ArdorComm Media Group

Inaugural Session: Re-imagining Higher Education in 21st Century Workplace: Expanding boundaries of Education, Skill and Employability

We are in the midst of a significant social and economic transformation, fuelled by incredible developments in automation and artificial intelligence, as well as unprecedented data and computation access. These technologies have an impact on practically every sector of our economy, including healthcare, banking, transportation, energy, manufacturing, and many other occupations. These advancements, like earlier industrial revolutions, have the potential to deliver enormous advantages to society and, in the long term, contribute to massive prosperity. Innovations will also change the future of labour, increase skill bias from previous decades, and contribute to a widening gap between the best and the least educated in society. As new sectors emerge and existing ones expand and collapse dramatically, the skills required to keep up are changing at a faster rate than ever before. Educators and higher education administrators must approach skill competency with a growth mindset that will assist students throughout their careers and in the global knowledge-based economy. To propel discussion on this, the eminent higher education leaders and industry experts emphasized on the topic at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

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Quotes from the Speakers

Prof. B. Thimme Gowda

Prof. B. Thimme Gowda, Vice Chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, Govt. of Karnataka says, “As you all know online education is becoming popular now more or less it is becoming order of the day, but I should emphasize there is no substitute for one-to-one interaction that would be more effective. We have to realize for both the academia and Industry we have no alternative but to live together otherwise we will be fish out of water, we can become obsolete therefore we have to do it, we have to build trust.”

Dr. Manish Kothari

Dr. Manish Kothari, Founder & Managing Director, ISBR Business School, Bangalore says, “The moment NEP has come into space higher education and the complete education system is undergoing a great solid transformation all of us are here to see the type of digitization to see the type of research that is coming into picture to make the changes happen.”

Chandan Anand

Chandan Anand, Founder, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group says, “We can see how the South India has emerged not only as the higher education destination but also as destination in various sectors like I.T, startups, manufacturing and other skill sets. Our effort is to lower the Gap and increase the opportunity of networking and collaboration. Hence, our vision and the mission of uniting under one roof in today morning was to bring key people from higher education space from the Southern States of India and plus Goa as well.”

Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar

Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Senior Adviser, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Under UGC, Govt. of India says, “In the higher education system we have to learn, unlearn and relearn if you do not have this type of attitude definitely higher education system will be meaningless that's why we had to reimagine the higher education system.”

Dr. Madhur Gupta

Dr. Madhur Gupta, Dean - St Francis Business School, Director- St. Xavier's College, Bangalore says, “My background is psychology so for me it’s a big challenge how we are taking care of emotional balance of every person who is belonging to higher education be it the management, professors or the students, higher education should not be a liability or anybody should not give them more stress.”

Glimpses of the session

Inaugural Session:- Re-imagining Higher Education in 21st Century Workplace: Expanding boundaries of Education, Skill and Employability

Panel 1: Reimagining higher education through the ‘PHYGITAL’ mode of learning: Enhancing student employability

It was almost unimaginable until recently that practical training for skill-based vocational courses could be given so efficiently online! The desire to utilise digital technology in combination with traditional training techniques has enabled us re-imagine skilling in higher education in many new ways, thanks to the push from COVID-19.
Not only did the pandemic force us to reconsider how we delivered skill training; the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also asks for speeding up skill-based training through “Blended learning” or in a “Phygital mode.” In simple terms, phygital learning is the combination of physical and digital learning environments or platforms. Learning in a phygital paradigm aids in the development of domain skills as well as the development of digital abilities. As a result, a phygital model that includes workplace experience, vocational competence, and crucial employability skills has a favourable impact on the learners’ professional career preparedness. To propel discussion on this, the eminent higher education leaders and industry experts emphasized on the topic at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Pune on 6th May 2022.

Watch the session:

Quotes from the Speakers

Dr. Manish Kothari

Dr. Manish Kothari, Founder & Managing Director, ISBR Business School, Bangalore says, “Emotional quotient or the social quotient or the intelligent question plays an active role in today's education and all of us being educationist will understand how to add these quotients in different aspects of our education system.”

