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eContent: Beyond Chalk and Talk

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Once technology enabled education used to be a far-fetched idea for some. Thanks to our progressive education thinkers, the electronic content medium has gained momentum in Indian education. An analysis!

By Sharmila Das, Elets News Network (ENN)

We cannot go back to the age when we used to study beneath a Banyan tree. The picture looks blurred and irrelevant now as our education system rushes into a digital world. We have evolved from Gurukul education system to smart or e-content system. The country’s educational eco system has realised the benefits of using the said solution in their institutions and thus the acceptance has increased manifold.

Are there any limitations?

The dissemination of e-content can be effected by technical problems, which range from server being down, power being cut or something else. Moreover, in a smart class room, teachers are expected to present the e-Content in an appropriate manner. For this we need to have teachers who are well trained in the digital medium.

Sudha Goyal, Principal, Scottish High International School, Haryana, shares her experience, “It was really challenging to motivate all subject teachers to deploy e-Content in their classrooms and come out of their shells and be innovative in classes. Once they were ready to learn the technology aids, meticulously planned training programmes were conducted for all subject teachers and experts to help them in adapting to the e-Content”.

Norina Fernandes, Principal, Smt Lilavatibai Podar High School, says, “Initially teething problems were there in deploying e-content education systems in the school but we have sailed through them successfully by the following steps:

1) we organised competitions to motivate teachers’ and encourage their participation,
2) Teachers were less confident to operate the Starboard before their more tech savvy students. Teachers organised their own practice sessions with co-teachers to overcome this”.

A continuous handholding from the solution providers is needed to ensure the smooth functioning of the system. Chances are that with mutual understanding of both the parties (Schools and Solution Providers) the challenging areas of e-content solutions can be sailed through.

Benefits of e-Content in Education

  • Impactful learning: The kind of impact electronic content creates is remarkable. With the audio-video aids, the package creates permanent impact on student’s minds. The level of understanding also gets better with better retaining capacity.
  • Hyperlinking – These contents can be linked to other pages inside and outside the book.
  • Non-linearity – The order of access can be determined by users.
  • Addition of multimedia – Content presentation is enhanced by mixing of information in formats like sound, video and so on.
  • Data density – Storage capacity is decreased, while at the same time there is improvement in portability.
  • Searching – The usefulness of the content is enhanced by the ability of the users to locate any piece of information, or access any section instantly.

A continuous handholding from the solution providers is needed to ensure the smooth functioning of the system

Ninad Vengurlekar, Sr VP & Head-Content Curriculum Group of IL & FS, a leading e-content solution provider, says, “Our
solution is called The K-Class Programme. It is a combination of technology, academic interventions and content to enhance teacher and student performance. K-Class works cohesively with schools in multiples of 3 years to strengthen the foundations of student performance and teacher Capability through innovative interventions. We offer repairs as well as replacements of our systems. In most cases, there is no extra charge”.

While the benefits and the impact of the education system are significant, it is also a fact that the solution deployment involves good investment from the schools side. In India only 25 percent of the schools can think of deploying e-content
in their education infrastructure.

Diwakar Rao, Director-Operations Educosoft, informs, “Cost of infrastructure would be Rs 80 thousand per class having the simplest of elements. For more innovative products in a classroom the investment would go up. Besides, the cost for accessing the content per child works out to be Rs100 per student per month”.

Veena Raizada, Director-Academics, Next Education shares, “Private schools have been few steps ahead of government schools in adopting digital content technology. However, we have seen a recent trend of government schools too adopting digital learning technology on a large scale”.

The digital education system has made deep forays into the schools in our urban areas, and now it is the turn of the semirural and rural schools to embrace it. To get a clearer picture of digital content deployment in India, we have interacted with many school principals and also the e-content solution providers to get their inputs on the way things are moving in the e-content space. Flip through the pages to make a tryst with a range of expert opinions.

Education and Best Practices

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

In the connected world where we live, it is imperative that education is treated as the only glue that can ensure that the world flourishes. Education itself is a best practice that can happen in ones life. It should teach us humility and benevolence and a clarity of mind and purpose. I am reminded of Bhirthrihari the celebrated author of Shatakatrayi who wrote in Sanskrit

Translated in English this means “With fruits, trees bend, i.e. be humble, with water, clouds hang low, i.e. wealthy good men maintain humble posture, and hence are seen to be benevolent.”

