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Purpose: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-based English textbooks and question papers in developing second-language higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). Design/methodology/approach: Descriptive analysis establishes a causal relationship between learning objectives and second language (L2) writing proficiency. Content analysis is used to compare and analyze tabulated data for textbooks and question papers for the English language by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and CBSE. This method categorizes the materials and their assessments under HOTS and lower-order thinking skills to ascertain the relationship between learning objectives and L2 writing proficiency. Findings: The study highlights teaching material and assessment shortcomings and their alignment with learning outcomes to enhance students' writing skills. It underscores the need for HOTS-focused materials, discussing their impact on writing skills. The study also explores how textbook–question paper mismatch hampers Bloom's taxonomy-based cognitive skills. Practical implications: This research illuminates the efficacy of teaching and learning English as a second language (ESL) writing skills to improve the quality of education, which has real-world implications. The study highlights flaws in the educational system in India and suggests curricular and pedagogical changes. Originality/value: The research examines NCERT and CBSE ESL textbooks and question papers to align teaching and assessment methods. The results aim to improve education through ESL writers' HOTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a model developed through a thorough qualitative analysis of pertinent stakeholder perceptions that can be used to map Master of Business Administration (MBA) students' aspirations, goals, strengths and weaknesses to create optimal interventions and enable better employability. Design/methodology/approach: This study used an exploratory research design. The authors conducted interviews with 60 stakeholders to identify themes that form constituents of the E-Career Canvas for Individuals (E-CCI) model. To assess the impact of the proposed initiative, 30 random participants were chosen for interviews from among alumni, present students, faculty, recruiters and the university administration across five years. Findings: The proposed model captures the short-term and long-term goals of students concerning their career aspirations. This study has qualitatively explored the impacts of the E-CCI initiative on graduating students' outcomes. The impacts are positive. The findings also suggest that recruiters do experience an incremental difference among graduates who have participated in the E-CCI program at an educational institute in India. Practical implications: Business schools may adopt this model to create profiles of their MBA students. Students, as well as institutional administration, may work on mitigating the shortcomings and weaknesses identified through E-CCI initiatives and target the roles matching the profiles of students during placements. Originality/value: This paper presents a novel model of E-CCI to capture the aspirations of MBA graduates and direct them to fulfil their goals. This study takes into consideration the viewpoints of key stakeholders involved to map the effectiveness of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of select technical higher education institutes of national importance in India. This helps to judge the efficiency and effectiveness of an institute to provide valuable insights on performance measurement and effectiveness not only to the respective institute but also to governmental agencies and policymakers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper makes a comparative analysis across various educational institutes of repute. This paper looks at the performance of four technical higher education institutes of India. An integrated data envelopment analysis–analytic hierarchy processing (DEA–AHP) approach has been used to compare and evaluate the relative efficiencies in terms of input provided to the institute to produce outputs. Findings – The results depict the performances of the four institutes over the period of five years and, in turn, help assess the increase or decrease in the performance of a particular institute in comparative assessment. The paper also helps identify the most efficient institute among the four institutes that have been compared, in terms of academic efficiency, research efficiency, teaching efficiency and consulting efficiency. Practical implications – A study like this would furnish an insight into the performance of the select higher educational institutes. The findings can be useful for policymakers, educational planners and administrators in designing a system based on various criteria that can help improve the overall efficiency and decide about benchmarking and funding strategies. Originality/value – This paper is an attempt toward defining, conceptualizing and measuring performance effectiveness of institutes of higher education in the Indian context. The effort at the integration of the methodologies (through comparison and DEA–AHP) has helped to provide insights that could not have been obtained through the use of the methods or techniques alone. The paper has helped identify critical strategic issues and parameters which when implemented would be useful for policymakers, educational planners and administrators in designing a system based on various criteria that can help improve the overall efficiency of educational institutes in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges for management education in India and explain their nature, significance and interrelations using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM), an innovative version of Warfield’s interpretive structural modelling (ISM). Design/methodology/approach – The challenges have been drawn from literature and validated by an empirical study conducted through questionnaires administered electronically and personally to 250 management graduates. TISM has been applied to 14 finalised factors. Findings – All the identified factors, except accreditation, were found to be important. Ineffective regulatory bodies and ineffective leadership emerged as the biggest roadblocks. Several significant interrelations were found which were sometimes not revealed by plain observation. Originality/value – The existing literature has discussed the challenges for management education but not their interrelations. This paper uses TISM to demonstrate the relationships between different challenges and to explain the logic behind the relationships. The results would be useful for the owners (or managers) of management institutes faced with the same challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The government has taken an initiative to improve the MBBS admission process in the country to eradicate the academic dishonesty and encourage the deserving candidates for MBBS enrolment. The Supreme Court has paved the way to hold the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), a common entrance test for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses, from the 2016-17 academic year onwards. This paper aims to focus on the contention raised by various stakeholders associated with it and examines the pass percentage of plus two State Board examinations in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and admission details for 2016 and 2017. