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.
Dr. Vinnie Jauhari
Director, Education Advocacy,
Microsoft India
The First batch of IIEECP (2015)
A major stimulus came to IIEECP in 2016, when IGIP (International Society for Engineering Pedagogy) Austria, a highly prestigious and respected organization in Europe, recognized IIEECP as being worthy of joint certification.
IGIP (http://www.igip.org) has more than 40 years tradition in contributing to engineering pedagogy. IGIP’s members and activists have contributed to making IGIP a leading global engineering association. IGIP is present worldwide via membership network of individuals, affiliates and institutions as well as local branches represented by academics in the field of Engineering Pedagogy. More than 1,500 professionals all over the globe carry the title of “IGIP International Engineering Educator -Ing.Paed.IGIP”.
Today, over 700 faculty members from nearly 50 engineering colleges have been certified, and more than fifty IIEECP certified faculty carry the Ing.Paed.IGIP” title.
IIEECP has also been endorsed by CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) as a part of the CII Higher Education Mentorship Program (2017): (http://www.ciihighereducation.in/mentoring- programmes.php).
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:
- The program must be fully customized for Indian engineering education system and should be well grounded in cultural, social and academic realities in India.
- The faculty training the must be offered for a sustained period of time and include a well-designed practicum component. Participants must be able to experience the strategies taught by actually planning, implementing & evaluating them in their own classes. The typical 5 -10 days are not sufficient.
- Each practical strategy taught must be placed in a proper theoretical framework to empower the faculty to make required modifications to meet the local challenges.
- The training must be equally focused on developing personal and professional confidence by developing a responsible, reflective mindset –a mindset that is focused on ‘what I do’ rather than on ‘why it cannot be done’. Each and every assignment in the program is designed to include this objective.
Program Outcomes
At the end of the certification program, the participants will be able to:
- Explain how learning happens based on the major theories of learning including brain-based learning.
- Identify the learning & employability needs of the Millennial learners and to implement strategies to sustain their motivation
- Develop a personal Teaching Philosophy Statement that includes participant’s short and long term goals
- Write/review course outcomes using Bloom’s taxonomy and map them to program outcomes.
- Explain Lowman’s 2D model for Effective Teaching and design activities for promoting Intellectual Excitement & Interpersonal Rapport.
- Plan and implement the Flipped class
- Create a dynamic classroom by using a variety of active learning strategies
- Write high quality tests and quizzes substantially based on a deeper awareness of effective assessment principles and practices
- Develop transparency in assessment by creating rubrics and providing constructive verbal and written feedback.
- Plan and implement collaborative learning activities in order to develop real world professional skills needed for employability
- Design and record lectures in the audio & video formats
- Use/create virtual labs in theory & lab. classes
- Create a dedicated course website using free resources
IIEECP Program Structure
The program is completed in 9 – 10 months. While phases I & III are held throughout the year, Phase IIs follows a proper academic calendar of Spring and Fall semesters.
The Complete Program is offered in three Phases:
Phase I – Pre-certification Workshop
This is a three-day hands-on face-to-face workshop by global experts in engineering education and is designed to enable the participants to begin to understand the principles of learner-centered teaching; to design or redesign a course and its elements, emphasizing learning outcomes; to develop different teaching and active learning strategies for implementation of these elements; to design formative and summative assessment tools and rubrics for outcomes assessment. Successful completion of Phase I is a pre-requisite for completing the rest of the two phases.
Phase II – Six Modules in Blended format
This component is delivered completely in blended format with one ‘live ‘ session per week. Canvas Instructure is used as the LMS for asynchronous delivery. It is used for posting readings, graded discussions and assignments. The participants are expected to be teaching a course where they will complete their practicum by implementing strategies learned in the different modules.
Phase III – The Valedictory
Participants who have completed Phase II successfully are invited to complete Phase III which is based on their Teaching Portfolio and a one year plan of action for teaching/research and professional development
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.
The Phase II content of IIEECP is organized in the following six modules:
Module 1: The Teaching-Learning process
Module 2: Course Design & delivery
Module 3: Creating a Dynamic Classroom
Module 4: Collaborative Learning
Module 5: Harnessing the Power of Technology
Module 6: Effective Assessment
Phase III – VALEDICTORY
This phase is conducted completely online. Two components have to be completed during this phase:
i) Teaching Portfolio – (12-16 pages) submitted as an assignment
ii) Capstone Presentation – (15 minutes) on personal learning & transformation
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: 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 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.
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. A Lathigara, Dean Academics, R K 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.