Law College Dehradun organizes a Faculty Development Program on “Holistic Teaching Techniques”

Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire. – William Butler Yeats

Law College Dehradun organized a six-day Faculty Development Program on the theme “Holistic Teaching Techniques” from 20-25 July, 2020. The online Faculty Development Program 2020 was convened through Zoom platform with a vision towards a holistic learning opportunity for the teachers of various schools and disciplines. Faculty Development Program is crucial and critical in building a strong and robust foundation for a proactive and holistic education system with a vision to impart quality and contemporary education. Circumstantial digital transformation has set in globally and it is pertinent that faculty members are equipped with the knowledge, skills and ideal approach to enhance their teaching skills. 

Objectives of the FDP: 

  •  To augment the teaching skills of faculty members paving way to achieve the institution’s objective and vision.
  • Make them implement research-based and learner centered teaching methodology.
  • To evolve and unfold as contributors in building better citizens for a better nation.
  • To incorporate ICT pedagogical approach to increase students participation.
  • To channelize development with the right perspective and exhibit integrity.

Day -1: 20 July, 2020

Topic: ‘What on Earth!’ a talk on Environmental Journalism in contemporary era for teachers.

Resource Person: Mr. Sohan Hatangadi, Social and Environmental Activist, Conversationalist. 

Mr. Sohan Hatangadi has more than 42 years of experience, in Sales, Marketing & general management and in commercial & technical writing. He has worked on Product Documentation, Process Description and developing high quality Technical Training, material in print and multimedia format. His area of expertise includes creating storyboards adapting effective instructional approaches, such as engaging presentations, learner-centric interactivities, live simulations and graphics to create a rich learning experience for the audience. Mr. Hatangadi is highly skilled at engaging in the readers’ sphere of experience, articles or content that is thorough in research, comprehensive in treatment, multi-dimensional in viewpoints and refined in analytical value. We are highly honoured to have such a multifaceted and multitalented individual who has an experience as a Consultant, Operations Manager, Marketing manager, Sales Manager and a Supervisor for more than 20 years and continues to work for various companies as an effective and highly efficient mentor and an advisor. 

The session technically began with the warm welcome of the Resource Person extended by Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of Uttaranchal University Prof. (Dr.) Rajesh Bahuguna. Mr. Sohan Hatangadi commenced his talk with the media intervention and proactive role in the cleaning up and remediation of the lake in US which was affected by affluent dumping. Moving on to the topic of the day, “What on Earth” which was chosen as the central theme of his talk in addressing both environmental issues as well as journalism’s role in reporting facts and bringing about an awareness that becomes pertinent to the social welfare at large. He spoke on the effect of industrialisation with respect to Visakhapatnam, where he comes from, and he enlightened about the big businesses and industries located there. Conflict between what the people consider important on one hand and what the industry and government consider as improvement is a perennial debate that needs to be deliberated with much objectivity. He referred at length to Al Gore’s illustration and threw light on the ubiquitous issues that are driven for reporting, depending on the political and social context of their occurrence.

Fake news, sifting and manipulated news dominated by yellow journalism should be taken into account as this is predisposed to being accepted. Environment, he said is intertwined with economics, health and other crucial and critical areas. The challenge for a reporter would be on how to get his or her story strong which he dwelled upon with illustrative examples of a thermal plant and how it is important to keep one’s eyes and ears open at all times to check on the biodiversity, migratory species of birds, something that perhaps is amiss. He shared his personal experiences from the geology departments, the mining of the bauxite on prohibited hills of the Eastern Ghats and the impact on the migratory bird species which are a critical aspect of observation for a journalist. The other areas he dwelled upon included the EIA laws, the CRZ rules along the coastlines of India, and the regulatory framework which talks of public utility and access of public places to all which should be carefully deliberated upon. Mr. Sohan discussed the challenges, concerns and issues for both the environmentalist, journalists at large and then he suggested that teachers should train their students to deal with the reality of the media world.

Day -2:  21 July, 2020

Topic:  Emerging trends in Health Care Management’ a talk on the why and how of health care management in universities.             

Resource Person: Prof. (Dr.) G.V.R.K. Acharyulu, Professor, School of Management Studies, Hyderabad.                             

