Good day, Ansuman Jena. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yes.

Could you briefly walk me through your academic and professional journey?

Yeah. Good afternoon and thank you for asking this question. My name is Anshuman Jaina. I have done my PhD from KIT University in Bhubaneswar. I have got more than 16 years of experience in academics.

Into academic sense.

Uh, 16 years and, uh, currently I'm working as an associate professor in marketing.

At the School of Management in Centurion University of Technology and Management, I have been teaching the basic marketing course that is marketing management, product and brand management, Strategic management, services marketing and Digital marketing. In my career so far I have got 2 research scholars, pad scholars, doctoral scholars, those who have been awarded PhD under my.

Research scholars, those who are continuing their doctoral research, and I'm expecting their submission of the thesis in another six months maximum.

Guideship. There are three.

Then in my academic career, I have.

I have assumed the role of UH Dean School of Management, Dean School of Undergraduate Studies, Dean, UH, and Director of Center for Internal Quality Assurance.

I was also the Deputy Director of Center for Quality Assurance in one of my earlier association with Odisha State Open University. I have been the Research Center coordinator for Edutech and Skills Tech.

And I have been fortunate to implement.

Any driven curriculum in my university?

I have also got several funded research projects from ICSSR.

Commonwealth of Learning and many other UH, corporates.

And I have publications in Scopus, index journals, book chapters and many other platforms I presented papers in.

Uh, several national and international conferences. I have also delivered keynote addresses and invited lectures at reputed institutions. I'm also a visiting faculty in XI University, Odisha and IIMC Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Odisha. So these are national institutions of repute. Thank you for asking this question and giving me this opportunity to introduce myself.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Professor Jena, for sharing your background and achievements. Let’s delve deeper into some of the skills and expertise you mentioned to explore your fit for this role further. To start, you indicated significant involvement in marketing analytics. Can you describe your approach to teaching marketing analytics concepts at an undergraduate or postgraduate level, focusing on how you simplify complex topics for your students?

Yes, that has been my effort so far in my career. So my teaching objective revolves around can I make all these concepts, lessons, theories relatable to my students where they can see or experience and attempt and do or deliver. Real life implementation of this. So I would say I'm being student centric and I have been working towards.

Experiential learning, action learning, active learning, where I make I collect, uh.

Problem statements from the industry, whether it is a startup, whether it is an established company. I use my network to generate problem statements for my class. I believe my students have that competency and skill to perform and take all these challenges head on. And I bring or I throw all these challenges to them and I then look forward to.

As a mentor, I look forward to resolving these challenges, issues with them. For example, what we did and we I don't distinguish whether it is a big multinational company or a small startup like Golgappa seller, Panipuri seller.

So we have done for marketing analytics to be particular, I have, uh, I'm also a Microsoft, uh, certified Power BI.

So I have got the industry certification and that proves my competency skill in delivering courses like Power BI for data analytics to my students. Coming back to the pedagogy, so I work with the students, we go to the field, we talk to the customers of their businesses and we.

Associate.

Go and talk to the supplier, all the stakeholders and accordingly we analyze the data and we provide solutions to those problems to these customers. And this approach has been appreciated by the industry partners.

Work on understanding the problem we then.

This is also liked by the students and I am among the top rated faculties in my university. So that establishes my credential as a faculty and bridging the gap between theory and knowledge and creating an ecosystem where students can wholeheartedly experience.

The concepts in action.

Thank you for asking this question.

Thank you, Professor Jena. That was a thorough explanation. You provided strong insights into how you integrate real-world problems with teaching. I’d like to follow up—what role do you think tools like Power BI specifically play in helping students grasp complex marketing data? Additionally, could you share an example of an impactful solution your students delivered through this experiential approach?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So a tool like Power BI is exceptionally good in visualizing the data.

Uh, coming to the specific example, our students, we have taken admission data again. I have asked the admission department of my university to share their problem statement.

So they have given a problem statement, they have also given their admission data and me and along with the student volunteers or team, what we have done is we have created a detailed dashboard or report where we have created this marketing funnel for them as a deliverable or based on the analysis. So in that report. Power BI report we have demonstrated what are the leading areas. As from where students are showing interest in taking admission on multiple sources, whether it is a lead that has come from the website, whether it is a lead that has come from the mobile application or is it a physical application. So and also social media and many other third party sources. We also have consultants working with us. So we have consolidated and we have. Geographic location wise. State wise. Educational qualification wise.

In terms of their grades, marks, whether they are from CBSE, whether they are from ICAC. So we have created a detailed dashboard where we have visualized all these things and we have in fact, the students have made the presentation to the leadership of the university, including the promoters, including the vice chancellor, registrar and many directors and teams. And it was hugely appreciated and.

The admission team has also accepted that as a benchmark and we have after that they have requested us to develop a pipeline.

