There is no doubt about a great future of education in India. Yet, the way to reach out to a great future still has to be thought about. Cloud is emerging as the medium to make quality education accessible to all. Cloud-based solutions are now widely accepted for two main reasons : Minimised costeverywhere of ownership and operations, and anywhere, anytime learning potential. But still it is not understood, and used the way it can be used for its real benefits especially in education. The first thing is to understand what Cloud means, and what it can do for the education segment. Unlike its synonym Cloud, it is simply a metaphor for various data networks generally located remotely and accessed via the internet, and has nothing to do with the stratosphere. Various apps like Google Drive, Facebook, Gmail, Drop Box, Web conferencing, ERP as a service, etc are the most common examples of Cloud, where the entire data is saved and processed in some remote data centre. Simplifying the Cloud, Lokesh Mehra, Director-Education Advocacy, Microsoft defines, “Cloud in simple terms is a network of shared resources that can be located anywhere. The main advantage that comes with cloud is: it’s cheaper, scalable, and maintenance free for the end user. Cloud computing can be viewed typically as a large ecosystem, which is not owned by any educational organisation. Within this ecosystem, learners and educators act as the users and producers of cloud-based learning services, with complete control over the choice, use and sharing – providing learners anywhere, anytime learning. Faster, Cheaper, Reliable and on Demand – the cloud truly has a green lining.”

Endless scope

Cloud computing has a tremendous opportunity to provide greater cost efficiency, flexibility in schools while improving the learning outcomes. One of the most interesting reasons to adopt cloud is that schools’ need not invest in the implementation, maintenance issues, and buying new software everyday. Data volumes are going high; it helps in keeping away from server and storage worries.

Implementation cost saves from buying new hardware or software updating cost. Schools have to pay just monthly subscription fees to get all that done in a hassle-free manner and helps them to focus more on operations and on enhancing learning delivery.

Nilaya Varma, Managing Director, Health & Public Service, Accenture India, shares the benefits of Cloud computing, “The power of Cloud computing in education can be used best in the areas of data and content management, document and records management, online learning resources, web-delivery of classroom trainings, and knowledge management. Education in India in the next few years will move away from public universities to private universities, Cloud will help these universities with optimising resources for physical infrastructure by using technology infrastructure, on a per-use basis. Content across these universities will be more standardised, which shall enable students to transfer across  universities. Content management will be a service that these institutions will be interested to leverage.”

Cloud’s power to offer anywhere,anytime learning will penetrate educationto far flung areas, where there isscarcity of institutions, teachers, andunavailability of courses with the benefitsof collaborative and peer-learning.Highlighting the potential of Cloud,G Raghavan, Chief Executive, CareerBuilding Solutions, NIIT Ltd says, “Thebreakthrough Cloud technology hasthe potential to transform the educationindustry in India. Through Cloudhigh quality educational programmescan reach to the remotest corners of thecountry, thus addressing the dilemmaof scalability and quality in educationthat our country is currently facing.Backed by powerful technologies, suchas NIIT Cloud Campus, the collaborativeplatform puts the power to learnin the hands of the students by makinglearning with buddies, and learning anytime and anywhere possible.”

Dr Shashi Throor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, says: “Cloud has tremendous potential in India. It has the potential to make available massive amount of education database across the country. Regularly updated database will give students and teachers opportunity to learn what they miss in the classroom. And teachers also can stay updated with latest knowledge resources. Potential is enormous but challenges are also there, like power infrastructure and the lack of last mile connectivity. We are yet to have the basic infrastructure required in taking advantage of technology. Technology is moving fast, and I believe that story will be totally different, sooner.”

Students are demanding more technology services from their schools, and the schools in turn are keeping pace by adopting newer and better technologies.
Cloud brings a range of solutions that are not offered by the traditional IT. Cloud computing is available in many ways from software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and now emerging in the education is Content as a Service.

