Six Sigma Term Project_elective Selection Process at Ximb

8/13/2019 Six Sigma Term Project_elective Selection Process at Ximb

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ELECTIVEREGISTRATION

PROCESS

Submitted To

Prof P.K. Bala

SUBMITTED BY:

Priyank Gupta

Shuchita Dikshit

U106035

U106105


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Stakeholders ................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Student Council ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

DEANS Office .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Faculty ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Students ................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Customers ..................................................................................................................................................................... 6

The Process .................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Assumptions ................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Approach ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Define ............................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Current Elective Registration Process ............................................................................................................... 9

Problems Faced by the Student Council .......................................................................................................... 10

Time .................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Information provided by the DEANS office to the Student Council ....................................................... 11

Accountability for signature campaign ....................................................................................................... 11

Measure ...................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Six sigma calculation ........................................................................................................................................... 11

Methodology ..................................................................................................................................................... 11

Result ..................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Verbatim comments: ......................................................................................................................................... 15

Six sigma level CALCULATIONS: ........................................................................................................................ 16

Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Questionnaire Explanation ................................................................................................................................ 18


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Improve ...................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Information regarding courses at the beginning of the process ................................................................ 22

Create a database ............................................................................................................................................. 22

More structured sessions by interest groups ............................................................................................. 23

Sessions by faculty ........................................................................................................................................... 23

Insufficiency of information regarding faculty .............................................................................................. 24

Increase permanent faculty ........................................................................................................................... 24

Reduce uncertainty about faculty ................................................................................................................. 24

Quality of faculty .................................................................................................................................................. 25

Take feedback forms more seriously ........................................................................................................... 25

Ineffective query clearance by Student Council ............................................................................................. 25

Better preparedness of the student council ............................................................................................... 26

Informal sessions organized .......................................................................................................................... 26

Initial set of electives offered for major and minor streams ....................................................................... 26

Involvement of students ................................................................................................................................. 26

Increase faculty (permanent, visiting), invite more people from the industry................................ 27

Comparative Analysis of Elective Registration Process with other IIMs ..................................................................... 27

IIM-A Elective Registration Process ................................................................................................................. 27

IIM-B Elective Registration Process ................................................................................................................. 28

IIM-C Elective Registration Process ................................................................................................................. 29

IIM-L Elective Registration Process.................................................................................................................. 30

IIM-I Elective Registration Process .................................................................................................................. 31

Overall Suggestions ..................................................................................................................................................... 31

Create a Wiki ......................................................................................................................................................... 31

Content ............................................................................................................................................................... 31

Ownership .......................................................................................................................................................... 32

Subjectivity ........................................................................................................................................................ 32


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Benefits ............................................................................................................................................................... 32

Increase number of faculty ................................................................................................................................ 32

Implementation ............................................................................................................................................... 33


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INTRODUCTION

The elective registration process in Xavier Institute of Management is held for the second year

students at the beginning of each term of their post graduate program. It allows the second

year students to build a portfolio of their preferred courses that they choose to study in each

term of the second year of their course.

In the current methodology of the elective registration process the Deans office takes the

responsibility of initiating and seeing to the smooth execution of the entire process. The

students choose their courses for the next term, subject to the rules laid down by the Deans

office.

STAKEHOLDERS

The major stakeholders in the electives registration process are the students, the student

council, the DEANSoffice and the faculty.

STUDENT COUNCIL

The main function of the student council in the electives registration process is to facilitate

communication between the faculty and the DEANSoffice and the students.

DEANS OFFICE

The DEANS office lays down the rules and constraints within which the process is

actually carried out. It also organizes and executes the electives registration process. Though

negotiations between it and the student council can lead to change/relaxation/dropping of the

rules, such alterations are usually very limited.


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FACULTY

Ordinarily a course is run when a faculty member offers the course. However at times if a

sufficient number of students show interest in a course that is currently not offered by any

faculty member then a faculty member may step in to offer that course. Else a visiting faculty

may be requested to offer the same at XIMB.

STUDENTS

As mentioned below the students are the chief stakeholders in the elective registration process

and hence they have been considered as the customers.

CUSTOMERS

Students of XIMB who participated in the electives registration process have been considered as

the customers. The opportunities of defects will be identified with respect to the customers.

The opportunities have been identified with respect to what can be done to improve the

current process.

