The Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices (CEAP), in collaboration with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) and Department of Research & Development, successfully organized a five-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on ‘Learning Assessment and Pedagogical Research’ for the faculty members of NICMAR University, Pune, from 25th to 29th November 2024.
Session on Pedagogy-Oriented Action Research was conducted by Dr. Preeti Baligar, Adjunct Professor at KG Reddy College of Engineering and Technology and former Director at the Centre for Engineering Education Research, KLE Technological University. Another session on Outcome-Based Education and Assessments was directed by Dr. Sophia Gaikwad, Head of the Symbiosis Teaching Learning Resource Centre, Symbiosis International University.
A practical session on Instructional Design and Assessment Using Audio-Visual Tools (e.g., Swayam, MOOC), was led by Mr. Ganesh Lokhande, Certified Instructional Designer. In addition, a thought-provoking session on Project-Based, Problem-Based, and Project-Centered Learning and Assessment, was steered by the trio from VIIT - Dr. Shreenivas Londhe, Dr. Preeti Kulkarni, and Dr. Pradnya Dixit.
At the end, a technical session on Generative AI and Prompt Engineering for Teaching and Research was engaged by Dr. Poorna Shankar, Dean - R&D at Indira College of Engineering and Management. This enriching programme empowered faculty members to innovate in teaching practices, refine assessment strategies, and explore new research frontiers. The active participation and enthusiasm of all attendees made the event a grand success.

The Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices, in collaboration with IQAC organised a second edition of its annual event, "Teaching and Learning Practices Showcase 2024". This faculty symposium is an event dedicated to highlighting innovative and effective pedagogical practices. It provides faculty members a platform for showcasing their unique and varied classroom teaching practices for bringing in innovation in teaching.
Dr. Gauri Shiurkar, Director- School of Architecture, Urban Development & Planning, Symbiosis Skills and Professional University, Pune and Dr. Sanjay Mali, Principal, PGDM, National Insurance Academy, Balewadi, Pune were the expert judges for this event. Dr. Sushma Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor, NICMAR University, Pune spoke about the importance of innovation in pedagogy in academic.
The first winning entry of this year was a group presentation by Dr. Avinash Bagul and Dr. Sudhir Ambekar about innovative teaching methods and gamification in teaching Operations Research. The Second-best entry of the event was a presentation on ‘Innovative teaching methods and solutions to student engagement problems’ by Dr. Dhaarna. Dr. Kirti Rajhans, Head-CoEAP outlined the objectives of the event and its role in fostering a culture of best teaching learning practices at NICMAR University.

The Department of Research & Development in collaboration with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) and The Center of Excellence in Academic Practices (CoEAP) organized an in-person 5-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) at NICMAR University, Pune from (June 24 to 28, 2024) that delved on Qualitative Research.
The FDP began with the inaugural address by Dr. Anil Kashyap, President & Chancellor; Dr. Sushma Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor and Dr. Rajni Kant Rajhans, Dean Research & Development Program, which set the tone for Programme.
The resource persons for the FDP were Dr. Jaspreet Kaur, Dr. Sumit Narula, Dr. Ajoy Kumar Dey and Ms. Aishwarya Nayal as resources persons.

Fostering the culture of continuous learning, The Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices, in collaboration with IQAC organized three days Leadership Development Program for the leadership team of NICMAR University, comprising of all Deans and Heads. It was two days outbound training program at Uksaan, Kamshet and the third day training was within the campus. The training was led by Mr. Chetan Patil & Ms. Shalaka from Explorentia Organizational Consultants.
The participants were guided through various challenging activities during the outbound training. The objective was to facilitate change, think differently and find newer ways of working together and collaborating. Everyone participated enthusiastically in this training, challenging themselves to try new things, reflect on it and then respond.

The Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices organised an Open forum discussion on the topic, “Chat-GPT and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Should academia and industry fear it or embrace it?” with Dr. Noushad Ali Naseem, from Massey University, New Zealand, on 16th Jan. 2024.
Prof. Naseem has over 30 years’ experience as a construction professional and is an esteemed academician. He has worked in the UK, Malaysia, and New Zealand and was a former director of the Malaysian branches of two international project management and construction contracts consultancies. Prof. Naseem deliberated on the constructive and innovative use of Chat GPT in teaching and student assessment. He also discussed about the misuse of this technology by students and how academics can control it and rather use it for developing their critical thinking skills. The faculty members participated enthusiastically in this open forum discussion.

Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices in collaboration with IQAC and Department of Research organised a five days faculty development program on, the ‘Use of ICT and Design Thinking in Teaching’. The objective was to encourage faculty members to use innovative digital tools and adopt creative methods in their teaching learning process. Dr. Sushma Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor, NICMAR University, Pune, delivered the inaugural address and valedictory address on faculty training needs and takeaways from the training.
Mr. Senthil Kumar, Founder & Director, MADIEE Games and Ms. Shalaka G., Director of Conferences and Global Events, International Association of Facilitators took sessions on ‘Use of Physical and online simulations and gamification in teaching’.
Dr. Usha Verma, Associate Professor and Head CELT (Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching) took hands on sessions on various ICT tools in teaching wherein she introduced faculty members with use and concepts of visual design and interactive presentations, using canva for presentations and use of digital softwares for formative and summative assessment and for student engagement.
Dr. Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist Founder, Inflexion Point Consulting (Alumnus of IIM Mumbai and IIM Bangalore), took sessions on ‘how to use design thinking approach and methods for making teaching and research effective’.