Lokesh Mehra further shares the details of three important set of offerings from Cloud:

SaaS: Software as a Service (SaaS) provides schools with different applications that can accessed from anywhere, such as emails or different educational applications. It gives the benefit of collaboration among students. Microsoft Office 365 for Education provides free email, websites, online document editing and storage, IM and video conferencing helping students easily connect with faculty, experts, and one another to inspire, research, and form new ideas. PaaS: Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides users with tools that allow them to create and host the applications. The tools available are cheap, and can be used by students to learn and create loads of applications. It allows you to dynamically scale, as demands fluctuate. IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service  (Iaas) gives the freedom of storing your data on the Cloud, and then accessing it from anywhere. This option is normally used in educational institutions for uploading the assignments and other documents that can be used by students from anywhere. During admission or result cycles the load increases, and instead of investing in CAPEX, an institute can leverage the Cloud.

Important for skills development

“The benefit of Cloud lies in its ability to service, to assess people, and to automatically integrate them to build and discuss in communities”

Cloud will play an important role in thedevelopment of skills. People can upgradetheir skills by anywhere, anytimelearning. Ashutosh Chadha, Director-Corporate Affairs Group, Intel SouthAsia says, “We need to understand howeducation will mature over the next 5-15years. Cloud will take a bigger manifestation.We are going to a situation wherepersonalised, anywhere, anytime learningis extremely important. So the Cloudshould not be looked as only a repositoryof content. We should look at Cloud asan interactive learning medium basedon what we want to learn and then beable to assess, and immediately curate it.If I am taking Xth grade examination onlineand it finds that I am weak in algebraor differentiation or integration, etc.Next time I go to learning it should talkabout those modules, which are relevantto me. This is personalised learning, becausethis is how we see education movingover the next 15 years. It is going tobe here and now education. People aregoing to move from one skill to anotheras per need, and they may not have timeto go through the entire course, butwant those specific things. The benefitof Cloud lies in its ability to service, toassess people, and to automatically integratethem to build and discuss in communities.Community learning is goingto be very important.

On the flip side

“Stringent copyright and plagiarism laws, data integrity, data security and data privacy are  the need of the hour”

Cloud does offer some challenges in terms of security issues, or accessibility problems due to slower Internet speeds in India. The control over the content available in the Cloud may be limited forthe users. Also a shift from the existingtraditional infrastructure to the Cloud may prove to be a tricky and difficult task for the educational institutions, as data sovereignty may be a question for government institutes. But these challenges are being addressed by the industry. Offerings with greater security and more reliable networks are being rolled out.

In India, there are various challenges when it comes to the delivery of quality education, and reaching out to the peripheries. To address these issue Cloud has a huge potential. Commentingon the challenges of cloud, Nilaya Verma adds: “There are a few challenges that we foresee for Cloud in education  to become a reality. The biggest of them would be the regulatory environment

in a changing political landscape. Stringent copyright and plagiarism laws, data integrity, data security and data privacy are the need of the hour. Some of the challenges can be addressed by having a well-defined, documented data governance framework that has tight oversight and controls. Also, proper risk mitigation steps need to put in place to address data security issues. The firms in India can leverage of the successes and failures of  vernance challenges.”

(Dr Sankaran Raghunathan, Dean, The National Management School, India, is an expert in transcript or document security matters)

One issue that is being addressed across countries in higher education is the secure generation, distribution, and, subsequent verification of transcripts. Traditionally, transcripts are printed on paper and delivered to students. In order to secure the transcript, universities started the use of a security paper to print the transcript on, hoping that a secure media also secures the data. The cost of such a secure paper is passed on to the student.

Verification of transcripts issued by universities poses its own logistical nightmares. Employers who receive transcripts from graduates or universities who receive transcripts from applicants need to have these paper transcripts verified for authenticity. Such verification is done directly with the issuing university; this is time consuming and expensive. Employers engage third-party agencies for such verification. The issuing university needs to devote resources to process requests for verification.

In order to avoid such verification requests, universities established the practice of taking the request for transcripts from students and sending the transcripts directly to the final recipient; this way the receiving university or employer gets the transcript directly from the issuing university and therefore further verification become redundant.  However, the issue of securing the paper transcript still remains. In spite of using security paper for transcripts, tampering and fraudulent transcripts could not be avoided.

Drawbacks

The EDI system can only work when the member institutions harmonise their systems to generate, send and receive transcript data in a particular format. Therefore, the EDI system works well only within a system of universities within a state system. Recipients outside the system therefore are unable to participate.

