helpdesk@loyolacollege.edu 044-28178291/292/293
Loyola College

Office of Media Relations


Activities

-> 2015-2016

Regular Updating
Reports of completed events of the college are edited, wherever necessary, and uploaded on regular basis. An editorial team comprising Dr. Felicita Mary Prabha and Dr. M. Parthiban edits the reports of various academic units of the college.

Web Development
Mr. A. Clint Eastwood (Web Coordinator) and Mr. R. Subbiah Sudhakar (Server Administrator) along with MCA students are in the process of developing the web. As the first step, search menu is being integrated in Loyola webpage for the sake of easy access of information.

Digital Display Board
WEPRO manages to update information on two Digital Display Boards, which are placed near the campus map, opposite to Information Desk and opposite to Chemistry block. The digital boards are kept on all through the day.
The following information is displayed for the students:
•  Date and Time
•  Thought for the day
•  Day order
•  Current and upcoming events conducted by the college as well as individual departments / centres / institutes etc.
•  Relevant information about the courses of the college/centres/institutes
•  Special Achievements of the Staff and Students
•  Ph.D. Public Viva Voce
•  Brief History of our College

Programmes in L C TVs
On a regular basis, important everyday programmes of the College, thought provoking short films, TED talks with subtitles, promo videos of the department programmes, educational videos are displayed in Display TVs with the sole aim of engaging the staff and students during their free time. Many students are spell found by the messages of these video programmes. In addition, LIVE broadcast of important programmes of the College like Graduation Day, College Day, etc was done both in webpage and LC TV.

Campus News
It is again the initiative of WEPRO to reach the staff and students of our college with campus news in audio format on regular basis. For the first time, campus news in video format was launched during the academic year 2015-16. Key events and programmes of the college were given in capsule form. Both received a rousing welcome from members of Loyola Family. The credit is due to the student and staff members of WEPRO Team.

Press Meet and Coverage
WEPRO also organizes press meets for important events and programmes of the college. Some of the press meets organized and events given wider coverage in press include:
•  Rev. Fr. Bertram Memorial Tournament on August 20, 2015
•  Loyola Award 2014 on September 15, 2015
•  88th Graduation Day on January 23, 2015
•  Ovation 2015 on September 30 & October 01, 2015
•  Alumni Day 2015 on October 02, 2015
•  International Conference on Foundations of Human Excellence and Workshop on Revisiting Soft Skills in Higher education on February 03 – 05, 2016
•  Loyola Rain Relief Service (LRRS) during December 02 - 09, 2015
•  One day Regional Conference on Floods: Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction conducted on January 27, 2016
•  Political Awareness for Youth on February 23, 2016
•  VEEDHI VIRUDHU VIZHA, a Two day programme on Folk Arts Performance and Discussion organized by Loyola Students Support Service (LSSS) on January 09 &10, 2016
•  Inter- Collegiate Cultural and Sports Meet for the Visually Challenged On February 26, 2016
•  International Seminar on Thirukkural in Multi-Dimensional Perspective On January 01, 2016
•  Musical Concert by Paul Wilbur at Loyola College on February 21, 2016
•  Kalam sviep - A Students Perspectives of Kalam on February 22, 2016
•  National Workshop on “Mobile Learning: Communicating, Connecting and Collaborating” on February 27 & 28, 2016
•  Seminar on "Transgenderism - an Insider's Perspective" on March 01, 2016
•  College Day on March 16, 2016
In addition, the print and visual media are regularly invited to cover the programmes organized on campus and carry the news to the public. The news items attached in the Press section of our college website http://loyolacollege.edu/press.html speak volumes of the role played by WEPRO members.

Consultancy
It is heartening to note that PSG Coimbatore was impressed with our college website and its management. A team of personnel under the leadership of Dr. Victor Arockia Doss, ICT Committee Coordinator, PSG College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore visited our college and interacted with our web team on September 16, 2015. The focus of the discussion was developing and maintaining the website, synchronizing our website with day to day developments and updates, kind of LAN/VLAN and the automation/software we have for campus /hostel management and kind of firewall/antivirus that we employ. The consultancy offered by WEPRO team was lauded very much as informative and useful.

