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What it takes to becomethe Best InfoTech Trainer?

Sudarsun S., M.Tech.,

Checktronix India Pvt. Ltd.Chennai 600010

sudar@burning-glass.com

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Vision Statement To host a quality learning environment for my

students To ensure value addition to all involved in the

learning process To impart technical competency in students to

satisfy industrial needs To inculcate innovation and research interests

amongst my students To generate revenue by industrial consultancy

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Today’s Objectives What are the expectations of students? What are the expectation of the department? What is the last thing to have in teaching? What is needed to satisfy the neighborhood? What are the possible value additions? Co-curricular activities for a trainer? Extra-Curricular activities for a trainer? End-of-the-day, what are the net returns?

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Current Situation Do we think there is a deficiency in the

educational system? Where do we think is the discontinuity? Who do we attribute the problem to? How do we isolate the problem? How are we going to fix it? Have the university guidelines guided us in

the right direction? Has the department aided us?

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Students Why are IIT, REC, AU valued so much?

Is it because of the staffing ? Is it because of the students ?

Are we saying the quality of education is bad because the quality of students are bad?

Can’t we make them better? If we don’t help them, who will then? What are the problems with my students ?

IQ is poor Communication is bad

Fine, how were we during our college days? Should students be approached with divide-n-conquer strategy?

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Staffing Who are the people who opt for teaching? Ask yourself, why you chose teaching?

Am I using this as a fill-gap to find a job? Did I come here as the last resort? Is it because teaching is a 9-5 job? Do I have a passion for teaching? Do I think, I can make a difference amongst my students? Am I technically strong enough to teach my students? Am I serious about my profession? Do I still believe that my profession is noble?

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Let’s make it better… Whatever be my reasons; Let me assure the

following to my students and the department: I’ll make a difference amongst my students I’ll generate interest in the subjects taught I’ll guarantee reasonable results I’ll share my knowledge amongst my colleagues

and students I’ll ensure technical competency to my students I’ll improve employability of my students

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Expectations of a Student Provide a friendly learning environment Be more knowledgeable than anyone else Be a ROLE-MODEL Be supportive during training and evaluation Have hands-on experience in the subjects taught Help in finding a decent employment Help in doing the final year project Provide guidance and exposure to many contemporary technologies

and facts Help improving the communication and inter-personal skills Assess the industry requirements and help preparing for it Be available anytime for assistance even after office hours Be innovative in conducting the learning exercise

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Department’s Expectation Get 100% pass out University Ranks NBA A5 100% Placements Industrial Consultancy Publications, Products & Research results Anything else?

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Aiyo da… Is the demand from neighborhood so high? It’s a busy profession, ain’t it? How much work one can do? Isn’t there a sense of satisfaction at the end? Isn’t that I am respected, celebrated after a

great success? Have I changed one’s life once for all? YES!

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What is the last thing? Am I getting tired of doing the same thing

again, again and again? Am I getting de-motivated? Have I lost interest in what I do? Have the students and dept lost confidence in

me? Have I lost confidence in myself? Is nothing working out for me?

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What to do now? Whom to fall back? Can I do something to make myself better? What is missing in me? How to recover the lost confidence? A genuine interest is the key Talk to colleagues, industrial experts Fill the missing gaps Let’s take the first step today!

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Redefine Functions There are mandatory functions prescribed by

the university and the department for a trainer How is a trainer evaluated? Mostly only by the results produced! How is the teaching process evaluated? Mostly by the documentation prepared! Is it enough? Should the functions be only results oriented?

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Redefine Functions – Contd. What’s the value addition to the trainer? What’s the value addition to the student? What’s the value addition to the department? Does the prescribed function address the

above basic questions? Why is attrition so high in IT training? Is it because the long run policies are weak? How to complement for the missing link?

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Statutory Function Conduct Lectures Conduct Laboratory sessions Conduct Examinations Evaluate and Grade Students Guide Student Projects Implement ISO9001 guidelines by books! Other documentation duties

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Foundation… How many courses offered per semester? How many hours of lecturing per week? Do I have a Lecture Plan? Do I have the Lecture notes prepared? Have I done homework on the subject? Do I know everything about the subject? Can I handle all the possible queries? Do I have the evaluation process prepared?