THE PROCESS

From the point of view of the students, the elective registration 'process' can be viewed as

1. A process - A sequence of steps are carried out of which the attributes that can be

measured and evaluated are

a. The presence of a particular step (vis--vis its elimination/substitution)

Whether that step is warranted in the first place or can be done away with

b. The sequence of steps

c. The time taken for each step


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d. Logic - The step is warranted but is the way it is carried out correct?

2. A set of Outcomes - This can be further broken down into the following measurable

points

a. Choice of preferred courses

c. Preferred distribution of courses and credits across the terms

ASSUMPTIONS

Revolutionary changes cannot be carried out. For example the shifting from the current way of

carrying out the process to a bidding system is out of the scope of the project.

APPROACH

The DMAIC approach has been adopted to study the problem and make suggestions for

improvement

DEFINE

A number of questions have been asked and answered to better understand the problem.

Question 1- What is the name of the product or process?

Elective Registration Process

Question 2- What is the aim of the process?

To allow the students of XIMB to select their preferred courses for the second year in a manner

that is acceptable and satisfactory to all stakeholders.


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Question 3- Define the elective registration process; what it is and what it is not.

The elective registration process is confined to the process where the students are given the

option to build a portfolio of courses of their choice which is spread across the academic year

subject to the credit requirements of the DEANSoffice. The process starts when the first step is

taken by the presiding student council and draws to a close when the final list of courses for

each student is frozen after the end of each term. However subsequent problems associated

with scheduling of classes etc. do not constitute a part of the elective registration process.

Question 4- What is aim of the project?

The aim of the project is to measure the current sigma level of the elective registration process

and identify important areas of dissatisfaction and improvement in it. The aim also is to

compare the process with those of IIMs and make suggestions for deployment. The idea also is

to come up with as many suggestions possible without looking at their feasibility at this stage.

Question 5- What is the cost of an inefficient elective registration process?

The costs of an ineffective elective registration process could be students not being able to

register for their preferred courses which could have been achieved had the process been

conducted in a more effective manner. Time taken is also a major concern for the student

council and DEANSoffice that act as the bridge between the students and the faculty.

Question 6- What is the scope of the project?

The following are the various constraints that will possibly limit the scope of the project.

DEANSOffice

Constraints that may not be altered - Credit requirements for completion of minimum

and maximum credits in a term, minimum and maximum credits for completion of degree,

faculty allotment for different courses (in case a course is included that is not specifically

'offered' by any faculty member), Constraints that can be altered - Minimum and maximum

registrations for a course to be offered


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Visiting Faculty

The availability of visiting faculty only in specific terms and their willingness to

accommodate large batches pose a significant constraint to the process. Moreover scenarios

such as the unavailability of a faculty member even after he has committed to a certain course

may arise which are clearly out of the scope of the project and hence are not being considered.

Infrastructure

Classroom sizes, numbers of classrooms - These constraints are in turn reflected in the

requirements laid down by the DEANS office. The roof of the house of quality that is

developed later shows such relationships.

CURRENT ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

1. Faculty releases course list

2. Pilot iteration

1. Students suggest new courses

3. Faculty Consider above

1. New courses negotiated

2. Faculty approved new courses circulated for signature

3. Willingness list sent to Functional Area Coordinator

4. Functional Coordinator sends list to Deans Office

1. Negotiation and approval

5. 1st Iteration

1. Estimate demand

2. Results handed over to faculty

3. Potential problems discussion


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A. Caps

B. Parallel scheduling

C. Number of hours in a day

D. Faculty availability

E. Adjunct faculty

4. Negotiation on minimum requirements for a course

F. Grades

G. Previous courses/Knowledge

5. Negotiations on co-option of courses

6. Request for increase of caps

7. Courses dropped based on discussions in the previous steps

8. Check for credit limits for a particular term

6. 2nd

Iteration

1. Courses dropped in 1st

iteration not available for 2nd

iteration

2. Courses dropped if signatures taken for a course not honored

7. Adjustments/Negotiations for courses that have been undersubscribed

8. Freezing of electives

9. Formal approval of Functional Area Coordinator, Deans Office andfaculty members

10. Closure of elective registration process

PROBLEMS FACED BY THE STUDENT COUNCIL

TIME

Due to the shuttling among student community, the faculty and the DEANSoffice the process

takes up a lot of time. The interaction of the student council with the faculty, the DEANS

office and the student community can be bundled into fewer interactions.