Dr. R. Karpaga Kumarave

Dr. R. Karpaga Kumarave, Former Vice-Chancellor, Madurai Kamaraj University and Central University of Tamil Nadu says, “In my perception cognitive development and effective development, emotional intelligence and intelligence are the two sides of the same coin one without the other will be useless. So, it is a judicious balance that every teacher, every parent, every administrator has to make on combining the care and attention to be paid for both cognitive development as well as effective development.”

Ron Crasto

Ron Crasto, Consultant - Monet Analytics says, “How do we address emotional quotient at the early stage of the education, what is happening today's parents are giving status to the new age education could it be robotics could be coding etc. where they always say my son is doing this my son is doing that, somewhere down the line we are missing this EQ word.”

Dr.Indiresh K.M.

Dr.Indiresh K.M., Vice Chancellor, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, Karnataka says, “There are a lot of developments that have been made in the field of agricultural science, now the use of digital apps, this use of artificial intelligence, blockchain management, machine learning all these have been gaining a lot of importance.”

Prof. D.N. Reddy

Prof. D.N. Reddy, Chairman, Board of Governers, Vasavi Engineering College, Hyderabad says, “Cognitive abilities are important for a student community or anybody as a matter of fact. Even though intelligence is very important IQ is important but emotional intelligence is more important than real intelligence. So how is emotional intelligence going to help you, help the students or anybody or faculty, how it's going to help a learning process needs to be discussed.”

Glimpses of the session

Panel 1: Reimagining higher education through the ‘PHYGITAL’ mode of learning: Enhancing student employability

Panel 2: What's better for today's Ideal University Education? Multi-disciplinary or e-learning adaptability?

In today’s environment, technology is unavoidable, and hence no ideal university can exist without it. It’s also not only about employing technology; it’s about mixing it with the traditional face-to-face teaching style to develop a highly effective learning system. Instead of imposing rigorous and inflexible academic schedules on students, the ideal university should use adaptive learning tools that allow them to complete their courses at their own pace and convenience. This should be supported by the holding of physical academic meetings and tutorial sessions where students can share their expertise and receive guidance and assistance from experts. While the e-learning adaptability is the need of the hour due to the advancement of technology, a multidisciplinary approach of education is also essential in the higher education sector. Multidisciplinary education is a distinct educational strategy that allows learners to learn and explore different courses or curriculum from diverse fields. A multidisciplinary approach to curriculum integration emphasises the various perspectives that different disciplines might contribute to a theme, subject, or issue. To propel discussion on this, the eminent higher education leaders and industry experts emphasized on the topic at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

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Quotes from the Speakers

Dr. N. K. Manjunath

Dr. N. K. Manjunath, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bengaluru says, “When we talk of multi-disciplinary approach the whole purpose what we look at is how can we empower an individual.”

Dr. P. V. Vijayaraghavan

Dr. P. V. Vijayaraghavan, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research Institute (SRIHER), Chennai says, “If we have to go back to the Nalanda and really think about holistic education as we are talking I think this terminology of multinational is very relevant that idea with which the government is wanting to do this through NEP is definitely appreciable because they want students to have an academic flexibility.”

Prof. Jamshed Bharucha

Prof. Jamshed Bharucha, Vice-Chancellor, Sai University, Chennai says, “Education design needs to be evidence based, evidence of how the brain which is the system in us that actually acquires the education, how that actually learns. The upshot is that it's time to spark the imagination of our students.”

Dr. Balakrishna P Shetty

Dr. Balakrishna P Shetty, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur says, “Corona has taught us a great lesson that teaching is not learning in between four concrete halls it has gone beyond the concrete halls into the homes and into various levels so it is not just teaching or it is not just learning from a textbook it is something beyond.”

Sorabh Bajaj

Sorabh Bajaj, Vice President - Business Excellence, Sunstone says, “I think in today's world liberal education is very much used as a synonym for multidisciplinary education

Dr. S.N. Sridhara

Dr. S.N. Sridhara, Vice-Chancellor, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science (HITS), Chennai says, “We have entered into NEP, new education policy and we have made sure that multi-disciplinary actually percolates into the system itself because we find it is more advantageous.”

Glimpses of the session

Panel 2: What’s better for today’s Ideal University Education? Multi-disciplinary or e-learning adaptability?

