TEACHING METHODOLOGY
In the past couple of years ITC has set its objective of “We Create Extraordinary Talent”. Following the defined goal, we have totally focused on the overall development of students of DOEACC courses. In addition to the IT skills, they are imparted with the knowledge and skills of Functional Cognizance, Corporate Attitude, Overseers’ Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction etc.. To achieve the said objectives, we have consulted multiple Experts from the industry and academia and then planned Daily, Weekly and Monthly activities and the evaluation system of these activities. The dedicated team of administrators and faculties are positively putting their all efforts to implement the said plan. With the past experience, dedicated team effort and the grace of God we are determined to achieve our objective. We have always received all kind of support from DOEACC Society and wish it will continue forever.
Training Philosophy
Training Centre The principal commitment for ITC is to ensure that its students achieve technical excellence. Therefore ITC provides a complete platform that includes expert teaching, the latest hardware and software, extensive library facilities and innovative training methodologies. ITC goes ones step beyond technical proficiency, though, by focusing on minimizing the gap between the classroom and the workplace. This gap exists because although students are given specific technical and functional training in the classroom environment, they are not adequately instructed on how to apply them on a practical basis in the work environment. Therefore, it is ITC’s goal to provide an as-close-as-possible simulation of the industrial environment to its students. This takes the form of realistic and practical in-house training and external industrial project work. But the true essence and also the most unique attribute of ITC can be found in its Mission Statement: “The overall goal of ITC is to build on all aspects of a student’s development – encompassing intellectual, physical, moral and spiritual growth.”
- Efficiently manage their time
- Set priorities
- Effectively attend lectures
- Establish appropriate study techniques
- Quickly gather information and conduct research
- Communicate with teachers
Once students have been taught in detail the features of various software packages, they need to be instructed on how to practically apply these features in the real job environment. Students are asked to interview industrial employees to determine how Information Technology and specific software applications are utilized and then are given assignments by their teachers that are specifically tailored to these tasks. The following are examples of the wide range of practical solutions that are taught:
- Interpreting handwritten documents and converting them into electronic form
- Differentiating between different formatting styles
- Generating suitable management reports
- Understanding proof-reading remarks and symbols
- Appropriate usage and the functionality of printers
- Established website design, formatting, linking techniques and standards
- Understanding customer requirements, developing appropriate integrated software, testing and implementing the resulting product using the latest tools and technologie
ITC considers the students’ time in the laboratory to be extremely important in preparing them for work in industry. Therefore it passes each student through 2 different types of simulations prior to completion of a module to ensure that the student has been exposed to and evaluated on every aspect of project execution. The two simulation types are as follows:
- Task Assignment – For every assignment each student is assigned a project role such as:
- Group Leader
- Analyst
- Senior Programmer
- Tester
- Code Reviewer
The class is divided into several project teams. The instructor acts as Team Manager and selects certain students to act as Team Leaders. The rest of the students are assigned project roles. The entire student project team works together with little direct interaction with the instructor. To simulate the working environment in ISO and CMM standard companies, the students are required to communicate between themselves in written form within the project team. At the end of the project, an external evaluator is brought in to review the students in their roles. The students are evaluated on criteria such as attitude, punctuality, quality of work etc.
In order for students to have practical work experience, ITC has made it compulsory for its students to undertake a 3-month project with an industrial company as one of the modules of “O” level. This field training provides the students with professional, communication and marketing skills that will enable them to be more productive more quickly when they begin their placement after graduation. Every 15 days the student prepares a status report for ITC instructor. At the end of the project, an external evaluator reviews and grades the student’s work on the project.
Students are sent to the industries to collect various types of information from their IT departments. Information includes details of the network, high end equipment used to establish the whole network, configuration of server machines and client machines, other peripherals & hardware, Software development, Database & Application software, other tools and utilities, problems they face, their expectations from new recruits etc. They are also sent to Hardware & Software Vendors to collect latest information about various hardware and software products and their market prices etc. The students are asked to prepare comparative statements, brief reports about their visit etc.
Students are taken on frequent visits to IT departments of business and industrial organizations where they can study and evaluate software usage for themselves. These tours help the students to obtain a full spectrum of viewpoints, ranging from the end-users, to the development team members to senior management, on the utilization and performance of software in industry. The students also obtain exposure to various hardware setups and networking equipment.
