The long-term effect of the lockdown will impact how hotel schools function. While, the pandemic has not deterred students, hotel schools buckle up for how the future training is going to be like.
HT Bureau
Christine Demen Meier Managing Director Les Roches Global Hospitality Education
At les Roches, following the restrictions imposed since mid- March due to the global sanitary crisis, classroom teaching for all study programs has been replaced with online distance learning allowing our international students to connect regardless of their time zone. With the use of digital textbooks accessible 24/7, videoconferences, live sessions and online assessments supported by artificial intelligence tools, our faculty keeps on generating academic content of 100 new videos daily and until now, almost 3,000 videos have been created for students to access via Moodle, a Learning Management System. We have also implemented online Q&A sessions for small groups accessible several times a day so as to support the theoretical teaching.
Moreover, to help students prepare themselves for the new world after 2020, together with our sister brand, Glion Institute of Higher Education, we have created an exceptional new series of live online classes entitled “Leading Hospitality Through Turbulent Times” allowing our students to he present study methods, while effective, shall in no way replace our traditional way of teaching, known for its high level of excellence worldwide. While we are providing our students with the best tools available to pursue their studies during this difficult time and with the support of our incredibly engaged and dedicated faculty, we are greatly looking forward to re-opening our campuses in July to welcome our students back and provide them with the environment they are used to strive in.
“Our faculty keeps on generating academic content of 100 new videos daily and until now, almost 3,000 videos have been created for students”
Irfan MirzaDirector/Principal V.M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE)
We have created a WhatsApp group headed by our counsellors and they are in touch with the students on a regular basis. Though we have completed 90% of the teachings before the lockdown, teachers keep the students occupied with online teaching/coaching, quiz, NSS activities etc. We also have to make some modifications with the internship in India and abroad. It is a very difficult time for everyone, and it is important that our student’s safety is our priority at this moment. We will be identifying a good software for online coaching and training and all our teachers will be trained to conduct online coaching. Hospitality education consists of lectures, demos, practicals, group discussions and assignments including class presentations, theme nights, banquets, cultural nights, and mega events. The solution that we have found is only temporary and it is not an alternative option.
“We have created a WhatsApp group headed by our counsellors and they are in touch with the students on a regular basis”
Garima Parkash Dean-Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School Ansal University, Gurugram
As far as the delivery of course curriculum, the conduct of classes, the class tests and the evaluation thereof are concerned, these activities were carried out in the same way as is usually done during the days of normal functioning at the college premises. The academic rigour was not lost as the time table as originally planned at the beginning of the semester was adhered to with precision and exactitude.
Practical sessions on bread-making and egg cooking were held straight from the well-equipped domestic kitchens of Chefs Sunil Kumar and Chef Saurav Arora. What’s more, a few guest lectures by external resources and live demonstrations were also conducted online in which the students took a lot of interest and asked relevant questions. Two Faculty Development Programmes were held wherein the faculty members themselves became students of our own resources and learnt a lot. The faculty members’ performance appraisal was also done online – quite to the satisfaction of the team members. Students were quite at ease as they studied within the comfort of their house. Though, as is a pre-requisite of a hotel management course, they had to attend these classes formally in a state of full grooming and hygiene.
Being optimistic, about the pedagogical activities being carried out as laid down in the course structures, we do sincerely hope, as long as the things are completely eased out, would work out very well. We have not experienced loss of any amount of academic objectivity and consistency as all the academic processes were time-bound and had to be completed on the prescribed dates. In addition, the recruitment of new HM students for the Academic Year 2020 – 2024 is also taking place regularly as they are being interviewed online. The existing students, on their part are submitting their semester fees as per the stipulated dates.
“The academic rigour was not lost as the time table as originally planned at the beginning of the semester was adhered to with precision”