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INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE DEANS OFFICE TO THE STUDENT

COUNCIL

Though the total time spent in actual interaction will remain the same, the time required to

arrange the meetings/get appointments can be reduced. This will hasten the elective

registration process.

AC COUNTAB ILI TY FO R SIGNAT UR E CA MPAIGN

In case a course has chances of being undersubscribed signatures are taken from the students

who are interested in taking that course up. However, later such signatures are not always

honored. This creates dissatisfaction among the faculty as well as the students who are

interested but cannot take up the course since it is undersubscribed.

A mechanism is required in place that will enforce some accountability on the students who

sign for a particular course to later take up that course.

MEASURE

SIX SIGMA CALCULATION

METHODOLOGY

1. Identification of relevant attributes:

Relevant issues were identified through discussion with students and student council

(which conducts the elective registration process). These attributes were further classified into

following categories:


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Choice of electives:

The attributes discussed under this category address following issues:

1. There were many times when students were not able to get their desired courses

due to various constraints such as distribution of courses across various terms ( for

eg. Scheduled time of two courses are clashing, credit limit for courses

2. Another aspect on which we tried to capture elective process performance

was cross functional credits in terms of whether it was properly shared

between various specializations.

Faculty related:

During our initial qualitative discussion we came to know that many students had to forego few

electives because of the faculty associated with those electives .The attribute discussed under

this category aims to validate this finding.

Elective options available

Due to various constraints like lack of faculty or interest of majority of students there is

a possibility that an exhaustive initial list of electives was not considered. Since this can be

a source of dissatisfaction among the students we plan to capture the same under this category.

Information availability

Attributes discussed under this category tries to address various aspects related to timely and

accurate flow of information between student council and the students of PGP2 batch such as:

1. Detailed information about each course being offered and the main faculty as well as

adjunct faculty offering the course.

2. Handling of students queries regarding elective registration process.


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Process related

Attributes under this category basically address various process related parameters like clearly

outlined process details (schedule, methodology etc.) ,objectivity of process design and

implementation and other important issues like time consumption , redundancy in process and

some specific issues like whether the electives were strictly allocated based on student

preferences.

2. Designing research instrument:

An undisguised structured questionnaire was designed to include various attributes identified

under the above categories. Two scales of measurement were used: a bipolar scale and a four

point scale.

Defects were identified using the following schema:

On a 4 point scale - Rating of 1, 2 is a defect

On a bipolar scale - yes /no as defect depending on wording of attribute.

3. Sample design and survey mode:

A random sample of 100 PGP 2 students were selected for the survey and a face to face

interview was done to get their feedback on various attributes .Also, apart from close ended

questions we also asked them for their suggestions for improvement of the elective registration

process.

RESULT

Based on the feedback total number of defects were identified under each attribute. The table

below illustrates the number of defects under each attribute :


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Attributes Defects % of

Defects

Choice of Electives

1.Able to get preferred combination of majors and

minors

13 1.70

2Choice of majors/minors affected due to distribution of

courses across terms

45 5.75

3.Choice of courses affected due to distribution of

courses across terms

48 6.14

4.Did you get all courses opted for in the first iteration? 26 3.32

5.Sharing of cross functional credits between various

specializations

43 5.50

6.Satisfaction with administration behavior 45 5.75

Faculty

7.Electives forgone due to faculty associated 60 7.67

Options of Electives

8.Range of initial set of electives available 57 7.28

Availability of Info.

9.Sufficient details about the course to make an informed

choice.

89 11.38

10.Effective query clearance session 68 8.69

11.Sufficient information regarding faculty before elective

registration process

78 9.97

12.Accuracy of information regarding faculty. 46 5.58

Process

Improvements

13.Time consumed by the elective registration process 47 6


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14.Timely and clear communication of process details 14 1.79

15.Whether the process was designed in an objective and

unbiased manner.

