Over 100 MOOC are taken by students every year, Dean JIMS Rohini

In a conversation with Shiksha, Dr Pratima Daipruia, Dean of PGDM course at JIMS Rohini - Jagan Institute of Management Studies, talks about the hyperactive economical situation of the society which is also the reason of shift in the concept of learning and consumption of information. Dr Daipuria holds a PhD from Faculty of Management Studies, the University of Delhi in the area of emotional intelligence. With more than 16 years of experience that includes both academic and corporate, she is actively involved in teaching, research and training.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

Q: What is the difference between the teaching methodology in your institute and others?

A: Time is changing fast, what happened yesterday is of less use today and might be irrelevant tomorrow. With hyperactive economies, markets and competition, management education needs to be ever-evolving and relevant. The market transformation has led to a paradigm shift in the concept of learning and consumption of information has put learner-centricity at the core. JIMS with a mission to deliver quality education has been very swift in adapting to the change and the methodology we adopt is centred at the learner.

Some of the interesting approaches adopted in our campus include:

• Vibrant and engaging classroom learning with smart boards, tech tools, spreadsheets, office tools in tandem with lectures make learning more meaningful.
• Understanding deepens by the application of flipped learning where pre-class exposure to the material heightens the student involvement where everyone knows the context and content of learning.
• Case learning is another such key differentiator, besides traditional retrospective cases, we also discuss live cases and current cases happening locally, nationally and globally. The discussions go beyond case presentation and discussion; theatrics and role-plays come in the scenario where living a protagonist role makes all the difference.
• The students learn a lot on the actual site of work and for that they indulge in intense industry research projects, classroom projects, industry and field visits which is mentored and supervised by faculty and Corporate Mentor.
• Social immersion and community projects lead to designing solutions for real-life problems of marginalised segments and communities of society; these act as real-life case studies and students apply their management learnings to provide a viable solution to the problems faced. More than 50 such community service projects are currently handled by PGDM students.
• Students get to choose online courses to enhance their skill set, upskill themselves or add to their knowledge base. More than 100 Massive Open Online Courses‎ (MOOC) have been undertaken by the students in the last academic year.
• Specialised certification programmes such as NSE Certification for Financial Markets (NCFM), National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) and many more are attained by the students during their course of study.
• We invite industry experts to collaborate with a subject expert and expose students with the latest trends and practices which is highly popular and much appreciated by students.

Q: How are you preparing your students to be industry-ready?

A: Industry readiness comes from a close association with the industry through a well-defined industry-academia interface. To begin with, we carefully gauge the changing requirements of the industry with intense discussions, meetings and feedback from the corporate professionals. This is further broken down into various components which might include exposure to the industry practices through guest sessions, discussion forums and symposiums. The students also undertake live projects, eight-weeks summer internship projects, industry-specific projects to get a feel and understanding of the industry. We prepare students on two dimensions, employability and sustenance in the industry while blending the demands of soft skills with relevant knowledge.

Our association with recruiters helps us in mapping the changing trends and industry expectations. At JIMS Rohini, we have carefully designed a programme specifically targeted towards soft skills such as communication, time management, self-motivation, conflict management, leadership, adaptability and ability to work under pressure and stress. We organise regular workshops, training sessions, simulations, run-throughs, and webinars all along the trimester to nurture these qualities which make them industry ready on attitudinal dimension. And learning increases exponentially when on-field immersions are added to the system through the various modules as mentioned earlier.

We believe in the power of mentoring and associate every student with a faculty mentor who acts as a friend, philosopher and guides throughout the PGDM course and even beyond that. We also have a very strong alumni network and these alumni guide and mentor current batch students in solving industry-specific queries, aligning their interest to specific segment of industry, exposing them to various career opportunities. The Corporate Resource Management Centre of the institute builds a strong network with the Corporate and industry and bridges the gap between industry and academia.

Q: What quality do your students have which other college students lack?

A: We are clear in our agenda at the time of admissions. Besides meeting the benchmark entry criteria in PGDM course, we look for student who have the desired capability to carry on the legacy of 27 years of excellence which their predecessors have established through grit and determination. The heterogeneity of the batch opens diverse perspectives and inter-disciplinary learning arenas which makes them grounded and multi-dimensional in their approach.

Every student is assessed on their potential through multiple approaches and then nurtured, trained, counselled and evaluated. Regular feedback sessions keep him updated on his progress. Our students possess an acumen for respecting time and resources along with strong display of value and ethical behaviour. The recruiters have appreciated the ability, tenacity and stability demonstrated by our students at their workplace during internships or placements. And when recruiters are happy and come back to hire more students from PGDM year on year, there can be no other better measure than this that speaks volumes about our protégé.

Q: Do you think the curriculum of the courses taught in your institute fits in the requirement of the industry?

A: The purpose of a B-school is to nurture industry-ready professionals. Contemporary and relevant are the focal points while designing and delivering the curriculum at JIMS Rohini. Multiple iterations are done before finalising the curriculum, by benchmarking it with peers, industry professionals and subject area experts. Regular feedbacks from stakeholders also keeps us conscious of fitment. To have an idea our curriculum includes courses on Digital and Social Media Marketing, Business Analytics, Marketing Analytics, Innovation and entrepreneurship, Ethics and CSR, to name a few. Besides curriculum, it also depends on the kind of learning opportunities the course offers to the student while pursing PGDM from JIMS Rohini.

Q: Is your college receptive to the innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship?

A: In our college there is strong emphasis on promoting a culture where students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, which is instilled in them as an integral component of learning. The Institution Innovation Cell at JIMS Rohini functions towards fostering such a culture. Regular events like Hackathon, workshops on design thinking, patents, IPR, Discussion forum such as founder series are organised to encourage inflow of creative ideas. The students also have the opportunity to pitch their ideas and explore the possibility of funding and mentoring. All such initiatives taken by the college leads to the desired culture of creativity and innovation.