KISS-DU Organizes Faculty Improvement & Capacity Building Training Programme

The Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC), KISS-DU in collaboration with Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar organised a Two-Day Faculty Improvement Programme on ‘E- content Development Know-how and Skills’ on 27^th January, 2022 and Capacity Building Training Program for Non-Teaching staff on IT Skills on 28^th January 2022, respectively.

On 27^th January, 2022 the virtual programme saw overwhelming response from 110 participants from both the Universities. Professor Ashok Kumar Mohapatra, Chairman, HRDC, KISS-DU, in his opening remark, drew the attention of the audience to the principal purpose of conducting such significant Faculty Improvement and Capacity Building Training Programme. He mentioned that Criterion 4 of NAAC assessment under the heading Infrastructure and Learning Resources necessitates efforts by the faculty in this regard.

Professor Deepak Kumar Behera, Vice-Chancellor, KISS-DU, in his introductory remarks, expressed happiness over the initiative taken by both the Universities to organize the said program. He emphatically said that the collaboration will include running of lots of Academic- Exchange Programmes in coming days as per the terms of the MoU.

Professor Aparajita Chowdhury, Vice-Chancellor, Rama Devi Women’s University, expressed her contentment over the collaborative venture. She also said that the topics of the programme bear great relevance to contemporary needs, and E-content development will certainly help the faculty members in career building and scholastic development. 

Dr. Prashanta Kumar Routray, Registrar, KISS-DU affirmed the opinions of the Vice-Chancellors of two collaborative universities. He also appreciated the initiative of Human Resource Development Centre, KISS DU, in organising the event and wished success of the programme.

Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay, Associate Professor of History, KISS-DU, made a presentation on ‘MOOC Courses Development: Knowhow and Skill’. Dr. Bandyopadhyay focused on three broad areas. He began with a general consideration of how to measure the value of education, touching upon the ways in which education research has come to assess benefits or utility of innovative pedagogic methods, models or techniques. He proceeded subsequently to offer a historical overview of the evolving political economy of higher education all over the world during the last three decades, against which he located the rise of MOOC courses. Histories of distance learning and Open Courseware Movement were followed by a detailed consideration of the origin and evolution of MOOC courses during the last decade and a half. Introducing the vision of MHRD on MOOC, with regard particularly to the SWAYAM platform, Dr. Bandyopadhyay proceeded to present details about the various phases and components of the programme, with regard particularly to the design and delivery of MOOC courses at various levels. Speaking at length about the various technical and pedagogical requirements from prospective MOOC developers, he concluded with a demonstration of actual MOOC course modules.

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Several of the 100 plus participants, including faculty members from both the universities, later asked questions about a number of technical details and offered useful inputs with regard to designing MOOC courses at the Postgraduate level. Both the Vice-Chancellors resolved to explore possibilities of joint development of MOOC courses in the near future. The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Chittaranjan Bhoi, Director of HRDC at KISS-DU. 

The talk was followed by a question-answer session and the Resource Person answered the questions aptly and clarified the doubts of the audience. 

The second day lecture of the two-day session was deferred to January 31, and it was conducted in a blended-mode.  The lecture was delivered by Engineer Atul Nag, Associate Professor, KISS-DU. The topic for the session was ‘Capacity Building Training Programme for Non-teaching Staff in IT skills’.

In his talk, Er. Nag discussed the crucial role played by the non-teaching and administrative staff in Higher Education Institutions. He highlighted the importance of automation in the present context and how MIS/ERP Systems play a significant role in carrying out the day-to-day office work. Additionally, the talk covered topics such as the Google Workspace for Education and the collaborative sharing inbuilt in all of its applications. He also reviewed the Microsoft applications – Word, Excel and PowerPoint and the new features introduced in the latest Microsoft Office 2016.

Professor Ashok Kumar Mohapatra, Chairman, HRDC delivered the closing remarks and expressed his gratitude to the Vice-Chancellors, Registrars, Officers and other participants of both universities for making the Two-Day Program a grand success.