21 2.68

16.Whether allocation based on preference was properlyimplemented

31 3.96

17.Redundancy in the elective registration process 28 3.58

18.Approachability of student's council to take care of

queries, concerns and suggestions.23 2.94

Total782 100.00

Top 5 attributes having the highest number of defects:

1. Sufficient details about the course to make an informed choice. -- 89 defects.

2. Sufficient information regarding faculty before elective registration process78 defects.

3. Effective query clearance session68 defects.

4. Students giving up electives due to faculty associated with the electives60 defects.

5. Initial range of choice of electives available57 defects

VERBATIM COMMENTS:

1. There should be a shopping week where we sit with the professor in class to decide

whether we want to take up the course or not.

2. We can't choose the faculty but I guess there are many constraints there elective process

is held way too late: course contents/faculty was not known for quite a while.

3. There was too much horse-trading regarding marginal courses: HR courses were literally

forced through.


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4. There was confusion regarding cross functional courses.

5. During course selection rounds there should be quick link available for quick reference to

Various course outlines and interest group's power points

6. Reduce the number of credit requirements.

7. Some of the functional. Areas did not have sufficient choice with regard to electives

offered in it.

8. Distribute subjects evenly across the terms.

9. Should have more than one faculty as choice.

10. There should be provision of dropping or choosing a course after one week of

commencement of a term

SIX SIGMA LEVEL CALCULATIONS:

Total number of defects = 782

Total number of opportunities = 18(attributes) x 100(sample size) =1800

Defects per million opportunities = (Total no. of defects / total no. of opportunities) x 1000000

= 782/ 1800 x 1000000 = 434444 DPMU

Six sigma level at 434444 DPMU (without 1.5 sigma shift) = 0.78

Six sigma level at 434444 DPMU (with 1.5 sigma shift) = 1.67

Six sigma level here is very low primarily because we are measuring sigma level of a service.

Since, here we are primarily considering dissatisfaction of students as a defect and students

have basically tried to benchmark existing process with an ideal process thus sigma level is very

low.


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ANALYSIS

The following chart shows the relative contribution of each question to the total number of

defects

%age Defect

12.00%

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%

9 11 10 7 8 3 13 12 2 6 5 16 17 4 18 15 14 1

%age Defect

12.00%

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%

Cumulative %

120.00%

100.00%

80.00%

60.00%

40.00%

20.00%

0.00%

9 11 10 7 8 3 13 12 2 6 5 16 17 4 18 15 14 1


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Based on the above charts the questions can be grouped into three clusters depending upon

their relative contribution to the defects.

Very Important

The questions under this category are questions 9, 11, 10, 7 and 8. As can be seen from

the chart showing the cumulative defect percentage these five questions contribute more than

60% of the total defects.

Important

This cluster would include questions 3, 13, 12, 2, 6 and 5. These questions contribute roughly

6% defects each to the total defects.

Not Important

Questions numbers 16, 17, 4, 18, 15, 14 and 1 contribute less than 4% each to the total number

of defects. Hence comparatively they are not important at this point of time.

QUESTIONNAIRE EXPLANATION

Each question had been designed in order to measure a specific attribute relevant to the

students during the elective registration process. These attributes are given below.

Question 1Getting one's choice of majors and minors

Question 2 - A well-balanced distribution of courses across the terms (in terms of credits,

majors and minors)

Question 3 - Getting the courses one desperately wants

Question 4Getting one's courses in the first iteration itself


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Question 5 - Fair distribution of co-option courses to majors

Question 6Behaviour of the administration

Question 7 - Quality of faculty

Question 8 - Initial set of electives offered for major and minor streams

Question 9 - Information regarding courses at the beginning of the process

Question 10Student council's ability to furnish information

Question 11 - Sufficiency of information regarding faculty

Question 12 - Accuracy of information regarding faculty

Question 13 - Time consuming nature or otherwise of the process

Question 14 - Timely and accurate communication of process details (schedule, rationale,

results, and status)

Question 15 - Objectivity and fairness of the process

Question 16 - Fairness or otherwise of inviting students in groups of ten according to their ranksto fill in their preferences

Question 17 - Redundancy or freedom from it of the process

Question 18 - Approachability of the student council to take in queries suggestions and

concerns

The following is the relative importance assigned to these attributes as obtained from in-depth

discussions carried out with students.


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To consider the most important problems the number of defects for each question was

multiplied with the relative importance of that question. The results are tabulated below.


