“Bouncing Back: Swim but don’t Sink, Bend but don’t Break”

Blog Catgeory, Campus Blog Category, Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), Center for Emotional Intelligence, Exam Watch, Faculty, General Blog, IILM University, , , , , , , , , , ,

Ms. Megha Kochhar and Dr. Kriti Vyas

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology

29th March 2022     10 mins Read

Resilience has often been referred to as “ordinary magic” while it looks like an extraordinary act. It is more than once thought. It’s a human trait inhibited by all, but only used by some.

Research by Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, suggests that no matter how extreme the difficulty may seem, people will bounce back to their happiness baseline in what seems like a short time. Rather, it surprises us how fast a huge majority of people who experience any kind of tragedy or trauma get back to their daily routine, as Gilbert notes “We don’t recognize that we are as resilient a species as we turn out to be.”

I don’t remember someone teaching me to be resilient nor telling me that trouble and turmoil would be an inevitable part of my life. That, someday I would face really tough times with disappointment, fear, and the occasional carpet pull (when life pulls the ground beneath your feet.) I always grew up thinking life was a fairy tale, all rosy and that staying safe and secure was the best strategy to survive. Over the years I have realized I have become much more resilient by challenging my own limits, facing my fears and enduring through my perceived limitations. After surviving near to death situations in my life, I started to face more challenges in life.

The secret to resilience is not stopping, it is to keep trying hard, then falling, getting up then recovering, again trying, then falling, then getting up again and keep trying again. It’s more like climbing a mountain without a route map. Yes, it undoubtedly requires time, effort, and support. One may face setbacks and roadblocks along the way. However, you will eventually reach the top and will feel proud of your journey. It’s all about becoming aware of and then building the endurance levels residing within you.

You are stronger than your beliefs, this is the affirmation you need to give yourself every moment. Build your stamina. It’s all about your self-belief, hope and optimism. Stress is an internal process and our emotional reaction that we add meaning to based on external events in our life.

Dr. Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology writes “Talk to yourself. Give yourself a cognitive intervention and counter defeatist thinking with an optimistic attitude. Challenge your downbeat thinking. And replace it with positive outlook.”

The bestseller author of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goldman also opines that changing our self-talk makes us more resilient. This is the key to resilience, and we overcome from our self-induced stress. Positive conversations with our self, give our lives a perspective that opens new windows of hope and belief. We have heard of the flight-or-flight response. So, the way we fight back and regain our control over our self helps us to talk to our inner self in a compassionate and gentle way. Being mindful of your internal states helps us to become generative, positive and more pragmatic.

So, step one is to take care of physical body, love yourself, and eat healthy, foods that have all colors of the rainbow. Get quality sleep. Install a habit tracking app. Make self-care your second nature. Finally, rather than blaming yourself about what all that’s happening in you life world treat yourself, with love, compassion, and empathy.

Practice accepting life’s impermanence, nothing stays forever not even your pains. This shall also pass. Ask yourself “How can I mould myself to life’s changes.”

Get curious to deal with uncomfortable emotions like embarrassment, disappointment, failure, comparisons as they arise. Our ability to be comfortable in uncomfortable emotions builds our resilience. There are various forms of meditation like sound, water, light self-guided meditation, practice what resonates best with you.

Build a supportive network of friends, family, health care professionals whom you can reach out to, not all challenges in life re meant to be faced alone.

How about creating a set of Calm Cards, pick a card in the morning that will help you reflect on the intention of the day. Pick a card on Sunday to set an intention for the week. Pick a card when you are struggling with another person, explore his good qualities and ease your relationship. Send a card to someone who needs some inspiration in life.

Adopt a Furry friend, don’t know about you but, my dog Raja was one of my strengths during my tough times, fostering him and getting greeted by him with those extra cuddles was so therapeutic.

Self-Reflection works the best –

  • Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. When you are facing tough time just ask yourself “What can I learn here” or “How can I add meaning to this situation of my life?”
  • Which part of me is tender and needs special attention?
  • Journaling really helps to get your stream of consciousness going.
  • Ask yourself “Am I taking anything for granted”
  • Am I letting matters that are out of control, stress me out?
  • Make a list of 21 things that make you smile. When was the last you followed them?

