Harappa Education - Shaping the Horizon

Harappa - has always been enriching in nature and enlightening in process, be it the civilization or the education organization that has got inspired from iconic seals of the old Harappa.

The learning opportunity from Harappa was brought to us by our workplace Lovely Professional University in a quite structured and detailed format titled Faculty Excellence Program. The University handpicked 100 candidates for the pilot batch and I happened to be one of those selected ones who were introduced to the entire learning plot.

My journey with Harappa started on an interesting note. Their plan was to kickstart the program with a master class with none other than their own Chairman and Chief Inspirer Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha who personally visited the LPU campus to interact with the handpicked batch of learners in January, 2020. Co-incidentally, the day of masterclass was clashing with an event of high repute that I was supposed to host outside the University. I was ideally on out campus duty so could have avoided attending the session easily but since it was exclusively for us, so managed to attend it by visiting the campus during first half of the day (Thanks to University for keeping it in early morning hours). The day got little hectic but would term it a productive start of the year.

The masterclass began with the traditional lamp lighting ceremony and honorary welcome of the guests. I was mentally not present (reason is known to you) for initial few minutes but could witness those lovely moments. Then the stage was handed over to Dr. Sinha who started with an engaging introduction and while I was about to loose the connect with him, he divided all the participants in groups and threw a mind-boggling situation to solve. The situation looked so simple and easy that I solved it the way any average human being would have done. Even my group was convinced with the same solution. However, when we were asked to come forward to the stage to present the solution, I grabbed the opportunity like it was no big deal. Similarly, other group members presented same or alternative solutions.

After having thorough discussion on the same for almost an hour and realizing that answer is something simple but not figured out by many including me, I was stunned! Atleast for those couple of minutes, I could not even dare to let my mind go out of that seminar hall as it completely shook my thought pattern and pushed me to think about my thinking. Then, the journey of upcoming 4 months with 5 different online courses (through Harappa learning platform) along with in-person workshops was outlined which looked exciting. With that, we called it a day and I pushed off to execute another allocated assignment. The next day, I was handed over the Harappa learning kit that included a training relevant material and few goodies, I'd call it a sweet gesture of the team Harappa.

I had completed couple of online courses before from platforms of international & national repute including Indian Institute of Technology, and had mixed experience with them so far.

Ever since the first Harappa course was opened to us, I kept a note of duration, learning outcome and reserved a time slot in daily schedule and was all set to pursue the same. The day I started learning from Harappa platform, following factors fascinated me the most:

• User-friendly interface
• Dashboard showcasing the learning journey
• Experienced resource persons
• Well segregated content
• A Video lecture not exceeding 20 minutes
• Summary and recap of learning nuggets after and before every episode respectively

What I liked the most from various episodes that they not only trained us on the concepts with real life examples but also made it easy for us to apply in the form of acronyms (would share one of those in some time).

They brought in one of their proficient trainers during in-person workshops who added more clarity on the concepts with his experience after listening to the thoughts of the learners. I'd say these workshops were more of an experiential learning that was like 'cherry on the cake'. Harappa team must have brainstormed a lot to put the right person in relevant frame as course content was made rich with apt examples and trainer's real life experiences.

One after another, different courses were opened to us with a time-bound schedule so that we don't loose the track and keep the learning spirit up. I scored pretty decent in a few, not much in some but I believe marks don't matter, or do they?

What matters to me the most is how I am carrying forward the learning and implementing it in my training cycles so that participants of my own sessions could see more value in it.

Another exciting part about learning from Harappa platform was that every course was followed by an assignment (Touch Stone as per their terminology) which made us apply the learning in real time environment to click the right option and even made us record some of our answers that were later evaluated by their team of experts. After accomplishing every touch stone, I used to get goosebumps and felt like having more feathers on my hat that kept on adding progressively.

Like every flower comes with thorns, so were the challenges as I was moving ahead on the learning pathway. That's where another praiseworthy fact of Harappa team comes in, whose representative were pretty active on different modes of communication and ensured to address my queries timely. They even reached out to the learners to support them gradually reaching the top of the learning ladder.

It'd be difficult to name out any one course that I liked the most because every course (as mentioned below) was focusing on a specific skill set.

• Building Presence
• Speaking Effectively
• Listening Effectively
• Thinking Critically
• Embracing Change

Like I mentioned before, the unique part of every course was the acronyms used in the pedagogy. For example, they used an acronym The Power of EAR in Listening Effectively course, wherein EAR stands for Empathy, Authenticity and Respect.

Look at the smartness behind crafting the concept in so familiar way that nobody would ever be able to forget it as one has to use an EAR in the process of listening.

I along with other learners were in the mid of the pursuing the courses, then arrived the scary news of lock-down due to COVID-19 which initially was assumed to be for a week but kept extending as situations across the country started getting worse.

Having said that, there was never any lock-down for learning and Harappa team ensured to stay connected with their learners, rather they took their in-person workshops to online mode to keep their commitment intact. The efforts made by team at Human Resource Development Center (HRDC), LPU are equally praiseworthy who never took a back-step amid the tensed situations rather they kept encouraging the learners from their respective places.

Slowly and steadily, I reached the pinnacle during April, 2020 when I completed the last assigned course scoring above than average. Our efforts were recognized with an e-certificate post completion of every course (one of them shared below) which would certainly help me to cherish the memories in the times to come.

Team Harappa and HRDC, LPU brought another exciting news of connecting us with Dr. Sinha once again in virtual-masterclass scheduled to be held in May, 2020. That news made me recall the moments of solving the thought provoking situation he shared in the beginning, so I started waiting for the masterclass eagerly.

The day arrived and Dr. Sinha along with his team member Ms. Shashiprabha Gupta got connected with the learners through a webinar. This time, he shared few stories of his life that acted as stepping stones of his academics and professional career. Before one could think, what's in it for me, he related excerpts of his journey with our potential and profession. Almost every participant of the webinar got flabbergasted with his words of wisdom during that one hour interaction, post which he addressed the queries of the participants. I also got a chance to put across my query that Dr. Sinha answered with his expertise.

In a nutshell, I must say team Harappa has kept their words withstanding their core values. This journey of almost 6 months with them has not just let me learn the basics, fundamental concepts but also got me the chance to connect with multi-talented minds & humble souls. Their proven methods and techniques guided me to help my mentees, relatives, family members to make informed decisions while handling critical situations. I could see myself following a different approach altogether during interaction with any of the students, guided them identify the root cause of their challenges and overcoming the same with perseverance.

Additionally, I am affirmative now to prepare and present the concepts in my upcoming training session ensuring sure shot success. I'm pretty confident to have gala time ahead practicing the wisdom & learning gained so far!