The Central Repository method suffers from the general flaws of any centralised system – the need to have a huge infrastructure, security of such a central database, sharing of student records by universities with a third party are not insignificant issues. The very weight of  such a repository brings it down.

The eTranscript or PDF transcript system, while elegant in its electronic automated process for handling requests from students and generating transcripts and directly distributing the transcript to the end recipient suffers from one fundamental flaw of requiring the originating university to share the student record with the third party which uses the software system to generate the PDF transcript. Legislations such as the FERPA in the United States prohibit such sharing of student records with third parties. In addition, this system also requires high expenditure on new software systems and hosting infrastructure.

Imagine a situation where universities can generate transcripts either on ordinary paper or electronically in a very secure format that cannot be  tampered with; distribute this secure transcript without the need for sharing the data with any third party; with the transcript so issued being verifiable at any time or place via the Internet without recourse to the original database or the issuing University.

The solution that meets all these requirementswill be discussed in the next part.

Please share details about digital classrooms of the school?
Presently we are using 11 (digital) classrooms of TeachNext but will definitely increase more number of classrooms in the future. There are several reasons to adopt digital classroom solutions in our school. These include:

• It makes learning more interactive and grabs the attention of student in the class
• Earlier it was tough to attract the attention of primary class student but now primary students also take interest in  learning different topics ansubject
• It makes the concept, problem, theorem etc, much easier to understand for the difficult higher class topics as well
• As per the scientific research, retention of audio-video learning is 80 percent more than the traditional way of approach

What are the components of TeachNext digital classrooms?

The components of our TeachNext digital classrooms are divided in three parts, they are as follow:

Under Software and Content: We have content library, which is mapped as per the syllabus
Under Hardware: TeachNext Deviceor CPU with Remote, Projector, Ceiling Mount Kit, Cabling – Audio, Video, Dual Speakers, 6’x4’ Green Board and Promethean Interactive Whiteboard
Hardware at Central Coordination Center (CCC): Two Teacher PCs, Server and Network Switch
Software that are only applicable for server are TeachNext Client Interface, Next Studio, Next Tools, Next Dictionary, Reporting System, TeachNext Application Server, Assessment Creation Software, Content Creation and Publish Software, Microsoft Office and Windows XP OS for Teacher PCs, Encyclopadia Britannica, BBC motion Gallery and Algodoo.

Services

• Teachers training programme to help school adopt this innovative solution easily and ensure high usage
• Continuous Support and Content Upgrade
• Service Commitment

How has the adoption affected academic standards?
Definitely the standards of academics have been increased by the use of TeachNext digital classrooms. The level of understanding for students has increased, it has enabled students to understand difficult concept of all subjects easily. The standard of pronunciation of each student is also improving day by day with the use of digital classrooms and its tools. Before these digital classrooms, students used to mug up the concept or theorem to get marks in exams but now students are trying to understand the concept or theorem. With virtual labs and experiment they are able to understand different facts, like students can see the result of experiment of photosynthesis in different  seasons at different time. Simulation in different topics has helped students to understand same concept by putting different values and observing their respective outcom again and again. Not only students, but teachers are also getting benefits of the TeachNext classes.

Student’s Feedback
As per Ajeet Kr Singh, student of standard X, “Learning has now become interesting, easy and clear. We are now able to understand a difficult concept much more easily. As a student, after understanding the concept its much easy for us to express it in any exam or test. For me English language was a barrier to understand the concept, but as TeachNext digital classroom can explain the concept in Hindi as well, now I am able to understand the concept, theorem or problems much easily.”

Teacher’s Feedback
As per Vipul Virani, Vice Principal,“Next Education has digitised the entire syllabus in the form of 2D and 3D animation. It has made teaching easier and fun-filled in comparison to earlier teaching experience. It has made classroom teaching easy, engaging and effective. Next Education has made classroom future ready by providing digital interactive classroom. These days, students are very much more eager to attend classes, to understand the concept by the digital classrooms. It is user friendly and easy to use in classrooms. The standard of learning is now common for all students of different cities.”

