The concept of ambiguity is eliminated creating a path guideline for the student, says Associate Dean of VESIM Business

Dr Debjani Banerjee is the Associate Dean of VESIM Business School. She has a work experience of 23 years, of which six years comprises corporate experience and 17 years is academic. Under her leadership, VESIM Business School practices outcome-based learning.

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Vivekanand Education Society Institute of Management Studies and Research Associate Dean Dr Banerjee talks about the unique participative pedagogy and flip classroom concept that her institute has been working on. She also talks about the vision of the business school and how it is producing industry-ready professionals.

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

VESIM Business School practices outcome-based learning as the objective of the attainment of learning outcomes. This aims to evaluate the learning outcomes as there is no specified teaching methodology or assessment pattern, but is decided based on the need of the subject.

Clarity: We want to create clarity among our students to know what they would accomplish at the end of the course. This helps in creating curriculum keeping in mind the knowledge and skills that need to be obtained as the outcome. The concept of ambiguity is eliminated creating a path guideline for the student.

Flexibility: This focus on outcome-based learning establishes clarity even in terms of expectation of what is to be attained as outcome thus both the student and facilitator know what and how the curriculum would progress over time. There are various student-centric assessment modes bringing flexibility in the process of learning.

Involvement: The teaching methodology being student-centric has high involvement in the learning process. We emphasise in experiential learning and thus gaining knowledge by doing rather than rote learning. In our institute, we don’t teach we facilitate in learning, and make them confident future leaders.

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

A: The pedagogy of our teaching is very participative in nature. The concept of flip classroom facilitates  student development both from knowledge as well as from communication and presentation per se. We organise different workshops to add value to classroom teaching. We put more emphasis on learning by doing. We conduct mock GD & PI.

All these help students gain knowledge and prepare for better industry preparedness.

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

A: We look for students who have “fire in their belly” because if they do not have aspiration then shaping for a professional course is difficult. We can shape them in any form, probably they are ready to adopt. This aspiration to attain success in a career can help them take extra mile to succeed. We make an effort in identifying their potential and guide them as per their skills and quality.

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

A: We impart both Mumbai University approved Master of Management Studies (MMS) as well as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approved autonomous course Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM). Though Mumbai University has set curriculum, yet we take care of conducting Board of Studies (BOS) for both MMS as well as PGDM.  This BOS consists of stakeholders from different verticals- faculty, industry experts, alumni, parents, and our administrative heads, which strengthens the purpose of content being industry savvy. We discuss each course curriculum to identify how we can fortify them with additional input. All these are then imparted through workshops as well as guest lectures.

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

A: The institute has the vision to become one of the most preferred destinations for management studies in India, as such, we emphasise on creating an ecosystem receptive to innovation, technology, science, and entrepreneurship.

Innovation: We are building an environment of innovation through the Institution’s Innovation Council, which is registered at the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Students are open to coming with creative business plans and ideas 

Technology: Keeping in mind the importance of data analytics in every sphere of this competitive world, we focus to know more about its issues and perspective through a different approach. The event is conducted in three parts that include expert talk, research paper presentation, and smart cities & smart ideas contest.

Entrepreneurship: Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Management Studies and Research (VESIM) organises E-Leader Workshop in association with Wadhwani Foundation. E-Leaders are a group of energetic & enthusiastic student teams who run the Start-up Club. The purpose of this workshop is to have a clear understanding and hands-on experience on running and managing it.