In my view it is not unfair to suggest that institutions of higher education have always been created and shaped by the interests of the ruling classes and elites in the societies in which they existed. This means they serve to reinforce the economic, political, ideological, and cultural interests of those who create them, fund them, and populate them. We need to take a hard look at this proposition and make education available to everyone who needs it. A truly inclusive system is in everyone’s interest.

Private, public and governmental participation has been steadily increasing in the education sector. Forecasts suggest that, if current patterns of participation continue, more than 30 percent of today’s school leavers will experience higher education in 10 years from now. A GER of about 15 percent would certainly need to be revisited and the Governments endeavour to push it as high as 30percent is indeed noble. I wish, we attain a figure of 50 percent in the next 20 odd years. Higher education will shape individual lives, the economy and society. Such an activity must be the subject of broad and informed consideration and debate. We need to create a knowledge society. Knowledge is all pervasive and it is said about Knowledge, again a couplet by Bhirthrihari:

Translated “Knowledge removes lethargy of the intellect, invests truth in the speech, enhances the greatness and casts off sin; cleanses the mind and spreads the fame all around”

We need to empower the youth with education that promotes knowledge and promotes meaningful employment based on this knowledge as applicable to a certain environment. Any activity that promotes this is a best practice and such a pursuit will always benefit the society we live in.

“The Government’s move to exempt Xth grade examinations is truly out of box, critics apart, and worth a million in the bullion market. We need more of that”

It is a challenge to be able to pen down best practices in education. The times we live in are full of flux and recounting any number of best practices of today can at best be a mere perspective. I would like to treat that subject in two stages:

1. How to identify what is best.

2. How to ensure that the produce from the colleges hits the ground running to meet employment and opportunity.

The purpose of education is to ensure progress. I would like to choose to lay the foundations of understanding how to record the best practices. How to identify what is best.

The foremost three aspects of education are:
1. The student
2. The faculty and
3. The institution

If there were a way to plot these three properties individually and then have a map that plots all the institutes on a single page; it shall enable us to develop a credible system of rating. drawing up a median and then identifying need-gaps in colleges that remain below the median will help us improve the performance of the colleges and reduce the base area of the education pyramid.

Indeed there are underlying layers that form the crux of each of the above aspects.

1. the student: financial, regional and aspirational mapping
2. the faculty: financial, regional, innovational and aspirational mapping
3. the institution: Its ability to create impact in its local vicinity, national and global realms, promote research, retain faculty and consistently out-perform its out turn each year.

While there are no quick fixes to what ails, we need to recognise that access to higher education is much better today, though the systems have become more complex and hence more challenging.

There can not be a “one size fits all” formula and understanding of need gaps when analysed against a backdrop of the best performing teams of faculty, institution and student will help us deliver a system that is optimised for results. From here shall emerge the best practices.

How to ensure that the produce from the colleges hits the ground running to meet employment and opportunity. The other challenge is the lack of right metrics and planning that do not tie in the produce from the colleges to the available opportunities for the students outside in the commercial world. This leads to lopsided education imparted, there is unemployment leading to restive youth.

Just as there is a method of forecasting GDP and growth and use available data around FDI, industrial, farm outputs and service industry, similarly, the output of students and skills can be planned to meet such development midway. For that truly would be the exacting of the demographic dividend.

A Country blesssed with great numbers of youth in productive age can also be severly undercut if they are not in the mainstream. An example would suffice the seriousness of this statement. Over 50 percent of youth fail between 10th, 11th and 12th grade and probably out of the education scene for ever after that. They surely must be contributing to the growth of the Country in some way as much as contributing to the muck. An out of box approach and a possible best practice could be to allow them to pass the grade with minimal intervention. The Government’s move to exempt Xth grade examinations is truly out of box, critics apart, and worth a million in the bullion market. We need more of that.

Assuming an incremental value addition happens to the entropy of the Universe; it is still worth it apart from the collateral advanatage of higher GER’s and overall growth in economies brought about by an exalted youth. Best practices in Education is notional at best though specifics can always be defined. Anything that adds to overall well being and acts as a force multiplier for economy is a best practice be it in education, medicine economics or any other.

The Digital Push

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Now we have definitely entered the era of technology-centric classrooms, where students use a variety of digital tools to gain knowledge. Schools and higher education institutes are opting for classrooms that are decked out with laptops, big interactive screens and software that drills students on every basic subject.