Dr. Acharyulu is a Professor in Operations & Supply Chain Management, Coordinator- MBA(Healthcare & Hospital Management)at the School of Management Studies, Central University of Hyderabad. He did his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Andhra University, Masters from NIT-Warangal and holds his MBA Degree (Marketing &Finance) from Osmania University and  Ph.D.  in Supply Chain Management from the same University. He has 19 years of experience in teaching management subjects like Operations and Quantitatives, Supply Chain Management, Research Methodology, Information Systems, Hospital Management and 10 years of industry experience in Operations and Materials division at Sponge Iron India Limited, A Government of India Enterprise. He has worked as Faculty- Quantiatives for 7 years at Apollo Institute of Hospital Administration ( from 2000-2007). To his credit he has more than 40 research papers published in both National and International Journals and 10 books on various subjects. He is also serving as the Vice President, ISDSI (Indian Subcontinent Decision Science Institute) – Conferences & Programs, India since 2014 and is a recipient of AIMS (Association of Indian Management Schools) – ICFAI Best Teacher Award – 2017 at the 29th AIMS Annual Management Education Convention, organized by the Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA), Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India.

Prof. (Dr.) G.V.R.K. Acharyulu gave an insightful talk on the emerging trends in health care management and emphasised on the need to introduce this quintessential program in all the universities to cater to the ever increasing need for hospital administrators and managers in the health care industry. A vast area encompassing hospitals, medical devices, medical tourism and health insurance, the health care segment in India in the words of Prof. Acharyulu needs rigorous revamping especially when the situation demands managing hospitals in pandemics, such as the current Covid-19 scenario. There is a need for prudent decisions in the redesigning and modification of the hospital and medical care facilities on one hand and the sustenance of these facilities for operation without any income on the other.

His two hour talk dealt with the pertinent issues of health care management and he shared on what could be advantageous for India in terms of the health care policy. The medical infrastructure, economy, clinical care management, use of technology in the health care management sectors especially robotics and artificial intelligence were lucidly explained along with much emphasis on the need for Industry 4.0 in health industry. Prof. (Dr.) Acharyulu went on to throw light on the need to introduce in the curriculum aspects of healthcare trends, technology, epidemiology, geriatric care, wellness including medical tourism and cost containment measures. He threw much light on relevance of contemporary technologies very crucial for the students to enhance their learning curve in terms of the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) including tele-health and challenges of robotics and AI in healthcare sectors.

Day -3: 22 July, 2020

Topic: ‘Cyber Law and its adjudication under Information Technology’ a talk on the legal and regulatory issues in Cyber world.

Resource Person: Hon’ble Justice Rajesh Tandon

Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Tandon, born on 1st July 1946 enrolled as an Advocate on 28th of March 1968 and took training in the chamber of Sri K.C. Agarwal,( Ex. Chief Justice of Rajashthan and Calcutta High Courts ) and was elected  twice as Vice President of the High Court Bar Association, Allahabad. Hon’ble Justice Tandon was appointed as Senior Advocate (2000), Hon’ble Judge, High Court Uttarakhand (2004), Presiding Officer, Cyber Regulation Appellate Tribunal, Delhi (2008) and currently is a Member of State Human Rights Commission, Uttarakhand. Justice Tandon has authored 4 books in law and has also been awarded prestigious Sahityik Puraskar on the famous book “Muslim Vidhi” in Hindi by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Besides, he is the Treasurer Sapru Law Institute, Allahabad, Executive Director of Indian Law Institute and his academic leaning is best understood as he is active in organizing Seminars under the auspicious of Vidhi Vichar Gosthi, Nainital for the last 34 years.

