Initiatives

The IQAC of St. Josephs College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda is a foundational committee that assures the quality of services offered by the institution. The quality endeavours of the institution are not limited to a single committee, but under the supervision of IQAC, all the associations, units and committees function collaboratively and unitedly to produce the desired results. As a quality initiative, the IQAC of the academy has pursued two major tasks post accreditation that is linked at improving the academic excellence of the institution. The efforts of the cell were directly towards implementation of the following two initiatives during the past five-year tenure:

  • OBE implementation
  • Blended learning

With the implementation of OBE in the curriculum offered by the institution, the college can assure a result-oriented methodology for the student progression in both academic as well as occupational realms. This has indeed levitated the prospects of our students entering into the employability sector by shielding them with the required set of skills and subject knowledge that can armour them in the world of talents. The blended learning initiatives in the teaching learning aspect have capacitated our students to be more flexible during the fluctuating times. Furthermore, it has ensured that our students are constantly nourished with adequate and appropriate doses of learning experiences that can lead them ahead in life. Both of these practices are hallmarks of quality endeavours taken up by the IQAC in full swing with a guarantee to propel the institution and its students to greater heights.

The IQAC was adamant in implementing the virtuous strategy of OBE in all the course programs offered by the institution. The Outcome Based Education Model ensured that the curriculum met the student-specific intellectual needs by acknowledging the fact that every student is a master of some hidden skill that needs to be identified and promoted in order to excel in the competitive world. Outcome Based Education is a model that focuses on the idea of what is expected of a student as he/she graduates from an institution. This model takes into consideration the desires of a learner and combines it with the expectation of the employment sector to produce results that are beneficial to both the parties. OBE is a system of education giving priority to ends, purpose, accomplishments and results. Technically, OBE integrates psychological, philosophical, sociological and technological principles and practices into education. It is structured in such a way that it keeps the scholars actively involved in productive activities and affirms the students’ progress at each stage with appropriate indicators. OBE enhances the higher educational platform to a place of intellectual adventures and makes the scholars socially productive and accountable. The IQAC has defined the following benefits of implementing OBE into the curriculum:

  • Flexibility: Offers the instructors the freedom and flexibility to design and customise their pedagogical approach with the students.
  • Preparedness: Gives ample time for preparing the students as well as the instructors for the attainment of objectives.
  • Comparison: Helps to compare and analyse results across individuals, batches and classes.
  • Realistic evaluations: the evaluations are spread in terms of peer evaluation, self-evaluation and evaluation from the employers leading to more practical and result oriented efforts.
  • Student participation: The students understand and can identify their desired combination of skills requirements before engaging into a course program giving spaces for student opinion and desires.
Considering the manifold benefits reaped from OBE, the IQAC of St. Josephs College, impartially initiated efforts at mapping the PO, PSO and COs of every course program for a goal oriented educational scenario. The results were doubled when the IQAC was able to blend the technological innovations with OBE. The dEQ: OBE software was employed to assist the complete execution of the process that aided with mapping of PO, PSOs and Cos of the courses programs and with skill based automatic, comprehensible and multiple mode evaluations that slashed down hectic manual labours. A digital touch was given to the examination section by the IQAC in the form of QnSmart Question Bank software that automated the examination and evaluation procedures ensuring impartial and fair modes of student assessment.  Through QnSmart and dEQ software, the institution has shifted its modus operandi to paperless, efficient and smart correspondence. Through this, the ways of the future seemed more comprehensible and appealing for the students and the benefactors of St. Josephs College through the prompt quality inspired actions of the IQAC making the college indeed a ‘Centre of Excellence’.

The IQAC of St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda is a foundational committee that assures the quality of services offered by the institution. The quality endeavours of the institution are not limited to a single committee, but under the supervision of IQAC, all the associations, units and committees function collaboratively and unitedly to produce the desired results. As a quality initiative, the IQAC of the academy has pursued a few major tasks post accreditation that are linked to improving the academic excellence of the institution.  Improving the teaching learning experience in the campus was one among them that attracted tremendous positive responses from our stakeholders. The impressive integration of ICT into pedagogy has transformed the ways of learning in the institution with almost all the classrooms shifting into smart classrooms, convenient blending of technology into administrations and infrastructural facilities capable of holding large e-conferencing podiums, the provision of high-quality amenities for LCS /online/blended teaching- learning and a state-of-art digital studio that can create possibilities of abundant wonders with the creative imaginative powers of its users. The library and the Learning Management System adopted by the institution has made the not-so-easy road of education more appealing and rewarding to our learners. This teaching learning strategy was complemented with the activities of our outreach wing- ‘Jossine Reach’ that became a platform where our learners are guaranteed the joys of fulfilling their social responsibilities towards the society as well as the environment. Their activities have indisputably brought smiles of relief among our neighbouring communities during the recent period of the pandemic and floods in the state. In return, the students learn to attain confidence, empathy and gratification from the noble cause of community service. As for the learners, the institution has a bountiful bag of new programs and value-added courses on novel subjects of occupational relevance that satiate their needs for a secure and independent future. In addition to this, the learners are delivered with a complete package of worthwhile learning experience with need specific rigorous coaching and career development guidance offered for aspiring students ready to crack the shells of competition in the academic and occupational world.

Conducting Academic audits is one of the methods adopted by the IQAC of St. Joseph’s College(autonomous), Irinjalakuda to spread a base of confidence in the institution for its academically oriented quality initiatives. It is a booster for maintaining and improving the academic endeavours that are directed towards student welfare and progression.  This refines the learning environment by constantly attempting to imbibe the novelties of time and chiselling out unwanted entities that consume the precious time allotted to academics. Through these audits, the IQAC has enabled the institution to garner a clear picture of the resources at hand and demonstrates a feasible way to smartly put these resources in its best use. Special attention is directed towards the conduct of the internal and external academic audits where the departments participate in a self and peer evaluatory sessions and later undergo scrutiny from external auditors. The IQAC acts promptly upon receiving the findings from these audits in the form of audit reports for encompassing an objective approach towards the quality initiatives. Following this tradition has positively impacted in the realization of targets mentioned in the strategic plans of the institution and thereby has made the college academically accountable to its students. We believe that every step taken towards the academic excellence of the students is indirectly a step contributing towards the excellence of the institution.

Technology has changed the way we comprehend education in today’s world and as inhabitants of a world where educational revolutions are striding with time, it is inevitable that the educational institutions surf up with the reformative waves hitting the shores of learning. The IQAC of St. Josephs College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda has come up with a radical approach to outshine the complexities of the age through its options of Blended learning by combining the best of both the worlds of offline and online study. With the integration of the ICT facilities into the learning environment, the institution assures that our students never face a disruption in their journey of learning and enrichment. This deploys the students with the options of unlimited access to study materials at the convenience of their time making them self-reliant and responsible enough to derive their means to success. Blended learning was an initiative instituted in the recent past by the college and the pandemic acted as a catalyst in boosting up the prospects of unravelling the potential of this domain by the IQAC for an undisrupted learning environment for the students. The college Learning Management System- Linways acted as the common hub for the students, teachers and administrators to facilitate the academic endeavours without compromising on its quality. As for the faculty, the college houses unmatched amenities for creation of high standard e-contents with the help of a digital iLab studio comprising of 4K resolution cameras, recording and editing software and a greenscreen. This is additionally accompanied with other ICT facilities like multi-media centre, interactive ICT panels, fully fledged library and a central computing system leaving no stone unturned by the institution for providing the best of the learning experience for the students.

IQAC