We all are aware that setbacks are a part of our lives. What matters is how quickly we learn to bounce back from adversity and negative events. In the words of Angela Duckworth that has inspired me “As much as talent counts, efforts count twice.”

Let us take a step forward and make our time worth it.

Share your experiences with us on megha.kochhar@iilm.edu / kriti.vyas@iilm.edu

 

Managing the New Student Cadre in a Post-Pandemic Era

Campus Life, IILM University

After a long hiatus, students are back to the campus. These are a new cadre of young students, just out from the confines of their homes, after spending nearly two years ‘studying’ in their comfort zones. These are the students who have got used to their phones, laptops and I-pads to attend classes, read e-books, and their gadget addiction is so massive that their concentration levels are almost zilch now.

They have forgotten time management, have learned to procrastinate and get immensely restless in the physical classroom. The library is an alien concept, and the labs are entered without the earlier enthusiasm. Right now, all their attention is directed towards the campus crowd and getting to know their batchmates better. They are even fine with attending online classes on the lawns of the campus!! Selfie time is back in full swing; Instagram reels and stories are doing the rounds, announcing their grand arrival on their campus. Most of them are seen hanging around in the cafeteria and the sports facilities. On top of it, the warm weather makes it difficult for the students to wear masks all day through.

The pyjama parties are finally over, and it is time for upping the wardrobes and donning attires they had hanging in their closets for two years. Their animated conversations go on unending throughout the day, and the whole campus is abuzz with their chit-chats. The students who could not do much antics earlier in Zoom and Teams are back in action, and as a result, the studious ones are complaining that they were better off in the virtual classrooms, where the disturbances were lesser, and they could concentrate a lot more! The same teacher with whom they had ‘anonymously’ chatted in the virtual classroom – anonymous because they refused to switch on their videos most of the time – is unable to recognize them, and their ego does not accept this rejection!

On their part, University campuses like IILM are going out of their way to restore the pre-pandemic campus life, ambience and environment, whether it is by way of creating highly engaging classrooms, or organizing events and celebrating festivals. The involvement of students in these efforts is being given impetus.  The otherwise dormant Clubs and Societies are suddenly enthused with life, and the campus is slowly limping back to the ‘old’ normal. Industry experts and alumni are being invited to physically interact with the students, an aspect which the latter missed a lot in the pandemic.

These times are also physically exhausting for the faculty, as they had got used to comfortably sitting while conducting the online classes. They are also trying their best to adjust to the old routines. With a majority of the students distracted and not focusing on the learning in the class, it is difficult for the faculty to hold their attention for a long time.

As of now, the experience of both the students and the faculty in the physical classroom is mixed – both as trying to adapt themselves and change themselves back to the earlier times. Hoping for the earlier ‘normalcy’ to return soon!!

 

 

Sustainable Fashion in Today’s World

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Why is Sustainable Fashion Demanded in Today’s World

Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources.

Sustainable fashion refers to clothing designed, manufactured, distributed, and used in environmentally friendly ways. The word sustainable is defined as “capable of being sustained.” Therefore, the sustainable fashion industry must operate in ways that can continue working for years and decades to come.

Unfortunately, this is not true of today’s dominant ‘fast fashion,’ which refers to clothing that’s intentionally designed to be consumed quickly at cheap prices, leading shoppers to view clothes as being disposable—wearing them just a few times before throwing them out or moving on to newer and trendier cheap clothes.

The fast fashion cycle is far from sustainable because it depletes the Earth’s natural resources at exponential rates, exploits workers worldwide, and results in overwhelming waste. In contrast to traditional fashion houses that only have a few seasonal collections per year, fast fashion brands may churn out as many as one new collections per week (or more) in efforts to drive continuous, mindless consumption.

What is fashion key to the discussion around sustainability?

