No labouring over this pact

Ambar Singh Roy

IT was set up 51 years ago to shape professionals who would manage institutions serving organised industry, labour, education, healthcare, rural development and those that serve the public. The mission statement was laudable: to help create a more prosperous, just and humane society.

Today, while the Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) still stands by the objective of its founding fathers, it has taken to information technology to facilitate the process. What was earlier perceived to be an institute specialising in studies veering round labour management and its welfare, today XLRI is an example of an institute that seeks to go modern without losing touch with ground realities.

Rather, the IT initiatives have brought XLRI closer to its constituents. With software developed by Blueshift.com of the US, XLRI will, from next year, designate about 500 centres across the country to conduct online admission tests. Hitherto, written tests for admissions were held at select cities only. The move will be preceded by online application and registration.

Already, a lot of curriculum-related activity is facilitated through the Internet. Each student has a computer in his/her room even as a separate computer centre exists for serving professionals who participate in the short-duration Management Development Programmes (MDP).

The Net offers access to XLRI's library while CD-ROMs are accessed through the computer network. Tie-ups are in the offing with major libraries across the world.

Says Father P.D. Thomas, Director of the Institute: ``Over time, we will have less classroom activity. Through the Net, XLRI will fan out to all parts of the country for greater reach. MDPs, too, will increasingly be conducted online. Hence, serving executives will need to travel less.'' This year, XLRI plans to conduct 85 MDPs, of an average duration of five days each.

While Father Thomas concedes that the classroom facilitates one-on-one interaction and the personal touch, Net-based learning is cheaper, it does not suffer from time-constraints and distance is no problem. At XLRI, the course content is on the Net and students can post their homework on it. The move is towards virtual classrooms. He, however, feels strongly that Net-based learning must be supplemented with classroom-based interactions.

According to Dr. Ashis Pani, Associate Professor and Chairman of XLRI's Information Technology & Operations Area, an online Executive Post-Graduation Programme will be conducted in Dubai. Efforts are on to put in place a studio for a video-based learning programme in association with Hughes Interactive Software. Prof. Pani, however, feels that computer-based education cannot provide the ``classroom experience'' and IT can only be used as an adjunct.

Dr. Mathai Baker Fenn, Assistant Professor, OB & Marketing, feels a hybrid model could well take Executive Post-Graduation Programmes a long way. Initial preparations for such programmes could be made on the Net before the executives attend short-duration, intensive courses on the campus. Initiatives are also under way for students' projects online in association with overseas institutions and organisations.

Already, IT initiatives at XLRI have vastly improved alumni networking. Efforts are on to develop a Web site that will facilitate alumni networking through community-building tools.

For students, the move towards e-preparedness and e-enablement is very welcome. Says Nithya Ramakrishnan, a student of Personnel Management and Industrial Relations at XLRI :``We have 24-hour Net access, it facilitates interaction between students and everything is on share.''

Having state-of-the-art technology on campus is a mission for Avnish Sharma, Head of Socrates (Society for Rapid Assimilation of Technology in Systems), a students' initiative to ensure IT leadership at XLRI. ``We ensure that we have appropriate IT infrastructure in the campus that facilitates delivery of courses,'' says Avnish, adding that video-conferencing facilities could, in future, obviate the need for company representatives to drop in at the campus for recruitments. That could well happen sooner than later.

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