NICMAR University, Pune inaugurated a new initiative, "Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices" and a facility of the same, specially created for the enhancement of teaching-learning practices at the University. The Centre was inaugurated on December. 22, 2023, by Dr. Krishna Vedula, Executive Director of Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) and Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA.
The objective of this Centre is to provide high quality, integrated, and flexible academic and pedagogical practices which will directly impact the learning experiences of students and their learning outcomes. The aim is to foster a culture of excellence in academic practices by shifting focus from traditional teacher-driven learning to student-centric, outcome-based learning, as advocated by NEP 2020. The event was coordinated by Dr. Anil Agarwal, Dean Academics, and Dr. Kirti Rajhans, Head, Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices at NICMAR University, Pune.

The Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices organized a guest seminar on “Teaching Learning Practices at Wentworth, USA” for all faculty members of NICMAR University on 1st December. 2023. The resource person was Dr. Hariharan Naganathan, Assistant Professor in the Construction Management area, School of Management, Wentworth Institute of Technology, USA.
Dr. Hariharan shared about his use of industrial internship as a pedagogical tool for teaching courses in Construction Management. He discussed how using that experience he created innovative assignments and better teaching experiences for his students, making them understand and solve real-life problems.
Another guest seminar on the topic, “Learning Enhancement Initiatives” was organized by the Centre of Excellence for Academic Practices for all faculty members of NICMAR on 22nd December 2023. Dr. Krishna Vedula, Executive Director of Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) and Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA, was the resource person for this seminar.
Dr. Krishna Vedula highlighted the importance of faculty development initiatives and spoke about various innovative learning enhancement initiatives for increasing the students learning in the classroom.

Centre for Academic Practice in collaboration with IQAC conducted two expert sessions on "Outcome Based Education" for all faculty members of NICMAR University Pune, on 2nd August and on 9th August, 2023. This expert training session was organized in view of the huge emphasis laid in NEP 2020 and the NAAC assessment criteria on implementing 'Outcome Based Education' in curriculum design, student assessment and teaching learning methods.
Dr. Sushma Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor, NUP, conducted this expert training session. She guided the faculty members about the role and importance of 'Outcome Based Education' in the Academic Practices, how to implement it in the current system and how to measure the student performance and attainment of course outcomes through certain systematic interventions.

In continuation with sessions conducted in August 2023, Centre for Academic Practice in collaboration with IQAC conducted two more expert sessions on "Outcome Based Education" for all faculty members of NICMAR University Pune, on September 1, 2023, and September 20, 2023. Dr. Sushma Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor, NICMAR University, conducted this expert training session.
She gave hands-on training to the faculty members in these two sessions about 'Calculation of Programme and Course Outcome Attainment scores' which will help faculty to evaluate their own teaching-learning inputs and plan the strategies to improve it after understanding the weak areas. The sessions facilitated enthusiastic interactions amongst all faculty members and paved the way for implementing the best practices of Outcome Based Education for quality improvement and assessment at NICMAR university.

Academic Practice Directorate, NICMAR University, Pune organized a two-days faculty development program titled, ‘Learning and Teaching for Professional Excellence and an Enhanced Student Experience', on 27th and 28th April 2023. The resource person for the FDP was, Prof. Fiona Smart, an international Learning and Teaching Enhancement Consultant. The event was graced by the presence of Dr. Anil Kashyap, President and Chancellor, NICMAR University, Dr. Mrs. Sushma S. Kulkarni, Vice-Chancellor, NICMAR University, Pune and Dr. Poonam Kashyap, Director of Strategy and External Partnerships for NICMAR Group of Institutions.
Prof. Fiona Smart is currently a visiting professor at Edinburgh Napier University and was earlier Head of the Department of Learning and Teaching at Edinburgh Napier University. She is also a visiting professor at UWE, Bristol, UK. As a learning and teaching enhancement consultant, Prof. Fiona works in the UK and internationally to support and drive strategic change which results in demonstrable impact.
The faculty benefitted from the experienced deliberations by Dr. Fiona Smart. As the pedagogy for the FDP was activity based, all the faculty had hands-on experience with topics such as "Effective Curriculum Design", "Engaging Students as Learners: Pedagogical Techniques, Innovations and Best Practices", "Assessing Learning: Evaluating Effectiveness" and "Enabling Student Feedback, Evaluating the Curriculum and Continuous Improvement of Learning Programs".