How has the evaluation of effect been done?
The evaluation or the result of the effect can be seen in our exams, assessments, experiments, debate competitions etc.
The marks of overall students are gradually getting better. After seeing an experiment in virtual labs, students are easily able to conduct them in real labs. Spoken English ability and pronunciation are also getting better among students. The MCQ exercises after every module help teachers to evaluate the understanding level of every student, and that is showing a continuous progress.

How has it enhanced teaching-learning process?
It has made teaching and learning easy, effective and engaging. In area like ours it is very hard to get very high-skilled teachers. So with the help of this digital classroom, we have got a similar kind of learning for students all over India. For Instance: a student in Delhi or Mumbai using this technology is getting the same input as a student in small towns of Bihar.
For teachers, in chalk-and-talk method, it took a lot of time and was hard to express and make students understand 3D diagrams, biological parts, etc. But with digital classrooms, these can be easily explained to students. It was really tough for teachers to teach every category (excellent, good, average and below average) of students in class, but with the help of digital classrooms now it is easy to focus on every student. Teachers took lot of time to create a question paper; but with the help of this technology now the same work can be done in lesser time with lesser hassles and errors.

Please share teachers’ training and experience with ICT tools.
Teachers’ training is essential to understand the need and the way to use and teach students through digital classrooms. Teachers training program me helps us to adopt this innovative solution easily and ensure high usage. Initially, when teachers saw different ICT tools like graph, protector, etc, they thought it was too tough for them to use, but after the training programme it made it easier for them to deal with different tools. Trainers are also cooperative during training session. And teachers have gained lot of new skill to use these classrooms. As a teacher it would never have been possible to teach graph or construction on board without these ICT tools. For every subject there are different tools. For instance, for Chemistry they also need Periodic Table, digital maps in social science is an outstanding tool to be used in class etc. As without this tool, they might have not taught or might have not been easy to teach different topics in different subjects, similarly without teachers’ training programme it would not have been possible for them to use TN and its ICT tools in effective manner. For students, learning has become far more fun-filled. They are able to understand a concept more easily. They can practise more number of problems and concepts through our Self Learning Modules. For areas in Bihar the concept has been explained in English and Hindi both, so that students can easily learn the concept in their desired language. It has made learning interactive, clear and easy. Our students just love it and wait for the next concept to be introduced.

What are the new innovations you are expecting in future?
So far it is very good but in coming future we expect more subjects to be added with some more innovative tools and interactive features along with the features through which my students can get the global exposure.

With the recently held India-US Higher Education Dialogue in New Delhi, and the big announcement of eight collaborative projects between the US and Indian universities under the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative, time wouldn’t have been more ripe for the Indian education system to grab the global limelight. In this date and age India cannot afford to miss out on the significance of global cooperation in education.

Student and faculty exchange programmes, collaborative research projects, joint skill development courses, technology-enabled education and online courseware are the various strategies through which universities are forging ahead with global collaborations. The latest MoUs signed between the AICTE and American Association of Community Colleges on Cooperation on Community Colleges and between IIT-Bombay and edX on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are steps in this direction.

However, with India’s education system gasping under the humungous demand from a young and burgeoning population, it’s not going to be an easy task. The journey cannot be completed without the inevitable support from the Private and Deemed Universities. Equipped with the global best practices, technology- enabled pedagogy and linkages with the industry, Private Universities
have the potential to take the Indian higher education system to new heights.

With this vision, we have come up with a Ranking Special of India’s Top 60 Private and Deemed Universities. Based on the six key parameters of Sustainability, Infrastructure, Academic Reputation, Academic Excellence, Faculty and International Exposure, these universities were rated across all four zones of India. The issue also carries tech focus on digital classrooms. The story highlights experience of schools with digital classrooms and with private companies’
initiatives to create a digital learning environment. In this issue, we are also bringing you a special feature on Cloud Computing.

On July 23-24, we are organising eINDIA 2013 event at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad. This would be the 9th edition of eINDIA with four parallel tracks on Education, e-Governance, Healthcare and PSUs. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is co-hosting eINDIA 2013 along with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd. The event is being supported by large number of government organisations.

We look forward to your presence at eINDIA 2013.

Dr Ravi Gupta
Editor-in-Chief
Ravi.Gupta@elets.in