  1. Design & Development
  2.  Raw Material
  3. Processing
  4. Manufacture
  5. Transportation
  6. Retail
  7.  End of Use
  8. Use

The word ‘Sustainability’ in the context of fashion most prominently refers to the environmental impacts of making (raw material creation, processing and manufacture), wearing and caring for (use) and the disposal of clothing (end of use). We take resources and use water and chemicals along the way, to create a garment. You buy and wear the garment and then throw it away (or donate it) when you’re done…. But then what happens? Generally it goes to landfill or is incinerated.

Today, only 20% of all clothing is recycled. In order for the fashion industry to really become more sustainable, brands need to work towards developing circular systems whereby garments become fully recyclable after use, reducing the need to create virgin fibres.

The Rana Plaza tragedy sparking global awareness: Today, the slow and sustainable fashion movement is on the rise in large spurred by the biggest garment industry disaster the world has ever seen—the collapse of Rana plaza factory in Bangladesh

(2013).

This globally known tragedy resulted in over 1,100 deaths, showing many in the western world just how costly their cheap clothing really is. As it turns out—there are just many social and environmental costs from fast fashion that are hidden behind the glossy facades of clean and pristine fashion stores.

Shedding light on “The True Cost” of fashion:

Shortly after the factory collapse, a documentary film called “The True Cost” was released, bringing to light even more information about the devastation caused by the fashion industry.

Following these tragic events and a deeper understanding of the industry’s true costs, many activists and organizations began tirelessly bringing attention to the problems caused by fast fashion, encouraging both consumers and brands to change their ways and be accountable to the social and environmental impacts of their choices.

Hope for a more sustainable future in fashion

With all of the above said, fashion can be made more sustainable in numerous ways—from using organic materials, using biodegradable dyes, to engineering patterns that create zero waste. The sheer number of different ways to improve the industry, though, means that shopping “more sustainably” can be overwhelming at first, with many factors to consider.

My recommendation for you is to think about which social or environmental concerns you feel most passionate about and then to first prioritize those focuses as your entry point into sustainable fashion. The industry is still learning how to best elevate its social and environmental standards. Because the movement is still evolving, it definitely helps us to focus on continuously doing better, rather than striving for and expecting perfection right now.

In light of this, below are some simple things you can look for too slowly green your wardrobe.

  1. Buy Less and buy better : Before making a purchase ask three questions from yourself “What are you buying and why? What do you really need ?”
  2. Invest in sustainable fashion brands
  3. Shop second hand and vintage
  4. Try renting: Instead of buying wedding garment which are worn only once, one can any time rent something to wear instead.
  5. Be conscious about Vegan fashion
  6. Take care of your clothes
  7. Upcycle your wardrobe

Collaborative Research

Blog Catgeory, Faculty

In academic writing for research, the phrase “collaboration” is commonly understood to refer to an equal cooperation between two or more members of one or more academic institutions who are pursuing mutually fascinating and helpful research. Collaborative research is carried out by bringing together a large number of people from various departments. Different scientists and practitioners from agencies, universities, non-profit organisations, and businesses work together to frame the issue so that management or policy decisions directly benefit from the findings through collaborative research.

A well specified policy or managerial need characterises collaborative research. It is a collaborative approach that provides systematic and expressive chances for user feedback, as well as a project structure in which practitioners and scientists collaborate to impact project scope and design, as well as generate research results and outputs.

People engage in collaborative research for a variety of reasons when working on a topic. Many funding agencies favour interdisciplinary research teams that may pool their resources and, as a result, have a larger scope. One of the most significant advantages of collaborative research is that no one person bears the entire load because it is based on the equal division of labour model. There are also numerous opportunities for team members to learn from various departments while working on the project. Collaborative research ensures that scientists, politicians, and managers’ strengths and perspectives are utilised, and that different teams collaborate to address relevant and important challenges. Doing research with practitioners instead of doing it for them yields better benefits for everyone involved.

