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March 12, 2012

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is recognized as an important aspect of the nation’s educational initiatives. In order of the VE to play its part effectively in the changing global environment, there is an urgent need to redefine the critical elements of imparting VET to make them relevant, flexible, and sustainable to suit the contemporary needs of the learner and industry. In this backdrop, the NIOS, UNESCO and COL planned a three day International Conference on “Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools” from 17-19 February 2012 at IDSA, New Delhi. The Conference deliberated upon the impending challenges and issues in the academic courses at secondary education level and tried to develop a framework and recommendations to establish linkages of skills training through vocational education at secondary school level with emphasis on knowledge base through academic subjects.

The objectives of the conference were to:
1.   Explore the modalities for increasing the access to sustainable and learner centric quality school education equipped with vocational skills;
2.   Develop strategic plan to strengthen the environment and image of VET; and
3.   Establish linkages on the quality assurance system for the VET to promote the quality and equity among learners at all levels.

PARTICIPANTS

Experts from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Germany, Namibia, New Zealand, Malawi, Tranzania and Zamibia. Representatives from Academic Institutions, Trade and Industry Associations, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Conference of Indian Industries (CII), Vocational Education Institutes, Educational planners and administrators and international experts in vocational, secondary and open learning participated in this conference.

THEMES
The various sessions of the Conference centred on the sub-themes of:
•   Vocational skills and training to empower citizens;
•   Designing the curriculum and quality framework to strengthen the impact of vocational courses,
•   Use of technology in providing education;
•   Developing framework for the Recognition of Prior Learning; and
•   Development of Assessment and Certification Framework.
Organizers received 90 abstracts from the national and international experts, out of which 45 were shortlisted and presented in different parallel sessions.

INAUGURAL

The Conference was inaugurated by Ms Anshu Vaish, Secretary, School Education, MHRD, Government of India. There was a special address by Shigeru Aoyagi, Director, and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, Maldives, India and Srilanka.

There were five thematic sessions, two panel discussions besides the parallel sessions on all the three days.

The first theme for the plenary session on 17th February was on the “Use of Technology in Providing Education”. The speaker on the theme was Prof. Sugata Mitra, MIT Media Lab, USA. Prof. Mitra shared his experience with the experiments that he had done with the use of IT and search engines in educating children.

He presented the “Hole in the wall” experiment and emphasized on the need for self organized learning environment. He also showed the interesting results of various experiments which were conducted in several contries where he showed that there is a uniform learning curve when the children learn without any assistance. Children, when given free access to computers, pick up basic computer literacy skills by with minimal intervention by adults. This has been called Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) by Dr. Sugata Mitra and is basis for the Hole-in-the-Wall Learning Stations.

The second theme was on Vocational Skills and Training to empower citizens. The two speakers Sharda Prasad, Joint Secretary & Director General (DGET), Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India and Mr. G. Vaz, International Development Consultant. Mr. Prasad presented an overview of the strategies being adopted to bring about necessary changes in vocational training imparted in ITIs.

Vaz highlighted the need to change the mindset and perception of the public towards VET and discussed the importance of knowledge, skills, and innovations which are essential for a country to succeed.

Third theme was shared on second day “Designing the Curriculum and Quality Framework to Strengthen the Impact of Vocational Education at school Level.

Dilip Chenoy and Basab Banerjee from (National Skills Development Council) NSDC presented the role that the organization is playing in development and implementation of National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF). Chenoy emphasized that multi-skilling should be done to enhance the employability or rural youth. They also highlighted the role of the Industry in mapping of skills and curriculum development.
Belinda Smith, Consultant, TVET, Australia highlighted the need to adopt ways of integrating vocational skills by using ICT and simulated learning environment. The fourth theme was on Developing Framework for the Recognition of Prior Learning, which addressed the issues of identification of informal knowledge and skills and attaching importance to it. In this session there were two very distinguished speakers Ms. Liz Bowen from Competency International Ltd., New Zealand and Ms Madhu Singh From UNESCO Institute of Lifelong learning (UIL) Germany. Ms Liz began with a motivating presentation and mentioned that lack of formal qualification does not mean that someone is not competent. Ms Madhu Singh from UIL dwelt upon the need for policy and guidelines for the RPL and different approaches to governance of PRL.

The session was followed by a panel discussion on Vocational Education in Secondary Schools and its implications for NVEQF. Dr Alka Bhargava, from MHRD, Dr Swati Majumdar, Director, Symbioses Institute of open learning , Pune, Inder Gahlaut, President, Saksham Bharat, Darshika Sanghani from Wadhwani foundation were the panelist and Dr Kuldeep Agarwal director academics NIOS was the moderator.

The fifth and the last theme of the conference was on the Assessment and certification framework. The theme addressed the issues pertaining to development of framework in an integrated situation for both academic and vocational subjects, credit transfer and assessing skills by educational institutions in partnership with industries. The two speakers for this sessions were Ms Maria Peters from Australia and Shailender Sigdel Regional Advisor Statistics UNESCO. The topic for the Peter’s presentation was “Working in the partnership to engage young people in VET”. She gave the overview of the Australian education context and the VET policy framework. Sidgel provided details on TVET and its assessment strategies and tools designed by UIS, such as the Literacy Assessment, Product on TVET. His presentation covered the aspects of TVET, its purpose, assessment and types of assessment.

VALEDICTORY SESSION

The Chief Guest of the Valedictory session was Dr. (Smt.) D. Purandeshwari, Hon’ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India and Sh. Jagmohan Singh Raju, JS (AE) and DG, NLMA, Government of India was the guest of honour on the occasion. The welcome address and consolidation of three days International Conference was given by Dr. Sitansu S. Jena, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling. Dr. Mamta Srivastava, Deputy Director, (Vocational Education) NIOS and conference secretary presented report of the conference. Dr. K.P. Wasnik, Director, (Vocational Education) NIOS presented Vote of Thanks.