In conjunction with the growth of digital learning, there is growth in e-content. The e-content industry is rather asynchronous and it is also very fragmented. But the lack of synchronism and the fragmentation is a positive aspect, as they result in the creation of the widest possible range of products that can cater to all kinds of educational
needs. The rapid growth in the e-content segment is primarily being driven by innovations in content customisations and many other services like the use of simulations, etc.

As technologies and associated standards forge ahead, the concept of Wireless Campus and technology enabled sports is also gaining popularity. When an institution is seamlessly connected with high-speed broadband, students, as well as the teachers, can access educational material with relative ease. As the popular saying goes – a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Sports are a necessary part of a child’s training, and incorporation of digital systems only serves the purpose of further enhancing the scope of sports in education.

However, the field of digital learning is also fraught with challenges for which the industry and the government institutions continue to grope for answers. Even the best e-content solution and digital learning tools will not serve the purpose of broadening the scope of education if there are technological issues like server being down or erratic power supply. For the digital education system to really take off in the country lot of new infrastructure has to be created.

We have interacted with a host of industry leaders who are providing solutions for e-content, sports and wireless campus. The interviews that we have conducted with the teachers and other senior academics read like a case study on usage of digital systems in institutes. From these stakeholders we have distilled a gamut of perspectives. The potential benefits of digital teaching tools are also linked to the tech-training of the tutor. In urban areas, majority of the institutes have access to teachers who are tech-savvy, but in rural and semi-urban areas there is a crunch of teachers with such
training.

On 23rd and 24th July 2012, we will be having The World Education Summit, at Le Méridien, New Delhi. Just like the May issue, the June issue of digitalLEARNING is also a part of the special series through which we are making an in depth coverage of the education sector in the country. Once again, I have the pleasure of inviting all of you to join the WES, where we can all be part of the discussion on the best ways by which new technologies can be used for enhancing the scope of modern education.

I would like to thank Professor S S Mantha, Chairman AICTE, who, in his position as guest editor to the entire series of issues that will be released in the run up to the World Education Summit, 2012, has been providing us with invaluable guidance.

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

AICTE to Hold Next CMAT Abroad; Plans to Launch Job Portal Too

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) plans to hold the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) overseas and also is expected to launch a job portal late this month.

AICTE chairman Dr SS Mantha said that ever since it had conducted the first CMAT in February this year, it had been receiving inquiries from prospective students abroad. “It is not that students have been incessantly calling or writing to us but considering that this exam is going to be accepted for admission by over 3,500 B-schools, we have been given to understand that candidates abroad would like to take the exam. We are hence going to conduct the exam in the Middle East, the US and Europe from next CMAT onwards,” said Dr Mantha.

Dr Mantha said that the CMAT will present itself as an alternative option to the GMAT for students who live abroad.

But have management institutes even agreed to take on NRI students with CMAT scores? “Eventually every AICTE-affiliated institute will compulsorily switch over to the CMAT. In that situation, this becomes an apt move,” answered Dr Mantha.

The modalities of holding the CMAT in the Middle East, Europe and the US are yet to be worked out. According to Dr Mantha, Aptech (which conducts the CMAT on-ground) will be roped in to conduct the exam abroad through its international centers.

The CMAT’s first run saw about 50,000 candidates appear for the test against a projected figure of 2 lakh by the AICTE. Even though there were 60 centers across the country, candidates had been allotted centers in other cities or at places far-flung from their homes.

Dr Mantha answered that there were plans to drastically increase the number of centres in India and also make sure that candidates got centres close to their preferred locations.

“Give the CMAT some time to become a brand. Over time, the numbers will also increase. I can’t even think of comparing it to CAT or a GMAT. Though the CAT numbers are going down consistently over the years. With more awareness this year, the number of people taking CMAT will also increase,” Mantha said. He added that he will also be persuading state universities to consider the CMAT exam for admission.

AICTE’s job portal is expected to launch later this month. According to Dr Mantha, it will be different from other job sites because AICTE will run it just like a “marriage bureau. I will only publish information from both the sides: the company and the student. And then the both of them will have to take it forward. AICTE will wash its hands off after that,” said Dr Mantha.

