CENTRE FOR INNOVATION AND BEST PRACTICES

INSTITUTIONAL BEST PRACTICES

Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women is brought into the women Educational service with the ideals of Swami Vivekanandha “There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing”. By keeping this as its motto the institution designed its processes in a way that enlighten the life of thousands and thousands of girl students of this graphical region of our country. Academic qualifications accompanied with civilized character will truly means the progress of any nation. In this context, we at Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women treat academic excellence and character building as two eyes, on which we build all our activities. With the dedicated service on Women education for the past twenty five years, we instilled confidence in the minds of Parents that this institution is the best place to educate girl students because of its provisions on safety and Security for them. More over the conducive learning environment of our institution Matches the Learning styles of women The updated curriculum, Pedagogical Practices with incomparable infrastructural facilities and the placement opportunities all together enhances the self – esteem and confidence of girl Students Studying in our Institution. Among the various educational services that the institution offers, Motivation to the women students to pursue higher education and Conducive Learning Environment for women are the two best practices that are unique to the institution.

BEST PRACTICE – I

Title : Motivation to the women students to pursue higher Education

The importance of women education is well recognized that Educating a women is educating a family. But the percentage of women pursuing higher education in our country is meager that too, in rural areas the condition is pathetic. Our institution with the vision of empowering women has made remarkable achievements in motivating the girl students across the societies to pursue higher education.

Objectives of the Practice

Motivation towards higher education is made among the girl students with the following objectives

• To create awareness on the importance of higher education for women in Personal and Social life.
• To bring out the innate talents of girl students and facilitate to build a Strong Career
• To break the conventional societal-ties that hinders the girl students to think on their contribution towards Social and economical needs of our country.
• To build an assertive mind-set to face the real life problems of women from different Socio – economic backgrounds
• To facilitate economic independence of women and thereby making the women to contribute on nation building activities

The Context

The vision of Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for women is, ensuring social equity to women. The institution is located in a rural area with dry landscape. Most of the students are first graduates and from families that are Suffering from irregularities in income with respect to insufficient rainfall. The Social system in which the students are hailing from is built in a way that restricts the girl students to take aggressive measures to come–up in their life through self-driven measures. In this Context the institution has realized its responsibility to educate the girl students to bring economic independence and Social equity through various measures such as

• Higher education awareness programs and Career guidance
• Scholarship and free education Schemes
• Best residential facilities
• Free transport Services
• College Transport Services to hostellers during the holidays
• Coaching for competitive examinations
• Placement training
• Safety and security Measures

The Practice

The institution makes extensive effort to motivate the girl students to pursue higher education by undertaking and offering facilities Such as,

• Higher education awareness Programs in the Govt. & Private Schools in almost all districts in Tamil Nadu.
• Best Hostel facilities and hygienic food
• 250 buses operated to almost every rural areas of the neighboring districts at free of cost
• The buses are monitored with GPS to ensure the Safe travel of the Students
• Even the hostellers can travel through our college special buses during their holiday times. These Special buses will be operated to the major towns in Tamil Nadu, after the vacation the buses Pick-up the Students from their home and return back to the campus.
• To facilitate additional learning through of the Students, Value added Programs are offered
• To enhance the employable opportunities the institutions has established placement training

Evidence of success

The relentless efforts in encouraging the girl students to pursue higher education results in enrolling good number of students in the UG and PG programmes and the success of such initiatives can be observed through the academic achievements and placements.

Safety and Security Measures

The college has a vigilant team of professionally-trained security personnel patrolling and guarding the campus 24X7 to ensure safety of students, staff and infrastructure. The complete campus is under CCTV surveillance. The college management operating fleet of Buses, Numbering more than 200 for easy and safe mobility of the students from covers almost 9 districts different parts of the State which (Namakkal, Erode, Salem, Dharmapuri, Trichy, Karur, Dindigul, and Tirupur Districts). Bio-metric

Transport Service for Hostel Students

During the Monthly Holidays, special long leave and festival leave our college busses are operated for Hostel Students for the easy mobility of various zones in Tamil Nadu.

Problems encountered and Resources required

In the process of motivating the girl students to join higher educational programmes, we have faced the following problems.

