Vriddhi is an online Faculty Development Programme for higher-education faculty. It focuses on practical areas of academic practice such as teaching, assessment, classroom engagement, professional judgement, and responding to real teaching situations.
The programme is designed to move beyond simply consuming content. Faculty members learn through coursework, live discussions, teaching cases, peer comparison, and a practical classroom project that can be taken back into their own teaching practice.
It is built around a simple question: what will you actually use in your classroom after the programme? That is why the experience combines learning content with teaching cases, professional discussion, peer judgement, and a final classroom asset. The aim is not only to understand a teaching idea, but to think through how it applies to a real classroom and turn that learning into something usable.
The programme
Vriddhi runs for 8 weeks. The programme begins once 100 faculty members have registered — the live sessions are discussions rather than lectures, your responses to teaching cases are set against other faculty members' responses, and your final project is read by three peers, none of which works in a half-empty room. We will email you your start date as soon as the cohort is complete, well before the eight weeks begin.
You should plan for approximately 4 hours per week over the eight weeks. Around 1.5 hours per week are expected to be live with other faculty, while the remaining time is used for coursework, case activities, peer comparison, and project work.
The four pillars
All four have to be met to complete the programme.
| What it takes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Watch the recorded talks and complete their summaries and quizzes | 100% course progress |
| Standups | Participate in live faculty sessions, meet the attendance requirements, and take part in the live-session polls | 720 minutes across at least 12 sessions, with more than 50% of the polls run in the sessions you attended, answered |
| Activities | Work through teaching cases, submit your own responses, and learn through peer comparison | All 12 cases reach the verdict Complete |
| Project | Take a teaching resource you have already made, revise it in the light of the programme, have it peer-reviewed, and complete the peer reviews you owe | Your resource is accepted by two of its three reviewers, and you complete 3 peer reviews |
Standups
Standups are live online sessions with experts and with other faculty members. Some bring in a speaker; others are given over to discussion among participants. They are built for talking rather than listening, so you should expect to take part rather than sit through them.
To complete the live session component, you need to:
- Complete at least 720 minutes of attendance across the programme.
- Attend at least 12 live sessions.
- Answer more than 50% of the polls run in the sessions you attended.
- Participate in the live-session polls when they are presented during the sessions you attend.
The polls are used as an engagement mechanism. They are intended to show that faculty are actively participating in the live session rather than simply staying connected to the meeting.
Activities
Activities are short, teaching-focused case studies. You respond to real classroom situations and then learn by reading and comparing other faculty responses.
All 12 cases are compulsory — you do not choose 12 from a larger bank, and there are no optional extras.
A case counts only when all three conditions are true:
- Your own response is submitted.
- You complete 7 valid peer picks on that case.
- Your response reaches the verdict Complete.
The comparison uses a three-part rubric:
- Fair to the other side — this is the deciding consideration.
- Real reasons rather than "it depends".
- Did the classroom change take the other side seriously?
The steelman — the argument against yourself — is the point of the whole exercise. It is easy to hold a teaching position confidently for years without ever having had to state the best case against it.
What we expect
About 4 hours a week for 8 weeks — of which roughly 1.5 hours are live with other faculty, and the rest goes on coursework, case activities, peer comparison and project work.
The programme represents approximately 30 notional learning hours in total, so it is worth weighing the time commitment before you begin.
This is not a watch-the-videos-and-collect-the-certificate track. Three of the four pillars ask you to produce something and put it in front of a peer.
The certificate
A certificate recording 30 notional learning hours, equivalent to one NCRF credit, issued on completion, not on attendance. Meet the four bars and it issues automatically — nobody has to approve it. It carries your own start and completion dates and a verification link anyone can check.
What we need from your institution
An NOC signed by your HOD, Dean or Principal.
It is one page, and two parts of it are theirs rather than yours. They certify that they have no objection, and that the time this asks is feasible alongside your existing duties. And they write a short paragraph in their own words — why you, and what they expect you to bring back to the department. Worth asking them early rather than the night before.
You do not need it to register. Register now, and ask your HOD for the NOC while the cohort fills — we need a verified NOC within 7 days of your start date. If it has not arrived by then, your access pauses. Nothing you have done is lost, and everything resumes the moment the NOC is verified.
Full text of the NOC — coming soon.
Downloadable template — coming soon.
Why the application runs on samagama.in
Part of applying is a conversation with Yaksha, the assistant on this platform. It is a real conversation and not a form in disguise: it asks about your teaching and your students, follows up on what you say, and tells you when it has enough.
Your answers do not affect whether you are admitted. There is no right answer and nothing to prepare. It is there so we understand who is in the room, not to screen you — the room is faculty from very different departments and institutions, and a programme built on debate and peer judgement depends on knowing what each of you brings to it.
The intake conversation is non-evaluative. There is no merit score based on your answers. Its purpose is to understand the faculty member's context, and completion of the required conversation is what matters for the admission flow.
Five things we would rather you heard from us
Participation is voluntary and in your own time. This programme does not ask your institution for duty leave, and it should not be treated as official duty.
You are not relieved of anything. Teaching, examination and invigilation duties continue as normal. The NOC says so explicitly, so that nobody is surprised on either side.
There is no financial support — no stipend, no honorarium, and no reimbursement of any cost.
Our correspondence with you is copied to whoever signed your NOC. Reminders, status updates, completion. They certified that this programme fits alongside your duties, so they stay in the loop about how it is going. Nothing is reported about you that is not also sent to you.
If you withdraw or do not finish, it is recorded, and may be taken into account when places are allocated in later cycles. Your HOD is told this on the NOC they sign, so you should read it here first rather than find it there. A good record counts in your department's favour.
When the programme begins
Registration is open, and you can complete it today. The programme itself begins once 100 faculty members have registered; we will email you your start date as soon as the cohort is complete. You do not need to check anything or do anything to hold your place — registering is enough.
Your eight weeks then run from that shared start date, with the rest of the cohort.
What to do next
Apply → Three parts, and the application is not complete until all three are done:
- A short form — a few minutes.
- The conversation with Yaksha — 20 to 30 minutes. Begin it when you have that time. It is part of the application, not an optional extra; you cannot start the programme without it.
- A few acknowledgements to tick.
Then ask your HOD, Dean or Principal for the NOC, and upload it within 7 days of starting.
Still have questions? FAQ — coming soon.