‘Robotics’ as the fourth R

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Gagan Goyal, CEO, ThinkLABS – a quintessential robotics enthusiast who decided to make his passion his profession and bring the world of robotics right into the classrooms of students in conversation with Rachita Jha (ENN). Excerpts

Tell us more about the genesis of Robotics Lab?

Robotics is an exciting field of study and fascinates and engages people of all ages-truly a multi-disciplinary subject and brings in more interactivity and fun-based learning in STEM education. It is an ecstatic moment to see young students be it either school or college working in teams and building robots with so much fun and collaboration. It’s amazing to see how robots excite and scintillate their minds. My journey and the genesis of ‘robotics lab’ began during my years as a student at IIT Bombay, and participated in many robotics college competitions and gained a liking and fun in the same. The activity also made be learn the concepts better due to hands-on learning. The subject of robotics is multidisciplinary and one gets a chance to apply the concepts in engineering. So there was disconnect that got bridged by my robots creation. The international level competitions exposed to common presence of robotics in these locations. Robotics emerged as an education tool and a motivational tool and many consider ‘Robotics’ as the fourth R in education after reading, writing and athematic.

Compared to your experience in other countries, how do you see the role of robotics labs in India?

My experience in the US and UK education market revealed that robotics is compulsory and it is very common and important pillar in experiential learning and hands-on learning, especially for science learning. However, in India we were not exposed to robotics for science learning in school education. So I decided to introduce robo labs in India. These labs of making robots not make science learning fun but also give better knowledge in learning skills, life skills, thinking skills, teamwork, and leadership skills. The demand for 21st century skills is coming in face of students that are not based on ability of rote learning instead, the future workplace will require students who can adapt to the situation will excel with problem-solving skills. We all learn better by doing, this has to start from the beginning – to think, create, solve and apply the knowledge that has been gained in the classrooms at school-level itself. The overall benefits of our pedagogy approach helps students gain visual grasp of maths and science concepts and it teaches though the mode of discovery i.e cause-and-effect learning. Students enhance their problem solving skills, innovation and creativity aptitude and strengthen logical and analytical thinking skills.

How have you designed the robotics labs for school students? Tell us more of the various components of the kit?

We have devised a Robotics Learning Systems (RLS), which is a world-class programme specially created for students of class 4 onwards that is designed in a simple way for schools to embrace science and technology through hands-on-learning. The pedagogy applied to the learning system helps train students in six of eight intelligences proposed by the theory of multiple intelligences, thus making it a holistic learning experience. The kit includes hardware building blocks, software licenses, curriculum content and the most important component is teacher training. Our hardware is called i-Pitara PRO which is an ergonomically designed modular, re-programmable kit with more than 100 components like sensors, micro-processor unit, gears, motors, tools etc. Our approach is to ensure that the kit offers innumerable options for creativity, designing and critical thinking. Our software is called CIMPLETM and is based on intuitive visual programming software. The drag and drop, flowchart-based programming approach helps in building the logical thinking of students when they are involved in the robotics labs. To ensure that the labs are in sync with what is taught to them in the classroom, we have designed the courseware in our R&D centre at SINE, IIT Mumbai that helps the concepts that are taught in the robotics labs integrate easily with the existing school curriculum. The heart of the kit remains with the teacher training component, as unless the teacher is involved, motivated and aware of the learning concepts embedded in the robotics labs, the students will never reap the true benefits of the same.

“Currently we assess that the robotic lab market in Indian education sector is close to 1000 crore, and the space for robotics labs is an unexplored market. So the potential can actually be much more.”

Tell us more on the robotics labs designed for higher education students?

The needs of higher education engineering students are very different and are more career-focused, so we have designed a course in embedded systems to make them robotic engineers. Distinguished faculty and alumni of IIT Mumbai have designed the courseware aimed at universities, colleges, institutes covering various skill sets required for a successful career in Embedded systems. We invest in setting up of a centre of excellence for Embedded System with state-of-art laboratory carrying out education and research activities. Monitoring the skill gap in a structured manner, followed by placement and internship opportunities for certified students are offered. The intensive hand-on learning projects have helped many students realize their dreams in embedded systems.

Usually due to constraints of time and space, many schools are unable to pursue lab activity in their timetable. What is your suggestion to schools on adoption of robo labs on this?

We are fully aware of these constraints that are common to all schools across the country, the mission to complete the syllabus usually does not give any space for such workshops and labs. So, we suggest the best way out for schools is to upgrade their existing computer labs to robotics labs. Robotics should be included as a subject and the real-life impact will come if it becomes part of the curriculum. We suggest at least two periods in a month. The time has come for computer labs to transform as a centre for holistic learningof other subjects as most of the computers and related applications are on self-learning by the students. So we will see the arrival of language labs, math labs and of course robotics labs as learning modules.

Having entered a market untapped by any, tell us your views on how the education market evolved for robotics labs in India? What is your market assessment for robotic labs in India?

We are a five-year old company and we started with engineering students and for us school education in a new avenue for us. And there is lots of effort that went behind our launch of our products for the school segment as we had to design our platform that was very elementary and student-friendly-so those took a lot of time from us. Schools are not alien to the various modes of experiential and activity-based learning for students, and this is evident from our involvement in just 38 schools last year to 108 schools this year. Acceptance from the education community has been very forthcoming, and we are seeing the demand coming from Nasik and other tier-3 cities much more.Currently we assess that the robotic lab market in Indian education sector is close to 1000 crore market, and the space for robotics labs is an unexplored market so the potential can actually be much more.

Challenges of Implementing Technology into Schools

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Implementing technology in schools in not a smooth road. It has various speed breakers which hamper the speed of adoption of technology. Techno phobia is one of them

By Veena Raizada

The 21st century continues to change at a rate faster than we can imagine. The immersive media has created learning communities that communicate and collaborate across the globe. The world has become highly interconnected and complex. What remains to be checked is,
“Are we ready for the change?” The answer seems to be big “No”

Misconceptions about technology

Lack of awareness in minds of stakeholders has created lot of misconceptions about technology and its crucial need in the present times. Implementing technology for effective teaching learning means more than teaching basic computer skills and software programs in a separate computer class.