• Lack of awareness on the importance of higher education to women. The conventional system treats women as a care-taker of their family. Breaking this misconception is a big challenge in achieving the target.
• Most of the families in rural areas are suffering from irregularities in income. So that they are reluctant in making their daughter to continue her studies. To overcome the difficulty we are offering fee concessions and free education to the needy such efforts costs the institution considerably.
• Parents from rural geographies are not interested to send their daughters to pursue higher education on issues related to safety and security. Instilling confidence in their mind is a great challenge and the institution is successful enough in building confidence through its dedicated service in women education for the past twenty five years.

Best Practice - II

Title : Ensuring Conducive Learning Environment for Women

Building the capacity of teachers to identify and counsel the students on their issues in physical and psychological .

Objectives of the Practice

Conducive learning environment for girl students is ensured with the following objectives:

• Preparing the students to cope with the expectations of the new age industries.
• Facilitating flexible, learner centric curriculum, course content & course delivery and study materials.
• Making the classroom learning as celebration through interactive multimedia course content.
• Providing training in industries with real time operations.
• Providing safe and secured learning environment.
• Making students aware of their rights and duties to keep themselves safe in the work place and in the society.
• Preparing the students physically and mentally to face the real life problems.

The context:

Vivekanandha college of Arts and sciences for women has its dedicated mission to create women graduates who can occupy higher designations in organizations across the countries and to become women entrepreneurs with indigenous technologies. By understanding the global standards of educational services in achieving these missions, we have introduced technology in every aspects of teaching and learning process that we undertake in our institution. Being women the societal pressure on the way a girl student interacts with the society is enormous. The social system restricts the girl students to take aggressive measures to come up in their life through self driven initiatives. So that the institution designed its curricular and extracurricular activities focusing on breaking the psychological hurdles that restricts the students to think career opportunities that matches their potential and deliver training in the chosen field of her expertise.

The practice:

The journey starts from updating the curriculum that matches with industry requirements. Through online knowledge sharing, a series of interactive sessions with industry experts is carried-out and the syllabus is updated periodically. We at Vivekanandha are following students centric pedagogy through outcome based education. The course content is prepared in digital format and the delivery is made interesting through multimedia technologies. Students can access the lectures and course content at any time beyond the working hours. A well structured websites facilitates information access and posting queries on subject related clarifications. Students are provided with tabs, to have access to the learning resources and making presentations in the classroom sessions. The digital learning resources in the libraries are really a boon to the students’ community. The institution is taking adequate measures that ensure the safety and security of the students studying in our campus. Once the girl students boarded our college transport service or entered into our hostel the system will start ensuring the safety of that student. All buses operated by us has inbuilt GPS and is monitored by the transport department. The Bio-metric attendance system keeps track of the students at every touch-point inside the campus. The hostellers can leave the campus only with the digital authentication by the parents and their move from the hostel and exist from our main gate are communicated to their parents through automatic messaging system. Also we have class advisor system which ensures the arrival of students to the classes every morning. Any absence without prior permission from the parents will be informed to the parents very beginning of the classes.

Evidence of success:

The feedback from the stakeholders like recruiters, parents, students and the society in general are encouraging towards the technology incorporation in our service. The management is committed enough to upgrade the quality standards on its educational services.
We at Vivekanandha created confidence in the minds of the parents of this part of our country that it’s a best institution which ensures the safety and security for the girl students. That is the reason why parents of various states and districts admit their daughters in our hostel. The safety system of Vivekanandha Educational Institutions is embedded in its DNA and its one of our competitive advantage in this educational services industry.

Problems encountered and resources required:

Initial challenges in terms of availability of quality digital presentations, authentication in resource access, network traffic, cyber security and students level of skill in utilizing the electronic gadgets / navigating into digital learning resources are addressed through periodical training program and workshops. Now the learners become tech-savvy and enjoy learning with the help of digital learning resources.
The basic challenge is that the society’s opinion about women and the low self esteem of the girl students. We are starting our self esteem building initiatives from the very first day of their life in the campus. Every student starts their academic program in Vivekanandha with a series of orientation programs that focus on reinstating the innate potential of the students with ample of real life examples. This is how the institution grown over the period of time.

SOME OF INNOVATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES OF OUR COLLEGE