Contributor Personality Development Program

The Contributor Personality Development
Program (CPDP) Initiative
For Gujarat
Technological
University
www.i-become.org
Designed &
Developed by I-Become Sponsored by
the Adani Group

The Contributor Personality Development Program (CPDP) Initiative
Objectives
The goal of the Contributor Personality Development Program (CPDP) is to
inspire the students to develop a larger vision of their own career and
become conscious of their role and contribution in the act of collective
institution and nation building.
1. The students of GTU learn to go beyond narrow self-interest and self-seeking
behavior to enlightened self-interest and contributional behavior. This will benefit
both the nation and the student.
2. The students of GTU become more employable and capable of delivering results
to their employers. This will help the students and the employers.
3. The students of GTU will develop the attitudes associated with long term success
such as value creation, team building, and sustainability. This will help the
students, the employers and the society in the longer run.
Key Outcomes :

Stakeholders
Enabling
GTU students
develop as
contributors in
society
Gujarat Technological University (GTU)
• Mandated the program as a 4-credit
course for its students
• Conducts examinations, etc.
I-Become (an educational service provider specializing
in nation & citizenship building initiatives)
• Developed the entire program content and various
delivery components of the initiative - based on the
models of its parent Illumine Lab (based on over 15
years of research in career enablement, mindset
change, and assimilation)
• Developed capacity of faculty of GTU to run programs,
providing ongoing support during the first year
• Developed examination pattern to test for mindset and
choices. Sets papers each semester
Faculty of colleges affiliated to GTU
• Conduct classes as part of course schedule (48
learning-hours covered over one semester)
The Adani Group
(corporate CSR funding)
• Funded the program delivery for GTU in the
first year
• Program is free of cost to all students of GTU

Program Model
I-Become developed the CPDP program model to convert the program concept into a scalable intervention in GTU. This
scalable intervention had six key elements -
1. Systematic Curriculum, covering 48 classroom sessions
CLICK TO ZOOM
2. Comprehensive textbook covering 15 chapters
(URL with excerpts of page samples have been provided).
The textbook provided by I-Become does not give “theories” or
“concepts” to students, but enables students to engage with the
changed thinking (as contributors) in action through real-life
scenarios, workplace case studies, contributor role models, etc.
3. Online ActivGuideTM website framework (URL with
samples of multimedia learning units from the
I-Become ActivGuideTM have been provided).
- Multimedia e-learning support for
students and faculty on the I-Become
ActivGuideTM website.
- Supports immersive learning experience
comprising of more than 350 learning
units (in short bytes of 3-15 mins.)
- Support for faculty including best practice
videos, project guides, references, etc.
4. Comprehensive “Capacity Building Program” for
faculty
- Initial 2 day foundational workshop for faculty
- Mid-semester workshops to help them solve operational
challenges faced on the ground
- Remedial sessions to improve performance in the program
- Process documentation and standards (including class plans
process guides, best practices, etc.)
- Ongoing performance support (including faculty development
modules sent by email, web-based Contributor Classroom
sessions conducted by I-Become master trainers, etc.)
5. Systematic Examination and Testing Framework
This included Multiple Choice Tests and Student Assessment Models
that tests for changed choices and thinking (not for subject
mastery).
6. Active Engagement Model
This included online social-engagement based support for both
teachers and students so that the new concepts are effectively
assimilated.

Quantitative Achievements
• CPDP has been rolled out in 334 GTU-affiliated colleges across Gujarat.
• ~2,00,000 students from GTU have undergone the program including
examinations, as of 2013-14.
The program was initially introduced for the final year students. Later it was
moved to the 2nd semester. This arrangement was to ensure that every student is
covered by the program.
• ~ 800 faculty from GTU-affiliated colleges were trained by I-Become across the
State.
• 100% audits and improvement support provided by I-Become in the first year of
hand-holding, to the colleges covered.

