Dr P Prakash, Vice Chancellor, B R Ambedkar Open University, in conversation with Rozelle Laha, says that we arrest a student’s thoughts by putting him in a conventional mode of learning

What are the challenges in bringing an open learning school to the Indian society?
Ours is the first open institute in India. It was initially known as Andhra Pradesh Open University and was later rechristened as Dr B R Ambedkar Open University. We were established in the year 1983 under the State Association Act. Then came the Indira Gandhi  National Open University. There are 15 open institutes in India including the IGNOU.
Our contribution to the higher education sector is 30-32 per cent of the gross enrollment ratio. Open distance learning is one of the tools of higher education where the students have the flexibility of learning at a given space and place. They do not have to come to the  classrooms and this gives a lot of flexibility to the learner who may be a fast, slow or a medium type of learner. So, to bridge the gap between the learners, this is one of the best ways of educating.

How open are we to adopt e-Learning?
We are all aware that the entire world is looking forward to open distance learning. I was going through an article that said 85 percent of the American students are going for online learning. Open learning is definitely not eye-to-eye learning, rather it is learning through online mediums.

In India, against the backdrop of power issues how can internet facilities be introduced?
We are now faring better in the power space, therefore, the Internet has now become available in all parts of the country. The Government of India is networking with all the institutes with NME-ICT. We have a very good fiber optic backbone to which we can   always stay connected. Students no longer have to go to the library because we have the facility of e-Journals, including e-Books.  Students are also more computer-savvy and they are also using mobile learning or cell phone learning through SMS or other types of   audio-visual programs. We started primarily with broadcast, video cast and telecast, and now we have e-Learning that primarily  comprises of animation and text.

Students still have the myth that a full-time programme is a more viable option than an open learning programme. How do we get rid  of this myth?
It’s a mindset. If you take research into account, many scholars who work in the laboratories don’t need a guide regularly. They are  just given a topic on which they have to learn, which they have been working on for their scholastic enrichment. Students work in the  laboratories and come back with a result: positive or negative. And then they discuss with their supervisors. Don’t you think this is one  of the best ways of learning with all the flexibility!
We are arresting the students’ thoughts by putting them in the conventional mode of  learning. Although in some aspects the concept may not change, but he doesn’t have the freedom to learn what he is interested in.

How can we improve the quality of learning through open, distance and e-Learning?
We need to blend that. That is missing in India. As I told you, we have open distance learning schools at various places, but all these  schools are not equipped with e-Learning labs. Whether you teach Einstein’s theory of relativity or Darwin’s theory of evolution, you  require e-Learning modules. And if they are there, there are no e-Learning labs. So we need to blend both of them together so that  whether you teach in French, German, or vernacular Tamil, Hindi or English, they all remain the same.

Please tell us about the MoUs BRAOU has with Apollo hospitals and Dr Reddy’s Labs? 
We have MBA in healthcare management from Apollo Hospital. We also have an undergraduate programme with Dr Reddy’s Labs.  Most of the students are comfortable and are placed very well after their graduation and post graduation.

Going forward, the next big thing to look forward to in the education sector is the online courses and their integration with the present system, opines Prof Ramakrishnan Ramaswamy, Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad during his interaction with Rozelle Laha

Has the advent of ICT brought any changes in education?
ICT has increased the reach of education to all the people in India but only a few subjects can be taught through it. A number of  subjects that are research- and laboratory- based require proper classes. The next big thing in education would be the open courses  that are available on the Internet. There will be a big challenge in implementing these courses. These courses have to be used in conjunction with the present courses that we have in India: something interesting to look forward to in the education sector.

In your opinion, what effect is ICT having on education?
We have a number of PG diplomas that are run in 17- 18 areas. A number of experiments can be done in these areas and new ways to  impart education with the help of the Internet can also be devised. From next year, the university will give tablets with all the courses to its students. The course material will be given to the students at the beginning of the session. The students can also avail the facility  of online learning if they have good Internet connectivity. Thus, ICT tools will help in enhancing education domain for the masses.

What programmes has the university adopted to train the teachers?
In order to deliver effective knowledge in today’s world, the teacher has to have thorough knowledge about the concept of Wiki, social  networking and class wikis. He should be trained enough to deliver the content and also know how to deliver that concept with the help  of these new tools. There are a number of new initiatives that the university plans to undertake like the implementation of Moodle. Governmentrun institutions face a few bottlenecks in implementing these initiatives. Reason: the fee in these institutions is very  marginal unlike the fee structure in private institutions. Not just this, government-run institutions also take more time in implementing these changes in technology.

What is your opinion on the contribution of the government in bringing education to the students through ICT?
The government has done a phenomenal thing by building the National Knowledge Network. It has also made initiatives like the NPTel  available. The MHRD is setting up e-pathshalas. These initiatives are very important for the implementation of ICT-based education. Tablets are becoming cheaper. We provide researchbased learning and this requires WiFi connectivity. The university’s campus has  been made WiFi-enabled with the help of the government.

Is ICT a necessity for education?
ICT is the only way education can reach out to all the students in India. There is a continuous talk about inclusive education but this cannot be possible if students have to sit and attend classes. Educating the masses cannot be done without ICT as classrooms do not have enough space for all the students. At the same time, it is also essential that the content is appropriate and it is going to be a  challenge to effectively use ICT to deliver proper education. India can even use television as a medium for delivering education, but it is dominated by the entertainment industry. We will have to use ICT-based education to reach out to the students in all parts of the country in the future.

