Mr. Devvrat Verma is Head of Mechanical Department at Professional Institute of Engineering and Technology. He has 9 Years in the education industry with several live projects on the field including few projects with the government of Chhattisgarh. Working with the latest technologies and also help the students with poor financial backing to update their skills. He has published papers in the international journal of Research on various topics like Design heat exchangers with change baffle inclination, Electricity generation with speed breaker, etc. He is also working to Enable experimental and research-based learning in engineering across India.

PIET Raipur

What are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

“Providing Students with best educational facilities”

My roles and responsibilities towards the students are as follows :

  1. Allocate the students to the teacher-counselors at the beginning of the academic year.
  2. Collect lesson plans from teaching staff before the commencement of classwork and ensure that the information provided is by the format.
  3. Make sure that the timetables are prepared as per the guidelines given by the principal and inform the faculty members and students at least one day before the commencement of the classwork.
  4. Interact with students (Section-wise) of their branch 15 days once, identify the problems and find solutions in consultation with the principal.
  5. Verify the student attendance registers maintained by the staff members once a week 
  6. Collect the student feedback about the faculty member’s subject-wise (for all the subjects taught to the students of their branch) and communicate the feedback to the concerned faculty members in the standard format as decided by the principal.
  7. Arrange special classes if necessary for the benefit of below-average students.
  8. Ensure academic discipline in the department.
  9. Plan and conduct the online course of studies (MOOC) meeting regularly and prepare minutes of the meeting. 

 How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty?

“Provide Students and Faculty with interactive doubt clearing sessions”

I establish healthy relations in the following ways :

  • Provide Structure: Most students respond positively to having a structure in their classroom. It makes them feel safe and leads to increased learning. Teachers who lack structure not only lose valuable instructional time but often never gain the respect of their students. 
  • Teach With Enthusiasm and Passion: Students will respond positively when a teacher is enthusiastic and passionate about the content she is teaching. 
  • Have a Positive Attitude: Everyone has terrible days including teachers. Everyone goes through personal trials that can be difficult to handle. Your issues mustn't interfere with your ability to teach. 
  • Incorporate Humor into Lessons: Teaching and learning should not be boring. Most people love to laugh. Teachers should incorporate humor into their daily lessons. 
  • Make Learning Fun: Learning should be fun and exciting. Nobody wants to spend time in a classroom where lecturing and note-taking are the norms. 
  • Use Student Interests to Your Advantage: Every student has a passion for something. Teachers should use these interests and passions to their advantage by incorporating them into their lessons. 
  • Incorporate Storytelling into Lessons: Everyone loves a compelling story. Stories allow students to make real-life connections to the concepts that they are learning. 
  • Show an Interest in Their Lives Outside of School: Students have lives away from your classroom. Talk to them about their interests and extracurricular activities that they participate in. Take an interest in their interests even if you do not share the same passion. 
  • Go the Extra Mile: Some students need teachers who will go that extra mile to ensure that they are successful. Some teachers provide extra tutoring on their own time before and/or after school for struggling students.

How does the curriculum of your College ensure the best practice of industry?

“Providing Students with regular industrial visits and advanced labs”

The curriculum of my college ensure the best practice of Industry in the following ways :

Focus on the practical component: Since these subjects are skill and application-based, teachers said that they can be best assessed through a practical exam. Teachers must assign hands-on activities to students instead of asking them to mug up the theory

Introduce job-oriented subjects: Most of the graded subjects being taught in college are outdated and irrelevant. These must be replaced with job-oriented subjects that will enhance students’ skills.

For new graduates to survive in the fast-paced world of digital media such as the web, educational institutions must set their focus on the industries they train their students to work in. Sadly, this is rarely the case.

There are great benefits to gain from an industry-focused education that concentrates on both academic and practical skills. For one, graduates have a clear competitive advantage when they apply for jobs. Secondly, this approach is fun for both students and teachers. When it comes to motivation, having fun is a core element.

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What are the best practices offered by the department to the students which help them gain necessary skills?

“Provide students with skill enhancement programs”

The best practices offered by the department are as follows :

  1. Enhanced onboarding
  2.  Data-informed proactive advising
  3. Early exposure to career planning
  4. Expanded access to experiential learning activities
  5. Enhanced student support services
  6. Fostering a success-oriented mindset and sense of belonging

How do you strategize and update the curriculum?

“Encouraging Students to perform the skills enhancement activities”

Professional Learning Communities Support Establish Collaborative Teaming.

Develop Learning Targets & Common Formative Assessments.

Personalized Learning for All Students.

Assessment Analysis & Data-Based Decision Making.

Continued Development of Curriculum Improvement.

What are your views upon the placements and higher education about the students from your department?