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers adopted exploratory research. The researchers studied the medical admission process at national and global levels. They collected data of MBBS admission, NEET, State Board and CBSE plus two results and information from newspapers, website and magazine articles. Many experts published articles in newspapers. No study analysed data and made an exhaustive exploratory study. This motivates the researcher to do the same. Simple percentage, percentage change, correlation analysis and the sign test are used to determine whether the State Board or CBSE students get benefitted out of NEET to become medical professionals. Findings: There is no significant relationship between MBBS enrolment of students (both State Board and CBSE students) before and after the NEET was introduced. From correlation analysis, it is inferred that the pass percentage of students who studied under State Board and MBBS enrolment were lesser in 2017 than 2016. It is also inferred that many districts students' enrolment in MBBS course have increased from 2016 to 2017. The researchers concluded that because of NEET, CBSE students got more enrolment in MBBS course in 2017 compared with State Board students in 2016. Research limitations/implications: The researchers found that the students with State Board examinations enrolled in lesser number for MBBS course than CBSE students in Tamil Nadu. There is a scope for improvement in designing and implementing NEET with the deliberations among different stakeholders involved with the medical education system, which will help in reducing the rampant corruption and, most importantly, pave the way for a selection based on merit in medical education. Possibly, this will also work as a safeguard to the sanctity of the medical profession in India and at the global level. Originality/value: The researcher collected data from newspapers, websites and journals. Many experts discuss about, for and against NEET. No one analysed the data. This is a unique article that has more statistical analysis and meaningful interpretations from analysis. This paper will be useful to the government at national and global levels to frame medical admission procedure and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss students' assessment of quality related issues in engineering education in India. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses primary survey data of 1,178 undergraduate engineering students in Delhi, India, in 2009-2010. Students' experience and views of four important aspects such as teaching methods used in the classroom, evaluation pattern, skills acquired by students during the course and the involvement of students in different activities other than classroom teaching are discussed using descriptive statistics and correlation to examine the quality issues. Findings: The study finds that the lecture method is still dominant in the teaching and learning of engineering institutions compared to technical demonstration and laboratory work. Around half of the engineering students reported that they had never gone through any field work or industrial visits during their entire program of study. Involvement of students in the activities other than classroom teaching (e.g. working on research projects, attending engineering internships, studying a foreign language and opting for interdisciplinary courses) is more prevalent in government institutions compared to private institutions. The findings suggest that engineering institutions (particularly private colleges) should change their focus from traditional methods of teaching and evaluation of students to interactive methods of learning to improve the quality of technical education in India. Originality/value: The literature reveals that the quality assessment of engineering and technical education in India is largely based on the information collected from stakeholders other than students. Therefore, this study contributes a new dimension to the existing literature by considering students' assessment of the quality of engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To overcome the spread of the noble coronavirus, the lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020 by the Government of India which adversely affected the education system in the country and changed the traditional classroom teaching to online teaching. This paper aims to explore the factors encouraging university teachers to use and adopt e-learning systems during the COVID-19 pandemic and to find out the major challenges faced by them in adopting e-learning systems in Odisha, an Indian State. Design/methodology/approach: The population of this study was teachers of different universities in Odisha, India. An online questionnaire was administered to collect data from the teachers of the state who were involved in the e-learning system for taking their online classes during the COVID-19 situation. During the study 610 valid responses were processed for data analysis. The results of the analysis were presented through factor analysis, t-test and structural equation model. Findings: The findings revealed three major factors as user-friendly, convenient and performance encouraged teachers to use and adopt e-learning systems. The results also identified major challenges such as accessibility to the internet, information and communication technologies literacy and skills and technological support, faced by university teachers in adopting e-learning systems. Research limitations/implications: The findings of the study have suggested that the university authorities can develop an effective e-learning system to support their teachers for the continuance of education and learning opportunities. The insights of this study can help the regulatory authorities of higher education to redesign policy and infrastructure for promoting effective e-learning systems. Originality/value: Many studies have been conducted in relation to e-learning during COVID-19. However, this is a unique study that identifies supporting factors and addresses the challenges faced by university teachers in adopting an e-learning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic led education institutions to move all face-to-face (F2F) courses online. The