For investors it remains additional equipment that might increase the proficiency of the school system. Everyone involved in the management of education system needs to acknowledge that technology is and can be a comprehensive tool to effective school management.

Parents still can not foresee the productiveness of new trends in the education whether with technology or without it. For them, successful education still remains a report card with 90% + in almost every subject. And for this attitude, to some extent our education system is also responsible.

Teaching community probably is facing the main challenge. Good teachers, in particular see it as threat to their importance or may be even their recognition as a good teacher. It is also perceived as an additional work load to change their pedagogy that incorporates technology into curriculum.

Challenges of implementing technology can be broadly classified into:
• Misconceptions
• Understanding the need for implementing technology
• Affordability
• Techno phobia
• Impact

Students are facing even a bigger challenge than the parents and teachers. For them the vast expansive knowledge platform that World Wide Web has offered needs synchronisation with their specific needs.

Digital gaming, virtual world of connectivity to the universe, simulation, virtual manipulative, my space, facebook etc. The unlimited power of digital era seems to be sweeping the GenNext. Technology is an integral part of the lives of Ikids of the new millennium. Educators therefore, will have to find ways of harnessing this power to create a better tomorrow for today’s students. Technology enabled education will prepare our youth for competitive traits and competency attitude.

Financial implications are probably the biggest barrier for any school to adopt technology especially when it is a large setup. Even if the school is willing to do it, to ensure that optimal provisions are made to make technology enabled education become a meaningful support for teachers and students needs sufficient budget allocation from the school funds.

It is very important for investors to appreciate that for a significant impact of technology on learning, regular usage by both the teachers and learners is essential. Adequate technology support systems to all are essential.

Techno phobia though existent among all stake holders, is more a mental barrier than a technical hurdle. Skepticism, fear of incompatibility and may be lack of motivation or even incentives are root cause of huge inertial force to accepting technology as part of our classroom life. Everywhere else we seem to be going with the flow. Then why technology in education is a phobia?

Technology based education is still accepted as supplementary and not primary source of child’s learning process. Outcome of technology based teaching learning is yet to be validated by many research studies. Apprehensions therefore, are obvious for its easy adoption. There is no technology that can turn underperformers to over achievers or help low performing systems to high result performance oriented organisations.

Educators may be aware of the need for improvement in their set ups but the potential role of technology may need clarity. Meticulous planning is, therefore vital for any technology initiative to yield expected outcome. Without proper insight into what, why, when and how of technology implementation, technology investment are liable to become expensive ventures ending up as failures.

Author

Veena Raizada,
Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd

“We Don’t Like to Compete, Our Task is to Create Competition”

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

N Subramanian is a successful entrepreneur and an expert in high volume data processing and data capture services. He is a person with very innovative ideas; he takes pride in pioneering lots of new concepts in examination testing at various universities in India. In conversation with N Subramaniam, MD, TRS Forma, with Pragya Gupta, he talks about e-Assessment, e-valuation and education technology market in India

Please throw some light on TRS Forma operations in India?

TRS is a professionally managed company, one that has access to lot of modern tools for catering to the data capturing and imaging related needs of various government and private institutions. TRS specialises in providing integrated solutions in the field of document and data capturing by using OMR and ICR techniques. Besides technological support, TRS takes pride in being exclusive distributor for the sophisticated range of OMR scanners of DRS plc. , United Kingdom, and Sekonic of Japan. TRS is also a reseller for ABBYY Software of Russia and Archival and Retrieval software from Edocs.

TRS has one of the largest OMR bureaus in India, consisting of six high-end scanners each capable of scanning around 7200 sheets per hour. Scanning of these OMR sheets is a one step process and information gets accessed quickly, accurately and securely.

How do you see education technology market shaping up in India?

Technology in education is always an advantage and is accepted by the end users with full appreciation. Education technology market is definitely shaping very well in India and in one or two years it will change the complete outlook of the education in India.

What is the role of e-Assesment and e-Valuation in education? How do you see the adoption among school and higher education segment?

e-Assessment and e-Valuation definitely bring a big change in the quality of testing and evaluation which is very much required in today’s situation. Schools and higher education segment are looking for such technology solutions to improve their quality and also to achieve that without much trouble. So we are finding that the acceptance level is increasing day by day for such solutions.

What is the market size of e-Assessment and e-valuation? How useful and safe is the technology?

The approximate market size for e-Assessment and e-Valuation is 500 crores.

e-Assesment as you know has brought in high class change in the quality of examination and selection process. We have so many complications in the selection process. The volume swells every year. e-Assessment is a must for any examination or recruitment process. Even though Government of India is working towards reducing the number of competitive exams, the process will take few years. With so many competitive exams being conducted the students also find it difficult to prepare for all these exams. e-Assessment can also be a good tool for giving students the confidence for facing such exams. Schools as such are yet to make use of the e-Assessment in a bigger level. Currently with the availability of mobile devices like the tablet PCs, the students can be given a short test after every class to get a feed back on the level of understanding in that class. Based on the analysis extra classes can be arranged to make the students understand the particular chapter properly.

“The approximate market size of e-Assessment and e-Valuation can be around 500 crores. e-Assessment has brought in high class change in quality of examination and selection process”

How do you see the acceptance of e-Valuation by Indian education system?

e-Valuation is something which is being looked upon by the education boards and university. The necessity arises from the fact that getting the required number of proper valuators for each subject is difficult. When the shortage is there then each evaluator is asked to look at more booklets within the short time. This leads to lowering of quality. In e-Valuation the answer sheets are fully digitised, so an immediate archival can be done. It is made easy for evaluators to access the image copy of the answer booklet through the net or intranet. All facilities like key points for each answer and maximum marks for each question are controlled from the software. Hence errors are avoided to a great extent. There will not be any case for re-totalling. In case of request for revaluation, the complete image copy of the answer booklet can be given to the student; this has also become a mandatory under RTI rules. If the same booklet has to be re-valued that can be arranged immediately by posting that answer booklet again for the valuation. Good control on the valuation front can be brought in by administration module where the activities can be statistically viewed both individually and overall. This will help the exam controllers to take remedial action at the right time if any valuator is not doing the right job or is not meeting the targets of valuation. So delay in results can be avoided. Also once the valuation is over the result preparation will be instantaneous. Slowly universities are getting on to pilot projects and upon successful implementation, full acceptance will come. Currently there are some practical difficulties of providing the required infrastructure and it will take some time to overcome the same.