Panel 3: How can blended learning change the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship?

‘Blended learning’ has become the new educational mantra. However, most institutions including those in developed countries, are unfamiliar with the concept. Only by embracing technology, education can take the next good step forward. With the educational institutions eventually reopening post pandemic there is a huge transformation in the way students used to learn. This hybrid model of education or Blended learning is gradually emerging and being implemented. Hence, we can say it is definitely the future. Blended learning is a cutting-edge educational strategy that combines online learning with face-to-face interaction to provide tailored learning experiences. Even its architects could not have predicted the development of the Internet in the last decade. In addition, the accessibility of the Internet has been greatly facilitated by the ease of devices such as mobile phones and computers. We need a workforce that can adapt to the latest technological developments as we transition from an industrial era to a knowledge worker era, and blended learning is the way to do that. To propel discussion on this, the eminent higher education leaders and industry experts emphasized on the topic at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Watch the session:

Quotes from the Speakers

Dr. Dwarika Prasad Uniyal

Pro Vice-Chancellor, RV University, Bangalore says, “Blended itself needs to be understood in a particular context what do we mean by Blended right is it online is it offline, is it some online some offline, is it all online little offline what are we trying to talk about. When we talk about Blended it’s the question to be asked amongst ourselves and secondly is it a medium, is it a pedagogical tool, is it something which we have to completely reimagine post pandemic as academic institutions.”

Dr. R. S. Mudhol

Vice-Chancellor, BLDE (Deemed-to-be University), Vijayapura says, “I think traditional education of our direct lectures, small group teaching and the other things should be blended with the technology, somewhere we have to balance and these are the forums where we can learn from the management we can learn from the general education.”

Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Raina

Vice-Chancellor, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru says, “When we look at education 4.0 as the future way to go forward, I think we have to be student-centric. When we talk about the connecting different disciplines and the different specializations, that is where we have to draw a demarcation line.”

Prof. Bishnu Pal

Dean School of Engineering and Academics, Mahindra University, Hyderabad says, “One of the features of the Blended learning is what the people's claim is the flexibility but I still feel there's nothing alternate to face to face learning.”

Dr. Dinesh Nilkant

Director - Faculty of Management Studies - Jain (Deemed-to-be University) says, “We have to understand what is to be taught on the online mode but to be very honest my dear friends I still believe that the social interaction should be there, the student should be in front of you, the student should wish you, you should wish the student and then tell them that this is the assignment and tomorrow face to face interaction, now that is education according to me.”

Gaurav Somani

President-Sales, Mastersoft says, “Blended is going to be the order of the day and there will be different tools there will be different mechanisms in which quality will be insured which will help in not only just seeking jobs but creating jobs as well.”

Glimpses of the session

Panel 3: How can blended learning change the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship?

Panel 4: How can exposure to New Age Technologies help in fostering Experiential Learning Pedagogy?

There is a general belief that educational systems should equip students with the skills and competencies they need to deal with an ever-changing environment. Critical thinking, problem solving, collaborative skills, innovation, digital literacy, and flexibility are frequently mentioned. What is debatable is how best to achieve the development of those skills, specifically which teaching and learning methodologies are ideal for supporting or enabling the development of complex skills. It is essential to know from the higher education leaders and growth stakeholders that how can this exposure to new age technologies help in fostering experiential learning pedagogy. New age technologies like, AI, ML, IoT, Big data, etc. are paving the way for a smoother delivery of education. AI allows for the creation of a customised or individualised learning path for each learner, one that is unique to them and tailored to their skills, weaknesses, talents, and challenges. Advanced analytics, machine learning, and student-centric technologies have a ton of potential for the development of social and emotional learning abilities because they allow educators to personalise instruction and analyse both qualitative and quantitative data to help students acquire these skills. To propel discussion on this, the eminent higher education leaders and industry experts emphasized on the topic at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Watch the session:

Quotes from the Speakers

Dr. Madhur Gupta

Dean - St Francis Business School, Director- St. Xavier's College, Bangalore says, “I really feel nowadays understanding a student is a little easier because we have a lot of technologies we are using artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet, big data and lot other ERPs to understand student a little more in depth, how students are looking at the screen, are they really listening to us, how they are responding. We can analyze each and everything also these technologies are helping us by understanding what and how we have to transform.”

