The five-day faculty development program on Life Skills Management organised by the School of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Management, IIT Bhubaneswar and supported by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), India, concluded on 3rd January 2025. The FDP consisted of theoretical as well as practical sessions conducted by resource persons from various walks of life and was attended by faculties and research scholars from across the country.
Mrs. Madhusmita Sahoo (IAS), the Chief Speaker of the inaugural ceremony set the FDP in motion with her speech that highlighted the significance of emotional intelligence for navigating personal as well as professional lives. Citing theories and instances from varied disciplines like psychology, philosophy and literature, Mrs. Sahoo laid the foundation for the varied, yet equally enriching sessions that followed. The first session of this learning programme was delivered by Swami Maheshatmanandaji (Ramakrishna Matha and Mission, Bhubaneswar) who introduced the concept of life skills, along with the need for life skills management. Sessions on Time Management, and Ethics and Responsibility were taken Lt Col (Dr.) Soumya Prakash Otta and IPS Ms. Sagarika Nath (SP, Khurdha) wherein personal experiences of the resource persons infused life into the concepts disseminated to the participants throughout the course of the FDP. Ms. Nath talked about the Triple train collision in Baleswar district of Odisha during her posting there. Dr. Anup Kelgaonkar’s session on Curiosity put forth intriguing case studies of patients with complaints of regular concerns until the doctor probed further to discover serious health conditions. Prof. Anand Pradhan of IIMC, Dhenakanal highlighted the inevitability of social and cultural competence in order to be able to empathise and accept individual differences and varied viewpoints. A session on ethical decision making was taken by Dr. Rajesh Panda who referred to various case studies shedding light on the intricacies of the said topic. Practical sessions of stress management through Yoga and heartfulness saw enthusiastic involvement by the participants. Almost all of the sessions contained activities for the participants to assess the learning outcomes for that particular session. A special session on Pedagogy, Teaching and Learning was taken by Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar (Director, IIT Bhubaneswar). He highlighted the indicators of student learning, factors which influence this learning, the role of teachers among these factors, and the role of activities and mistakes in learning. He also discussed a recipe for effective and efficient teaching and highlighted the need for identifying the problems learners should be able to solve and the learning outcomes at the very outset of a course or programme.
In the feedback and experience sharing segment of the valedictory ceremony, the participants thanked as well as congratulated Dr. Punyashree Panda, the Coordinator of the FDP, for her vision and design of the sessions that made the FDP holistic and successful. Dr. Dukhabandhu Sahoo, the co-coordinator of the FDP and head of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management thanked the participants for being a part of the FDP and making it possible. Following the valedictory ceremony, the participants were taken for a visit to the library and for a panoramic view of the whole institution.