Please share with us the details of latest products or solutions you are planning to launch in the Indian market.

Launch of automatic dummy numbering system for the subjective exams is a mile stone for TRS. This has been accepted by some of the leading universities like Bangalore University and Kanpur University. In Tamil Nadu, universities like Periyar University, Baratiar University, Allagappa Univeristy have implemented the system successfully. Our e-Valuation system has by now been fully tested and is now fully ready to be launched. We are the only company in India to have e-Valuation software developed indigenously. Another product that is being launched is our comprehensive Question bank software which can handle objective and subjective inputs for an organisation of any size. It is finding a good response and we are in the process of implementing it in 3 to 4 universities before April. We are also coming up with a security product for the certificates and mark statements. Even though more than a dozen security features are printed in every certificate, forgeries keep happening. Our product is so secured that duplicating or tampering is impossible. The process of verification in case of our product is also very simple.

Tell us about your OMR, ICR and examination solutions?

The requirement of OMR or ICR solution comes due to the high volume of process. These are introduced to replace the manual data entry and to speed up the process. Of course, with all that speed the output will be more accurate than the manual methods. Because of the speed the results are out within the shortest time and so the selection process is fast. Quality of testing has improved a lot and the selections have been very fair. Some coaching centres, where OMR has been introduced, are conducting almost one test daily. These tests are mainly based on the previous day class, and they help the students in getting better understanding of their lessons.

Please share with us your future plans for the Indian market.

Most of TRS products and solutions are those that are in great demand in the country. TRS solutions are definitely required in every university and education board all over India. We plan to establish our presence entire country, and offer our services in a more professional manner. Currently we have our branches in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Allahabad. We are in the process of opening new offices in Pune, Kolkatta and Jaipur. TRS may be the only company of this size to have a permanent R&D division where solutions for the current and future requirement are being prepared. We don’t like to compete; our task is to create competition.

Enabling Next Gen Innovators in STEM Intel Launches Intel Future Scientist Program in India

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Intel added another feather in its cap by nationally launching the Intel Future Scientist Program on 29th February 2012. The aim of the program is to promote and nurture the spirit of inquiry among students.

An invited audience of over 100 representatives including key policy makers, civil societies, public and private sector organizations from across the country attended the launch event. The launch event was presided by K Kasturirangan, Honorable Member Planning Commission and Member National Innovation Council. The days’ proceedings began with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by the chief guest Dr Kasturirangan, Dr. Manoharan, Chair Professor of Raman Chair for Mathematics and Science Education, IGNOU, Dr. B P Singh from Department of Science and Technology, Dharam Veer, State Election Commissioner, Haryana and president of SPSTI and Dr. Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India.

Ashutosh Chadha, Director Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia initiated the discussion on Ecosystem Preparedness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. He stressed on inculcating 21st century skills to develop innovation and identifying the key issues that help build a knowledge economy. Gagan Gupta, Subject Expert from NCERT shared the vision of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and how it envisages inquiry based approach to inculcate scientific temperament among students. He emphasized that the curriculum should be made visible, relevant and connects to real world problems.

Prof Manoharan, Raman Chair for Mathematics and Science Education, IGNOU, emphasized on scientific learning without stress so as to promote creativity. He emphasized on the contribution made by Raman chair on inculcating scientific temper among children. Dr B P Singh, Scientist/Head from Department of Science and Technology emphasized on contextualizing learning in both formal, non-formal education and also shared that formal education must be sensitive enough to be a part of the system.

Dharam Veer, State Election Commissioner, Haryana and president of SPSTI opined that a good foundation of Maths and Science is crucial in today’s world. This would help in instilling the scientific temper among the students and ICT needs to be part of the education system.

An Audio Visual to elaborate the objectives of the program captured the audience’s attention which was followed by a brief overview of the Intel Future Scientist Program. The overview highlighted the goals, objectives and the outcomes of the program.

Intel India President, Praveen Vishakantaiah shared Intel’s vision to connect and enrich every person on the earth by building trust, promoting scientific capability and nurturing the path to success. He emphasized on the continued progress of nurturing pipeline of scientific communities. He elaborated on the global workforce requirement and stressed that the inquiry based learning was the need of the hour which led to the Intel Future Scientist Program.

Dr Kasturirangan during the formal release of the Intel Future Scientist Curriculum said, ‘Intel Future Scientific program has made the demonstrating approach on how to shape the next generation’. He applauded the initiation of the program as a sustained way to promote asset as its own heritage to improve the quality of society which can imbibe the culture of inquiry and innovation. While emphasizing on innovation, he felt that the rural urban divide is no longer an intellectual space. He asked to identify the core problem and bring affordability in the system so that it can bring easy interface with mechanisms, demonstrations and initiation of linkages.

“Intel Future Scientific program has made the demonstrating approach on how to shape the next generation.”
Dr K Kasturirangan, Honorable Member Planning Commission and Member National Innovation Council

He also said that initiatives to support educational programs have increased from .98% to 2.5% of the GDP. Even the Prime Minister’s office has set mechanisms to work with corporate sectors, support the public-private partnership and provide support to promote research which can bring about transformation and paradigm change.

The launch of the Future Scientist program was followed by an intensive Round Table Discussion on Sustaining the Innovative Streak in Young Geniuses.

There is an urgent need to sustain the brightest innovators and researchers to nurture home-grown talent. The students who have won laurels internationally do not get due recognition when they return back to India and tend to lose out on the opportunities in pursuing their interests. The round table was intended to discuss how to nurture these talents further!