How quality-focused is education in India?
India is a diverse country and its people use various regional languages. There are some predefined norms on the ICT tools that are  used and they are not adapted to the varied requirements of our diverse country. There has to be an effort to provide ICT content and  courses in regional languages and also have teachers deliver them in local languages. There is also an alarming lack of websites in Indian languages; this hampers the participation of the common man in the technology-based learning.
The current hardware has to be modified for usage by the masses; otherwise everyone will have to learn to speak English so that they can use the ICT tools prevalent in the market. The reason why we use tablets at the University of Hyderabad is that tablets have all the content and also the videos of the classrooms. The content as well as the lectures can be done in regional languages so that all the students can benefit from the technology available.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh is partnering with the premium business schools for creating entrepreneurship courses and  encouraging engineering students to pursue a career with the startups which may be the need of the hour
Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, CEO of AP Society for Knowledge Networks

The educational landscape in Andhra Pradesh has dramatically changed over the last decade or so. There is a huge proliferation of  engineering colleges in the state. About 20 years ago, the state had hardly 10 engineering colleges producing less than 4,000  engineers annually. Today, the state is house to over 720 engineering colleges producing over 300,000 engineers every year.
And if we look at the employment generated in the state over the last decade, on average, the state was able to employ 35,000 fresh  graduates. The IT services sector has been the major recruiter  accounting for over 90 percent of the jobs. The core sector had its 10   percent or less of a share. In the current scenario, there is a huge gap between the number of engineering graduates produced annually  and the employment opportunities presented each year in the state.
The pace at which the course and the curriculum have been adjusted in the universities and the engineering colleges has also been  uite  slow compared to the industry speed. There is very little or no flexibility in the courses that a student can choose. The gap between the  industry and the academic institutions has been widening every year. There are several reasons for this. Prominently, due to the  mushrooming of the engineering colleges, finding faculty members who are well abreast with the latest technologies is an extremely difficult task. Introducing courses around the latest trends in the industry hence becomes an impossible task.
To combat this problem, the government started the concept of Jawahar Knowledge Centers (JKCs) about seven years ago. The JKCs  accomplish several things. Firstly, they bring equity in employment. Whereas only city and prominent colleges were able to get campus placements prior to the JKCs, the rural and the remote colleges are seeing placement opportunities with the advent of the  JKCs. The JKCs are able to establish connects between the major product companies and all its constituent engineering and traditional degree colleges. Companies such as IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, and Autodesk are providing free software, technical support and  certifications to the students in the JKC network. The student does not have to graduate, move to a private center and spend huge  amounts of money to get certification. He can get trained, get hands on experience and get the certification while he is in the college  through this facility. The students are also given exposure to several Industry based competitions like the IBM’s TGMC – The Great  Mind Challenge, Infosys – Aspirations, Microsoft – Imagine Cup amongst others.
However, if we look at the Western educational system, every university has strong industry linkages. We are way behind in that  aspect. If you look at for example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, it incubates about 200 companies every  year. The total number of companies that MIT has incubated and in running are over 20,000 and the revenues of all these companies  put together far exceeds the Indian GDP. To put it in context, we need to develop strong research foundations in our higher education institutions. The government is trying through the JKCs to create some entrepreneurial courses in the engineering curriculum and  encourage students to join startups.

Several industry electives are also planned by the government this year. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has constituted a high  level committee under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the AP State Council for Higher Education to bring radical changes into  the curriculum. Several discussions are in place with the board of studies and the vice chancellors of the universities as to how to bring  the industry orientation to the engineering education.
Alternate learning methodologies need to be taking prominent position in the today’s education system. Academic institutions cannot  rely completely on instructor-led training. Technological interventions need to be in place to bring alternate learning methodologies  such as e-Learning, satellite-based learning, webinar mode of instruction, etc. Any system that is purely dependent on the instructor is open for failure and difficult to replicate. The Government of Andhra Pradesh through its JKC network is working with Infosys to create  an elective called Business Communication Skills where the course will be taught by an instructor of Infosys in the Global Education Campus in Mysore. The course that is being taught there is webcasted. Any JKC Engineering College can receive the course over the  web. The colleges can either project it on to a screen or have each student plug into a PC connected to a broadband Internet. An instructor would guide the class before and after and the role of the instructor would be limited to ensuring attendance, home works  and the other administrative tasks.
The Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Information Technology and Communications  Department has also started the concept of incubation centres in engineering colleges. This is to ensure that the colleges work closely with the industry. Incubation space would be set aside by the engineering colleges for the Industry to setup its remote center or an extension center in the college. The space would be equipped by state-of-theart machines and high speed broadband Internet. The industry would attain that space at free of cost and can fork its research and non-mission critical works there. The college can get an advantage by having its students work in a live industry environment. The government will provide an incentive to the colleges that are setting up the incubation centers. The whole platform is facilitated by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Information Technology and Communications Department through the JKCs.
When India is in the forefront when it comes to the IT services industry, steps must be taken to ensure that our lead is protected. Programming is a skill that is considered inherent amongst the Indian engineers. To preserve it, we need to promote programming contests on the lines of the ACM programming contests. Several efforts are underway to promote such coding contests in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Also, technologically, several advancements are seen in the areas of cloud computing, Big Data, mobile computing, etc. Engineering students should have hands on experience on all the advanced technologies when they exit the college environment.
To summarise, the greatest resource that India is equipped with is the human resources. We have a very large young population and we produce sizeable number of engineers. Efforts are underway by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India to reduce the gap between the academic institutions and the industry. More emphasis must be laid on creating good research environments in the Engineering colleges. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is also partnering with the premium business schools  for creating entrepreneurship courses and encouraging the engineering students to pursue a career with the startups which may be the  need of the hour.