The Academic Practice Directorate (APD) organized a symposium titled "Teaching and Learning Practices Showcase 2023", on April 26, 2023 at NICMAR University's Pune Campus to provide a forum for the discussion of varied innovative pedagogical practices adopted by faculty members to teach certain niche courses.
The event began with a warm welcome of Prof. Fiona Smart who works as an international teaching-learning consultant. She is former department head and now a visiting Professor at Edinburgh Napier University Scotland and a visiting Professor at UWE, Bristol apart from her training and consulting work. Dr. Anil Kashyap, President and Chancellor, NICMAR University, in his inaugural address, highlighted the importance of deliberations needed on innovations in teaching-learning process and laid emphasis on adopting the best practices followed in the topmost universities in the world.
Dr. Mrs. Sushma S. Kulkarni, Vice-Chancellor, NICMAR University, Pune, in her introductory address, spoke about the importance of quality in teaching-learning systems and encouraged the faculty members to actively participate and draw the best from each other. Dr. Poonam Kashyap, Director of Strategy and External Partnerships for NICMAR Group of Institutions was the judge for the event along with Prof. Fiona Smart.
In total, seven teams of NICMAR faculty members presented their innovations in teaching- learning practices. The presentations and the report submissions were judged by Dr. Poonam Kashyap, Director of Strategy and External Partnerships for NICMAR Group of Institutions, and Dr. Fiona Smart.
All participants presented interesting and innovative teaching and assessment methodologies in the showcase and sparked interesting discussions and conversations. The 'Best Academic Practice Award' of the year 2023 was given to Prof. Janhavi Abhang and Prof. Priyanka Bendigiri. The winners were felicitated by Dr. Fiona Smart. Overall, the event was an enriching experience for everyone.

The Academic Practice Directorate (APD) team organized an interactive Faculty Development Program (FDP) on “Innovative Pedagogical initiatives in teaching construction management subjects” at NICMAR University, Pune, on March 15, 2023. The resource person for this FDP was Dr. Venkata Santosh Kumar Delhi. Dr. Venkata Santosh earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras.
He currently serves as Associate Professor and Anantrao Jagtap Chair in Construction Management at the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay. The speaker discussed various pedagogical initiatives to make the class more engaging for construction management students; for example, a broken square activity was conducted, highlighting the lesson that while working in groups, members must be sensitive and responsive to the needs of other members of the group.
Also, another activity of planning was conducted in groups. The key takeaways were inter-project and intra-project learning, knowledge sharing, and optimal scheduling of activities.

NICMAR Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD) organised a Training Needs Assessment session for assessment of faculty training needs on 16th August 2022 and following this, a Leadership Training Session was organised on 17th August 2022 for all Deans of NICMAR University.
The training session addressed issues such as conflict management, stress management, team skills and image management. Both sessions were conducted in a highly interactive manner and were well received by the training participants.

Expert Talk @Pune NICMAR Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD) organized a talk on, “Teaching, Learning and Assessment Practices in U.K. Universities" by Dr Poonam Kashyap, Senior Lecturer in Engineering Management, University of West England (UWE Bristol).
She highlighted the importance of Problem-based learning (PBL), simultaneous sharing of information with the various stakeholders, and engagement of industry experts in delivery of select topics. The session was well attended by NICMAR Pune faculty and was followed by enthusiastic interaction with the resource person. It helped to trigger a lot of meaningful interactions on pedagogy and innovative teaching learning methods

For NICMAR Staff Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), NICMAR Pune, in association with Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD), NICMAR Pune, organized a gender sensitization training program, titled, ‘Harmony: A Dialogue on Workplace Inclusivity’, for the staff members at all campuses in two batches. Col. (Retd.) Anand Bapat, a certified gender sensitization training expert from National Labour Institute, Noida was the resource person.
Guest Talks @Hyderabad Following guest lectures were organised for the QSCM and HSEM students as a knowledge sharing initiative and also for enhancement of their skills: “Managing Environmental Sustainability in Construction Industry” by Dr. Vijaya Pavaluri, Sustainability consultant and Professor RBVRR Women’s College. “Mental Health and Emotional Intelligence” by Ms. Sri Vangipurapu, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist.

Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), NICMAR Pune, in association with Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD), organized ‘Harmony: A Dialogue on Workplace Inclusivity’, for all faculty and staff members across campuses. Col. (Retd.) Anand Bapat, a certified gender sensitization training expert from National Labour Institute, Noida was empanelled the resource person. Faculty Development Programme @NICMAR Hyderabad A one-day FDP on Managerial Skills for the Workplace was organized for the faculty members of NIC MAR Hyderabad. Around 25 faculty members participated in the sessions.

NICMAR Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD) organized faculty development programme (FDP) titled "Pedagogical Interventions for Professional Excellence in Management Education”. The resource person was Dr R. Srinivasan, Professor and Chairperson of MBA & MBA (Business Analytics) programmes at IIM Bangalore.
Dr R. Srinivasan engaged the faculty members for two days in interactive sessions providing hands-on experience of teaching-learning processes, various pedagogical tools, course design basics, assessments and evaluation, case study method and feedback processes.