At the very last minute, Sindhu, enrolled for MasterCoach - a blended learning trainer certification program.

What A Alphonsa Sindhu, a trainer from DB Tech in Chennai, took away transformed not only her own approach to education, but also created a motivator and mentor who continues to pay it forward, inspiring her students and other trainers to take charge of their learning, and apply it in their daily lives.

In India, where success is pegged on quantitative results in the education system, Sindhu realized, “The biggest change that I made in my practice is that earlier I thought my role as a facilitator was to complete the curriculum. After MasterCoach I realized that the students’ understanding is the most important thing. Marks are not important, the curriculum is not important, the student’s understanding is the main thing.”

Dedicated and engaged, Sindhu displayed a genuine interest from the start in developing herself to be able to teach better, a drive that pushed her to join MasterCoach. Comfortable with technology, she occasionally used the Internet for research, resources and materials to make her sessions more engaging.

From the identity map to the workshop itself, including a session on LinkedIn, Sindhu shared insights on her evolution as a facilitator:

"Now I understand the reason behind the different activities in the session. Earlier we would just follow the lesson plan and do the activity because it was there. Now after reading about multiple intelligences, I realize why the Quest sessions are designed like that, why we use videos or role play; it is to cater to different learning styles".

She was also very proactive in sharing her learning with the other learners in the course. She would regularly post articles and links to resources in the online discussion forum and would share her thoughts and responses whenever someone would ask a question in the group. All through the course she was engaged; completing all tasks, submitting all her assignments on time even though she had a lot of her other work as trainer in DB Tech, and going beyond by doing additional research and sharing ideas with her peers.

One of her great qualities was that she tried to apply everything that she learnt into her practice and readily shared those insights, which led to a nuanced understanding of concepts. Just like she did with LinkedIn where she transferred the knowledge and skills to her learners.

Sindhu was promoted to the role of State MIS and M&E Coordinator for Tamil Nadu in DB Tech. She even graduated to becoming a master trainer for MasterCoach, where she successfully facilitated a session around building a portfolio for the participants of Cohort 4. She prepared and facilitated the entire session on her own, making use of Powerpoint and giving a live demo of how to use LinkedIn, using her profile as an example. Sindhu had broadened her perspective of facilitation from being transactional to being more learner-centered. She successfully brought changes in the classroom that benefitted her learners.

Given her experience of learning through an online course while balancing work has given her the confidence to pursue higher education where she is now doing a BEd.