Qualitative Achievements
An independent impact study was conducted by Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE),
Gandhinagar. Key conclusions from the study -
• The course was found to be effective.
• Students cultivated positive skills and attitude.
• They found the course relevant to the present day environment.
• 81.4% students felt this course helped them “know themselves” better.
• 87.7% students felt this subject brought a change in identifying success and
83.9% students felt it brought a change in identifying the career
• 83.7% students felt that by the end of this course they could understand the
relationship and importance of contributorship
• 74.3% felt this course positively impacted their leadership skills
• 76.2% felt this course positively impacted their attitude towards work
Impact of the course as measured by IITE -

Implementation Roadmap
Faculty
Development
I-Become ActivGuideTM Service for ongoing faculty & student
support
Program Delivery
[48-hour program over one semester, delivered by college faculty trained by I-
Become]
JAN 2012 APR 2012FEB
2012
DEC 2011 MAR
2012
MAY
2012
Final
Exam
Faculty
Enabler
Sessions
Program Audit
NOV 2011
Sample of the implementation roadmap for a
semester -
JAN 2012 APR 2012FEB
2012
DEC 2011 MAR
2012
MAY
2012
NOV 2011

Critical Challenges that were overcome
1. Getting multiple stakeholders in a university
system on board
2. Motivating faculty to adopt a new subject
Usually, in a technological university, non-core technical subjects
and their faculty are not given much importance – leading to
demotivation of the faculty.
Thus one more challenge addressed was to inspire, motivate,
and enable faculty to adopt this subject positively. This involved –
enabling the appreciation of the necessity of building contributors,
re-examining the way they see their own roles in the lives of
students, re-examining assumptions about the students they
teach, and so on.
3. Communicating value of the program to students 4. Designing an examination model that does not
make students feel “evaluated”, yet ensuring
students take the program seriously
On one hand, an orientation change program like this requires a non-
evaluative approach (i.e. students should not feel evaluated) leaving
each individual free to improve on his/ her own journey. Yet having no
examinations in a subject like this in a Public University system with
over 100,000 students can lead to a large mass of students not taking
the program seriously. Thus the notion of grading was relooked at,
and a new model of testing was developed. In this model the purpose
of grading and examination was not to test mastery of the subject, but
to test improvement of an individual on a journey of change. This
became the basis for the design of the examination pattern and
papers for this subject.
5. Enabling colleges with low commitment to improve performance systematically
A peer support network was introduced where colleges audited and graded as ‘A’ and ‘B’, helped the ‘C’ and ‘F’ Grade colleges in their geography
improve. Further, based on the audit, precise recommendations for improvement were provided. Remedial workshops were held for ‘C’ and ‘F’ Grade
colleges.
Vision sharing and on-boarding was needed at several levels –
-Preliminary pilots for demonstrated effects
-Vision sharing sessions with the State Education Minister, senior
representatives of the university system, syllabus committee.
-Vision sharing with TPOs (Training and Placement Officers).
-Vision sharing with institutional heads and influencers of colleges.
-Giving faculty vision sharing packs.
-Ongoing sharing through the GTU website and newsletters
To enable students take the program seriously, it was necessary to enable
students themselves connect with the relevance and value of the program in
their lives and for their future careers. This included –
-‘Start-up Kit’ provided for faculty to conduct introductory sessions to share
value with students.
-Training faculty in value-sharing via email and web-based modules.
-Giving students a ‘value exploration’ module on the I-Become ActivGuideTM.
-Connecting content and discussions to their career and future work-life
success.
-Engaging with students via Facebook.