Dr. Vinay S.

Director, Seshadripuram Institute of Management Studies says, “We talk about on experiential learning, I missed experiential teaching because my efforts is twenty percent, my team members they'll do eighty percent on them because of infographics, and to attract the students they'll put lot of efforts what I identify that is suppose if we have to give experiential learning through this kind of technology we should know how to plan and how to develop and how to deploy with a lot of points.”

Dr. Ajit Parulekar

Director, GOA Institute of Management says, “I think technology is going to be a great enabler, technology will be able to take learners which means students, faculty executive, education all of that to experience things that would be very difficult for them to experience themselves. Gamification can come into education and as you find better quality devices at lower prices happening, it's just a matter of time.”

Dr N. Thilaka

Director, Symbiosis School of Media and Communication, Bengaluru says, “Especially now that all of us are running the rat race of ranking we are looking at our students into research and that is all happening with the availability of technology on our hand the smartphones where there is a myriads of information and how we streamline them is more important but we cannot say we cannot go without technology.”

Dr. Madhavi Lokhande

Dean, Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Bengaluru says, “We have been seeing and experiencing that perhaps what teaching doesn't teach, experiencing can help the learner understand and assimilate what he has learned better. There's no denying the fact that the future of education is going to be a great blend of knowledge, content and tech but it requires some amount of preparation from all of us.”

Amey Parulekar

Head of Business Development, Financepeer says, “Education is a lot more accessible today because of the devices that we have and there is no denying the fact that blended learning is going to be a part of the future.”

Glimpses of the session

Panel 4: How can exposure to New Age Technologies help in fostering Experiential Learning Pedagogy?

Valedictory session

Dr. Sandhya R. Anvekar

Program Head- Skilling, KITS, Dept. of Electronics, IT, BT, Science & Technology, Govt. of Karnataka says, “As you all know that the startup capital of India is nothing but Karnataka, very big hands to that because we have been maintaining this baton for some years now and in the startup ranking of India we were top performers for last two years, in the third year we have emerged at the best performer which is the highest position in the ranking.”

Industry Presentation

Shraddha Haldankar

Marketing Lead, Knauf Ceiling Solutions gave an industry presentation on the topic, “Enhancing the Learning Environments” at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Glimpses of the session

Industry Speech – Knauf Ceiling Solutions India

Industry Presentation

Vivek Iyer

Vice President - Asia Pacific, Anthology gave an industry presentation on the topic, “Technology for Personalized Education” at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Glimpses of the session

Industry Speech – Anthology

Industry Presentation

Gaurav Somani

President-Sales, Mastersoft gave an industry presentation on the topic, “ICT Enablement in Higher Education” at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Glimpses of the session

Industry Speech – MasterSoft

Industry Presentation

Anand Vats

Manager, Monet India Design Center gave an industry presentation on the topic, “Real-time Engagement Detection & Analytics for Training and Education Transformation” at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Glimpses of the session

Industry Speech – MONET ‘AI-Powered Humanized Data Platform’

Industry Presentation

Dr. Neeraj Sharma

Director, Institute Partnership, Teachmint gave an industry presentation on the topic, “Revolutionizing Digital Higher-Education Infrastructure through Teachmint” at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Glimpses of the session

Industry Speech – Teachmint

Industry Presentations

Abhishek Ballabh

Co-founder, ExtraaEdge gave an industry presentation on the topic, “Winning at Higher Education Admissions in 2022 - Key Focus Areas” at ArdorComm- Higher Education and EdTech Conclave & Awards 2022, Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.

Glimpses of the session

Industry Speech – ExtraaEdge Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar

Prof. B. Thimme Gowda

Dr. Madhur Gupta

Dr. Latha K. C.

Dr. S.N. Sridhara

Dr. P. V. Vijayaraghavan

Dr. Lathangi

Dr. Dwarika Prasad Uniyal

Dr. Balakrishna P Shetty

Sam Maniar

Dr. Kiran Kumar Ravulakollu

Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Raina

Prof. Bishnu Pal