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Teaching Process Do you use blackboard or projection ? Statistically, blackboard reaches better

Why? Because, students have the habit of copying from the board right from school days

Projection teaching is meant for revision Projected items visually impress, but are not

generally registered within A combination of Black board and Projection

is the KEY!

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Teaching Process (Contd.) Do you split the black board into index and

workspace? Index lists the topics for the day Workspace hosts the explanation of a topic While projecting, try the following; Stay near the projector Use a sharp stick to highlight a line in the slide Use a Laser pointer Use a lot of pictures while explaining Use Animations instead of static pictures Don’t create slides fresh; try the Internet first!

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Soft Skills Improvement What are soft skills ? Professional Skills apart from Technical /

Academic skills Communication, Written skills Inter-Personal, Team skills Time, People & Stress Management Professional Ethics Confidentiality, Loyalty & Hardwork

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Course Website Every trainer should have a website It should host all the learning material related

to the courses taught It should be the spokesperson for the course All information be streamed through it Project submission, Evaluation status,

Requests, etc be channel through it Online Tutoring Single stop solution to a lot of clerical work!

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Results Based Teaching… There are smart, average & poor students! For ensuring results target the poor students Two types of poor

Students have Communication/Grasping problem Students who don’t take the education seriously

Help the Average to become Smarter Help the Smarter to become Rank Holders Make sure you teach everything you know!

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RBT (case 1) Help students to improve communication Facilitate regional language based training Provide them easy to understand learning materials

or simplified classnotes Generate Question Banks and Solutions Split the subject and make them concentrate on a

limited scope. Conduct revision exams like schools Help keeping their confidence level higher Provide extra time by online guidance, email or

telephonic help

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RBT (Case 2) Find the reason for disinterest in the subject Provide counseling to the affected students Create interest in the subject Try to orient teaching in the student’s liking Motivate them by inculcating positive attitude Once they are ready to learn, following RBT

(Case 1)

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Evaluation Process… How are you evaluating your Students ? By correcting test papers. Have you tried online objective exams ? Have you tried peer-appraisal scheme ? Have you tried multiple evaluation ? Have you tried Percentile based scoring ? Have you conducted open-book exams? Have you tried giving 1 problem for 3 hours?

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Evaluation Process The university guidelines do not allow this! Should we limit to conducting only 3 term

exams and 1 end-semester exam? Is someone stopping us conducting more? When you make evaluation process

interesting, students would love to examine themselves.

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Laboratory Training Provide them training about fundamental System

and Network Administration Does your student know about IP addresses? About DNS, DHCP, SSL, HTTP, Proxy etc? Ok, what about SSH, Tunneling & VPN ? Do they know about VNC, Terminal Services Have you used VNC for monitoring ? Have you used WLAN ? Does your students use Version Control ? Does everybody know about Debugging, Profiling? Do your students use g++ or Visual Studio?

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Online Technical Support Have you provided help over phones ? Yes, mostly What about Internet Messengers? Have you done conferencing with students? Have you tried Video/Audio conferencing? First thing, get a broadband at your home Even during vacation, you may be available on

demand Painful? Actually it’s fun!

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Publications – Conferences, Seminars & Journals Why are publications important ? It is a metric to measure the research strength of a

department and its people. Intellectual Property is an Amudha Surabi When should someone opt for Patents or

Publications? International Journal Publication is the Crown any

researcher would want to possess! Start with Seminars then try conferences at

National and International Levels then to Journals Keep track on professional bodies like CSI, IEEE,

AAAI etc

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Revenue Generation Model Develop Technical Abilities of your team Publish your abilities Prepare Demo Application(s) to shout cast your team’s capability Invite Projects from Internet Communities and Industry by giving

Demo Assess Requirements from the Prospect Provide them Quality Software (or) better Technology Get Paid www.topcoders.com www.kasamba.com www.sourceforge.net www.sarovar.org

