Flipped Learning

To work closely with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and pilot the transition of their pre-foundation course from an in person classroom based training to a flipped model of learning.

Currently, the pre-foundation course is run entirely in person with a focus on theories and concepts. To make the course more comprehensive LBSNAA and DoPT wanted to pivot to a pedagogical model encouraging trainees to apply their learning in real world scenarios and engage in discussions outside the classroom. 

LBSNAA is a research and training institute for government officials from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Alongside its two year training course for IAS recruits the central training institute also runs a common foundation course for all new civil servants. 

The C-LOP team collaborated with LBSNAA, building on a decade long partnership between LBSNAA and J-PAL on the training of senior civil servants in “evidence informed policymaking”. The aim of this partnership was to pilot the transition of the pre-foundation course to a blended model. The team worked with faculty at LBSNAA via workshops and webinars to ideate with them through this transition. Our work focused on:

• Transitioning to the iGOT Karmayogi platform for the learning based sections of the curriculum. This included navigating the content quality framework requirements for iGOT Karmayogi and offering operational support to move LBSNAA’s content online.
• Through collaboration with the J-PAL Global Education team, we focused on planning the course launch (structuring the course development team, measuring student learning, and improving the effectiveness of online learning innovations), creating the online course (building lecture and exercise segments, finalizing course details, and beta testing), and running the online course (teaching assistance, proctored examinations, and learner analytics).
• Working with the faculty to visualise the content structure following a progressive hierarchy of resources, modules, courses, and program offerings. The faculty was introduced to the Watch-Think-Do-Explore-Test model of learning. This improved their understanding of conducting learning assessments for the trainees.
• Organising and conducting workshops at LBSNAA for officers from seven training institutes on the principles of flipped learning. The team also ran a series of webinars on creating online training courses from start to finish. In this series, the DEDP micromasters course was leveraged to understand how curriculum can be readapted from in person to online training.

The faculty at LBSNAA has successfully developed their pre-foundation course to be offered online to all incoming civil servants. This course will be mandatory for trainees before they join the classroom common foundation training. It will introduce them to the basic foundational concepts in Law, Economics, Indian History, Culture, Management and Behavioral Sciences, and Information Communications and Technology. 

The goal of this blended learning model is to free up time during classroom training for engaged discussions about new perspectives from peers, critical debates about the readings, and group discussions and activities. Importantly, the LBSNAA pilot will serve as the first proof of blended training from a government training institution.