K. Sravanthi is the Chief Counseling Coordinator at Vignan’s Institute of Information Technology. She is pursuing Ph.D. in the area of Power Systems - High Voltage Engineering from JNTUK, Kakinada. She is a Life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education. She has attended multiple sessions and workshops. She achieved the Prathibha Award in 2016 in Vignan's Institute of Information Technology, Visakhapatnam. She has also received a cash award of 10000/- as appreciation for Research in 2017 and Visista Seva Award in 2023 from Vignan's Institute of Information Technology, Visakhapatnam.

Vignan Institute of Information and Technology

Being a Faculty of the EEE Department, what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

As a faculty, I need to gear up with the updating technology and teach the students using innovative teaching methodologies to grab their attention and to create interest among the advanced learners as well as slow learners. Also need to mentor the students to guide them in the right path for their academic as well as career growth.

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

I always try to maintain a healthy and friendly relationship with the students, maintaining respect so that they can approach me with ease to clarify their doubts or share their problems. With my colleagues, I share my experience in terms of preparing course files, telling them about the ease of dealing with new courses and also the way to handle slow learners. 

How do you try to bring in a practical approach towards subjects and make it industry-oriented?

I use PPTs and show animated videos in the classroom to create interest among the students. The students are taken to industries to enhance their knowledge and have practical exposure. Few topics are dealt in laboratories to let the students have hands-on experience.

What valuable advice would you like to give the students for they to have a prosperous career ahead?

Any career chosen by the students should be done with great passion in it. Without hard work and dedication towards anything, their dream cannot be fulfilled. Keeping in view, the future life, strong determination, sincerity and self-discipline would help anyone to come up in life.

How do you strategize the curriculum and how often does it get updated to make it befitting for the students?

Strategizing and updating the curriculum is a dynamic process that requires careful planning and regular assessment. We approach by conducting needs assessment, defining learning outcomes and ensuring industry alignment. We conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to understand the current trends, demands and challenges in the field. This might involve industry surveys, employer feedback, alumni inputs and analysis of emerging technologies.We clearly define the learning outcomes for the students to achieve for each course. These outcomes should align with the skills, knowledge and competencies. We ensure that the curriculum is aligned with industry standards and practices. Regularly engage with industry experts, advisory boards and professionals to gather insights and validate the relevance of the courses.

Check Vignan Institute of Information and Technology Courses & Fees

What are your views on the placements and higher education of the students from your department or how does your department prepare students for Higher education?

We are the best in placements. Coming to my department, we bring core companies for the students and every year, more than 80% of the students get placed. We conduct awareness programs and webinars, seminars for higher education through the reputed e-learning platforms.

How do you help your student to cope with the competition being so high in the outside world?

By improving teamwork and collaboration and providing intrinsic motivation.The "Competition vs. Collaboration" debate is one of the most popular concerns and misconceptions surrounding the educational competitive environment. Everyone often believes that competition is the opposite of cooperation but when broken down, well-structured, purposefully designed competitions enhance collaboration and teamwork. Most team-based educational competitions challenge students to complete difficult tasks that necessitate effective communication, collaboration, and teamwork. The fact that they are attempting to complete such a difficult assignment jointly motivates them to work harder at knowing their skills and how to collaborate effectively. The knowledge that other teams are attempting to achieve the same goals motivates them to become more cohesive and better collaborators.

Do you have any extracurricular activities/ programs to enhance the skills of the students or expose them to real-world challenges?

We organize various extracurricular activities or programs that enhance students' skills and expose them to real-world challenges. Some of them include Hackathons, Debate and Management Clubs and Entrepreneurship Programs. We organize and let students participate in hackathon competitions where students can solve real-world problems using their programming skills. This can enhance their problem-solving abilities and teamwork. Debate and Management clubs help students develop public speaking, critical thinking, and diplomacy skills by simulating debates and international negotiations. We introduce students to entrepreneurship through workshops, mentorship, and start-up competitions, encouraging them to develop business ideas and understand real-world business challenges.

what are the challenges you faced/ are facing to uplift the quality of education in your department?

The process of creating question papers hasn’t changed for ages, the only difference being that the faculty are now creating question papers on the computer. They have to make the questions themselves and because of the obvious limitations of humans, the questions get repeated many times.

This again adds to the operational overheads and makes the entire process time-consuming and lengthy. When it comes to classroom teaching, there is almost no variety in assessment tests and students get tested only for those concepts that a faculty teaches in the class room. Though we follow Bloom’s taxonomy, still the question paper has to focus more on application oriented questions.

So, there are considerable pitfalls and challenges in this segment. Further, even if large-scale technology adoption is done via a question paper generator, the cost, training, and integration into the system are some challenges.