ITC regularly invites experts from industry and arranges their lectures on various topics. These help to educate the students on how the topics they are learning are used in the industrial environment. The following are examples of IT and other professionals from abroad that have visited ITC:
- Prashant Popat (Sr. Developer, MIM Corporation, NY, USA)
- M.M. Walia (Retd. Lieutenant General, Chief of the Army Staff, Northern Command)
- Mr. Dushyant A.Patel (Founder & CEO Digital 2 Virtual ISP Pvt. Ltd.)
ITC has organized special advanced training programs for students in specific areas mentioned below. These programs are compulsory and are conducted by Retd. Lt Gen M M Walia, New Delhi. Apart from conventional personality development tips, the Integrated Personality Program includes some of the following subjects:
- Time and Life Management
- Positive Mental Attitude
- Communication Effectiveness
- Creative Problem Solving
- Ethical Leadership Management
- Laws of Success
- Managing Teams
- Group Cohesiveness
- Motivating Employees
- Marketing Management
- Latest Trends of Financial Management
- Crisis Management
- Cybernetic Meditation
- Stress Management
- Holistic Management
ITC has arranged two-hour sessions, three days a week, for developing communication skills. These sessions also incorporate Personality Development programs. These skills are very important, particularly with the increasing amount of IT professionals’ direct international client contact.
As ITC is located in a rural area, it has considered the poor level of English communication evidenced by students in the region. Therefore this is a key component for improving their day-to-day communication. Also included in these sessions are essential guidelines on how to give effective presentations, how to face interviews, how to prepare seminar papers, etc.
This has been extremely productive learning and teaching method developed and implemented by the faculty at the ITC. A group of a small number of students is comprised which constitute an evenly balanced number of weak and bright students.The group is then given a specific task relatively to their respective course work to pursue. The group in the presence of the teacher then engages itself into a simulation to complete the given task. The group is given all freedom to evolve its own method of addressing to the task. Thus the group members may adopt the electronic teaching aids which are available with the ITC in sufficient numbers or they may resort to abstract intellectual or analytical methods. The teacher is always ready to provide any kind of assistance and guidance as and when requested. This methodology has yielded extremely positive results as it ensures 100% trainee participation and involvement in addressing the task on board as well as enables him/her to select or device the most relevant instrument to be applied to the given task.It helps to implant various skills in the students like self-confidence, aggressiveness, leadership, etc apart from improvement in their language skills. The topics for the group discussion are carefully chosen so that it also helps increase the technical knowledge of the student.
This has been extremely productive learning and teaching method developed and implemented by the faculty at the ITC. A group of a small number of students is comprised which constitute an evenly balanced number of weak and bright students.The group is then given a specific task relatively to their respective course work to pursue. The group in the presence of the teacher then engages itself into a simulation to complete the given task. The group is given all freedom to evolve its own method of addressing to the task. Thus the group members may adopt the electronic teaching aids which are available with the ITC in sufficient numbers or they may resort to abstract intellectual or analytical methods. The teacher is always ready to provide any kind of assistance and guidance as and when requested. This methodology has yielded extremely positive results as it ensures 100% trainee participation and involvement in addressing the task on board as well as enables him/her to select or device the most relevant instrument to be applied to the given task.It helps to implant various skills in the students like self-confidence, aggressiveness, leadership, etc apart from improvement in their language skills. The topics for the group discussion are carefully chosen so that it also helps increase the technical knowledge of the student.
ITC subscribes to a total of 17 national and international IT journals of very high academic and practical value. In order to encourage the trainees to refer to these journals and magazines, the ITC has deviced an interesting technique. The trainees are informed about and exposed to selected articles from these jour¬nals and magazines with instructions to read them. At regular periodic intervals, the ITC conducts a highly information orient¬ed quiz programs amongst the students on a competitive basis. The winners in this quiz competitions are honored with suitable rewards of academic value. This kind of guided interface with the ITC journals encourages the trainees to refer to these and more such magazines out of their own interest. At the same time it greatly enhances their scope of information on the latest trends in IT in the most interesting and rewarding way.