situation is unique in that teachers and students can make a direct comparison of their courses before (F2F) and after COVID-19 (online). This study aims to analyze teachers' viewpoints for this unprecedented change. Design/methodology/approach: The study followed a mixed-method approach within an ex post facto survey research design. Research tools were distributed among 200 Indian secondary school teachers following a heterogeneous purposive sampling technique. As the study was conducted during the pandemic backdrop researchers used Google forms and telephonic interviews to collect data. Findings: Teachers viewed positively to this shift from F2F to online teaching-learning (OTL). They were found to have an overall moderate level of online teaching efficacy and where good efficacy prevails there found minimal concern for infrastructure, an attitude showing least concern for "what is not" and more concerned with "what they can do with what is having." A statistically significant effect of teacher efficacy was found on their perception of OTL infrastructure that supports this strong conviction among few teachers. Statistical analysis revealed for every 1 standard unit increase in self-efficacy, the perceived OTL infrastructure was to be increased by 0.997 standard units which support the strong correlation between the two chosen cognitive variables (r = 0.8). Besides, teachers were not found as a homogeneous group concerning their reported readiness for online teaching yet, different subgroups of teachers exist which may require different approaches for support and counseling. Originality/value: The paper reports an original empirical survey conducted in India and the write-up is based strictly on the survey findings only. An exclusive analysis of teachers' views of their efficacy and perceived OTL infrastructure. At the same time, path-breaking in analyzing the chemistry between the two variables which will help improving apposite culture, practice and understanding of the digital pedagogy securing quality OTL in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the relevant enablers and barriers related to technical education. It seeks to critically analyze the relationship amongst them so that policy makers can focus on relevant parameters to improve the service quality of technical education. Design/methodology/approach – The present study employs the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach to model the crucial parameters of technical education. The parameters discussed are categorized under "enablers" and "barriers". The enablers would help policy makers to improve and develop the curriculum of the technical education and the identifying barriers would help the decision maker to improve upon those variables. Findings – The major findings of this study are to prioritize the strategic parameters in reducing the risks associated with technical education. The model also proposes a hierarchical structure classifying the parameters as drivers and enablers. Research limitations/implications – The study proposes a scientific way to model the enablers and barriers to become a progressive institution in the emerging era of globalization and modernization. This would help to prioritize the issues as the enablers and barriers are hierarchically structured and categorized. Practical implications – The paper maps out a course of action and the adoption of the proposed framework would provide a competitive edge for India over others. Also, the various stakeholders would be satisfied, which would be beneficial for the system as a whole. Originality/value – The application of ISM to the decision making process is the unique feature in the field of technical education in India. The integrated framework of policy related parameters would contribute towards overall growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper aims to discuss current Technical Education scenarios in India. It proposes modelling the factors affecting quality in a technical institute and then applying a suitable technique for assessment, comparison and ranking. Design/methodology/approach – The paper chose graph theoretic approach for quantification of quality-enabled model. Further, the paper has validated the approach by taking examples of institutions and applying the methodology. Findings – The paper provides a systematic methodology to build a quality model for quantification of various factors in a technical institute. The qualitative effect represented in form of a single numerical index is a novel method for such representations. The illustrated methodology in the paper is equally useful for comparison and ranking of a set of institutes. Research limitations/implications – Because of the chosen factors in the approach, the methodology may not be equally suitable based on type and size of institute and the geographical location. Practical implications – The paper includes demonstration on application of methodology for comparing the quality in a quantitative manner. The dynamic model allows changing factors and/or their effects as per requirement. Social implications – In future, the methodology can be taken up by government/regulatory bodies and can convey the comparisons of institutions to stakeholders including students and parents. Originality/value – This paper attempts to develop a novel method for comparing quality that can be used by accreditation bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In India, national accreditation agencies stipulate that internal quality control in higher education institutions (HEIs) is to be institutionalized through internal quality assurance cells that are responsible for implementing and controlling quality systems. As the concept of goal congruence is central to a control process, this study aims to examine whether goal congruence is observed in such institutions. The impact of the absence of goal congruence on the quality of performance in higher education was also examined. Design/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional study measured the impact of goal congruence or the lack thereof on the performance quality of HEIs as defined in the evaluation criteria of the apex accreditation agency, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. Two hypotheses were tested using t-tests and regression analysis. Focus group discussions were conducted to elicit participants' suggestions. Findings: The results showed a lack of goal congruence between HEIs' quality goals and their faculty's personal goals, which adversely impacts the quality of their performance, as indicated by an average disagreement of 81% on a ten-statement scale. Goal congruence as an independent variable explained 63% of the variability in HEIs' performance quality, and the results were statistically significant, indicating that lack of goal congruence is an important contributor to poor performance among HEIs. Originality/value: