IIM Indore, in association with the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) and Ministry of Human Resource and Development, inaugurated a course on ‘Foundations of Mixed Methods Research’ on April 15. Prof Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore and Prof Prabin Panigrahi, Course Coordinator and faculty member, IIM Indore were present, as also Col Gururaj Gopinath Pamidi (Retd.), CAO, IIM Indore..
The course instructors are 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 Prabin Panigrahi, Professor in Information Systems area and Chair of Post-Graduate Programme, IIM Indore.
Prof Panigrahi welcomed the 74 participants and briefed them about the course.
Learn from environment
This was followed by an address by Prof Rai, who noted that there’s always something to learn from everything. ‘We can always find meaning in someone or something around us. We should be keen to learn and seek what we can learn from our environment,” he said.
He 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 encouraged the participants to not only learn from this course in the next ten days, but also learn about themselves.
Relevance is key
On the second K — Know your participants, Prof Rai said one should always deliver what the participants need, not what one already has and wishes to give. “Otherwise, there might be a sense of achievement when you perform in front of your participants and receive applause, but you may not feel 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 from different fields, and helps you learn more about what you’re not aware of,” he said.
He concluded saying that education ought to make one more 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.