Induction of Ediffy
Ediffy, a Powerful Teacher Student Communication App was inducted in College and information was disseminated instantaneously. A Pan Account in the name of Loyola College and separate accounts in the name of different departments and some other units like LSSS, Hostels, and Office of Dean of Students have been created and utilized to a great extent. During tough time namely deluge in Chennai, communication using edify app was found more effective and faster. It too receives rousing welcome among the staff members of the college.

M N L Report
By the direction of Principal, monthly report to MNL collating important events of the college is prepared and sent. Director, WEPRO is in charge of this report as it has to be matter of fact and informative only. The reports sent periodically to MNL have been appreciated by the management.

E-journals: Loyola Insider & Loyola Academic Newsletter (LAN)
One of the projects of Web Enhancement and Public Relations Office (WEPRO) is to start e-journals that would, on regular basis, carry the campus news in capsule form to the staff and students of our college. Loyola Insider is made possible now mainly due to the effort of student members of WEPRO. Loyola Insider intends to give all Loyolites a bird's eye view of the campus news. It brings to all members of Loyola family in brief the activities, events and information that they may be part, yet unaware of. It is purely a venture of student members of WEPRO. Hence, the editors of the journal have the opportunity to put the journalistic skills acquired in their classroom into practice. As an academic initiative from Rev. Dr. G. Josph Antony Samy, S.J. Principal, Loyola College to record important academic experiences and accomplishments and take them to the stakeholders of higher education, LAN was visualized. It has become a reality because of the staff and student members WEPRO. It not only aims at highlighting the accomplishments of Loyola College but creates space for staff and students to exhibit their creativity as well.

Seminars and Workshops
Cultural and Educational Ties of Russia and India
WEPRO in association with Department of History, Consulate General of the Russian Federation, Russian Cultural Centre, and Indo-Russian Centre for Rural Development, Chennai conducted a one day seminar on “Combating Against Falsification of History” on July 14, 2015 to mark 70th Anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War and highlight the importance of cultural exchange and information sharing between Russia and India in order to strengthen economic, social and educational ties.

Building Youth Leadership for Sustainable Planet
Building Youth Leadership for Sustainable Planet, an international conference was organized in association with Youth LeadeR, an International Network on July 28, 2015 as a precursor to actualization of Green Loyola Programme envisaged for the academic year 2015 -16. Rev. Dr. S. Lazar, SJ, Secretary, Loyola College, the convener of the conference introduced the theme of “Healing Earth”. Mr. Eric Schneider, Youth LeadeR Founder, conducted the programme, highlighted the importance of the constructive role to be played by youth leaders in building a brave new world. It is particularly noteworthy that participants enjoyed the fruitful discussion and music with Ms. Holley Somerville-Knott from Australia (aged 11), an environmental activist and lead musical driver of the epic Bentley Blockade, protecting a region from illegal tracking (oil and gas exploration). Further, Ms. Usha Vishwakarma, Red Brigade, Lucknow along with her team demonstrated self-defense strategies to women participants especially against sexual violence meted out to women.

Debate in Tamil in collaboration Chennai Literary Festival
A medley debate in Tamil on current affairs like commercialization of essential commodities and services like water, education, procuring methane gas at the expense of cultivating lands, role of youth in politics, prohibition, globalization and many more topics was held among the city college students to uphold the tradition of oratorical skills and sensitize reading habits among the students. The second day event of Chennai Literary Festival 2016 was organized at Loyola College. The Chief Guest, Rev. Dr. G. Joseph Antony Samy, S.J. Principal, Loyola College, Chennai applauded the organizers' effort to inculcate the literary taste and reading habits among the students. Dr. Parveen Sultana, popular and well known orator in Tamil moderated the entire debate. Ms. Vasumathy Marimuthu, Rotarian was the guest of Honour. About 40 debaters participated in the debate from various city colleges. A cash award of Rs.5,000, 3000, 2000 for the first three places and four category awards of Rs.2,000 each were distributed to the winners.