There are majorly five different types of collaborative research:

  1. Within academic institutions– here members from different departments in the same institution come together to work on a project. Since it is done among the departments of the same institution no external funding is involved and the division of labour is also equal among the different groups.
  2. Between academic institutions– here members from different departments from different institutions come together to work on a project.
  3. Academic institutions and a government agency/department– in this type of research an academic institution works with a government agency to address an issues. For this research, the funding comes for the government agency.
  4. Academic institutions and industry– in this type of research a researcher from a private company works with the research group of an academic institution. During this time the non-academic researcher pursues his own project while at the same time learning about the current techniques and research questions from the members in the group.
  5. Domestic and International– two or more institutions are involved in this type of research collaboration for different countries to work together on a project.

While collaborative research is one of the most fruitful types of study, it can also raise a variety of ethical concerns, owing to the enormous number of people, institutions, and resources involved. It raises a slew of ethical concerns about authorship. Different domains have different agreements about the type of contribution that must be made to a project before researchers can have their names listed in a publication. Before being registered as an author, each member of the research team must provide a “substantial intellectual contribution” or a “major scientific contribution” to the project.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Pandemic

Faculty

The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility was very much there in India However, for the past two years, while the country faced the Covid-19 pandemic, many dimensions related to it came up. Corporate Social Responsibility is the act of fusing environmental and social concerns with a company’s planning and operation. The basic idea behind fusing this idea was to reduce the adverse effects of businesses on society. We can define Corporate Social Responsibility as an effort to improvise a company’s eco-friendliness and increase its social impact.

In 2020, the companies (CSR Policy) Amendment rules 2020 was drafted to carry out amendments in the companies (CSR POLICY RULES), 2014. This brought in a balance between the interest of Corporates and society. In a pandemic where individuals were suffering from the shortage of cylinders or beds the idea of bringing in help from corporates by giving them benefits under the tax regime was proved to be helpful.

For a company to be socially responsible, it first needs to be accountable to itself and its shareholders. Often, companies that adopt CSR programs have grown their business to the point where they can give back to society. Thus, CSR is primarily a strategy of large corporations. Also, the more visible and successful a corporation is, the more responsibility it must set standards of ethical behaviour for its peers, competition, and industry.

The data available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website for money spend by big corporate under the flag of Corporate Social Responsibility shows the standard created. For the Financial Year 2019-20 Reliance industry spend 908.71Cr., Tata Consultancy Services spend 602.00 Cr., Oil and Natural Gas have spent almost 582.35 Cr. Big corporates have spent a lot to promote the environment and protect individuals’ rights. This not only helped the society at large but also provided relaxation to the big corporates in the form of tax deductions.

CSR tries to touch the triple bottom line that is Economical, Environmental and Social Performance. It is a proven fact that CSR is a effective tool to accomplish the 2023 goal of Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty and promote and protect individuals’ environmental and social rights.

There are seven pillars of Corporate Social Responsibility that helps in making strategy. These are as follows: –

  1. Use and reuse of resources for better implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility.
  2. Cross learning
  3. Nurturing and Supplementing Corporate Social Responsibility.
  4. Knowledge management and documentation
  5. Per beneficiary cost reduction and maximizing the impact while reaching more people
  6. Capacity building of the CSR workforce and re-skilling.

IILM University being a Management University has contributed a lot to fulfill its Corporate Social Responsibility in pandemic. IILM believes that social change should be deeply ingrained in the community of business leaders. It focuses on guiding and creating a businessman who knows the aspects related to Business Management. IILM Social Impact programming is designed to expand its PGDM student’s awareness of the pivotal role of management plays in society. It aims to inspire business leaders to create a positive, significant, and sustainable impact on society and the world.

IILM has various Social Initiative programs like the ICHHA Club, Donation Drives, and Blood Donation camps through which the University fulfills its Corporate Social Responsibility and becomes a brand.

BARRIERS IN THE ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN INDIA

IILM University, ,

Access to Justice means approach or admittance to justice. It means existence of an effective system where rights are provided and remedied in case of breach. The preamble of the Constitution of India begins with “We the People” signifying the source of power lies in the hands of common people. Access to justice to everyone is a vital responsibility mandated upon the State. Justice encompasses recognition of rule of law and resolution of conflicts.The Supreme Court has always tried to interpret the fundamental rights along with directive principles to make access to justice easier for the poor and underprivileged. However the real experiences show that access to justice has become cumbersome and discouraging. The cases pending before the courts, high costs, complicated procedure, paucity of awareness etc. have decelerated the legal system.