Key Innovations
1. Innovation in the subject matter
The CPDP was a new subject matter related to transforming the
person’s overall approach and attitude to work. This new subject
matter led to innovations in –
-The curriculum design which does not define key concept or theory
topics, but maps an individual’s journey of change eg: how my identity
shifts, what practices help me develop the ideal, etc.
-The content design which maps the individual’s context, that is the
range of career and workplace scenarios in which the journey of
change reveals in action; role models; case stories; and so on.
-The examination framework which does not test for conceptual
comprehension, rather it tests for mindset and orientation changes.
Thus the exam questions are multiple-choice real-world scenarios
checking for choices and behavior changes.
2. Innovation in design of classroom experiences
The subject “Contributor Personality” ideal cannot be “taught”, but
needs to be “discovered” by each individual by him/ herself. Thus, the
classroom experiences were not based on the traditional teaching
model (where teacher imparts concepts), but was designed around
structured peer learning experiences where – through discussions,
group thinking, group presentations, students clarify the key arguments
in their mind. These were followed by projects where they got a
chance to see it in action.
3. The I-Become ActivGuideTM website
The self-learning environment in the I-Become ActivGuideTM website
was designed to support students with an immersive learning
experience. It gave students the freedom to explore the foundations,
go deeper into the conceptual arguments, get exposure to a wide
range of role models, and learn through scenario-based self-testing.
4. Innovation in faculty capacity development
To enable faculty across ~350 colleges of a public university system
rapidly build capacity to deliver a new orientation-change subject, in a
short period of time, a new model of faculty training was used. This
involved preliminary exposure training and practice in a 2-day
foundations workshop for 2 teachers of each college along with a
comprehensive ongoing support infrastructure to enable delivery and
gradual capacity development in the form of the I-Become
ActivGuideTM service. This included web-based facilitated classroom
sessions, development modules via email, and web-resources such as
process guides, concept guides, best practice videos, etc.
5. Innovation in measurement of delivery
To enable colleges and their faculty to improve in their delivery, an
“enabling measurement” framework was designed that formed the
basis of the delivery audits. This proposed a “Ladder of
Improvement” for colleges (with A, B, C, F grades for colleges on
different levels of the ladder) rather than just evaluation of
performance.
6. Innovation in the public-private partnership model
The partnership model brought 3 stakeholders together in a
collaborative effort to raise the standard of delivery of such a program.
This initiative showcased a model of how industry, educational service
providers, and universities can work together to raise educational
standards.

How Scalability was achieved
1. Scaling changes in thinking and orientation
Transformation of thinking or orientation is usually a product of
personal counseling and guidance, dependent on an expert guide.
This was made into scalable model by translating the ‘subjective’
transformation into the 48 critical mental model shifts needed for such
change to take place in an individual. Through this methodology, each
individual could be supported precisely to learn and improve on each
of these 48 shifts.
2 : Scaling the ‘discovery’ experience for students
This kind of transformation usually requires expert counselors /
teachers who can create guided discovery experiences for individuals.
This extent of expertise is not possible across such a large public
university system. Thus this program used ‘Illumine’s Structured
Discovery Methodology’ to scale the ‘discovery’ experience for
students, that could be run by the existing faculty even if they have
less experience with discovery learning mechanisms.
3 : Scaling the delivery across the university
Rapid scale-up of the delivery of the program (capacity to deliver in
place within a period 3 months) across the Gujarat Technological
University system (~500 colleges across Gujarat state), yet keeping up
the quality standards of delivery. (This was made possible through the
new faculty capacity development framework described in the previous
slide item no.4)
4 : Scaling delivery commitments by partners
The usual approach to ensure standards is by introducing detailed
process certification and standards. However, when working in a
public university system having so many (~500) colleges under its
umbrella, each functioning as independent entity, it is hard to “control”
and impose standards. Thus, the enabling “Ladder of Improvement”
was used to build the delivery audits. Colleges were rated on a scale
of A (role model colleges), B (on-track colleges), C (colleges with
critical disablers that need to be addressed), and F (severely
challenged colleges) – however this was not just an evaluation, but put
them on a ladder of growth to migrate up the ladder, where enabling
inputs were provided to support their improvement. This led to many
colleges migrating from lower grades to higher grades. Thus the audit
framework was a fundamental innovation in scalable partnering.

Current Status
At present,
1.There is a pool of ~800 trained teachers available
across GTU colleges, with textbooks distributed through
book stores.
2.The program has been running for the last 4
semesters and has thus far covered over 2 lakh
students. It continues to be run for GTU students.

Contributor Personality Development Program

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Contributor Personality Development Program (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Contributor Personality Development Program