Growing mandate for e-Learning in medical colleges

Magazine

By

-

January 9, 2013

“With greater emphasis on the use of ICT-based education practices by the government and regulatory bodies, medical education in India is set to adopt technology-driven learning in a big way,“ says Elsevier Health Sciences Managing Director (South Asia) Rohit Kumar

Please tell us about the online education market in India? How do you perceive the growth of this market over the next five years?

Online education has become an emerging trend around the world with technology-enabled teaching-learning practices replacing the traditional blackboard and chalk method of teaching at a fast pace. Reports suggest that the online education market in India is expected to double itself over the next three years. In a recent study, ASSOCHAM indicated that the education sector will attract a whopping $1 billion investment from private equity and venture capital firms. A majority of this investment will be made in technology-enabled education initiatives.

How relevant are online teaching learning practices for medical education?

India has a dismal doctor-patient ratio of 0.5 doctors per 1,000 population as compared to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended doctor patient ratio of one doctor per 1,000 population. To achieve the prescribed ratio by 2028, India needs to set up 187 new medical colleges during the 12th and 13th plans. However, the current growth rate of medical institutions is a meager five percent, year-on-year.

An extensive research conducted by Elsevier indicated some weak links in the growth of this market. The first is the availability of trained faculty and support staff (which have a long gestation period: 11 years for faculty and up to five years for the support staff) for the new medical colleges. Secondly, there is a huge lack of adequate cadavers/animals/patients for practical exposure. Considering these structural problems, there is a greater need for adoption of alternate solutions for increasing the efficiency of the existing human resources by use of digital products to enhance teaching and learning of theoretical and practical skills.

The Medical Council of India has also directed all medical colleges to use information technology for teaching medicine by setting up eClassrooms, eLibraries, and providing access to eContent. There is a growing mandate for eLearning and many college libraries now have computer terminals with eJournals.

How can eLearning courses benefit medical students?

Medical students find it difficult to understand and visualise important concepts
and acquire practical skills because of increasing class strengths, decreasing teacher-student ratio, and limited practice opportunities.

The integration of clinical and non-clinical topics is another major challenge. eLearning products such as Clinical Learning, launched by Elsevier, serve the students by clearing important and difficult concepts along with giving enough exposure towards practical skills. It is a one stop solution that caters to both practical as well as clinical needs of students. It also allows them to access and review credible and interactive modules anytime at a self controlled pace.

e-Learning will continue to grow in India

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 9, 2013

Despite, the e-Learning market in India being a fragmented one on both the opportunity and the solution provider side, it is poised for growth, Dexler Information Solutions CEO Anand Nagarajan says

Please tell us about the online education market in India.

The e-Learning market in India is still in its nascent stages, and is primarily a fragmented market on both the opportunity and the solution provider side. On the provider side, it is led by players who either provide LMS-es/technology platform or content or assessment solutions. On the opportunity side, there are focused opportunities like K-12, test prep (GMAT, GRE, IIT-JEE etc) or Financial, Management and Medical education. The diversity in the opportunities permits mushrooming players to find a place even though the market is fragmented.

Which category of students opts more for e-Learning courses?

In professional education (retail), SAP education has established an e-Academy ecosystem. While the content is available online, it can be accessed only from an education partner location. The entire experience has been enhanced by providing ability for real time subject matter support.

In the K-12 segment, digital solutions like smart boards and eContent have become the norm. With a host of players, these solutions are now common in most schools.

In the higher education segment, the adoption of e-Learning is still low. certification programmes see higher acceptance than programmes with no or weak certification. This is linked to employability.

There are institutions of higher education that have been early movers, while some are still skeptical about students adopting e-Learning. Colleges that embed the courses as a part of their curriculum and design their learning around e-Learning will see higher success than those who adopt a “digital library” approach.

Considering the digital divide in our country, how effective is e-Learning in reaching out to the rural or backward areas?

e-Learning is the solution to addressing the GER ambitions of the country. It can ensure that quality education is available at scale and beats the challenges of shortage of faculty and reach. Each market has different issues that need to be sorted out. Basic infrastructure challenges still pose a real threat to mass adoption. Overcoming these challenges will provide innumerable opportunities for solution providers.

How beneficial is learning in a virtual classroom?