We can classify the reasons for the barriers in the following ways.

  1. Societal & cultural barriers –including literacy, education, Poverty & discrimination.
  2. Institutional barriers such as insufficient governmental resources to guarantee or facilitate access to justice, inadequate organizational structure of justice institutions, limited legal assistance & lack of enforcement of decisions.
  3. Intersectional barriers-. This includes lack of trust in lawyers & judges. Most importantly it leads to corruption.

      The measures that can help people overcome these barriers can  be classified as following:

  • ADR is an alternative solution for geographically inaccessible formal court services. As with literacy, education, & awareness, barriers stand in the way of solutions.
  • To be able to access justice, parties must be provided with the opportunity to present their case effectively, procedures ought to be fair & parties ought to know the case against them, submit relevant evidence & pursue judicial inquiries within judicial time limits to eliminate the gap of irregularities in access to justice.
  • Under the Legal Service Authority Act of 1987, India has a non-adversarial “lok Adalat” or people’s court. In these cases, retired judges & government officials facilitate mediation & try to reach a compromise between the parties. The procedure is much faster than the formal process, parties present their cases themselves & no fees are charged.
  • The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) offers legal aid programs as those for the rescue & rehabilitation of child laborers, seasonal workers outside of the organized sector.
  • A gender desk at police stations will enable more sensitive & timely treatment of complaints by women.

India does not lack laws to ensure justice; it only lacks the dedication to enforce and implement laws. A country cannot be adjudged developed until it secures justice for everyone. There is a need to widen the ambit of Judiciary and focus on developing infrastructure of judicial institutions, filling vacancies, awareness and empowerment of legal aid, initiating reforms in the police and the prison systems. We must educate people and make them aware of their basic legal rights. We must encourage literacy camps and advertisements in villages, adopt legal aid as chapter in educational institutes, and engage paralegals to ensure the efficiency of affordable legal aid. Legislature must enact new laws to ensure timely disposal of case. Accountability must be ascertained of police and prison systems so that they do not infringe the rights of victims, undertrials and accused.

Moving towards Inclusivity in the classroom

Faculty, IILM University, Uncategorized, ,

 

 

 

For the effectiveness of successful learning of the students, a faculty needs to ensure that the student feel accepted, motivated , & continuously guided & supported by their teachers & classmates. In a class room you will always find a very diverse group coming from various cultural backgrounds with high disparity in the class. It becomes crucially important as a mentor & guide to bring to class, equality, inclusion, belongingness and most importantly purpose to learning. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the classroom are more important than ever as students return to their campuses; it’s imperative that educators show they are committed to helping every student feel valued, represented, and heard.

From my experience , would like to share some personal observations on how to ensure that you’re creating an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for all your students—on the first day and every day.

Make students feel accepted & inclusive

How much are you prepared as an educator to approach students and ready to discuss topics, that might make them uncomfortable. If faculties are on edge talking about social or economic disparity, it’s going to ensure, students don’t feel to drag away from there is the first encounters with the professors and would feel positive that the semester will go successful.

Talking about differences is important, acceptance is important

Its important for the educator to share an understanding and comfort about subjects that require open conversations. Practical exposure is the best way for an educator to feel comfortable about conversations about diversity & inclusion. For example, if educators find themselves strongly opinionated about subjects like “Black and brown people” or “LGBTQ+”, then they need to do the work outside of the classroom to normalise it for themselves.
Try joining a book club, debate club, talking with colleagues about these topics, and attending workshops devoted to building cultural competence and cultural responsiveness. It’s important to expose ourselves to difference in order to be comfortable with that difference.

