Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development, launched two new initiatives; Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) and Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT) on Tuesday in New Delhi. He also released information brochures of both the initiatives during the event. While addressing the gathering, Dr Satya Pal Singh said that developing good teachers is an arduous task and if teachers show enough commitment, ARPIT will go a long way in empowering the teaching faculty. Committed teachers will develop confidence and competence and must become effective communicators so that they can spread knowledge like the rays of the sun. Combining the qualities of a good teacher and an effective leader is still more daunting task but not an impossible task, the Minister said. LEAP will fulfill this critical need which will make higher education institutions perform their roles of developing better students who will be future torch bearers. A leader must talk for all generations, present and future; only then institutional growth can be achieved, Dr. Satya Pal Singh explained.
Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) is a three weeks Flagship leadership development training programme (2 weeks domestic and one week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions. The main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future. The programme would provide senior faculty, with high academic credentials, the required leadership and managerial skills including skills of problem-solving, handling stress, team building work, conflict management, developing communication skills, understanding and coping with the complexity and challenges of governance in HEIs, financial & general administration.
The implementation of LEAP Programme will be through 15 NIRF top ranked Indian Institutions namely, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee; IIT Kanpur; NIT Trichy; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata; Jawaharlal Nehru University; IIT (BHU); University of Delhi; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay; TISS Mumbai; University of Hyderabad ; NIEPA, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur; Jamia Milia Islamia; Banaras Hindu University and AMU.
The foreign Universities identified for the training are also within the top 100 in the world global rankings. The foreign collaborating institutions are University of Michigan; NTU Singapore; Harvard University; Purdue University, USA ; University of Chicago; University of Pennsylvania / Stanford; Monash University; London School of Economics/ Oxford University; University of Cambridge and University of Virginia, USA.
Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT), a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM. For implementing ARPIT, 75 discipline-specific institutions have been identified and notified as National Resource Centres (NRCs) in the first phase, which are tasked to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.
In 2018, the inaugural year itself, the NRCs are expected to cater to around 13 lakh faculty of the total 15 lakh faculty in higher education. The courses cover a diverse range of topics such as, inter alia, Indian culture & Heritage Studies, Pedagogical Innovations & Research Methodology, Latest Trends in Pedagogy and Assessment, Personal-Emotional Development and Counselling , Neural Networks and Deep Learning & Knowledge discovery, ICT in Science and Maths teaching, Innovation and Best Practices in Educational Skills, Leadership and Governance in Higher Education, Public Policy and Administration, English Language Teaching, Hindi Literature & Linguistics, Methodology of Teaching Sanskrit, Effective Creations and Innovative Researches in Medieval Gujarati Literature, Tribal and Regional languages, Urdu, French Studies, Tools, techniques and experiments in Earth Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, Biotechnology , Biomechanics,Marine Science, Calculus, Real Time Power Analysis and Smart Grid, Civil Infrastructure for Smart City Development, Engineering Mechanics, Design Spectrum, DIY Manufacturing Technology, Advanced Concepts in Fluid Mechanics, Energy Systems Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, Physics of Semiconductors and Devices, Internet of Things, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical Engineering, Bio-Medical engineering, Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Political Science, Economics, Psychology, Development Perspectives in Agriculture, Gender/Women's studies, Law,Disaster Management, Climate change, Library & Information Science, Ethics, Human Rights and Environment , Social and Rural Development, Anthropology etc. Currently, registrations are open for the online refresher courses on SWAYAM platform, https://swayam.gov.in/courses/public
The course is a 40 hour module with 20 hours of video content and 20 hours of non-video content. They are offered in a highly flexible format and can be done at one’s own pace and time. There are built-in assessment exercises and activities as part of the academic progression in the course. At the end of the course, they will be a terminal assessment which can be either online or a written examination. All faculties who have successfully completed the online refresher course will be certified. The courses will remain open from 1st November, 2018 to 28th February, 2019. All in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority are requested to register and complete these refresher courses which will help them in career advancement.
NRCs are located in a mixed range of institutions such as, Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, State Universities under the Ministry’s Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT); UGC’s Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs), National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training (NITTTRs), IIITs and IGNOU.
Out of 75 institutions, already 68 have uploaded their courses and started registering the teachers. Till now, more than 30,000 teachers have enrolled to obtain online professional development training. Necessary regulations will be taken out by UGC, recognising the MOOCs based online refresher training of teachers for the CAS (Career Advancement Scheme). The production of MOOCs courses by the teachers is also recognised for the CAS. This is expected to be a major incentive for the higher education faculty to undergo training through MOOCs courses and also to produce MOOCs courses.
ARPIT will be an ongoing exercise so that every year NRCs will continuously develop new refresher module in their earmarked discipline each year. The training materials will be uploaded and made available through SWAYAM. NRC will publish the list of the faculty who have been certified. The NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM.