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Question No. Relative Importance Defects Product

9 9 89 8.0

11 8 78 6.2

7 10 60 6.0

10 8 68 5.4

8 9 57 5.1

3 10 48 4.8

12 8 46 3.7

2 7 45 3.2

6 6 45 2.7

13 5 47 2.4

5 5 43 2.2

15 8 21 1.7

1 10 13 1.3

4 5 26 1.3

18 5 23 1.2

14 6 14 0.8

17 2 28 0.6

16 1 31 0.3


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IMPROVE

From the analysis of the findings we were able to identify five most important issues

based on the product of their score and importance level. In this section we would be

addressing these problems.

INFORMATION REGARDING COURSES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PROCESS

The most persistent problem among the students was the lack of information regarding

courses provided to them at the beginning of the process. The main reason why this

problem exists is the absence of a consolidated database either formal or informal carrying

information about the courses.

Another reason could be the frequently changing faculty. Basically, the faculty is responsible for

the course content but since for most of the courses the faculty is either not fixed or changes

due to some reasons which actually defeats the purpose of having a database. Even if the

outgoing students do give their feedback but if the faculty changes for the next batch then that

feedback doesn't hold good for him since every professor has a different approach towards a

course.

Recommendations

CREATE A DATABASE

We recommend that the database wherein the outgoing students give their feedback for a

course and, faculty should be made available to the next years students, like it is done by the

OBIII faculty ( Prof Indranil Chakraborty) and the strictness of faculty in giving grades so these

can also be a part of the feedback. The evaluation pattern followed by the professor could

also be included as to specifying the distribution of marks which helps students know if

the evaluation is continuous or only exams based. The course load could also be part of the

course since at times students take up courses to distribute their burden through the term so

this would help them in maintaining a balance of tough courses and relatively lighter ones. The


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usefulness of the course from placement perspective can also be mentioned which helps them

gauge the importance of the course in their area of specialization. The students could also tell

about the overall learning from the course and their experiences and how far the course

fulfilled their expectations. For the courses which have been floated for the first time, the

student who took the initiative for the introduction of the course should collect the above

mentioned information from other institutes share it with DEANSoffice. A course outline can

then be prepared and further finalized in discussion with the concerned faculty or area chair

and then shared with rest of the students.

In certain IIMs, students get a week at the beginning of each term to attend whatever courses

they are interested in can then based on that freeze their decision of electives. This would

enable them to know what they can expect from the course and also help them understand the

teaching style of the faculty better.

MORE STRUCTURED SESSIONS BY INTEREST GROUPS

Various informal interactive sessions with senior students can be arranged to get their

feedback on various subjects. The interest groups like Maxim and X-Fin could take

responsibility for these sessions.

SESSIONS BY FACULTY

Once all the course outlines are ready, they are shared through a database with the students

for their perusal. Students have 2-3 days to go through the course outlines carefully. After this,

some structured interactive sessions can be held with respective faculty. Though this

arrangement is tough to implement in practice, it can be made more elaborate and interactive

since after some sessions by interest groups and going through the course outlines, the

students would have more queries and suggestions to contribute. The formal session with

faculty should be spread over 2-3 days and as far as possible all the concerned faculty

(permanent or visiting) should be present for the sessions.


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INSUFFICIENCY OF INFORMATION REGARDING FACULTY

The main reason for this problem can be cited as the lack of permanent faculty. Even the

permanent faculty at times doesn't take the same course next year. Also the external faculty

which is called does not necessarily come back next time hence they also keep changing. There

is no database to keep track as to who all have been taking the courses in the past years.

Recommendations

INCREASE PERMANENT FACULTY

We all know the problems caused by the lack of permanent faculty are causing a discontinuity

in the methods of teaching of different courses from one year to another, causing

inconsistency. This is another hindrance in the Registration process

This is another important measure that needs to be implemented effectively since all the

problems are somehow linked to the problem of lack of permanent faculty. If this is done then

students would know who is taking their courses and the decision to take a particular course

would be more informed. But the other side of coin is that just in order to increase the

permanent faculty we might compromise on the quality aspect. In that case students would

rather prefer to have a good external faculty rather than having a bad permanent faculty. The

institute should make sure that the best of faculty is brought in who can gel with the institute

and students.

REDUCE UNCERTAINTY ABOUT FACULTY

This can be done by making the whole process of approaching the faculty a continuous

one spread throughout the year. At the time of choosing the electives the students should be

aware of the different faculty that DEANSoffice is trying to call in even if it is not final. This

would reduce the uncertainty to some extent.