The discussions started with setting the stage for deliberations on how the students who have received global recognition can be given due credit in their home ground. The questions that were brought to the fore for the invited experts to discuss were-

•   What are the recommendations that can be put forward to ensure that innovation by the students who have proved their mettle in International Science Fairs like ISEF get recognized in the formal system?
•   Why some Universities those have special ECA / Sports quota for admission does not include innovation as criteria. What can be done to change this scenario?
•   Can we have preferential criteria for admission to reputed colleges/ universities for the students who have proved themselves on a research based international platform?
•   How can we build the pipeline of this talent and create more young innovators?
The key recommendations that were put forward by the group are as follows:
•   NCERT should support such fairs and help in reaching out to the rural segment
•   State Universities should take a step forward to support the students and help in research projects
•   Prominent colleges / universities can explore the option of providing admission
•   Problems to be placed before the governing bodies to find a solution to the problem
•   Collaboration with scientific academies and research hubs should be initiated for further research and patent
•   Industries who have powerful education wings need to provide support and take ahead the initiative to ensure pipeline of talent
•   Dept of S&T need to find a solution by bringing it to the notice of the cabinet and ministry and provide recommendations to institutions for admission
•   Increase stipend and fellowship to attract more students towards research
•   Provide opportunities for students to undertake real time projects spearheaded by both government & private sector
•   Policies and schemes should be relooked to nurture innovation and creativity; Build synergy with the government initiatives and existing programs

Eminent educationists from leading institutions – IIT’s, DU, IISER, prominent personalities from the industry – CII, representatives from Government Bodies – MOCIT, DST, NCERT, IGNOU, KVS, NVS, Scientists from MSSR, Homi Babha, SRC, Birla Science Museums, NISCAIR, representatives from Multilaterals – IUSSTF, Foundations – SPSTI, AMRITA, AGASTYA , and educators from prominent schools took an active part in the forum and contributed in making it come alive with some pertinent views and suggestions.

The highlights of the deliberations were summed up by Dr Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India. He said, ‘the valuable suggestion put forward by the focused group could set the ball rolling and this in itself is a great step in bringing about a change in the thinking process of how the students can be given due recognition and how do we bring in more students into the fold of innovation’.

Private School Penetration Increases NIIT’s Revenue

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solutions, NIIT Ltd shares his views on the significant developments in the Indian education technology market

By Pragya Gupta, Elets News Service (ENN)

How do you look back at the year 2011 in terms of market growth and profitability?

The market has grown substantially in 2011, both in terms of expansion in private school market and penetration of ICT in government schools in various states. NIIT has extended Nguru range of solutions to 19 states in the country. Nguru is touching 88 cities and covering more than 17,000 government and private schools. It has touched more than 10 million lives in 2011. We have started focussing on IP based Nguru solutions to improve the profitability in our school business. At the policy level, there has been a renewed focus on ICT projects with the MHRD funded revised ICT scheme giving more focus on education delivery. However, other schemes like RMSA and RTE have yet not been implemented.

What, according to you, are the top technology trends in education?

The next big focus area will be bringing Internet connectivity to schools and into the classroom. With the advent of this connectivity, children and parents will be seamlessly connected to the schools and teachers. The learning ecosystem of the school will effectively expand from the classroom to the home and beyond that into the neighbourhood and into the larger academic ecosystem of colleges and universities worldwide. Technologies like cloud help stakeholders in education system – teachers, parents, students and school management – to remain connected inside and outside the school environment.

Please share the new technologies that schools are adopting.

Education technology market in India is booming with new solutions and technology aids. More and more schools are adapting these solutions and bringing new technology to students. Some new products that are being used in schools these days include the following:

Multi Touch Gesture Based Interactive white boards: This system allows multiple learners to collaborate and get creative. It allows teachers to make class interactive.

Surface Computing: This system is being used by schools for collaborative projects.

Visualizers or Document camera: These tools can be connected with overhead projector, which can further display images of objects placed beneath the camera lens. These can be used in live classrooms or LABS. They can rotate at 180 degree. We tested and already cleared one from Globus.

Personal response systems: Wireless remotes are small portable chargeable devices that can be used for taking responses from learners. They are especially useful for holding class quizzes.

Laptop carts: These systems are used to provide wireless laptop facility to students in classrooms

Convergence with Mobile Technology: Netbook/eBooks/Tablets/iPods/iPod touch are being used to display educational content and create multimedia content. As per Gartner study, by 2014, the installed base of devices based on lightweight mobile operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows 8 will exceed the total installed base of all PC-based systems.

Up, close & personalBirth
21st October 1962, New Delhi

Education
B.Tech from B.I.T.S. Pilani, PG Diploma in Management

Hobbies
Reading, Travel , Music, Indoor Sports

Achievement
Hemant has a vast experience of 25 years in heading profit center in B2B, B2C and B2G domains in industry verticals such as Telecom and Networking, Education, IT & Software applications and Automobiles.

Passion
Hemant is passionate about delivering sustained growth in revenues & profitability in dynamic market situations

Success mantra
1. Strategy building & perfect execution.
2. Being customer centric

Vision
“To be a first choice of customers”

K-12 market is growing at the rate 14 percent annually and is expected to touch USD 34 billion in 2012

Tell us more about Nguru.

NIIT’s Nguru system is a holistic solution to meet the needs of all the stakeholders in school education – students, teachers, parents and government. In the coming year we are looking at adding more products in the bouquet of Nguru range of solutions.

If you were to give a wish-list to the government for policies, PPP or any other support, what will it be?

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has provided a new impetus to our education system. Sharp increase is expected in the demand for secondary education in coming decade. The government should focus on rapid execution of such educational projects. Better payments should be made to the system integrators. The policy level initiatives that we would like to see include the following:

•   PPP in school construction especially in rural areas where private suppliers are unlikely to venture.
•   Training and hiring of more teachers and rationalising their deployment so that supply matches demand.
•   Investment in curriculum revision, progressive pedagogy, technology and examination reforms, to make schooling more relevant
•   Provide financial and in-kind assistance for poor and disadvantaged students, to offset direct and indirect costs of schooling and overcome household reluctance to send children (especially girls) to school.
•   Public information campaigns to change attitudes about the benefits of schooling and delayed marriages.