Hon’ble Justice Rajesh Tandon shared his expertise on the third day of the virtual Faculty Development Programme on ‘Cyber Law and its adjudication under Information Technology’. Speaking on the evolution of the Cyber Law as a derivative of the Information Technology Laws he stated that the laws governing the cyber world are primarily borrowed from the IT Act which throws light on the computerised process, the various elements that govern the hardware, middleware and software aspects of information technology. He emphasised on the need for robust and vigilant security systems especially in the context of the cyber cafe’s which are the site of maximum number of crimes in the cyber world. He threw light on the phishing, hacking and other crimes on the internet using computer as a device which calls for fool proof vigilance especially in the current times where data security is of prime concern, with the Supreme Court and High Courts also becoming functional operating online. He delved into the integrities of the various sections which are important for a law teacher in explaining the regulatory and procedural framework by discussing the relevant areas of law, Sections 4, 43, 44(a), 44 (b), 45, 46, 66, 66 A, 67 to 73 with special note on Section 72 A of the Act citing land mark judgments such as the Shriya Singhal’s case to validate the need to judicial interpretation and legal analysis as a practice in the teaching of law. His insightful talk touched upon the need for knowledge of the legal framework to the information technologists and vice-versa.

Day -4:  23 July, 2020

Topic: ‘‘Enabling a Culture of Continuous learning and development’ an insight into the communication skills for teachers.

 Resource Person: Dr. Surbhi Arora, Co-Founder – TES Consultancy and Research & Lead Zonal Director – Leela Foundation for Education & Health.

Ms. Surbhi Arora has over twenty-nine years of rich experience in Skill Development, Finance, Project Management, Company Secretarial work and academics. She did her Masters’ both in Economics and Law and is UGC NET qualified in Economics with a prestigious Accountant Technician Certificate from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. She has the Lifetime Membership of Indian Accounting Association. Undertaking the rigorous Chartered Accountancy training and working in an International Company (100% EOU) and as a Project Manager have widened the spectrum of her thinking. Being in skill development space, she had the privilege of undertaking government projects and CSR. She has recently co-founded TES Consulting & Research – an organization which is committed to educational, management, skill development, and business research and consulting and is also the Lead Zonal Director for Leela Foundation for Education & Health. She has authored books on ‘Economics for Law Students’ and co-authored ‘Hydrocarbons: An Overview of Exploration & Production Sector’ and ‘Oil & Gas: India, Middle East and Beyond’ and has received various awards from the many places she has worked before.

Ms. Surbhi Arora in her talk gave an insight into the communication skills for teachers. Ms. Surbhi Arora spearheaded the session with a quote by Jack Welch “When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside the end is in sight.” The session started with a very pertinent and relatable cartoon clip on learning which is a process that is not related to age. She emphasised throughout her visually enabled talk the need for enabling a culture of continuous learning which is necessary not just for survival but as a tool for self motivation. She mentioned the need for every organisation to understand and cater to the learning needs of the people and in this direction she discussed at length on personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and system thinking processes which contribute to the holistic learning which automatically become the tools for comprehensive teaching. She moved on to explain the concepts of micro and macro learning, the benefits of continuous learning to organisations and its contribution to organisational behaviour. 

Day -5: 24 July, 2020

Topic: ‘‘Legal Education in India-problem and prospects.

Resource Person: Prof. (Dr.) V.S. Mishra, Professor, Faculty of Law, BHU.

Prof. (Dr.) V.S. Mishra did his B.Sc. from Calcutta University, LL.B. from Allahabad University, LL.M. and Ph.D. from the Faculty of Law, BHU. He was awarded the UGC Merit Scholarship in the year 1991 and 1992.He started his teaching career from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (1995-1996). He joined BHU as a Lecturer in Law in 1997. He also served as a Reader in Law at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong (2007) and presently is a Professor at Law School, BHU.

He has completed a UGC sponsored major research project titled “Protection of Water Bodies and Regulatory Measures: A case study of Varanasi and Adjoining Areas”. His well-known contribution in the field of articles include National Green Tribunal: An Alternative Environment Dispute Resolution Mechanism in Manoj Kumar Sinha, S. Shiv Kumar and Furqan Ahmad’s (edt) Environment Law and Enforcement: The Contemporary Challenges published in Indian Law Institute. He has to his credit twenty articles in the field of Environmental Law a book titled ‘Environment Disasters and The Law’ and is a member of The Environmental and Consumer Protection Foundation (ECPFO) New Delhi. 