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Industrial Consultancy Why is Industrial Consultancy important? It adds value to your department

NBA A5 is easier then!! It adds revenue to your department

The management is happy It adds confidence & respect on you amongst your students It is not easy to get this done! Talk to the Industry and find out what they need and what you

can offer to them Make yourself capable and reliable in delivering that Keep trying, there is always a first time to everything Once it starts, it starts overflowing…

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Software Development Set up teams for Software Development Helps your consultancy work Also helps increasing the exposure and experience

of your students Identify areas of demand If you do a lot of reading, you can assess the

demand outside easily Identify students with skills Spend time to motivate and guide them in projects Define tasks and milestones You may pay them for their work!

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Quality Perspective Quality is the key in Industrial Consultancy Maintain Industrial Standards in your lab Make the student members as professionals You do the planning, let the students execute Follow SDLC in lab assignments too Mandate usage of Version Control Mandate Technical Documentation Mandate Unit, Integration and System Testing Mandate User Documentation and UI Evaluation

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Reading Habit… Do you read journal and magazines? Do you read IT Magazine from EFY? Do you read LFY? Do you read Tamil Computer? How many books you read a week? Do you have habit of buying books monthly? Have you subscribed to ISTE, CSI, IEEE ? Do you read conference proceedings ?

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Research & Innovation Initiatives Why do you think you can do Research? Why do we think R&D is Read & Duplicate? Academia is primarily meant for Research and

Industry is meant of Development Can’t one do research without funding? The dept is providing computing facility The dept is providing man power as students Why not innovate? There could be reasons for staying busy, but there

are not reasons for not doing research!

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Industrial Interaction Why is Industrial Interaction so important? What do Academia & Industry get in return ? Knowledge Exchange is the key! Academia is the Technology Incubator for Industry Academia is the Professionals Manufacturing unit Academia is the place to perform experiments Industry is the Consumer for Academia Industry rolls the ideas generated by Academia Industry & Academia should complement eachother

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Industry’s Responsibility Facilitate Knowledge Exchange by internships,

forums, seminars, etc Provide assistance in Research and Development

projects Provide exposure to Software Metrics, Standards

and Design Guidelines Update Academicians continuously on varying

industrial demand for manpower and technology Recognize and promote scientific research by

converting ideas to products

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Academia’s Responsibility Learn about what’s the latest in the industry Assess the requirements of the industry Concoct training program fitting the demands Maintain continuous interaction with SME Invite Industry for Knowledge Sharing Promote Staff Industrial Internships Promote Industry Endorsed Dept Projects Prepare Students for Industrial Demands

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Employability… What is the employability? The ability to get quickly employed in a

professional body. What are the parameters? Technical Skills Education Qualifications Soft Skills Of course, the ability to survive the stringent

On/Off Campus Recruitment Process.

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Assess the current Industrial Requirements Why should one Assess? We know that Industry is our Consumer Unless we understand the consumer’s need, it is not

possible to satisfy. We are the Loser, if we don’t sell (place) our products

(students) Keep in touch with many industrial professional to

understand the changing demand of skills and brains How to Assess? Forums, Seminars, Invited Talks, Competitions, etc Internet has a lot of content in this regard. Use It!

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Mock Interviews, GD, Tests Helping Students to get Placed is one of our primary

goals. Help Students get rid of fear on tests, interviews and

GD You may conduct tests based on Campus

Recruitment test papers of different companies available freely in the Internet

You many invite industrial patrons to conduct interviews

On a regular basis, conduct GD on any contemporary topic at dept level as practice session

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End of the day … Have I made any difference ? Have I reached my goals ? Do I have better values now ? Have I become more important ? Are students respecting my technical ability? Have I attracted revenue ? Am I getting satisfied ? YES! At least, in the very near future!

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ThanksIf you have any queries or need technical

assistance, contact me at:

Sudarsun SChecktronix India Pvt Ltd,9 Ramanathan Street, Kilpauk,Chennai 600010Phone: 044-30570028, 32Mobile: 09840737947Email: sudar@burning-glass.com