What were the most significant developments, in terms of policy changes and technology, in 2011?

Broadly speaking, there hasn’t been any major significant change in government policy. The focus is still on ICT scheme which is funded by MHRD in most of the states. We expect RMSA to take off this year in the states. SSA continues its mission quite successfully for making primary education available to all.

What are your company’s ambitions in 2012?

We will continue with our focus on the expansion of private school business and penetration of IP based business in various government schools in the states. We are also planning to bring latest technology and new solutions to add to our Nguru range of solutions. K-12 market is growing at the rate 14 percent annually and is expected to touch USD 34 billion in 2012. In the private sector new schools are getting added at the rate of 10 percent annually with 15 percent increase in fee every year.

CREATE@Amrita Research Agenda for Educational Technologies for Societal Benefit

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

The Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education (CREATE) (www.amrita.edu/create) is the educational technology initiative pioneered by Amrita University with primary focus on providing effective, affordable educational technologies to improve the quality of both school and higher education

By Prof. Raghu Raman

The need to make science education more practice oriented has been a topic of discussion for sometime now amongst the educators the world over. In India, CBSE had initiated mathematics and science labs to make teaching and learning at school stage activity-based and experimentation oriented. But usage of Science Labs are limited in today’s schools due to the lack of equipment, insufficient time at lab and dangerous substances or breakable equipments. Enabling all schools in the country to run practical experiments in physical space is too expensive. There is also a limitation of availability of good lab teachers.

The Online Labs and Virtual Labs initiative, using 2D, 3D interactive animations and simulations are designed to support effective learning in such a scenario. An interactive simulation research initiative that is dramatically changing the way school students perform science practical experiments is Project Online Labs or OLabs. This project is jointly developed by C-DAC Mumbai and CREATE under a research grant from the Department of Information Technology. Even when labs and equipments are available, large size of the classroom usually means that only one or two students or just the teacher actually does the experiments.

A multi-disciplinary team involving subject teachers have developed around thirty experiments. Over 170 teachers have been trained in the use of Olabs and 450 students are using the system. A survey found that 76% students agreed that OLabs improved their understanding of the concepts. 91% of the teachers felt the lab environment was well-simulated and found the animations and quizzes effective.

“OLabs provide high quality simulations, animations, videos and tests to enable students to learn conceptual, procedural and manipulative skills. Best of all, OLabs are free for schools” says Prof. Prema Nedungadi, Principal Investigator for OLabs. The team at OLabs is actively working with world class educational technology initiatives like Phet Project from University of Colorado started by Nobel Laureate, Dr Carl Weiman, Intel Future Scientist to scale the reach of our work, said Prof Nedungadi. Interestingly, initial pilot testing of OLabs on MHRD’s Aakash tablet has been successful and this could dramatically increase the reach of OLabs.

Prof. Candace Thille from Carnegie Mellon University who leads the Measuring Learning consortium under this program adds, “CREATE is the only research initia¬tive from India to be included in the nine-country worldwide Measuring Learning consortium, something which will help educators quantify how much of what was being taught is grasped by students.”

Similar effort in the higher education space is the Virtual Labs VALUE initiative (amrita.vlabs.co.in) (Virtual and Accessible Technologies Universalizing Education), funded by National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD. Amrita University and eleven other institutions from across India have been diligently working over the last two years to bring Indian students the most realistic and comprehensive virtual labs possible. Of the nine launched disciplines, Amrita has contributed over one hundred and twenty five experiments to the Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Chemical Sciences disciplines.

Amrita is also developing a Collaborative and Accessibility Platform (CAP) to allow faculty nationwide to rapidly develop and deploy Virtual Labs. 12 partner institutes including IIT’s have used CAP to build over 825 experiments with over 4500 registered users from over 134 countries using them. CAP fully supports secure access along with scheduling support to expensive equipment used in experiments. There are “Giving students an opportunity to experiment and apply the knowledge to real day problems is what the project expects to accomplish from Virtual labs,” says Prof. Krishnashree Achuthan, Principal Investigator for VALUE project.

“OLabs provide high quality simulations, animations, videos and tests to enable students to learn conceptual, procedural and manipulative skills. Best of all, OLabs are free for schools”

In developing nations like India, employability of otherwise technically competent engineering undergraduates is at risk due to their lack of command in English communication skills. The primary need of these students is communicative fluency contextualized to the professional occupation they will be seeking, rather than linguistic accuracy which stresses on grammatical forms and memorization. In our English Language Learning Lab, interactive multimedia involving real life visuals are used to convey the purpose of new words and sentences. Activities such as role play and tools like pronunciation tutors, assisted by local language translation scaffolds are provided when the student requires more support. The unique feature of the approach is that the content studied by the student relates directly to his professional field of interest and area of immediate need. The program includes research from Language immersion, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) technologies to provide students with individualised instruction and feedback. With listening comprehension as the focus, all four language skills—listening, reading, speaking, and writing– are developed and retained quickly. Over 700 engineering students of Amrita University have started using this program.

Interestingly CREATE is the only research center of its kind in India that has a dedicated Simulation Lab for STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and has over 18 research publications in this area. With research initiatives like simulation for medical science students and sustainability simulations, Amrita has very ambitious plans – to build a Center for Excellence in use of Simulation to blend technology and education.

Author

Prof Raghu Raman
Head
Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education
(CREATE @ Amrita), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

“CBT is not something you can do overnight”

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

Fiona Collins, Managing Director, Pearson VUE India, in conversation with Pragya Gupta describes the role that Pearson is playing in Computer Based Testing market in India. Excerpts:

Can you throw some light on the Computer Based Testing (CBT) market in India?

The CBT market in India is quite large. Many universities and organizations are planning to move towards CBT. They need to come up with the appropriate strategy for making that happen. A large group is already into CBT. MCI, DGCA, CBSE and many other players are planning a move towards CBT.

