IIM Indore in association with Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) and Ministry of Human Resource and Development is organising a Course on ‘Foundations of Mixed Methods Research’ from April 15-24, 2019. The inauguration of the course took place on Monday, April 15, in the presence of Professor Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore and Professor Prabin Panigrahi, Course Coordinator and faculty member IIM Indore. Col. Gururaj Gopinath Pamidi (Retd.), CAO, IIM Indore was also present on the occasion. The course instructors are namely, Dr. Lakshmi S. Iyer, Professor of Information Systems & Director of the Applied Data Analytics Graduate Programme at the Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University and Professor Prabin Panigrahi, Professor in Information Systems area and Chair of Post-Graduate Programme, IIM Indore.
The inauguration began with the introduction by Professor Panigrahi. He welcomed all the 74 participants registered for the programme and gave them a brief about the course.
This was followed by an address by Professor Rai. He began his talk noting the there’s always something to learn from everything. ‘We can always find meaning in someone or something around us. We should always be keen to learn and seek what’s there to learn in something around’, he said.
He then introduced the participants to the three Ks as a key to growth. ‘The first K is Know yourself—know not the superficial identity, not the name or your designation, but know your inner-self. A superficial identity is drawn from something or someone else. But there’s always a deeper level of identity- which is your current identity and is more relevant and contextual’, he said. He believed and encouraged the participants to not only learn from this course in the next ten days, but also learn self- better.
Discussing about the second K—Know your participants, Professor Rai said that one should always deliver what the participants need, not what one already has and wish to give. ‘Otherwise, there might be a sense of achievement when you perform in front of your participants for you received the applause, but you may not be feeling fulfilled—because you didn’t provide them with what they needed’, he said.
The third K is Know your subject—‘The more you learn, the more you find out how ignorant you’re. I hope this course also helps you know many more other research methods which are from the different fields, and help you learn more about what you’re not aware of’, he said.
He concluded saying that education doesn’t make one great, but it makes one humble, and encouraged the participants to absorb as much as possible not only from the course, but also by networking with other participants and faculty members who will be teaching them during the course.
The inaugural session concluded with a tea break which provided a platform to the participants to know each other.