To address the decline of people’s focus on moral values and individual spiritual development, ITC instituted “GOSTHI” - a discussion amongst friends, as a lecture series in which eminent individuals in various fields ranging from saints to vice chancellors, writers to ex-sheriffs share their views on a particular topic or share specific past experiences with students. Students are able to interact with the lecturers in order to obtain solutions to related issues. These sessions are designed to enable students to judge life by the experiences of eminent personalities in order to live their lives with moral and spiritual values thereby living peacefully and happily.
Students actively participate in cultural activities like Navratri, and the birthday celebrations of the Executive Director, Deputy Director and other faculty members. A multimedia show was designed and developed by the faculty and students on the occasion of Diamond Jubilee Birthday Celebration of Param Pujya Saheb, President, Anoopam Mission. In addition, a program called “Sparsh” was entirely organized by students on the occasion of birthday of Pujya Ratikaka, Executive Director, ITC, which included Prarthna Nrutya, Bhajan Sandhya, Play, Multimedia Show etc. These Cultural programs provide a platform and opportunity to develop skills other than education. These programs serve to invigorate students, since work with computers tend to be emotionless. These activities also, by incorporating IT skills with cultural activities, help keep students abreast with Indian Culture.
Sports sessions are arranged 3 days a week. Students play games like Volleyball, Badminton, Cricket etc. The faculty is also involved and plays along with the students. These sessions are very much helpful in developing sportsman spirit and fighting spirit amongst the students. It is also helpful in developing a rapport between the faculty and students, which ultimately results in creation of a bond facilitating student-faculty communication.
To impart the technical knowledge and practical implementations of the concepts which the students learn in their theory classes, workshop on various subjects are regularly organized in ITC. It gives the students the hands on experience to perform some of the important tasks themselves like installing some servers, setting up of a small network etc. Seminars are arranged on basis of their syllabus and also new technology.
ITC has a library full of more than 5000 books on various topics and it also subscribes about 15 magazines about information technology and computers. Regular magazine sessions are organized in which students are encouraged to read the magazines. Reading about the latest trends and development always helps the student increase their knowledge and keep abrest with the latest information.
ITC has a small but extremely rich collection of books and reading materials on all the fields of information technology in its library. The trainees have the maximum free access to these collection. In order to give a focus to their library consultation, the faculty of ITC have designed an innovative method. Every day at the scheduled time the trainees are given precise problems in the form of carefully worded questions. They are also provided with ‘n’ number of books containing information and analysis on these questions. The trainees are asked to consult the relevant books from the given collection and locate the right answers to the questions on board. Once a trainee locates the answer he/she prepares his/her answers on the basis of the guided consultation of the book. This way the trainees are not only exposed to the right kind of information and analysis but they also have an excellent opportunity to go through, understand and prepare the most appropriate answer to the given question.
ITC considers assignments a very important part of the curriculum. Depending on various intense discussions among the faculties and it's proven methodologies, ITC has planned out various assignments for the students of DOEACC courses. These assignments are carefully chosen to target the overall technical development of the students.
Daily Assignments : The students are given daily home assignments of each subject which consists of three questions which are related to the contents of the theory sessions. The students are required to submit the assignments the next day. The questions are designed such that the students are required to spend maximum three minutes behind answering each question. Upon submitting the assignments, the faculties check the assignment for various aspects like technical details and correctness, language composition and grammar, etc. The students are returned their checked assignments with guidelines for the improvements.
Weekly Assignments : Every week on Monday, the students are given an assignment in a particular subject which they have to complete and return the next week. The questions in assignment cover various topics which were taught during the last week. The students are expected to present their detailed answers in the assignments solution.
Lab Assignments : The students are given lab assignments which they have to perform during their laboratory hours. These assignments are provided on-line through ITC's internal website. The students are required to perform the lab assignments and faculties present during the lab hours provide them help to perform the assignments and problem solving if needed.
Tutorials : Everyday there is regular tutorial session which is aimed at providing the students with the practical problems of which they have to find solution. These sessions had been proved extremely helpful in making the student's problem solving attitude more powerful. These sessions are very much helpful in nurturing the positive attitude towards problem solving.