“Provide Students with various Academic programs like Academic Disclosure, Academic Strategies, etc”

  • Academic Discourse: responding to and asking questions: Many teachers ask their students to practice presentations in class and this is a great skill to have. Academic Text
  • Strategies: looking for inferred meaning in texts: Being able to make inferences is a very important academic reading skill. It not only helps students understand the text but also encourages students to ‘read between the lines and look for deeper meaning.
  • Academic Strategies: writing effective notes: Effective note-taking is an essential skill for your students to learn before they go on to further education. Using short videos, such as TED Talks, have students take notes while they watch. 
  • Composition: developing a coherent argument: When having class discussions, how effective are students’ arguments? Producing coherent arguments is a vital skill for learners in higher education, and one that you can practice in the classroom. Find a model, written argument from the opinion section of a newspaper, and cut it up into sections for your learners. 
  • Comprehension: identifying specific ideas in academic texts and lectures: In the context of further education, it’s not just enough to say what you think the idea of a text is – students need to be able to provide evidence from the text itself. 

How do you help your student to cope up with the competition?

“Teaching Students Tolerance, Collaboration and Accuracy as skill sets”

  1. Teach Collaboration as a Value and Skill Set: Students of today need new skills for the coming century that will make them ready to collaborate with others on a global level. 
  2. Evaluate Information Accuracy: New information is being discovered and disseminated at a phenomenal rate. It is predicted that 50 percent of the facts students are memorizing today will no longer be accurate or complete shortly. 
  3. Teach Tolerance: For collaboration to happen within a global community, job applicants of the future will be evaluated by their ability to communicate with, openness to, and tolerance for unfamiliar cultures and ideas.
  4. Help Students Learn Through Their Strengths: Children are born with brains that want to learn. They're also born with different strengths -- and they grow best through those strengths. One size does not fit all in assessment and instruction.
  5. Use Learning Beyond the Classroom: New "learning" does not become permanent memory unless there is repeated stimulation of the new memory circuits in the brain pathways. This is the "practice makes permanent" aspect of neuroplasticity where neural networks that are the most stimulated develop more dendrites, synapses, and thicker myelin for more efficient information transmission. 

Do you have any extracurricular programs to enhance the skills of the students?

“Exposing students to real-world problems by encouraging them to join skill enhancing programs”

We do Co-curricular activities, Debate sessions for students, Computer quiz competitions, Group discussion of different topics. These activities help students to develop problem-solving, reasoning, critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, and collaborative abilities.

What are the challenges you faced to uplift the quality of education of your department?

“Biggest challenge was maintaining attendance and discipline”

Other Challenges faced by me are as follows :

  • Put classroom-running and curriculum-building decisions in the hands of the community
  • Raise standards for teachers
  • Make funding a priority
  • Curriculum Design
  • Attendance & Discipline 
  • Scheduling: Classroom teachers, staff, and students report scheduling.

What was your vision for college from the start?

“Encouraging Students to learn new ways of understanding”

Beginning in the classroom with exposure to new ideas, new ways of understanding, and new ways of knowing, students embark on a journey of intellectual transformation. Through a diverse living environment, where students live with people who are studying different topics, who come from different walks of life and have evolving identities, intellectual transformation is deepened and conditions for social transformation are created. From this we hope that students will begin to fashion their lives by gaining a sense of what they want to do with their gifts and talents, assessing their values and interests, and learning how they can best serve the world.

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How does the curriculum of your college ensure the best practice of the industry?

“Providing students with the syllabus enriched in analytical, employability and Research Skills”

All other aspects whether teaching, learning, and evaluation or research and development, infrastructure and learning resources, student activities, and support systems revolve around it. Therefore, curricular aspects and the best practices connected to curriculum design and development play a very significant dimension in the quality of higher education since the curriculum has a decisive role in steering the other elements of quality

How does the department enhance the skills of the faculty ?

“Colleges prepare faculty according to the industry standards”

Department help faculty in the following ways :

  1. Encourage a good connection between you and students
  2. Encourage active learning (which includes listing and speaking in the class)
  3. Give/take prompt constructive feedback
  4. Give Case Studies and assignments
  5. Prepare yourself before every lecture

What are the approaches you bring in apart from curriculum to teaching the students?

“Curriculum continually monitor the progress of the students”

Through continuing education, career-minded individuals can constantly improve their skills and become more proficient at their jobs. In the field of education, college administrators need to encourage teachers to pursue professional development,

  • Clarify your objectives. 
  • Direct instruction.
  • Have students rephrase your lesson. 
  • Make sure those kids reflect.
  • Give plenty of feedback

What advice would you like to the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead?

“Students should venture outside of your comfort zone”

I would like to give following advice to the students :

  1. View every person you meet as a door that may lead you to a new opportunity.
  2. Show up early.
  3. Think of yourself as a lifelong learner.
  4. Every year, deeply consider your career path.
  5. Search for the value in feedback or criticism.
  6. Cultivate perseverance.
  7. Do what you say you'll do.
  8. Ask the important questions.
  9. Don't be afraid to speak up.
  10. Dress for the job you want.
  11. Find a job you enjoy.
  12. Say yes to the things that scare you.
  13. Set realistic goals.
  14. Let go of perfection.