Virtual classrooms can provide instant scale of delivery. If used properly in an e-Learning programme, they can prove to be very effective. Earlier solutions needed expensive and dedicated connectivity. This made them commercially unviable due to the huge cost of delivery. In today’s market, there are far more cost effective solutions that use the existing Internet connections. This reduces the cost drastically.

Where do you see the online education market in the next few years?

The online education market will continue to grow in India. Over the next few years, there will be a push to consolidate among sub-scale players. There have been over 300 venture capital/private equity deals in the education space since 2010. The investors will need exits soon. Not many of the funded companies have scale to list in public markets and hence, will have to look at more strategic options.

It can be assumed that new entrants will continue to look at micro markets. The larger players will look at expanding beyond their current “strong holds” into adjacent areas. For example, K-12 players will look at larger push in higher education markets, and assessment solution companies will look at offering content solutions etc.

Delivering life-long learning support

Interviews

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 9, 2013

“e-Learning will soon be the key mechanism for helping us achieve the required GER, bring diversity in the nature of programmes, tailor degrees, and help learners satisfy their quest for knowledge,” believes National Institute of Technology, Delhi Director Sandeep Sancheti.

Considering the digital divide in our country, how effective is e-Learning in reaching out to the rural or backward areas?

eLearning has huge potential to reach out to the masses, particularly to those from rural and backward classes due to its potential accessibility, reconfigurability, and speed of implementation, where all other competing approaches have failed. Moreover, its low cost (virtually free in many ways), ability to mitigate shortage of quality teachers, features of self-learning and lack of optimal class sizes, etc, also offer an edge.

The only limitations are factors like proper awareness, adequacy and reliability of network bandwidth, and fear of use of new technology. I am sure these can be overcome easily with collective efforts from both the government and the private sector.

How beneficial is learning in a virtual classroom?

Virtual classrooms can be very beneficial as they can operate in anytime and anywhere mode easily: the foremost desire of people from different backgrounds. In fact, this is the only possible way for delivering the needs of ‘life-long-learning’ support.

Several parallel efforts are being made to launch virtual universities catering to all types of courses

On top of this, technology-enabled learning empowers the learner with features like personalised pace of learning, language translation, repeatability, and 24×7 support. Virtual mode is a great value addition to conventional teaching-learning methods, which of course has its own advantages.

What in your opinion is the future of online education in India?

In one word, it is ‘bright’. Soon, it will be a key mechanism to help us achieve the required gross enrolment ratio, and diversity in nature of programmes, tailor degrees, and in many cases, help learners satisfy their quest for knowledge in new and emerging areas. As of now, several parallel efforts are being made to launch virtual universities catering to all types of courses including professional courses like engineering. Few hurdles like online/virtual laboratories and examinations, if overcome properly, can make it the most used method for education in the entire world.

“GNU Khata is a solution to financial accounting”

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 9, 2013

IITian Krishnakant Mane says this multi-user, web-based financial accounting application, built on robust open source platforms will soon replace Tally

In your opinion, how helpful is technology for a person with disabilities?

Technology is very important when it comes to the disabled because today, it has grown to an extent that it is capable of compensating for whatever disability a person has. I can do a lot digitally with the talking software on my laptop. I am leading a project that develops free and open source accounting in rural banking at IIT. We are trying to find a replacement for the software, Tally.

In the modern context, the basics of life would include ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makaan and digital technology’. Technology can help you do everything, right from withdrawing money from an ATM to communicating with someone at another location.

In what ways can Open Source software be of help in providing inclusive education?

The solutions for the disabled have to be affordable. The available proprietary screen reader costs approximately `50,000 per license. How can a visually-disabled person buy such expensive software, when he is already underprivileged? If there are 10 students in a college who are blind, do you think the college will pay five lakh rupees to get the software for them? Similarly, why would a corporate will spend `50,000 for a blind person?

To handle this situation, we have developed free and open source software called ORCA, which is a complete replacement of the proprietary software. It works with open source operating systems like Ubuntu. With this software, the visually disabled get high-class access. It provides spoken output from word processor documents and Excel spreadsheets, surf the net, read and write emails, do programming, and much more.

Please share with us the details of your association with HP.