Tell us about the challenges that you are facing.

There are challenges and opportunities in equal measure. We lack the infrastructure to cater to India’s huge population. In their move to CBT, many organisations are taking one step at a time.

What are the budget related challenges?

If you look at CBT, it might seem more expensive than paper and pencil initially. But in the long run the system pays for itself through improved security. A more flexible system can be evolved through CBT allowing for longer testing windows, more locations and candidate convenience.

How do you convince those people to adopt CBT?

There are number of ways by which people can be convinced to adopt CBT. The high profile programmes that are already in the market can be showcased and promoted. For instance, there is GMAT, which is quite popular in India. We can also look at the NMIMS. They have embraced CBT and introduced many innovations into admissions testing, such as allowing people to come back and retake the test, if they want to.

Up, close & personal
Birth March 1971Education BA in International Marketing and Languages, Dublin, IrelandHobbies Cooking, exploring my surroundings and literature	Passion People, and educating peopleSuccess mantra Focus on the good and fair around you at all times, and develop it	Vision Take all the learning from global CBT programs in the last 17 years and adapt them for the Indian context, so that we establish of best of breed computer-enabled testing.

What is Pearson’s strategy in this context?

We have multiple strategies at play in India. Basically we develop our strategies after meeting with the university and taking account of their needs. Thanks to leadership at government level, the number of admissions tests are consolidating, which will hopefully mean less pressure on pupils and parents alike. On the corporate side, we have to talk to the potential customers who value the type of services we offer. So we have national reach through more than 300 test centres. We use the latest technology in maintaining security, and in test design, test measurement and credential management. We have a process of tracking somebody from the moment he leaves the school throughout his/her professional development.

Please share the names of the players who are going to adopt CBT?

CBT takes time to plan. It is not something you can do overnight. It has a complex set of components that need to come together; it needs a lot of communication with the stakeholders. However, on the whole I will say that the response is extremely positive. Hopefully we will see a rapid rise in the number of entities going in for CBT.

What is your market size in India?

It is a hard question to answer because market size can be calculated in many different ways. If you calculate market size on the basis of the students that you are servicing, then we have a huge market size. If you count admission tests alone, then tens of a millions of students are taking tests each year. If you count all the private universities, and the tests they do internally, then we are looking at figures running into hundreds of millions. If you start thinking about the banking sector recruitment, the figure once again is enormous.

What is Pearson’s focus area?

We have a diversified focus. We are very keen to help in the admission process. We intend to improve the quality through a system of better security and identity management, and help universities deliver tests over extended periods of time to give students mor So that’s one area focus. The other areas of the focus will be the corporate world. We think that some of the programmes could start having a global scale. As companies outgrow in India, they will start thinking about developing test centres around the world.

Please give us your view on how the market is maturing, and Pearson’s vision for the same.

The most mature market in the world is the US. India is also not far behind USA. About 10 years ago, vast majority of programmes in US were paper and pencil based. The only organisation that used CBT were those from the IT sector. All the other major admission tests were paper and pencil. In India, we face challenges due to the sheer size of the country; a vast number of people need to be tested. Some infrastructure related challenges also need to be overcome. Despite that, CBT allows us to bring innovation, convenience and improved security to the testing process.

Please elaborate on the role that biometric has to play in examination.

A photograph is not a biometric, because it is not uniquely identifiable. A fingerprint is a biometric. It is completely unique and it is built in the person’s body and you cannot change it, except for chopping your hand, or chopping your finger. A digital signature is not a biometric. At Pearson VUE, we use the image of veins in the palm of your hand for biometric identification purposes. However, you have to take into account all kinds of legal and security issues while using biometrics. Most administrations have no objection to photographs or signature being taken, but biometrics raise privacy related concerns. The use of biometric is important in the test centres particularly, because we need to process such large numbers of people, many of whom might be sharing the same name. We still don’t have a singular identity card system and the identity cards issued by different states look somewhat different. It is only through biometric tools that we can securely manage the identity of students being tested.

How do you see CBT markets by 2015?

In our view, by 2015 more than 50 percent of the admission tests in the country will be computer based. We are already witnessing a significant move towards event based testing rather than single day sitting. By 2015, most organisations will have to seriously think about finding ways of balancing their candidate’s convenience with the necessary security measures.

ACTUniv (Academy for Computer Training (Guj.) Pvt Ltd

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

About the Company:

ACTUniv is an education and training enterprise with a core focus on technology, creating innovative pedagogies, developing tools, training and learning resource on several skills for the academia and public. “Making technology work effectively in skill development has always been ACTUniv’s sweet spot,” says Jasvinder Singh, CEO of ACTUniv. “We are passionate of technology and skill training, bringing us industry recognitions, national and international, and acknowledgement by several organizations including some state Governments.”

Singh founded M/s Academy for Computer Training in 1989 with the vision to provide quality Computer Education, with a non-conventional approach to skill development that struck the right chord in students, executives and corporate organisations. The Company has grown to be a knowledge resource enterprise known as the ACTUniv Group. Under his able leadership ACTUniv enjoyed the top position in Gujarat as a technology training provider, content developer and consultant.

ACTUniv was instrumental in bringing a change to the K-12 segment by introducing technology in the classroom. Digital English Language Lab was his next pursuit. The belief that technology can be effectively used to develop skills is evident with Words Worth products based on the ALTE/ CEFR framework. The products have found seamless integration with school, college and university curriculum besides vocational and higher learning organisations. Words Worth has a large number of implementation in schools across India besides colleges and institutions for higher learning as well as mass training projects. Words Worth is all set to reach every home with its Virtual language lab.

Digital Labs deployed in institutes

Words Worth English Language Labs uses the blended learning methodology with Digital content for the Teacher as well as the student. This is accompanied with extensive support material including trainer manuals, flash cards and courseware besides on-site Training of the trainer.

Top selling Digital Lab Product

Words Worth Junior for schools and Words Worth Senior for colleges have been popular since their release. Over 1500 institutions across India are using the software. The English Language Lab features digital content using the best of technology elements.

