The Foundation Course (FC),
for
142 Trainee Civil Servants and another FC for 33 Military Engineer Services Probationers, which were being conducted by Dr MCR
HRD Institute, had to be called off midway, on account of outbreak of Covid-19. All the Officer Trainees (OTs), therefore, were sent back to their native places/work
units. However, the Institute
took a bold decision to deliver rest of the modules of the FCs, through online mode, and convert
the bleak scenario into a pleasant learning opportunity. The Institute rose
to the occasion and transformed its entire content and pedagogy into online mode,
and reached out to the OTs, spread over 175 different
locations across the country.
While Covid-19 closed the doors on conventional training, the
online training opened innumerable avenues. The Institute no longer had the
constraint to confine itself mainly to Hyderabad-based Resource Persons.
Instead, it provided a unique opportunity to tap the services of a wider pool of
Resource Persons both from India and abroad to address the OTs. Such eminent speakers, including Sri Anil Swarup IAS (Retd) and Sri
K P Krishnan, IAS (Retd), former Secretaries to Government of India, Sri Gurjit Singh, IFS (Retd), former Indian Ambassador, Sri
Gnana Rajasekaran, IAS (Retd), an Awards-Winning Film Maker, Prof K V S Sarma, VC, MNLU, Aurangabad, Prof S Chandrasekhar,
ISB, Dr Menaka Guruswamy, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India (an alumnus of
Harvard and Oxford Universities),
and
others addressed the OTs.
The online training even broke national barriers and brought
eminent persons, with global credentials, on the Institute's radar. The
presentation by Dr Narendar V Rao from Northeastern University of Illinois, USA proved to be an
icing on the cake.
The OTs were provided access to “Udemy
for Government”, an online portal having a bouquet of 4000 courses. This
intervention enabled them to diversify and enrich their knowledge, skills, and
attitudes and thereby enhance their productivity.
Over 60 virtual sessions, spread over 45
days, an array of 14 Assignments, TREK and Village Visit Presentations, Counselor Group Meetings, Army Symposium, Civil Services Day and different Examinations,
all
via virtual mode, were greatly
instrumental in ensuring that the learning on the part of the OTs was
continuous and long lasting. The services of such eminent persons as Sri H J Dora, IPS (Retd), former DGP, Ms Ananda Shankar Jayanth, IRTS, Padmashree Awardee, and other eminent
persons were utilized for the evaluation of Assignments submitted by the OTs.
A much bigger challenge was to organize a number of fun-filled tasks,
including FETE- The Mela, India Day, and
Cultural Evening too, via virtual
mode. However, the OTs collaborated seamlessly and displayed their hidden talents
in singing, dancing, music, etc. and showcased India's Unity in Diversity. “Thanks to power of online training, the distances melted away, the OTs worked closely, and developed a
feeling of working together under the same roof, despite being
dispersed across the country. It had as powerful an impact as the conventional
training, both in terms of learning and at the same time enjoying its journey”
opined the OTs unanimously.
[
Sri BP Acharya, IAS, DG of the
Institute & Spl Chief Secretary to Government said that while
conventional training has got its own strengths, online training is the need of
the hour, especially in the Post - Covid-19 scenario. "The success of
the Foundation Courses, via virtual mode, calls for its wider use for
Government employees in future", stated Sri Acharya.
Sri Harpreet Singh, IAS, ADG of the
Institute said that Dr MCR HRD Institute is one of the first training
establishments to have successfully delivered two high-end Foundation Courses,
combining both conventional and online modes, which amounted to having best of
both the worlds.
Ms A
Sridevi, Director IT said that
training institutions should develop their capacities to offer more and more online programs, considering a huge surge in demand for them.
Prof. Md Abbas Ali, Academic Coordinator, Special, FC coordinated the
Virtual Sessions by using such online
platforms as “Cisco WebEx” and, an indigenously developed one, “Impartus”. The
FC is ending on May 15th, 2020.-Press note
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