For training the visually challenged, we got in touch with HP through the LAB-in-Box project where a class can be set up at anytime and anywhere. It can also be moved anywhere. Sometimes, colleges are reluctant to add additional equipment, especially for the blind.

The government is now taking interest in this project, and in the times to come, there will be great improvement in the scope of the software. Total ownership cost can be brought down further and that will have direct impact on the employability of blind students, who will have access to cheaper and better training.

Tell us about your FOSS-based financial accounting software, GNU Khata.

GNU Khata is a fully-featured, multi-user, web-based financial accounting application, built on robust open source platforms and freely downloadable by any interested user. It is released under the GNU GPL license, and is capable of customisation by any firm or individual user, as its source code is available for download under the terms of the General Public License.

GNU Khata has been designed by a group of software developers, chartered accountants and users. It is a complete solution for the financial accounting requirements of most Indian firms.

We are now in the process of adding more features such as inventory and language localisation. Once this is done, GNU Khata will emerge as one of most used applications for financial accounting by any firm.

Nourishing the Roots

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 9, 2013

School is the place that can cater to the children with special needs. Early age nourishment can give them the confidence for a better life

By Pragya Gupta, Elets News Network (ENN)

Inclusive education is the way to address the inequalities that the country is struggling with. Differently-abled children do not receive equal treatment, and are restrained from quality education, which can ensure a good future for them.

Such children must be given equal access to quality education and lifelong learning so that they can participate in the society not as differently-abled, but like all the others. The children must be supported from the childhood so that their life can be improved.

Every child is unique and has his own strength and weakness. There is a need to unveil those strengths and develop them. The timely identification of children at risk of dyslexia or autism, etc, is important to ensure better support for them.

Exploring individual strengths

All children, with their individual strengths and weaknesses, have the right to education. Therefore, it is a country’s school system that must be adjusted to meet the needs of all the children.

“Every child is blessed with something special. We try to cater to the needs of all the students through our special educators who teach the children and make them perform activities that suit their caliber. We believe in all the skills because intelligence does not mean that the child is good in mathematics or chess, but we consider it as a gift of god,” said Shyam Agrawal, Principal, Billabong High International School, Indore.

“In our school, there is an inclusive policy through which admissions are given on first-come, first-serve basis. Our aim is to nurture the skills: reading, writing or head-hand skills, of the differentlyabled. Skills produce performance and performance results in self-esteem and competence. The school converts each skill to a life skill to promote psycho-social competence,” he adds.

Teachers’ training

Teachers are the ones who closely relate with children in a classroom. Teacher training programmes are essential to keep the teachers updated and knowledgeable.

“We do not have many differentlyabled children in our school. However, we work in the identification and support of children with minor learning difficulties like dyslexia and HDAD. Almost all our teachers have attended workshops and talks on learning disabilities and how to work with children with special learning needs,” said Jyotsna Brar, Principal, Welham Girls’ School, Dehradun.

On the initiatives taken by the school, she said, “We assist children with special
difficulties in a different way. We occasionally organise and host the Special Olympics for the state and our senior students and teachers work with challenged and street children at the Cheshire Homes every week. A professed aim of the school is to sensitise every member of our school community towards people with different needs through direct contact during their years in school.”

Identification at Early Age

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities that may impact nearly 10 percent of all school-going children.

Pearson Clinical & Talent Assessment, a division of Pearson, helps empower school teachers to identify children at risk of dyslexia. Due to shortage of trained psychologists and special educators in the Indian school system, children struggling with dyslexia often slip through the cracks and end up with poor academic and professional outcomes. Pearson will also shortly introduce a remediation for children with dyslexia, Launch into Reading Success, a phonological awareness training programme, that will benefit all Indian children who need to develop better phonological skills, and specifically children with dyslexia, who struggle with phonological challenges as part of their learning disability,” shared Prashant Banerjee, marketing head of the division.

Engaging students

Different students have different needs to remain engaged in learning. Today, with ICT and other tools, schools are focusing on engaged and interactive learning. Similarly, it is important to develop techniques that can keep students engaged in their own ways.

Shanthi Menon, Principal, Deens Academy, Bengaluru, “At Deens Academy, we believe in giving equal opportunity to all students. We, therefore, have a Special Education Wing that caters to the differently-abled students, while they are integrated into classrooms for activities other than core subjects. Differentiated daily tasks are created within curriculums to cater to these children and opportunities for open schooling are offered to those in need.”

