Recognizing our top teaching performance in TODS

Aramco’s Industrial Training Department (ITD) recently held its annual teacher awards ceremony.

The 2020 Annual ITD Teacher Observation Development System (TODS) Awards ceremony was the second such event and was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

TODS, which was inaugurated in August 2017, is Training and Development’s (T&D) award-winning system for tracking instructional performance. It utilizes data from thousands of instructor observations and documents their progress in key domains of sound pedagogy, assigns appropriate developmental goals, and leverages identified talent to raise the bar of instructional excellence throughout the training organization. 

TODS stands at the heart of T&D’s goal to continuously improve the quality of instruction in training programs, and has been shared with several Aramco organizations as a best practice in managing instructor observations for performance evaluation and development.  

T&D general manager Sami T. Murshed welcomed everyone to the event with an overview of TODS, and was then followed by Yousif N. Masoudi and Eissa A. Alamri, both HR assistants in the Western Region Distribution Department, who provided a trainee’s perspective of the program. 

Isaac Venkatachalam, a safety training instructor at the Dhahran North Industrial Training Center (ITC), talked about his own professional development journey with the system. Juan-Wessel Lubbe, a senior teacher at Rahima ITC in Ras Tanura, described what it was like to be a TODS observer. 

After each speech, awards for distinguished instructors and observers, respectively, were announced. The event also included special awards for the most improved instructors, as well as best division awards highlighting specific areas of excellence.

Thomas A. Heenan, an ITD career counselor and one of the personnel behind the creation and maintenance of TODS, then outlined recent improvements to the system. 

Closing remarks included a speech thanking all those involved for their efforts in creating and successfully implementing the system. 

Winners
Distinguished Instructor Award: Ayman I. Abuzahra, Modahir Alkhadim, Hussein A. Asfour, David Bottomley, Thomas Edward Deighton, Hamed A. Ghamidy, Trevor Hunt, Nikolaus K. Mische, Daniel F. Oirdache, Ali Shagal, Ali S. Shaiban, and Isaac Venkatachalam
Distinguished Observer Award: Nawwaf Abu Agil, Ioan Ani Ragolta, Yasir A. Aqeel, Edwin A. Dela Cruz, Glenn Govender, Majid A. Ilawi, Juan-Wessel Lube, Jonas M. Majerski, and Juabulani S. Tshabalalal
Most Improved Instructor Special Award: Armando A. Carbia and Ashraf Shakerkhalifa.
Special awards went to: Central Region/Western Region Training Department for Support of Instructional Demonstration Videos production; Southern Area ITD for Innovative TODS practices; Central Area ITD for Support of TODS Observer Training; SDU for Re-Development of TODS Observer Training Workshop; Northern Area ITD for Best Division Award; DHETD for Development of the ITD certification observation form; Riaz Pagarkar, Shahid Sidiqqi, and Fares Alotaibi for Outstanding Contribution to the ITD TODS System Adjustments Project; Frank Spencer, Craig Boyd, and John Montajes, Contribution to the ITD Instructional Demonstration Video Library; Kevin Lynagh, Stephen Titchener, Warren Schwartz, Philip Reeve, Munir Ghaleb, and Mohammed Obaidallah for Outstanding contribution to the development of the ITD Distance Learning Observation Protocol.

Caption:

Job-skills trainer Anil K. Vadhel teaches “Analyzers and Detectors” to a group of trainee Vocational College Graduate Non-Employees at the Ras Tanura ITC.