MIND MAPPING

Challenge

I am working as Professor & Vice-principal at an engineering college located at Theni,

Tamilnadu, India, and oversee the day to day activities. Currently, the process to obtain  accreditation for the institution is going on and headed by myself. The accreditation process  consists of 7 criteria. For each criterion, lot of data are to be collected for the past three years and  make it in a specified format. To run the process effectively, faculty in-charges are assigned to  each criterion. The different stakeholders are Management, students, parents, faculty, alumni, etc.  The various data’s to be collected are, right from the student’s admission, the academic  performance of students, student activities, faculty members' academic and research, governance  and management, industry connect, placement of students in reputed companies.

Selection

I introduce the mind mapping tool to the team members and instruct them on how to use

this tool. We search the apps for mind mapping and select the “MiMind” app from the Google  Play store. The mind mapping tool provides a different approach to seek a solution to the problem.  My team is really liked mind mapping.

Application

The first step is to create separate verticals for each and every criterion. Then, create sub-

verticals (for accreditation, it termed as key indicators) and assign the faculty to each and every  sub-verticals. The faculty members are eagerly doing this and we got the overall frame for the  accreditation process as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1

Further, each and every criterion are further expanded using mind mapping concepts. For example,  figure 2 shows the expansion of one criteria namely “Curricular aspects” Figure 2

Insight & Approach

After obtaining the mind mapping for accreditation, we realized that what are all the data’s to be  collected and the method of collection. For example, the criteria, curricular aspect had 4 sub- verticals, namely, planning, academic implementation, curriculum enrichment, and feedback.  Further, each sub-verticals are classified. For example, the curricular planning sub-vertical  classified into documentation, courses offered, and participation of faculty in various bodies of  other colleges. For documentation sub-vertical, we have to follow the process that ensures the  effective delivery of the curriculum. But for courses offered sub-vertical, we have to collect the  data i.e number of courses offered, student enrollment, completion rate, etc. To oversee this work,  some faculty assigned to document the process and some other assigned to data collection. Mind  mapping helps us to realize the approach needed for the accreditation process. Really, this tool  helps a lot. After incorporating all the sub-verticals we got the whole dimension of the process.

Now the accreditation process is going on. From this course, I leaned the learning launch tool,  which I planned to introduce to the team.

