With a passion for enhancing higher education quality, Dr. Netra Neelam, advocates for outcome-based education to foster responsible citizens and competent professionals. She believes in aligning learning outcomes with industry needs, promoting diversity, and empowering faculty through development programs. Her expertise lies in curriculum design, pedagogical advancements, and assessing post-graduate outcomes.
In a recent conversation with the Women Entrepreneurs Review magazine, Netra discusses how defining "quality" in outcome-based higher education enhances student attraction and retention, aligns learning outcomes with industry needs, assesses initiative success, adapts curriculum to job market trends, and promotes inclusivity and diversity.
How does your definition of "quality" in higher education, particularly in outcome-based education, contribute to student attraction and retention?
Outcome-based education means the result expected from students after they go through a particular programme or course delivered through a particular medium (Online, in-person or blended). Thus, focusing on the desired outcome is important and crucial to plan for intervention through a systematic process. According to me the outcome of quality in higher education is creating responsible citizens and competent youth. Youth who are not just employable but also possess the potential of creating employment. Therefore, quality in higher education is a consistent effort in the direction of creating such capable youth. When students witness this phenomenon in a higher educational institute, they are automatically attracted to them and put in their effort to leave no stone unturned to achieve this in spite of the rigour involved.
How do educational institutions align learning outcomes with industry needs and assess the success of outcome-based learning initiatives?
Industry always needs competent talent. Competency is a combination of K+S+A which means knowledge, skills and attitude. The outcome expected from an individual’s learning can definitely be aligned to the needs of the industry. Industry today needs talent who is well-informed with the latest knowledge, is skillful with the latest technology and has an attitude for life-long learning. This can be done by i) creating the content in line with the industry expectations, ii) delivering the content with the right pedagogical interventions, iii) assessing the student learning with the right tools of evaluation and iv) measuring the outcome based on benchmarks of performance.
Understanding the expectations of the industry can help in designing a curriculum which will be capable of delivering the outcome required and is one of the best ways to move in this direction.
While corporates look at the core of business being shareholders, educational institutions should focus on stakeholders: the students, the parents, the alumni, the industry, the society and the government.
If the curriculum is designed keeping in mind the requirements of these stakeholders, it has the capacity to be more meaningful and impactful.
In your opinion, how can faculty development programs contribute to improving the quality of higher education?
While we expect to cultivate an attitude of life-long learning in students, we must focus on faculty who should be supported for life-long learning too. Faculty development programmes have a tremendous potential in ensuring the teachers in class are up-to-date with their knowledge and skills. The shelf life of knowledge is diminishing at a very fast pace. Faculty development programmes therefore are a great means for teachers to keep themselves aware of the nuances of the current world. This greatly influences their contribution which they make in class. Eg. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Augmented Reality are certain things talked about in the industry. If these phenomena are not discussed by the faculty during sessions, it will create a gap in student learning. Just like the corporate world, educational institutes have faculty who are of various ages and stages of life. Newly joined faculty may be aware of the usage of the latest technology and may want to explore further. However, senior and contemporary faculty may need some orientation in newer technologies and teaching pedagogies. These requirements of faculty training and learning can be met with the help of regular and effective faculty development programmes.
How do we align curriculum with job market trends and promote inclusivity and diversity in outcome-based learning?
Regular updates in the curriculum with the help of the board of studies having members from the industry will ensure aligning the content with the job market trends. Diversity in outcome-based learning can be brought about by an adequate use of delivering the content. This diversity can include classroom teaching, contextual learning, fieldwork, experiential learning initiatives, lab session, research-based assignments, internships, live projects, sessions by industry leaders etc.
How do we encourage faculty members to stay updated on pedagogical advancements and incorporate them into their teaching methods?
Faculty members should be encouraged by way of funding faculty development programmes. Professional leaves should be built into the leaves pattern to enhance participation in developmental activities. The target for a particular number of training days to be completed can also be set so that it becomes a part of their annual activity plan. Moreover, once the faculty is trained through the development programme, they should be given the freedom and support to exercise this learning as a part of pedagogy in their class. When faculty see the positive outcome of the newer initiative they implement in class, they automatically get encouraged to be involved in faculty development programmes with adds value not just to their journey and an academician but also to the class they interact with.
In your experience, how has the implementation of outcome-based learning positively impacted student success and post-graduate outcomes?
When you exactly know the direction you are heading in, you are clear about the time you will take and the vehicle you need to use to get there. This is exactly the positive impact of the implementation of outcome-based learning in assessing students in achieving post-graduate outcomes.
Thus, Outcome-based learning has the potential to clearly direct higher educational institutes in moving towards knowing why are they doing what they are doing.
Input (Curriculum)-Process (Pedagogy)-Outcome (Result) and thereby clearly seeing the impact is the value brought in by Outcome-based education and learning.
