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Critical thinking (CT) skills are essential to academic and professional success. Instruments to assess CT often rely on multiple-choice formats with inherent problems. This research presents two instruments for assessing CT, an essay and open-ended group-discussion format, which were implemented in an undergraduate business course at a large public university. The topics were intentionally chosen to be digitally-related (internet access and social media) since they raise complex issues, are applicable in many disciplines, and students are avid users, thereby making these instruments relevant, multidisciplinary, engaging, and multifaceted. These instruments may be adapted to enable educators to effectively assess undergraduate students' ability to think critically. Qualitative analysis of the verbatim data with NVivo helps demonstrate the instruments' efficacy in assessing CT, with (1) high-quality responses receiving high grades, and (2) overarching themes identified by content analysis, that coalesce into the three dimensions of social justice theory (distributive, procedural, and interactional), thus illustrating students' consideration of complex fairness norms and societal needs. Excerpts of student responses are provided as illustrations of the indicators/evidence of critical thinking. Educators can use these instruments to first assess students' CT skills, and then devise targeted interventions to improve the quality of students' thought processes.

Background:The Indian education system has started improving in various parameters, since the introduction of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. An increase in quantity and quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is one such initiative. Any efforts to improve the efficiency of such courses can be assessed unless and until we understand the learners' motivation behind joining such courses. The present research has been a part of the Indian Council of Social Science and Research (ICSSR) funded major project. Objective:The study was undertaken to analyse the parameters affecting learners' motivation while joining and completing MOOCs. Method:The secondary and primary data were collected from respondents all across the country as well as websites, journal articles. A detailed literature review has been undertaken for the same. Result and Conclusion:The study concludes that course design, structure, Instructor Feedback, etc. are a few of the parameters which impact the learners' motivation in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to study the existing HRM practices in the Microfinance Industry in India and see whether this will help in understanding the problems faced Industry as a whole. The roles and activities of human resource management (HRM) have changed a lot in the past years .driven by a changing environment and therefore new business requirements, the scope of human resource (HR) activities has widened. The role of MFIs is to provide financial services through Institutions to low income clients and thus have to also focus on HR practices within the institution in order to serve the needs of the clients. This leads to the question of better understanding the underlying competencies of employees as well as Business which are necessary to support MFIs. The challenges faced by these companies with regards to HR practices are studied closely and the gaps are identified. Researchers intended to look in to various HR practices which are actually being followed in the Industry, and observed that MFIs need to focus more on Training evaluation, Compensation Structure, Multi skilling and having more women friendly policies for induction in to the workforce. These above points are some of the few points mentioned in the paper which are important and required for sustainable growth in MFIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]