-based teaching-learning methodology as we prepare case studies in our respective subjects and the same will be published as compendium of cases every year and filed in the department.
• We provide experiential learning to our students by exposing them to real life situations in club activities in the areas of specializations in which students are interested. This will help them to stay tuned in the area of their interest.
• Apart from these we do follow the video-based learning and activity-based learning such as gamification, role plays and guest lectures.
• At ABBS we have the practice of identifying the celebrating some significant days which are related to business like World Tourism Day, International Consumer Rights Day, etc…
• We also have community-based programs such as Pragathi-The Women’s Wing of ABBS which is headed by our Managing Director Smt. Poornima Reddy Madam. We will conduct many competitions on the occasion of Women’s Day like sports, pot-luck etc…

   Q2. How are you preparing your students to be Industry ready?

• At ABBS, we provide value added certificate programs such as MS Excel Certification for MBA 1^st semester students and Analytics for Managers where in we will provide practical exposure to our MBA students to the programming tools such as R, Python and Power Bi as we have a well-equipped computer lab. These value-added courses carry lot of weightages in this evolving digital era and help our students to crack the interviews.
• We also provide special training sessions from the industry experts to train our MBA students in aptitude and problem-solving skills.
• For subjects such as accounting and Finance we discuss the concepts which are important for their interview whenever we take up a particular topic in classrooms. This will boost up the level of confidence in our students while attending the interview.

Q3. What are the qualities you are looking for in student applicants? What qualities do they need to do well in your course?

• In present day scenario the level of acceptance of the students and their adaptability to a given situation is very less. So, we look for students who are ready to accept changes for their betterment and to whom we can fine tune.
• The students must be good at analytical skills as they need to deal with numbers. Being a finance professor, I feel that even if a student is from non-commerce background it is fine but if the student does not like numbers and lack mathematical & analytical skills that is the real problem to worry. 
• Last but not the least it is the interest that matters for taking up any study and give 100%. So the student must have that enthusiasm to learn.

Q4. How do you ensure that your course curriculum is up to date and meets industry requirements?

Structure Simple frameworks that can be easily customized:  While designing curriculum we will make sure that we create a central content that can be tailored for different areas of specializations and while align with our Program outcomes (POs) and Course outcomes (COs).

Make Multiple formats to appeal to different internal personas: While designing the curriculum we will give scope for covering the content in many ways that people learn.  For example, leverage in-person interactive sessions, videos, podcasts, articles or transcripts, gamification, and more.

Use Digital solutions to reduce barriers and improve accessibility: At ABBS we utilize technology that is readily available at our finger tips to help save time, increase accessibility.  This could be in the form of role plays, case studies, story telling sessions and guest lectures.   

Q5. Is your college receptive to innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship? How? Could you cite some examples of these?

Yes, our college is receptive to innovation as we are using innovative methods of Teaching-Learning pedagogy.  We have different clubs concerning each specialization such as Finance, Marketing, HR, and entrepreneurship.  We do have a specialized EDC cell for start-ups to encourage our budding entrepreneurs to start their business.

When it comes to technology, we use latest technology of LCD projector for teaching learning purpose.  We do have a well-equipped lab consisting of more than 60 desktops for conducting analytical sessions.

As we are into Management field the scientific aspect of management can be taken as research in the area of management.  In this regard we do have a research center dedicated to research and development.  At ABBS we involve students also in research and we convert the project reports carried out by our students into research papers and publish the same.  This is one hallmark of our ABBS institute.