Words Worth’s bouquet of next generation learning products includes The English Studio, Groots and Words Worth Virtual. The products are designed for multiuser environment with integrated collaborative functions. Besides the learning elements, the products provide supervisory control and reporting, and the subsequent advisory functions make the products unique. Assessment is an added feature for self evaluation.

The products support platforms including Windows and Linux – thick and thin environments, Android and the iOS mobile platform. Proactive online support is made available to all installations.

Digital English Language Lab software includes Trainer content, Student exercises, Assessment tools, exercise maker, task manager, training material, etc.

Price of top selling product

The price of the respective products are based on client requirements.

Labs Deployed
a.   English Language Labs deployed in more that 1500 schools
b.   More than 300 Higher Education institute have English Language Labs
c.   More than 600 Vocational Education Institutes have English Language Labs

Market size of the Digital Labs business in India
The market size is huge and even the tip of the iceberg is unexplored.

Are digital Labs cheaper than the traditional teaching tools?
Yes! in the long run it is the total cost of ownership that matters, flexibility and scalability are important factors.

What is the future of digital education?
Technology will pave the way for replacing the print media and uniform learning across levels. This is a paradigm shift from conventional teaching and learning methods.

Vision statement for future
We are the future!

Contact:
ACTUniv (Academy for Computer Training (Guj.) Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Jasvinder Singh
Founder & CEO of ACTUniv Group
2nd floor, Silicon towers, Near Law garden, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad – 380009, Gujarat, India
Email: jasvinders@actuniv.com
Tel: +91.79.26468536, 26468538
Fax: +91.79.25464495
Web: www.wordsworthelt.com

Online Examination The Game Changer

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

S Murlidhar, Co-founder and CEO, MeritTrac Services in conversation with Dr Ravi Gupta and Pragya Gupta talks about the emergence of online examination and assessment systems in India and how MeritTrac addresses the educationists’ conundrums of choosing the right solutions…

Please elaborate on the market scenario for assessments. How has the market evolved?

When we started MeritTrac in the year 2000, we were the pioneers in the assessment related solutions space. There was no professional and scientifically organised private company. There were government bodies like UPSC. So that’s really where we made a mark. We started with the corporate segment. The market then was all about telling people that we are offering assessment tools. Frankly speaking, there was really no market; we have built the market through the first 6- 7 years in the corporate segment.

How has been the process of re-shaping the market? What is your vision for the next five years?

The next 5 years, there is going to be lot of online exams and outsourcing in the traditional multiple choice modes. In last 6 to 8 months, we have seen 15 tenders have come out in the government space for online examinations. In fact, the state and the central governments have been coming out with the tenders slowly one by one. They have their own plans and they are just going ahead.

The biggest problem for large online examinations being held today is impersonation. We have introduced a biometric authentication product which is a mobile device; it can go around in the classroom like a regular Attendance Sheet. It is like finger based and completely non-intrusive system of identification. Quality in the assessment and evaluation is going to improve over a period of time. So we are hugely excited by the kind of products we can bring in. This is a big challenge and also an opportunity. In this January, we are going to conduct 10 Lakh examinations in 180 towns online, which is a world record.

How is the whole assessment industry is involved at this stage?

Today there are 9 to 10 players (Indian and foreign) who are at the bidding for the really large orders. This is an extremely positive trend as it will lead to further developments in the market. Conducting a good quality examination is all about the process, the software and the infrastructure. An online examination is like a running demonstration of technology, but the technology has to be adequately interplayed with the people. I always tell my clients that that they should not look at this as a mere technology project, it is a very social product.

What about the subjective examinations?

Today we have technologies that lead to automation of the evaluation process, which is being deployed in many large universities abroad. But this technology does not automate the evaluation itself. For example, in case of CBSE Exams, the entire evaluation process is manual. The answers are being carted from locations to locations. So what we bring to the table is a system of digitising the answer scripts and scanning them. There is a technology and software for this. The software interface provides all the tools required by the correction of the paper by an evaluator.

Up, Close & Personal
Birth 4 Aug 1969Education MBA (IIM Lucknow)	Hobbies Reading, Indian History Passion Entrepreneurship	ACHIEVEMENT Successful new age entrepreneur who has used his professional training and corporate experience to create a unique business venture in the area of assessments which in 2000 was an unknown area of business	SUCCESS MANTRA God is in the detailVision Transform education with innovative assessments

How do you see the level of engagement of private universities and that of the government universities?

I see that the private universities are more active, but that does not mean that the government universities are lagging behind. There is a very little difference in my opinion between what the government universities and the private universities are doing. Lot of examination reform are happening in government universities these days. So as more and more companies talk to them and people in the media write about it, changes in the evaluation process are bound to happen everywhere.

What are the challenges you face in the implementation of this technology? Is budget an issue?

No, budget is not an issue. I think education of the clients about the value of an outsourcing one aspect of the education process is a bigger challenge. Today you can reach out to more and more people and tell them that this is the right thing to do and these are the benefits, but it is not necessary that people will buy your outsourcing logic. IT also it took time. The point is that if my ideas get communicated to the right person or the right team in a convincing manner, then that will give impetus to reform.

Are government guidelines required?

More than guidelines, I think a set of industry standards are required. For example we are the members of a body called Association of Test Publishers (ATP), which is engaged in publishing guidelines for the test publishers. Some kind of work on this front has also happened in India, some guidelines are adopted and pre published. So by this, the client’s interest is safeguarded. Today we are doing 4 to 5 million exams a year; we anticipate that in 5 years time, we will be doing about 50 million.

Companies from outside India have brought unfair competition to the Indian firms. So do we see the same thing here?

Assessment is an area of high integrity. Per say, to be an assessment company you have to be highly secure. You also need to have reputation for high ethical standards.

Worldwide, there are a lot of standards and regulations around the assessments. In US tests and assessments are legally challenged very frequently unlike in India. If I am a large company, somebody can say that the test is not for a journalist at all, your test is wrong. It applies to companies also.

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