Prof. (Dr.) V.S. Mishra, presented a focused deliberation on the challenges and concerns of the emerging trends and dilution in the legal education arena. The author of Environmental Disaster and Law hit the nail in his candid and lucid deliberation that lasted for over two hours in discussing the need to promote advanced studies in legal education and imparting of instruction to the students of law. Prof. Mishra discussed at length on the problems and challenges faced by the law colleges, private and government, the private universities offering law programmes and also the government universities both at the State and Central levels. He went on to explain about the Radhakrishnan Commission and later the Gajendra Gadkar Committees Reports and their observations which led to the establishment of the three year law programs in India in collaboration with the Ford Foundation which funded the universities in Benares where it was first set up and subsequently in Delhi. The talk highlighted the inherent issues of legal education, the lacunae, the challenges including that of a weak administration lacking in the dynamism required to promote and incessantly improvise the legal education in the Indian context that reflects on the quality of the lawyers and their innate capabilities to address contemporary issues which require immense jurisprudential and contemporary thinking. He spoke at length on the evolution of the National Law Schools, their success stories, the not so successful endeavours, impact of globalisation and liberalisation on creating corporate lawyers from these institutions of repute and in his concluding remarks emphasised on the need to learn and enhance communication skills especially in English. 

Day -6 : 25 July, 2020

Topic: ‘‘ICT and online teaching for teachers’ a talk on the priming of teachers to means and modes of online tools.

Resource Person: Mr. Praveen Chakravarthula, Senior Software Engineer, Zoopla, United Kingdom.

Praveen Chakravarthula is a software professional in the IT industry. His  journey in the world of software began 20 years ago with a Masters in Computer science from University of Arizona, USA and he started working in a bioinformatics research lab in the US, and eventually moved on to the mainstream IT industry, working in various capacities. He moved to India for a few years, before finally settling down in the UK. As an engineer at heart, he had passion for solving problems using software and is currently working at Zoopla, a popular online portal in the property domain, helping buyers and sellers make informed decisions.

Mr. Praveen Chakravarthula, a technocrat gave a patient and elaborative insight into the tools of information and communication explaining the need to adapt to online communication, which is in today’s context a global issue. He emphasized that online education is no longer a bonus but an expectation and with this he got the ball rolling through his presentation that dealt with the basic background of online learning, the current landscape including the platforms, the ecosystem with examples of prevalent tools of the trade, digital whiteboards and cloud servers and the need for choosing the right product from a variety of vendors to choose the product from. He demonstrated the working of the Google classrooms, the need to understand both the horizontal and vertical platforms, Microsoft products which focus on the employee registers and identity management before explaining the use and advantages of Zoom, Google meet, Tactic pin, Meet Attendance, which are some of the portals offering online teaching. Digital white boards were deliberated upon in his talk which was extremely well received and appreciated with over twenty offline and online queries addressed by our senior software engineer, our esteemed speaker from Zoopla, United Kingdom who eventually gave our programme the international tag. The session was interactive, interesting and intriguing to the participating university teachers at large who have unassumingly been thrust to the online teaching mode owing to the ongoing pandemic which had made teaching on a virtual platform a bare necessity and not an option.

The programme was convened by Dr. Lakshmi Priya Vinjamuri and co-convened by Dr. Mayurakhi Sonowal under the patronage of Prof. (Dr.) Rajesh Bahuguna, Dean Law College Dehradun and officiating Vice Chancellor, Uttaranchal University and Head of The Advisory Board Prof. (Dr.) Poonam Rawat, Principal (officiating) Law College Dehradun, Faculty of Uttaranchal University.

The initiative was one of its kind as the programme was organized for university teachers at large across various disciplines with eminent speakers from law, health care and management, environment, journalism, information technology, communication and Information communication tools ICT. The various departments which had benefited from the programme spanned over legal sciences, pure sciences, biotechnology, applied sciences, management, humanities, mass communication and journalism, hospital management, hotel and hospitality management, social sciences and agriculture making it one of the most successful events organised within a very short duration.

The participants included over 250 teachers from various disciplines across India. Surprisingly not only the younger generation teachers but also senior professors’ from renowned National Law Schools, State and Central Universities besides private universities across India attended the Faculty Development Programme. The participants registered from almost 27 states of India.

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