The school also has the mentoring system in which a mentor is provided to a student with special needs. “We practice a mentoring system in the school. Differently-abled children have a mentor who looks after all the academic problems of the children. In addition to this, we provide special sessions from experts exclusively for them,” informs Menon.

Assistive Technology is must for making inclusive education a reality

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 9, 2013

Dr Uma Tuli
Founder, Amar Jyoti School

Today, when we talk about technology, we forget about the people with disabilities. We need to consider the ways to develop assistive technology for making inclusive education a reality. We introduce so many things, but if we do not look at their accessibility, the work remains half done. We have to look at education with a holistic approach to make vocational training a part of the curriculum. We need to have structured sports and cultural activities for the differently-abled.

The philosophy of inclusive education rests on the idea of providing equal opportunities to everyone, regardless of the fact that a person is with or without disability. In life skills education, we need appropriate policies that will lead to the development of resources, training, support services, reasonable accommodation, holistic approach and a barrier-free environment. We need involvement of parents, learners, teachers, decision makers and advocates. There should be interactive and fun-filled classrooms. The curriculum has to be flexible enough to reduce academic pressure on students. We have to develop teaching materials with technology-assistive devices, linkages between pre-schools and primary education, and provision of adequate resources and leverages.

Today, even the CBSE allows assistive devices like talking calculators, computers, talking pens and many others at the time of examination for the differently-abled. Skill development doesn’t end with just leading a life of skills; it is many things put together. This is something we need to understand.

We need to promote the usage of technology, and training of trainers should be organised on a regular basis. There have to be several concessions and reforms in the examination system. Sensitisation at the university level should be done to include the differently-abled in the stream.

The media should highlight the potential of a person with disabilities and create necessary public awareness. The bottom line is that we should not underestimate the power of touch, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment and the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential of turning life around. That is what education is all about.

Measuring Outcomes is Critical to Achieving Quality

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 9, 2013

The AICTE has created the Indian Board of Accreditation to accredit and develop quality metrics in a wide variety of courses, says Prof (Dr) SS Mantha, Chairman, All Indian Council for Technical Education

Please tell us about the initiatives that the AICTE is taking towards making accreditation compulsory for colleges.

Accreditation is not mandatory at this point of time. However, it is a good idea to make it mandatory in the future. The AICTE will be exploring ways to do this as it helps in ensuring certification of a certain benchmark on standards. All the countries should work at meeting the global standards of education in order to improve the mobility of engineers.

How will it improve the education system?

Unlike the earlier practice of quality as a measure of inputs that are required to run an institute, the new accreditation process seeks to measure outcomes. Across the world, outcomes are measured to ensure quality. Education has to be student-centric and hence, the value addition that a student gets through education needs to be measured.

The Washington Accord, too, emphasises the need to measure outcomes as it helps in measuring what a student learns in a given learning environment and ensures his progress in terms of academic excellence and also a consequent appropriate employment.

The massive growth in the technical education system in India has spawned the need for quality. Thus, getting courses accredited is also gaining importance. This surging demand has necessitated for the AICTE to create another body, the Indian Board of Accreditation (IBA), which will also accredit courses in various programmes such as engineering/technology, architecture, pharmacy, applied arts, management, MCA and hotel management. This gives the users the access to an alternate system which is completely online, equally robust, sound and avoids delays. The board will follow similar outcome practices as the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) does, and will provide utmost transparency and accountability.

The AICTE is also pioneering the growth in vocational education in the country and it is only natural that the accreditation of vocational education and hands on skills acquired under the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) would assume importance in the near future. The IBA would be positioned to ensure that quality prevails in this area too.

At AICTE, we are also in the process of launching calibrated services in distance education. The IBA will also look at developing quality metrics at par with the world standards and like those in higher education, in the distance education system too.

How are private colleges reacting to the move?

All the institutes are reacting positively about the initiatives that the AICTE has been taking, since all of us are targeting the growth of quality technical and higher education in the country. The private sector has always been proactive and supportive in the process of implementing reforms.

How are you helping colleges in getting accredited?