Already, AICTE has a ready database of about 7.5 million students across the country besides having contacts and information of over 8,000 companies, taken from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The industry data will be displayed sector and function-wise for students. A unique token number will be assigned to both students and companies who want to take part in the recruitment process. With the help of this token number students can upload their CVs with some background information about past academics. Companies too can also upload their requirements. A computer program on the website will then match requirements.

According to Dr Mantha, the website will also serve to capture data about higher education in the country. “Today there is little information on the number of students pursuing higher studies in India or the disciplines which are most and least pursued. There is no composite data on gender issues or on age and work-experience of students,” said Dr Mantha. The data generated by the job portal will be used by government agencies to frame policies and take important decisions on higher education.

Now AIEEE Papers are Available Online

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

CBSE has posted the optical reading sheets (ORS) of students who appeared for the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) online. The AIEEE is the entrance test for most engineering institutes in the country, with the exception of the IITs.

Around 11 lakh students across India were able to view their engineering test answer sheets but were unable to verify if their answers were correct.

The CBSE move came after the IITs, in May, placed the ORS on its website for students to evaluate their performance. However, unlike IITs, the CBSE did not post answer keys online, preventing students from evaluating their performance.

As compared to just five lakh students who appeared for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), around 11 lakh appeared for AIEEE. Placing the ORS of so many students took a lot of space on the board’s server.

Nevertheless, placing answer keys — even provisional ones — would have helped students gauge their performance. Answers keys help ascertain the correctness of the question papers. The IITs had admitted to including four wrong questions in the JEE test this year after the answer keys were posted online.

Besides this, the CBSE refrained from placing the previous year’s question papers — with answers keys — in the public domain. This has increased the students’ dependence on coaching centers, even though the government has been trying to ensure that entrance tests evaluate students on the basis of their educational skills.

Bengal Colleges Give More Seats to Balance High Cutoff Marks

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Bengal state government has decided to give 10 per cent more seats in its colleges to accommodate higher secondary students. This decision has come for the second year in a row. The apprehension of high cutoff marks has prompted the government to tread the same path for the second time.

State education minister Bratya Basu said, “We will soon send notifications to all colleges and inform them about the 10 per cent increase in seats in all the departments”.

Last year, seats were increased after students from state government schools failed to meet high cutoff marks. As a result, ISC and CBSE students made a clean sweep on the merit lists in colleges, only with a handful of West Bengal Higher Secondary Council candidates managing to languish down the list.

This year, too, the situation is almost identical. With majority scoring between 30 percent and 50 per cent, the HS pass percentage is hovering much below those of the ISC and the CBSE. Around 474 have achieved a score more than 90 per cent, but the number is miniscule compared to those from other boards.

The government has also issued notice to colleges that have websites to conduct admissions online. “Those who have adequate infrastructure will have to introduce online admissions. This will solve confusion and simplify the admission process,” the minister said.

Around 150 colleges have responded that they are equipped to hold the entire admission process online.

Higher Education Minister Says Yes to CAT for Engineering

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Higher and Technical Education Minister Laximikant Sharma has given his nod  for common admission test (CAT) for engineering colleges (JEE) at the states’ Education Ministers conference in New Delhi recently.

He said that if score-holders cannot be found even in two rounds of counseling for JEE, the option should be given to states to give admission to students on the basis of marks secured by them in the eligibility test. He urged that B Ed faculty of Avdhesh Pratap Singh University, Rewa, and Barkatullah University, Bhopal, should be upgraded to Institute of Advanced Studies in Education in the first phase itself. The conference was presided over by Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal.

Sharma said that Madhya Pradesh should be included in the pilot project of National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF). He said that states should be consulted prior to UGC regulation and constitution of Lokpal so the concept of Lokpal can be implemented in a better way.

Praising implementation of accounts norms for educational institutions, he urged that adequate resources should be made available to states. Drawing attention of the Union Minister towards the fact that permission for Chhatrasal University at Chhatarpur has been granted so far, the Higher Education Minister urged him to ensure approval at the earliest.

 He also urged him to give permission for Innovative University at Bhopal and Mining Engineering College, Singrauli. He demanded that the Higher Education Department of the State Government should be provided grant of Rs 419 crore and Technical Education Department Rs. 49.2 crore for payment of arrears to professors.

The Technical Education Minister said that permission should be granted for starting ITI in the second shift of Madhya Pradesh’s engineering colleges and implementing community polytechnic scheme in all the polytechnic colleges.