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QUALITY OF FACULTY

The problem of students having to forego any preferred courses due to the faculty associated

with it could be because of the problem of external faculty. Many times the load in such

courses is high because the external faculty comes for few days in which it tries to complete the

whole course. Also the level of interaction among the faculty and students is very low. Another

reason could be the frequently changing faculty. Due to this the students are not able to

connect with the faculty properly and hence perceive its quality as low.

Recommendations

If possible sign contracts with faculty. The DEANS office should try and sign contracts with

faculty for some fixed duration so that the students every year do not have to deal with some

altogether new faculty. This would also increase the chance of converting this faculty to a fixed

visiting faculty if not permanent

TAKE FEEDBACK FORMS MORE SERIOUSLY

The feedback forms by students should be taken seriously and if there are some

considerable complaints against a professor then some action should be taken to probe into the

whole situation. The area chair can probably hold a meeting with the whole batch to listen to

their problems so find out where the problem lay. The students need to be assured that their

problems are being heard.

INEFFECTIVE QUERY CLEARANCE BY STUDENT COUNCIL

This problem cropped up because there were some new courses that were added and

also the confusion due to the courses that were shared across different specializations.

There was a lot of randomness in the process and the students were unaware about was

happening till the very end.


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Recommendations

BETTER PREPAREDNESS OF THE STUDENT COUNCIL

The Student Council needs to be better prepared to answer the queries of the students. They

need to take proactive action rather than reactive. Also the process needs to be saved from

the last minute changes to avoid any confusion.

INFORMAL SESSIONS ORGANIZED

This time round the whole process was only communicated through mails. Rather an informal

session can be organized by the Student Council to communicate the process to the whole

batch and to answer any queries of the students. This session should be made as interactive

as possible such that the students can also give inputs to make the process more efficient.

INITIAL SET OF ELECTIVES OFFERED FOR MAJOR AND MINOR STREAMS

The main reason for this problem is lack of faculty base with the institute. Though this time

some new courses were floated but due to the uncertainties attached with them.

Recommendations

INVOLVEMENT OF STUDENTS

The DEANSoffice and the students should work in tandem to solve the problem of less number

of electives being floated. The students can suggest some courses that they want to include

along with the names of other IIMs where it is included, the faculty information and curriculum.

If some course is found to be suggested by many students then it can be included. This measure

would not show many immediate results but in the long term it can help increase our course

options to a great extent. Also this time around the Student Council did try something on

similar lines but there is dissatisfaction among around the Student Council did try

something on similar lines but there is dissatisfaction among students since they do not

know what efforts were put in. The whole process can be made more transparent and

interactive.


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INCREASE FACULTY (PERMANENT, VISITING), INVITE MORE PEOPLE FROM

THE INDUSTRY

DEANSOffice should strive to increase the number of permanent as well as visiting faculties or

alternatively hire faculties who can teach multiple subjects. Also people can be called from

the industry to take sessions for students which will give them more exposure and help

them better understand the application of concepts.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS WITH OTHER I IMS

IIM-A ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

The electives process is conducted prior to every term about 3-4 weeks before the previous

term ends. First the students are given list of courses and the seats available in each, professors

and course outline. Then they have a bidding process. In this process each student is given

points based on their first year CGPA like there are some minimum points given to each based

on a certain threshold marks and from there on as their CGPA increases they get extra

points in certain proportion. Once each person is allotted points they log on to an internal link

meant exclusively for bidding. There they keep adding courses to their consideration set but this

addition is limited by an upper limit. Once this is done then they bid for courses. If they bid too

low then they might lose that course so they need to keep revising their bids. There are certain

rules to the system like they can't take out points from a course that they are winning and they

must bid at least the minimum bid points operating in that course. This process continues for

1:45 hrs plus a variable time unknown to the students meant to eliminate any problem with last

minute bidding. Then the link closes and after 15-20min a confirmation window opens where

they need to confirm the courses they have won during bidding. If any student has won more

than the maximum credits in the term then he can drop the course he doesn't wish to pursue.


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IIM-C ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

First students get to pre register for the courses they want. If the number of pre registration is

lesser than the cap for the course and provided the min pre registration requirement is met, the

course is floated and students can finally register for it if the no of candidates exceeds the Cap

for a/any courses then the students are invited to bid for the course.