We conduct awareness workshops for all the stakeholders so that the new procedures are understood and implemented properly. Doing a self-assessment will be of great help to the institutes because they will be able to see how they fare, and do a course correction accordingly. We will conduct workshops for experts and for the institutes too, in the future.

In your opinion, why could the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill not be passed in the Parliament?

It is incorrect to say that there are difficulties in passing the bill. Various nuances and provisions of the bill need to be understood, and we believe that everyone will support the efforts to improve the quality of technical education in the country

Policy Initiatives Higher Education in 2012

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 8, 2013

Policy Initiatives Higher Education in 2012

Central Universities
Sixteen central universities have been established which include conversion of three state universities in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. All of them have become functional.

Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)
Seven Indian Institutes of Management have been established and all of them have become functional.

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
Eight new IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, have commenced their academic activities. The land for these has been identified and all institutes, except those at Gandhinagar and Indore, have taken up construction of their permanent campuses.

Indian Institutes of Information Technology
(IIITs) under PPP mode Twenty IIITs and approximately 1,000 polytechnics are proposed to be set up under this mode. Fifteen state governments have identified land for setting up of the institute. In four cases, the state governments have also identified the industry partners.

National Institutes of Technology (NITs) in each of the larger states/UTs
The government has established 10 new NITs at Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Goa, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Puducherry. As on date, there are approximately 1,600 students pursuing undergraduate programmes.

Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs)
Five IISERs at Mohali (Punjab), Kolkata (West Bengal), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) and Pune (Maharashtra) have been established with the objective of promoting excellence in science education.

Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace & Sustainable Development
An agreement has been signed with the UNESCO for the establishment of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace & Sustainable Development at New Delhi. This is the first category institute of UNESCO in the entire Asia-Pacific Region. It will serve as a platform for India to emerge as a global leader in the areas of education for peace and sustainable development.

International Collaborations
During the last three years, Education Exchange Programme (EEP)/MoUs have been signed with 12 countries, bringing the total number of such
exchanges to 41.

Establishment of Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada and Telugu
These research centres identify sources of classical Kannada/Telugu languages to promote, propagate and preserve.

Modernisation of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
On its diamond jubilee, a one-time special assistance of Rs100 crore was released for the modernisation of IIT Kharagpur.

New Polytechnics

Out of 300 un-served/underserved districts, 281 have been provided a partial financial assistance of `1,915.99 crore till November 12, 2012.
A partial financial assistance of `255.50 crore for strengthening of existing polytechnics has been provided to 500 polytechnics till August 31, 2012.
Out of the 500 existing AICTEapproved polytechnics, 487 have been provided a partial financial assistance of `241.60 crore till August 31, 2012.
2.20 lakh people have availed training under community development through polytechnics scheme during the financial year 2011-12. An amount of `127.98 crore has been released till August 31, 2012.
More than 2.5 lakh people have been given training in four regional boards of apprenticeship/practical training (BOATs/BPOT) located at Mumbai, Kolkata, Kanpur and Chennai during the last three years.

National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology
• A total of 400 universities and 19,069 colleges have been provided with connectivity under the scheme as on October 31, 2012.

Launch of Aakash 2 Tablet
The low cost access-cum-computing device, Aakash 2, was launched by the President of India on November 11, 2012 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The tablet is powered by a 1 Ghz processor, has a 512 MB RAM, a 7”-capacitive touch screen, and a battery with stand-by time of three hours.

Virtual Labs
Eighty nine virtual labs were launched on February 23, 2012 for quality enhancement so that learners in the distance education system and those in remotely located and backward areas can reap the benefit of quality and relevant education through ICT.

Interest subsidy on Educational Loans
The scheme, based solely on income criteria and not social backgrounds, has become effective from the academic year 2009-10. An amount exceeding `800 crore has been released by the government for benefiting about 21,55,831 students till August 31, 2012.

National Book Promotion Policy
The draft of the National Book Promotion Policy has been approved by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in its 58th meeting held on June 7, 2011.

Higher Education for Minorities

• Academies for professional development of Urdu-medium teachers have been set up in three central universities namely, Aligarh Muslim
University, Jamia Milia Islamia, and Maulana Azad National Urdu University.
• `61.31 crore have been sanctioned for the establishment of Residential Coaching Academics for Minorities, and Women.
• Two new campuses of Aligarh Muslim University have become operational at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Malappuram in Kerala.
• 374 minority concentrated districts/areas have been identified for the establishment of model degree colleges. Approval has been granted
to 14 colleges.
• An amount of `232.67 crore has been released as the initial grant for setting up polytechnics in 46 districts out of 57 districts.