 

 

 Higher and Technical Education Minister

Karnataka State Higher Education Council Preaches Multi-campus Courses

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Following the UGC recommendation of bringing multi-campus courses, now Karnataka State Higher Education Council has recommended starting multi-campus courses, inter-college and inter-university credit transfer system by 2020.

In its vision document for the year 2020, the state’s think-tank in higher education has proposed to introduce in a phased manner after piloting in at least five institutions. With this, students will be free to move from one university to another as the varsities will follow the same credit system.

S C Sharma, VC of Karnataka State Higher Education Council says, “This system will have another advantage. As of now, universities in Karnataka work in isolated patches. For instance, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) is meant only for technological courses and no other disciplines. With this system, we will also look at facilitating universities to start other courses so that there is universality”.

The Vision 2020 document also highlights the problems faced by the state varsities today. One of them is the growing localisation of the state university system.

Revolab Eyes Big on UC Business with Presto

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Revolab, a US based manufacturer of wireless audio products for enterprise collaboration and professional audio applications, has demonstrated Wireless products based on the new technology of unified communications providing crystal clear audio quality, versatility and flexibility of movement. Revolab has chosen Presto for the distribution on their product in the Indian market.

Presto, one of the fastest well networked & a growing value added distributor in India, specialises in emerging technologies for government and enterprise customers in India and SAARC countries. Presto offers IT consultancy, system integration, faculty management and training in addition to its other services, to its clients and partners.

Management Education Is in Turmoil; Opine experts

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The Rani Channamma University, Belgaum, the second largest varsity in Karnataka, had recently organised a seminar on the issue ‘Management Education-Road Ahead’ and with a view to revisit the road already traversed, assess the present situation and explore ways and means to restructure the system to make it meaningful, effective and productive. C.M. Thyagaraja, Professor and Chairman, Department of Post-Graduate Studies in Business Administration at RCU’s Vidyasangama campus in Belgaum, shared his views.

He said, “Management education is passing through a critical phase. There is a crisis of identity, character and quality. This is the apt time to discuss and deliberate the matter by taking stock of the situation. Management education has grown quantitatively, but not qualitatively, and contributed too little to the labour-rich but skill-poor economy”.

He further said, “Too many attractive, lucrative and competent jobs are chasing very few individuals, who are highly talented, skilled and dynamic. An average student finds it difficult to sail through the acid tests of the corporate sector. The element of professionalism, an important ingredient towards building managers, is not taught by institutions imparting management education. Communications skill for students from rural areas is like climbing the Himalayas”.

Saleable product

Like professional education, management education to has become a saleable product. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Amritsar to Singur, more than 4,000 institutions have emerged in the management education landscape.

The origin of management education dates back to ancient times. It is a unique art developed by mankind along its evolution journey. Greeks, Chinese and Indian thinkers contributed to this art of getting things done by others. Strategic decisions and art of administration were adopted during the times of Koutilya. Management education is an offshoot of the industrial revolution which created the factory system, thereby providing a ledge to the art of management. In the Indian subcontinent, management education has come over a period of past 50 years, whereas Europeans are teaching this education since the last 400 years.

Due to the slow rate of economic growth after independence till 1990 the opportunities created by industry were too few. Globalisation gave a big boost to the economy while the service sector came to dominate other sectors. This has necessitated the demand for management education. The Indian landscape of management education is composed of the following:

The IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) top the list which pick the very best. . Management institutes affiliated to universities, autonomous institutions approved by the All India Council for Technical Education, institutions without the approval of AICTE, and foreign universities are also offering degree and postgraduate degrees in India.

The element of ‘skill quotient’ is not appropriately addressed to add value to the education. Faculty members with industrial experience are less in numbers to share their expertise.

Interestingly, the former Chairman of the University Grant Commission, Arun Nigavekar, who addressed the delegates at the seminar, observed that under the changed circumstances it become inevitable to shun the old curriculum in management education and prepare CEOs by directing them to set goals and develop necessary skills to pursue them.

Citing the results of a survey conducted by the University of Michigan based on the interview with 1,500 executives, he said it was found that the subject to be learnt changed on priority. But the same subject became redundant.

He also quoted from the survey to say that three per cent of the sample population who set goals had more net worth after 25 years than those who did not.

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