Internet Tools for Teaching and Learning
A state level workshop on “Internet Tools for Teaching and Learning” was organized by WEPRO in association with Department of English, Loyola College, and Chennai Literary Association on February 18, 2016 in LS Hall. The objectives of the workshop were to enhance the learners in available online recourses and develop self-learning materials for teaching and learning purposes. Dr. K.S. Antonysamy, Director, WEPRO and Associate Professor of English, Loyola College who coordinated the event on behalf of Department of English, Loyola College and Chennai Literary Association in his introductory address said that endeavoring to create a confluence of literature and art forms, Chennai Literary Festival is organised for the third time in the city. Dr. Joseph Chandra, HOD, Department of English, Loyola college inaugurated the workshop and gently reminded the participants of the need for ethical perspectives in using Internet resources. Dr. W. Mangayarkarasi, Associate Professor of English, Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, one of the resource persons elaborated the importance of Social Media & Blogging for Teaching and Learning purposes and demonstrated some of the learning aspects of face book and blogs. Mr. Sakthi Prasath GB, Research Scholar, EFLU, Meghalaya dealt with Materials Development in Second Language Teaching and Learning and gave the participants hands–on experience on harnessing the Google drive for language teaching and learning.

National Workshop on “Mobile Learning: Communicating, Connecting and Collaborating”
A two day National Workshop on “Mobile Learning: Communicating, Connecting and Collaborating” was organized by WEPRO, Loyola College in collaboration with English Language Teachers' Association of India (ELTAI) on February 27 & 28, 2016 at Loyola College.

Dr. K.S. Antonysamy, Director, WEPRO & E C Member, ELTAI, the Convener explained that the workshop was organized to create an awareness of changing dynamics of teaching and learning environments, train teachers to integrate the use of mobile devices and related apps in their teaching practices, develop a mobile learning pedagogy, establish a personal mobile learning strategy and offer hands-on experience on the use of apps available in mobile devices.

Mr. Ganapathi Ramachandran, Chairman & Executive Director, Trigyn Technologies Ltd was the chief guest who in his inaugural address insisted that every student of 21 century must be a digital citizen - a person who is responsible for how he /she utilizes technology to interact with the world around them. As an illustration, he gave the example how Goggle has become a key word in everyday conversation both in academia as well as in the world in general. Tracing back to the origin of technology in human history, he pointed out “Man's quest for dominance of the natural world has resulted in the creation of technology”. Mr. M. Saravan Krishna, Founder, Managing Director & CEO, Nuggets Media Pvt. Ltd was the guest of honour who said that mobile learning has emerged as a powerful learning tool in 21 Century and it is time that students and teachers adapt themselves to this transition from reliance on printed books to reading e-books on a mobile which is accessible and cheaper.

Dr K. Elango, formerly Professor of English, Anna University, Chennai and Secretary, ELTAI, Dr. Revathi Viswanathan, Head of the Department of English, B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Vandalur, Dr. Albert P'Rayan, KCG College of Technology, English, Faculty Member, English for Engineering & Technology, an English Language Teaching (ELT) resource person and Dr. Xavier Pradeep Singh, Department of English, V.O.C. College of Arts and Science, Thoothukudi, (TN) were the resource persons.

The workshop offered hands-on experience on social publishing platforms like face book and Adobe connect, collaborating devices like Google drive, mobile apps like voice thread, creating whatsapp groups as means of language teaching and learning. The experience was limited to only about 40 registered participants from all over India. Rev. Dr. G. Joseph Antony Samy, S.J., Principal, Loyola College and Prof. G. Ramamurthy, Deputy Principal, Loyola College graced the occasion and emphasized that in Loyola college, there is no gap between policy and execution on the ground.

Celebration of WEPRO Day
WEPRO Day was celebrated on March 07, 2016 mainly to showcase the activities planned and carried out by WEPRO members. Along with the regular activities like web updating and press coverage, other innovative accomplishments highlighted on the occasion were Campus News in video format, LAN and Loyola Insider. Officials who had gathered in large number lauded the efforts of the members in giving Loyola, the college of excellence a face lift with innovative ideas like campus news and e-journals. They also wanted the members to set standards for others to follow and take it forward to international level.

-> 2014-2015


Contact

Fr Justin Prabhu, SJ.

Director, Office of Media Relations,
MG 07, Main Building,
Loyola College, Chennai - 600 034.
Tel: 91 44 28178200 (Ext: 469)
omr@loyolacollege.edu