For them, sorry, marketing funnel for them so that they can use it for their marketing strategy and increasing their conversion in terms of admission. So that is one of the many examples. There are many such examples where we have taken action, research projects and delivered to the satisfaction of the customer. Thank you.

Impressive. That example not only highlights how you integrate tools like Power BI into your teaching but also demonstrates impactful collaboration between students and institutional departments. It's clear you foster a culture of applying theoretical knowledge to solve real-world challenges effectively. Moving forward, I’d like to explore your research orientation. Could you summarize your philosophy and contributions to guiding student projects and doctoral research? Additionally, how do you ensure academic rigor while encouraging innovation in your research mentorship?

Thank you. As a mentor of doctoral students or even while I teach marketing to the undergraduate and post graduate students or BBA MBA students. So my effort has always been providing them UH with experiential learning, outcome driven learning.

And research based application, data-driven and analytics driven approach.

So in my classes, the pedagogy I follow is not. There are no.

A typical classical PowerPoint based lecture theory type of learning. But what I emphasize on is action learning. And I believe that students, if they have given they're given maximum opportunity, they will immerse into learning. We don't have to. Strictly, I mean threaten them.

That we will deduct your marks, we will deduct your attendance or we will give you less marks if you don't perform. So students so motto join and they enjoy, appreciate this learning coming to the discipline and academic rigour.

Yes. I don't compromise on moral ethics and academic integrity. I ensure that we follow we have a strict guideline in our university regarding the ethical code of conduct.

And necessary approval is to be obtained for.

From the competent authorities before we undertake any project and whether it is a consulting or a grant based project. So in my doctoral, particularly to the doctoral students, I asked them to read.

Read the latest documents literature that is available then.

To share so regularly make presentations and uh, we invite everyone, those who are available to come and join those presentations and give their input. So it is not that we know everything. However, we try to learn from each other. We also invite multidisciplinary, I mean faculty from other disciplines so that our study is multidisciplinary and.

Uh, use that understanding.

We aspire to publish in high ranked, top ranked journals, so we set our standards very high. We don't compromise and we don't dilute anything.

This has been my approach altogether, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor Jena. Your emphasis on ethical rigor, multidisciplinary collaboration, and maintaining high academic standards is noteworthy. It’s clear you deeply value integrity and quality in guiding student research. Let’s shift to your teaching methods. Given your experience, how do you approach the challenge of balancing theoretical concepts with practical relevance in laboratory or workshop-based courses? For instance, how do you ensure students can connect foundational theories to hands-on applications effectively?

Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you. So.

I use multiple.

Pools as.

To support my.

UH pedagogy.

It includes case studies, it includes simulation, it includes field visit. And we also, like I have already mentioned, we also collaborate with startups to solve their problems. We also invite external resource persons to come and take a few classes so that the industry leaders, they give critical insights for our students. What is happening in the industry? How we can bridge the gap between the.

Classroom based teaching and what the industry aspires so these case studies action learning projects assignment everything is.

Directed towards a tangible outcome. It is not that students will use AI or they can simply copy paste. It is action driven and it is aligned with the theoretical concepts. For example if I'm teaching branding.

So I will, uh, attach or the assignment I'm going to give is, uh, analyze the branding strategy of a company of your choice and, uh, write a note based on your understanding of the classroom discussion. And then we have debate and discussion around it. Similarly, when we talk of case studies, again, case studies are great. To initiate classroom discussion, debate and it brings out.

Diverse perspective, interesting perspective from the students. Sometimes I get surprised that as a faculty I have also not thought about these things what my students are saying. So I also learned from my students when and with these pedagogies are extremely helpful, particularly coming to simulation. I use the MIT Open courseware. I'm a registered. Educator I have an educator account so I have got access to the exclusive.

Simulation.

And that is their simulation platform, which is open source. And the I, I create accounts of my students and that becomes a capstone project that my students develop.

In line with the course progress. So everything is meticulously planned and executed. And I'm fortunate that my students and my leadership, they also find it extremely relevant and interesting and I believe.

That is why I'm among the top rated faculties in my institution.

Thank you for the detailed response, Professor Jena. Your deliberate integration of case studies, simulations, and industry engagement truly exemplifies a structured yet dynamic approach to teaching. It’s clear you place great emphasis on tangible outcomes and student involvement. Moving on, could you share examples of how your academic expertise has extended beyond teaching and into impactful publications or industry projects? For instance, highlight any significant contributions or recognition you’ve achieved in these areas.

I have got major research project from ICSSR New Delhi.

Uh, in fact, I have got UH-2 projects, one as, uh, the Co Pi and uh, one is uh, as the Pi. So there we have the, the first study as the Pi, it was based on Bhuvneshwar smart city.

We, me and my students, we have conducted this survey and we have identified serious flaws and I'm talking this study was conducted in 20/20/19. So we have identified serious flaws in the fiscal sludge management facility in the smart city Bhubaneswar. The concept of smart city was also very new and.

Administrator state level and district level administrators were also trying to navigate through that. So our study has greatly influenced the decision making and we have really identified a few.