Don’t let biases built in your module

To achieve true inclusivity, educators need to identify with our own biases and be aware of what they are. It’s important to carefully reflect on self, as yourself about the barriers that pervert you form being fully engaged with your students and accept the biases to be able to deliver the content is class that gives student the freedom to make a choice, make their own opinion, speak out your mind and be able to question, once’s beliefs and biases. Knowing the answers to these questions and realising what may cause some difficulty for students is a big part of fixing the problem.

Disparity in Online & hybrid teaching needs to be accepted & acknowledged

The disparity of access of technology among students has really hit home during this pandemic. Students going to their local internet café , shops to learn from your class is true and has to be accepted by the educators.
Educators teaching online should take a moment to acknowledge the challenges faced by your students in online learning and let them know that you have made sure such issues are incorporated in your module teachings these challenges and connectivity issues. The technical resources to be shared and challenges accepted in these learning environments. Let students know you understand there will be connectivity problems or times when students have to share technical resources with others. This will show students that you’re aware of the trials and tribulations students are facing and that you’re concerned about students and their well-being


Prof. Nidhi Gupta
Design Department

IILM University

“Pandemic Is Affecting US More Than WE Know”

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Covid 19 pandemic has affected all of us in ways no one could really imagine. The unpredictability of the pandemic has swept all of us from our feet and placed us in the zone where uncertainty dominates. We often find ourselves perplexed and unsure. Seldom do we discuss the damage it is causing us mentally and psychologically. Furthermore, the reason for this is that we “Neglect our mental health” and think that since the repercussion of it is not physically precipitating, we can tackle it ourselves. However, we do not realize that if it is not managed, it can cause more harm over a period of time, leading to impairment in our overall well-being.

 

If we were to contemplate what pandemic has brought to us, we would realize that we stress more, worry more, and fear more. We are more anxious than ever. Sadness, aloofness, alienation haunts us. However, this is what is explicitly presented, and we see it all over electronic and print media. With the new wave of the pandemic, more problems are surfacing, and this time it is really affecting people across all age groups erratically. These problems are now not just frantically limited to what has always dominated the clinical picture. With the Modern-Day pandemic, it is pivotal that we understand the nature of the problems and understand the ways to manage and deal with them effectively. Professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, case managers, HR are often seen reporting that – “Many people aren’t even aware of what they are facing and are going through. They look and sound distressed and worried but are reluctant to do anything about it. What is more astonishing is that despite the concerns raised by people around them, they are convincingly dealing with it alone, thinking that with time it will subside”.

 

Most do not even realize that it will not settle down easy rather, it will subtly impact in ways that we will gradually discern. The first effect is on our physical health. Researches inevitably prove how a healthy mind and a healthy body go hand in hand. Without a healthy mind, expecting a healthy body is ill-considered. What can, however, be seen parallelly with the problems of stress, anxiety, fear of uncertainty which was earlier mostly external, are now problems that are paired up with the elements of “How productive am I?”, “How happy I am with my life and my partner”, “Am I making enough money”, “Is my family safe and healthy”, “Am I living a stable life” and finally “when will I get the job I want”. Pandemic has led everyone to introspect and reflect unsupervised to an infinite degree. Due to these, more people are questioning their self-worth, thus causing more stress and worry than usual, making them more susceptible and vulnerable to poor mental health conditions. Since the trend of seeking psychological aid is not prevalent in India, people are dealing with it alone and are creating a loop of cognitive distortions and thinking errors all by themselves. Furthermore, this is poorly affecting the mental health of people in India at large.

 

Thus, it is imperative that we rightfully manage, prevent and restrict its effects.  The below-mentioned acronym would be a great way to move forward.

Step 1 -Have FAITH

Step 2- ACCEPT and ACKNOWLEDGE how you feel

Step 3- Stop IMAGINING the worse

Step 4- Take CHARGE of your life completely

Step 5-Seek PROFESSIONAL HELP

A-Positive-psychology-toolkit

A Positive psychology toolkit for your virtual semester

General Blog,

On a Tuesday afternoon class on July 15th, I watched my students stare at the whiteboard during an online class without “BLINKING”. While all of them had a vast opportunity to make connections with each other in a class of thirty, half of them were looking for connections on their cell phones, scrolling tirelessly through their feeds while the other half sat there distracted.

