Brief History of IIEECP
Every year, India produces 1.5 million engineers but several studies including one commissioned by NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) have shown that only one in four engineering graduates is employable. This has been a pivotal concern that the engineers being thrown into the national and international work places are not well-prepared. The lack of competent and pedagogically savvy faculty in engineering institutions is a well-recognized factor for this situation. It is an established fact that an institution is as good as its faculty! Today, India boasts of having 10,396, AICTE approved engineering institutions many with excellent infrastructure, libraries and labs but as regards the faculty, there is much to be desired. It was clear that raising the competency and confidence level of the faculty is the crucial pre-requisite for upgrading the teaching standards and developing employable, productive engineers.
From its very inception in 2007, IUCEE has been focused on developing engineering faculty. Between 2008-2010, a number of Faculty Leadership Programs were organized where one-week long workshops were delivered by well-know international experts including the Gurus of engineering pedagogy – Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent. Over 2500 faculty members from different engineering institutions in India were trained in this phase. However, the experience showed that a longer and a more comprehensive program is required to realize the desired transformation. It is to address this important need that IUCEE decided to create the IUCEE International Engineering Educator Certification Program (IIEECP).
Pilot I of the IIEECP program was formally launched in January 2015 with financial support from Microsoft India. After that there was no looking back.
IIEECP Program Structure
Phase – I can be done virtually as well
How is IIEECP Different from Other Faculty Development Programs?
Perhaps the very first certification program in engineering pedagogy in India, IIEECP is very different from conventional faculty development programs. The program was over two years in the making, and is based on four very clear philosophical convictions:
Course Content
A significant part of the content shared in the program is developed based on the learning from diverse scholarly sources specially, from research articles by Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent. The insights, arguments and recommendations are based on over 30 years of the author’s study & personal research in education technology as well as direct interaction with Indian and international engineering and university faculty.
Significant value-additions have been made by all faculty members who teach different modules. Contributions made to the content by Dr. Archana Mantri
Dr. Neeraj Buch, Dr. Anil Kulkarni, Thomas Iwinsky, Dr. Rajan Subramaniam, Dr. Stephanie Farrell are gratefully acknowledged.
Substantial contributions have also been made by Dr. Archana Mantri, Dr. Claire Komives, Dr. Sohum Sohoni, & Dr. Rio D’Souza in enriching the presentations and overall delivery of Phase I workshops.
Program Cost
Initially launched with financial support from Microsoft in 2015-16, the IIEECP is now aspiring to be self-sustained and is offered for a nominal fee to cover expenses.
Phase I regular: Three day face to face workshop with an expert resource person – Rs.4,900 for IUCEE Consortium members; Rs.6,900 for non members. A minimum of 25 participants
Phase I virtual: Five days virtual workshop with an expert resource person – Rs. 2,500 for IUCEE Consortium members.
Phase II: Rs. 7,000 for IUCEE Consortium members; Rs. 10,000 for non members
Phase III: Rs. 4,900 for IUCEE Consortium members; Rs. 6,900 for non members
Program Faculty
The greatest strength of IIEECP is its highly qualified and dedicated Faculty. Nearly 12 international experts teach the program. Each module is taught by a well-known expert in the area, and each faculty is supported by Assistant Faculty.
The IIEECP Assistant faculty are faculty members from Indian engineering colleges who have completed the certification program with distinction and have undergone special training. They play a very important role in sustaining the high standard of the program by closely monitoring the participants and grading assignments
Over the past five years, IIEECP had developed a very large panel of Assistant Faculty members who are taking the lead in several initiatives in their own institutions.
Dedicated IIEECP Faculty
Program Coordination
The IIEECP program is designed and coordinated by Dr. Veena Kumar, Executive Director of IIEECP and active member of the Board of IUCEE.
Dr. Veena Kumar currently teaches at the University of Maryland Global Campus, USA, and was earlier Professor and chair, Education Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. IIEECP is a culmination of Dr. Kumar’s 30 years of teaching, research and experience in curriculum development, e-learning, and teacher training in France, India and USA.
Veena has extensive experience in the e-learning space, and has worked as Chief Learning Officer with Microland Ltd India/USA (sabbatical assignment – 2000-2001). She has been the Principal Investigator for several prestigious academic & training projects sponsored by the World Bank; the European Commission, the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada MHRD, India & the British Council. She has trained faculty from China, Japan, Africa, Turkey, Brazil and India.
IIEECP Organization Structure
The IIEECP has completed 5 successful years and has grown well, and it is time for it to have its own formal organizational structure and a detailed Self-study Dossier. This is the first step in that direction. The following, three-pronged organizational structure is proposed. Roles and responsibilities fro different positions will be detailed out subsequently:
IIEECP Program Committee
Chairman – Dr. Krishna Vedula
Executive Director – Dr. Veena Kumar
Assistant Director – Dr. Archana Mantri
Program Coordinator – Mr. Surendra Reddy
Technology Coordinator – Mr. Sridhar Nori
Financial Coordinator – Kantha Reddy
Curriculum Committee
Dr. Veena Kumar – Executive Director, IIEECP
Dr. Archana Mantri – Assistant Director, IIEECP
Dr. Rio D’Souza, Principal, St. Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore
Dr. D. Anitha, Tiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai
Dr. Amit Lathigara, Dean Faculty of Technology, RK University, Rajkot
Advisory Committee
Dr. Krishna Vedula – Chairman, IIEECP
Dr. Veena Kumar – Executive Director, IIEECP
Dilip Chemburkar – Advisor, Marketing
Sheetal Sohoni – Advisor, Media & Publicity
Note:
The Executive Director IIEECP, will be prepare and submit an annual report to the Advisory Committee in the month of December.
The Curriculum Committee will review the curriculum with the IIEECP faculty and Assistant Faculty once every year in the month of July.
The Advisory Committee will meet once a year in the month of January.