Accreditation of HEIs is a global practice; hence, the findings of this study and the importance of goal congruence apply not only to India but also to HEIs globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Keeping in mind the urgent need to deliver quality education in higher education institutes, the current paper seeks to measure the quality perception of management students in India. Design/methodology/approach – Based on an exploratory study a modified version of SERVQUAL was employed as the research instrument. Data were collected from young students between the ages of 21-25 years. Findings – The research instrument, EduQUAL, comprising 28 items tested well for both reliability and validity. Five dimensions of the scale, namely learning outcomes, responsiveness, physical facilities, personality development and academics, were identified. The results obtained pointed at the negative quality gaps in all the five dimensions of EduQUAL. The highest negative gap was visible in the physical facilities dimension and lowest negative score in case of academics dimension. There were significant differences between perceptions and expectations of students with respect to all the five dimensions of the scale (p<0.001). Research limitations/implications – The study was confined to three public educational institutes so the generalizations for the entire nation have to be used cautiously. Therefore, the researchers are encouraged to extend this research to private and foreign universities as well. Practical implications – The current study provides valuable insights into the quality of higher education perceived by students in India. Originality/value – The study points out the seriousness required of the policy makers in ensuring the quality of higher education rather than being concerned with only quantitative increase of higher education institutes. It seeks to draw the attention of the administration towards areas of performance where improvements are required or more resources need to be diverted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to discuss the characteristics that describe a rubric. It aims to propose a systematic method for developing curriculum wide rubrics and to discuss their potential utility for program quality assessment. Design/methodology/approach - Implementation of rubrics is a recent phenomenon in higher education. Prior research and theoretical issues related to rubric design and development are discussed. The proposed method for rubric development is illustrated by deriving generic analytic scoring rubrics for two assessment methods, namely projects and cases in a Master's level business program in India. Aspects related to the validity of the rubrics developed are investigated and results of reliability study conducted using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) are reported. Findings - Upon testing, the rubrics were found to be reliable and valid grading tools. Results of inter-rater and intra-rater reliability analyses illustrated that the rubrics supported standardization of the manner in which cases and projects could be evaluated in different business courses. Practical implications - Whereas previous studies on rubric construction have largely concentrated on task specific rubrics, this study focuses on development of curriculum wide rubrics that can be employed for assessment of students' learning at both course and program level. Originality/value - To date there has not been any published work on issues of assessment of student learning through project and case analysis rubrics within diverse courses in a business program. The method detailed in the study can guide the development of generic rubrics for alternative assessment methods employed in business programs as well as in other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Hybrid learning, integrating online methods of instruction with face-to-face learning methods, has recently gained increased attention. The literature on pedagogy and course management has focused on hybrid learning as a combination of virtual and physical environments, which can shift learning to a more student-centered model from the teacher-centered model. A gap exists in the literature related to the execution of hybrid learning and challenges faced by internal stakeholders, and the outcomes are achieved. This study aims to examine the implementation of hybrid learning courses and investigate the challenges and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a qualitative approach. This study presents a case of a management university in India. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with the university officials, including the vice-chancellor, dean and faculty members. The data collection method also included reviewing university documents and reports. Findings: While formalized knowledge transfer through online courses can facilitate knowledge dissemination, it has its own downsides: it needs to be contextualized; it requires additional resources; it is not a one size fits all policy, as its conducive to some and alienates others; and students may not completely adopt it. Originality/value: This investigation attempts to examine the shift to hybrid learning in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and address significant quality gaps present in business school dissertations in India. Dissertations, an integral and a special component of the overall business school learning process, acquaint students with the practical business world. Design/methodology/approach: The authors benchmarked the dissertation processes of business schools in India against those of reputed business schools in Germany, France, Sweden and Australia. Using a survey questionnaire, the authors checked whether business schools in India followed international processes and, if not, what could be done to adopt such processes. A sample of 367 business schools was studied to obtain reasonable evidence. Findings: There were major quality issues in the dissertation process across business schools in India. Serious groundwork preparation issues were identified, such as an absence of research proposals. Most business schools also reported that there were no rubrics for dissertation evaluation, resulting in high subjectivity in the evaluation process. Supervisor interactions and control over the progress of the dissertation were also found to be very weak. As a result, the authors conclude that dissertations from business schools in India have major gaps in quality. Originality/value: This is a novel study that examines the quality assurance of business school dissertations. It highlights major quality concerns surrounding the business school dissertation process and suggests measures to address quality issues. The study's implications apply to business schools in all developing countries and not just India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]