I realized it was time for feedback. There was undoubtedly something about my pedagogy that was not working, despite how hard I tried to make it work. After one big session of qualitative feedback and discussions, we concluded that the students were not bored because of the ‘teaching style’ or the ‘curriculum’ but because they were so tired of missing out on the “college experience.” To put it differently, a consistent lack of human touch from a young student’s life in a socially distant and virtual system had started becoming a serious concern, and not many of us were/are talking about it.

Therefore, here I am with some hand-picked tools from the pool of “Positive Psychology” to activate the offline experience in an online setting:

Tool 1: Unprecedented engagement through a Mind-Body connection

The attention span during an online session is way less than an offline session. Multiple distractions are at play, and it becomes a necessity to increase the levels of student engagement. While brainstorming and mentally stimulating activities can enhance this engagement, I recommend here also include certain tasks that enable movement and demand the brain and body to work together.  Simple techniques like an online scavenger hunt, stretching in the chair, looking for a suitable example around the house or having a sip of water can restore the mind-body connection, refresh the minds of the students and enhance their attention spans.

Tool 2: Emotional experience and emotional expression

One thing that made college interesting was the unpredictable range of emotions. One never knew that at what moment they will end up being excited, nervous, happy, sad, surprised, humoured or anything else. However, what really added meaning to those emotional experiences was your ability to express and share them with your mates. Some good ways to go about it is by interacting in a video mode, using self-reflection exercises, experience sharing and including elements of surprise during a class session.

Tool 3: Social Relationships

College years have always been fruitful in the development of social skills and social confidence. Hanging out with friends, socializing in college clubs, inter-college competitions, events or maybe something as simple as a group study could add a charm to the boring week. Well! The good news is that you can still do all of it in an online setup. Some ways would include running virtual clubs, singing a group song, a jam session, surprise birthdays, hosting a watch party or a virtual dinner with your classmates from the comfort of your homes. These small ways can help boost your social relationships while adding a more personal touch to them.

Tool 4: Savouring and Avoiding kill-joy thinking

The pandemic has been tough, and it has been challenging for all of us. At some point, it just becomes important for us to cultivate a sense of optimism and savour what we have till we have it. One essential key to this process is to stop devaluating or underestimating a positive virtual experience by only focusing on its imperfections. Instead, look at the bright side and savour your virtual semester.

Last but not least, Tool 5: Mindfulness

‘Mindfulness’ or ‘being present in the present has become part and parcel of life during COVID years. The same can be incorporated into the virtual classroom to help students relax and focus better. A number of techniques can be used in a virtual setting like breathing exercises, a pre-recorded guided meditation, imagery, or mindful photography. These simple methods can go a long way in enabling the student to be more rooted in the present.

That’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading through these tools, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on using them to enhance learning and engagement. Let us know of more such tools in the comments below!

Digital-Transformation-in-Design-Education

Digital Transformation in Design Education

Faculty, IILM University, ,

The current scenario we are in, change has become the only constant. Designers have always been known as early adaptors and change makers. The sudden paradigm shift in the way lifestyle, health and economic scenarios are building, designers require to evaluate the current health situation is bringing to light problems, changes and opportunities for the industries that make us wonder what is truly important and what is needed to readjust to the new normal. The need to have more designers in the industry to bring out the change has made many educational institutions put more emphasis on design integrated thinking. Management uses fields of design with tools like critical & design thinking, whereas technology is ready to embed and explore design experiences which incorporate the new normal.

Today’s ‘New Normal’ reality is set in motion by the age of global consumption, data mapping and artificial intelligence. As a result, designers needed with updated toolkits to respond to these new conditions. IILM University sees education as a responsibility to equip students with set of tools to understand the contemporary condition and allow for the emergence of new types of multidisciplinary design practices. Speculative design understanding is not supplemental to the serious work of remaking the society, but essential to its responsibilities in a moment of change and uncertainty.