Each student is allotted 1000 points. These 1000 points is for all the electives in all the terms of

the second year. And he can bid for as many courses as he wants, until he/she exhausts the

total of the 1000 points, in multiples of 50. For ex: 300 for course a, 550 for course B, and 150

for course C. The highest bids for the course get the course. i.e. if the cap is 30 students, the

first 30 highest bids get the course

If there is a tie for the last slot in the course, there is a lottery done in presence of an impartial

observer (generally a student who did not opt for the course) and the lucky one gets the course

from any functional area. If a student bids for a course and doesn't get that course he loses 50

points for bidding, i.e., if any student bids 500 out of 1000 points and doesn't get the course, he

loses 50 points and is left with 950 points

For uncapped courses all the students are given a chance to final register for it even if they

didn't pre register for it


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IIM-L ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

The IIM L elective registration process starts at the end of third term and the total duration of

the whole process from the first batch meet to finalization of electives is around two

weeks. The registration process is totally automated and is done through an online polling

process. Basically, the students are supposed to rank various electives based on which their

concentration is decided. The ranking process is done online through six iterations which is

completed in 4 to 6 hours. After each iteration students revise their ranking of electives

based on result of each iteration. After 6th iteration no further changes can be made and the

electives are finalized. Normally, at the end of the iteration process there is no clash between

the choices of subjects among students. However, if such a situation arises then following

criteria are used in the decreasing order of priority:

Concentration

Ranking

CGPA

Once the faculties are finalized, there is no switching of faculties and normally availability of

faculty is not a major concern affecting student's elective choice Cross functional subjects exist

but their credits can be counted in only one specialization thus there is no confusion with

regards to that. According to students the whole registration process is objective and

transparent.


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IIM-I ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

The electives process takes place soon after the students come back for the fourth term

from their summer internship. The process is meant for the whole academic year. They do not

have anything like major or minor. Any student can take any course in any functional area. The

process is not online. The students have to fill up their preferred courses in a form and submit.

No change of courses is permitted.

All the students are accommodated in their preferred courses as there is nothing like over

subscription. They only have an informal feedback session with their seniors regarding courses

and faculty

Overall Suggestions

CREATE A WIKI

Wikis provide an excellent platform for a large number of people to work collaboratively. As

opposed to single articles written by each author who leads to data redundancy, contradictions

and a host of other problems, a Wiki allows several authors to work simultaneously on a single

article which takes care of the above mentioned problems.

CONTENT

The content put up on the Wiki would include information regarding the courses and the

faculty. In case it succeeds it could be extended to include placement information and other

relevant information.


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OWNERSHIP

It is suggested that the ownership and maintenance of this Wiki be handled informally by the

students themselves rather than setting up a committee to coordinate its growth. This would

enable the students to honestly share their views regarding courses and faculty.

SUBJECTIVITY

In this context however the major roadblock is the subjective nature of most of the information.

To tackle this problem feedback of students can be collected and included in the Wiki.

BENEFITS

It will serve as a one-stop source of information regarding faculty, courses and possibly

placements and other information that a student would require. The Wiki could also be

extended to include academic content that would be very specific to IIM Kozhikode. The current

practice of asking each student to separately compose documents documenting their

experiences is cumbersome and discourages readership as well as authoring. This can be easily

circumvented

INCREASE NUMBER OF FACULTY

DEANSOffice should strive to increase the number of permanent as well as visiting faculty or

alternatively hire faculty who can teach multiple subjects. However care should be taken that

no compromise should be made on the quality of faculty. This would help address

various other issues such as timely and accurate information about faculty and students

foregoing certain electives because of the faculty associated with it.


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IMPLEMENTATION

This is possible through joint effort of student body, faculty and DEANSoffice. DEANSoffice

should engage in a continuous effort to source quality faculties from other institutes and

industry rather than at the end of academic year. Students should also contribute by giving

contact details of prospects from industry (students with work experience can help here)

and from other institutes. Faculty too can effectively contribute by coordinating with DEANS

Office. Finally, a single consolidated database should be maintained of prospective and past

faculty for various electives consisting of all the relevant details like resume, students feedback

etc.

Documents

Six Sigma Term Project_elective Selection Process at Ximb