The.

Areas where the.

Authorities can intervene and accordingly, that that study has been appreciated and that has been.

Accolated and recognized by the state leadership as well as ICSR. So that is a note what the contribution and regarding recognition I have also got.

Simka and NAPSVI and many other organizations. So there we have developed courses for online courses. We have conducted surveys to identify the adoption of solar energy. There are many. So if I have to summarize the in terms of budget.

Project funded from.

I have, you know, read about more than 15 to 20,00,000 in terms of consulting, project funding and granting aid.

So that is a testament to my competency and.

Quality of my research work.

Thank you, Professor Jena. Your impactful research on urban management issues like Bhubaneswar Smart City and your successful acquisition of significant project funding are indeed commendable. These contributions reflect the tangible influence of your academic rigor on both policy and practice. Let’s now focus on your ability to evaluate students effectively. How do you ensure fairness and rigor in student evaluations for exams or project-based courses? Additionally, describe any innovative methods you use to assess student performance beyond traditional exams.

Sorry to interrupt, we're down to the last 5 minutes.

OK, thanks for the reminder. I'll be quick. So I, uh, fairly believe that, uh, students have diverse background students, uh, have their own pace of learning and understanding. So there cannot be a uniform yardstick to measure, uh, measure their understanding, knowledge, competency in a holistic manner. So what I do is I give assignments, which are.

Uh, like case, case analysis, simulation, captain projects, Those are all graded, evaluated and with detailed guideline and timelines. Second, they are also given.

Uh, presentations, so that also improves their communication. Then they have to work with uh, industries or some corporate or some startup so that they also understand the action learning thing. Also, they also appear the midterm and end-term exam.

Assessment method.

Is competency based, outcome based and addresses a specific issue or captures a specific level of knowledge understanding. I also use the Bloom's Taxonomy for developing my curriculum and pedagogy and that is all mapped to the outcome based education. So this is how I ensure that a diverse group of students are given justice and. They are assessed holistically, not just conventionally.

Through reading and writing questions or answers. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor Jena. Your approach demonstrates a deep commitment to fairness and a holistic understanding of students' abilities by blending diverse assessment methods and frameworks like Bloom’s Taxonomy. We’ve covered significant aspects of your expertise and contributions. I’d like to conclude by asking—do you have any additional points you’d like to share, or any questions for us?

Yes, I have a few questions. Uh, so, uh, what are the KPIs for? I have applied for associate professor in marketing role. So what is expected as deliverables or what are the KPIs for these associate professor of marketing in vit?

Please tell me.

Thank you, Professor Jena. For the Associate Professor role in Marketing, the key performance indicators (KPIs) and expectations include the following: ### Responsibilities and Deliverables: 1. **Classroom and Laboratory Teaching**: Conduct engaging and structured educational sessions, including theoretical and practical courses. 2. **Student Evaluation**: Manage assessment duties such as exams, project reviews, and presentations. 3. **Guiding Research and Projects**: Supervise student research activities and help them develop industry-relevant capabilities. 4. **Research Contributions**: Publish research papers in reputed international journals, preferably peer-reviewed and indexed. 5. **Consultancy and Industry Interaction**: Develop relationships with industry partners to enhance research funding and consultancy opportunities. 6. **Curriculum Development**: Contribute to the design and delivery of innovative and outcome-driven academic programs. 7. **Departmental Activities**: Engage actively in academic administration tasks, such as course accreditation and quality assurance. ### Qualifications/Skills Relevant to KPIs: - Expertise in Marketing Analytics or Services Operations Management. - PhD in a relevant field, with preferably registered patents or substantial consultancy experience. - Strong research background backed by publications in reputed journals. - Proven ability to guide student projects and deliver structured learning outcomes. - Contribution to funded research projects or R&D activities will be highly valued. - A multidisciplinary approach and familiarity with accreditation processes will be advantageous. The role emphasizes research, teaching excellence, student engagement, and industry collaboration. If you have further clarifications or need details on this, feel free to ask.

Hello, are you there?

Thank you for explaining all these things. I believe my knowledge, skill, competency and work experience in terms of accreditation, in terms of curriculum development, in terms of research, publication and academic activities. I believe it's a great match and I look forward to the final interview round and if selected, contribute tangibly and meaningfully to the institutional growth and development.

Yes.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Professor Jena. It’s been a pleasure learning about your expertise, achievements, and vision. Your dedication to both academic rigor and student-centric approaches stands out as a strong match for the role. If you're ready, we can conclude the interview. Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to add or discuss!

No, I don't have anything right now. Uh, I think, uh, my question was correctly and aptly, uh, responded by you. If you have anything to ask, you can ask.

Thank you, Professor Jena. I believe we’ve covered the essential areas thoroughly, and there are no further questions from my side at this stage. Would you like to formally confirm if you're ready to conclude the interview?

Yes, we can download. Thank you.