The impact on global wellness and the economy has forced organizations in every industry to flex and evolve, both in real-time and in the long-term. The curriculum we design is a  collection of ideas, thoughts, and strategies, to explore how design can play a role in making the world a healthier place, a successful and forward looking careers that are purposeful and immune to the changing world.

Image Credit: Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Let’s talk about how design education can build an optimistic & equitable Future.

Crisis give birth to creative problem solving. Education has reacted in real-time to the pandemic, addressing tactical challenges of shifting entire campuses online overnight, with innovation and sonic speed. In the process, however, systemic challenges and disparities have been exacerbated. By its nature, learning from home depends on access to technology and Wi-Fi, but on home environment, family situations, and emotional stability for learning.

Keeping in view, Design education at IILM focus on creating learning spaces, whether physical or virtual, that empower every student & faculty equally to create new ventures to exchange the power of knowledge and know-how. National Education Policy is navigating the strategy of varying degrees, exit points developing an infinite number of scenarios that students can design through, resources, socio-economic landscape, infrastructure, and purpose.

How can we take what we have learned during this time to impart positive change on our future to ultimately shape healthier, wiser, and more equitable communities?

Pandemic is not a change agent, but an accelerant for addressing some fundamental issues for education.

Image: Photo by Gaberiel Benois on Unsplash

A vision for a adaptable & equitable future

The core to the future of learning is learner-centred design, which implies a major repositioning of the learner, the role of the educator, and the environments we design.

Blended Learning is the key

We have been slow at adoption of alternative technologies and pedagogies as human resistance to change. The immediate shift to virtual learning that schools and universities across the world had to make, nearly overnight, has granted us an enlightened perspective. Educational Institutions need to find new ways to address the needs of every student. The demand for more engaged learning will accelerate new digital platforms, better equipping students to craft their own learning map and future.

Our each program combines hybrid and remote instruction using real world and social emotional learning. The program combines hybrid learning, real world learning, and social-emotional learning to “learning with a purpose.”

Gensler reports that Scott Galloway predicts that online learning and digital platforms will only continue to expand as universities navigate the indirect financial impacts of the pandemic. A focus on the student experience will double-down on the interplay between virtual and physical space. But it’s also critical to address inequities in remote learning, such as disparate access to technology, in order to ensure that digital and physical classroom environments are accessible for all learners.

Learning with a purpose, community & place development

During this pandemic big question has raised on online learning, called into question the need for a physical campus and generated much speculation as to whether the campus would cease to exist. While transitioning to virtual learning has proven successful for some students and for some types of course material, hands-on learning, soft skills, and connection to classmates and course material have been more difficult to translate to learning  online. Many schools and institutions saw the pandemic actually elevate the importance of human interaction, further underscoring place and community as a core value proposition.

Essential to campus experience, the value-add of space and community will evolve in near future. Just as creative environments will employ hybrid solutions for learning, so will student life, dining, housing, and recreation as they seek to engender culture and community. The campus here derives student experience increasingly combining digital platforms with physical space, also reprioritize on-campus activities for “highest and best” use of social and interactive space.

Encourage interdisciplinary approaches.

For nearly a decade, culture of innovation has held its place of importance — both inside and outside of the classroom. This urgency to transcend silos has changed the way departments solve problems both academically and administratively, and the pandemic has only heightened that trajectory.

Now campus assembles core planning teams, championed by senior leadership, that cut across disciplines to produce comprehensive solutions for immediate and near-term plans. The ability to solve challenges that have emerged from the pandemic will foster a lasting interdisciplinary mindset.

Our Campus develops enhanced infrastructures of technology and services Additionally, new career paths continue to emerge out of this need to collaborate in uncharted ways. To support the integrated thinking process and spur intrinsically-driven motivation in students, the spaces we design continue to provide a level of diversity, multimodality, and flexibility.

Turning campus into synergy spaces to build new processes

Connections made beyond the campus through partnerships with local business, government, and community makes learning resonant. With the pandemic, such connections are identified as essential for operations survival. As public and civic entities form new alliances between industry, technology, and education as a way of plotting the course to reopening, imagine what could happen if these alliances stayed together to solve problems going forward.