N-LIST (National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content)
More than 74,000 e-Books from 297 publishers and 3,700 eJournals are available to 1,08,729 students in 1,512 institutions. Similarly, for university students, more than 7,500 eJournals to students in 297 institutions are available from INFLIBNET and IIT Delhi. Full text e-Thesis, numbering 2,224, is also available on the INFLIBNET network.

Education of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes

Coaching classes to prepare for National Eligibility Test (NET)
Establishment of Equal Opportunity Cells (EOCs) for sensitising university/college communities on problems faced by SC/ST students in higher education
Postgraduate scholarships to SCs/STs and minorities
Postdoctoral fellowships for SCs/STs measures initiated by the IITs to prevent any form of caste-based discrimination
Indira Gandhi Scholarship for single girl child for pursuing higher and technical education
Development of women’s studies in universities and colleges

New Year is time for New Ideas in Education

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 8, 2013

This is one prediction we can safely make: ICTs will continue to lead to dynamic changes in education in 2013. The educational institutions will aptly deploy more innovative ICTs because they provide students and teachers with more opportunities in adapting learning and teaching to individual needs.

Recently, the public sector telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), came up with an innovative scheme, that can enable science graduates to learn about telecommunication from BSNL’s own experienced faculty. This online certificate course is a unique industry-oriented academic initiative. The theory part of the course can be learnt online. Practical sessions will be conducted using the live equipment worth crores at the BSNL training centre. It is not only the students who can benefit from BSNL’s initiative, employees and job-seekers too, can join the course to enhance their knowledge of the telecom sector.

In 2013, we can expect other innovative educational products, which make use of ICTs, to be launched by different public and private organisations. The idea, that ICTs are a potentially powerful tool for extending educational benefits, both formal and non-formal to previously underserved communities and groups, has now taken root. The advent of digital technologies is enabling many groups that have been traditionally excluded from education to have the lamp of knowledge shine on them. This is surely a cheerful note on which we can begin the New Year.

The current issue of the digitalLEARNING magazine carries an in depth analysis of various developments in online education and other digital educational technologies in the country. There is no doubt that online education is all set to become a major phenomenon in the country. Perhaps, it has already become one. But further progress of such avenues for education also depends on the availability of basic infrastructure. Connectivity and basic things like electricity continue to be an issue.

We had the State Education Summit 2012 (SES) at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on 19th December 2012. The event was attended by an array of eminent speakers and delegates from all areas of education. We had ministers, senior government officials, academic luminaries, principals, VCs, Chairmen, and stalwarts of private industry gathering on the SES platform to exchange knowledge and ideas on the ways by which we can have better education outcomes in the country.

In February 2013, we are having the State Education Summit 2013 in Chandigarh, Punjab. I hope you see you there along with other speakers and delegates. Despite all the progress that we have made in the education space, a lot of work still needs to be done. The SES 2013 will, hopefully, lead us towards new ideas for revamping the state of education in our country.

IGNOU changes credit marks for B Ed programme

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

January 8, 2013

The University has approved that course of four credits of B Ed is equivalent to 100 marks and the course of eight credits is equivalent to 200 marks

New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has introduced one time measure for the benefit of students pursuing/ having completed its B Ed programme.

On the recommendations of the School of Education, the Vice Chancellor of the University has approved that course of four credits of B Ed is equivalent to 100 marks and the course of eight credits is equivalent to 200 marks.

Accordingly, the maximum marks for the B Ed programme of this University up to the academic session 2000-2001 to 2008-2009, are 1100 as at that time 11 courses were available in the B Ed programme. Similarly, the maximum marks for B Ed programme starting from the academic session 2009-2010 will be 1300 as the total courses for this programme are 13.

In view of above, all students who have completed their B Ed programme from this University as on date may note the above said information and utilise the same for filling up the portion mentioned in their

LATEST NEWS

EDITOR PICKS

Top Trending News

POPULAR POSTS

Top Trending Categories

POPULAR CATEGORY

Latest Articles