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Online Examination The Game Changer

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.

Edaxis LangLab: Integrated teaching of all language skills

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

The Edaxis LangLab is designed in such a way that it fosters a more effective level of understanding between the teacher and the student

An innovative and pedagogically superior suite of software modules for learning any language at any level, Edaxis LangLab is full of useful features, and it is easy to use. Basically it is a learn-anywhere blended learning platform through which students can acquire aural, oral, reading and writing skills. Students can also benefit by gaining cultural knowledge through active use of lessons designed by their teachers. Edaxis LangLab makes it possible for teachers to use the existing multimedia or text resources to create new educational resources tailor made to fit the needs of their students.

Most suited for students

The suite is designed in such a way that it becomes eminently easy for students to use audio, video, websites, images, PowerPoint, documents and other texts for gaining mastery on different languages. The lessons are easily retrievable from menus. The students can work individually and at their own pace. They can listen, record responses, replay and practice. They can read instructions, texts and questions. Questions can be answered by clicking on radio buttons and checkboxes, or by typing in text boxes. Collaboration is fostered, as students are required to work in pairs or groups. Students can save lessons on Hard disk, USB pen or DVD.

What can teachers do?

Edaxis LangLab is a cross platform solution capable of running on PC and Mac systems. As the solution is capable of being used remotely, it increases the instruction time that a teacher is able to offer.

Efficient usage of data management tools have been made to enable teachers to use the module for assessment and asynchronous feedback, select the lesson of interest, choose a student from a pull-down menu, and click to go from item to item to review the student’s work, retrieved automatically. Basically the teacher is able to avoid the time wasting rigmarole of searching for a student’s recording.

It is also possible for a teacher to conduct his evaluation by going to an item and then choosing each student in turn from the menu through which a student’s work can be retrieved automatically. The Edaxis LangLab is much superior to most traditional language laboratories, which use common recorders or other kind of hardware devices. The tutor can use the Teach-On Demand function to record or start master track, in real time, open multimedia files for students and broadcast it to them (just choosing to broadcast only the audio signal). Teacher can modify the educational documents in real time during the lesson or prepare exercises in advance.

The Exaxis LangLab offers numerous ways of being used in conjunction with an inexpensive classroom-control system. By doing this it becomes possible for the teacher to engage students in additional instructional activities and send to students materials that are not already linked to LangLab lessons. This kind of system has the effect of bringing ease to the initial effort of lesson creation.

“Regulations Need Thorough Review and Appropriate Implementation”

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), established in 1988 under the aegis of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, has been providing highly conducive academic environment, interaction with industry-academia professors, exposure to the international universities and companies, and a ready profile of strong alumni base spread through out the world.

Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH, tells us more about the latest happenings at the institute and his views on the higher education scenario in India.

By Sheena Joseph, Elets News Service (ENN)

BIMTECH has recently signed an MoU with O P Jindal Global University (OPJGU), Sonipat to build academic capacity. Could you elaborate on the same?

Jindal Global University and BIMTECH have very special expertise in their domain and that is what has made this partnership happen. This alliance will address the need for joint research, management development programmes, case development, joint international conferences and students’ academic activities. Management and Public Policy are the areas of prime attention in the partnerships. The strength is drawn from the strong faculty profile, good international linkages and network of institutions in academia and industry.

In terms of regulation of the higher education sector, what are the key challenges and opportunities in India?

Almost all national and international reports are indicating that we are one of the biggest beneficiaries of the demographic advantage. A large number of the Indian population will be in the age group of 15-24, which means that we have a strong youth population. Provision of access and quality education is imperative in this context. I would draw your attention to some of the reports which came out in the last the few years, such as Meritrac and Nasscom, which highlight employability among students graduating from higher education institutes. The data is depressing as quality of education is deteriorating, with less than 30 percent of the graduates being employable.

Regulatory bodies will only be effective to the extent of efficient performance that they provide and also to the extent of pro active steps they take to promote higher education in India

This is a matter of great worry for the nation. The system of education that is being followed today needs to change and we have to make it more industry relevant. Some of it can also be attributed to the ill regulations and over control by regulators. Regulations need a thorough review and appropriate implementation in the current environment in order to promote education for all.

The Union Cabinet has cleared the establishment of National Commission for Higher Education and Research. What are your views on the process of subsuming various regulatory bodies for a common regulatory body?

The Indian education system is a complex scheme. It is following the path which USA was following in the early 1900s. I think we should learn from the best practices of other countries as well as those being implemented within the country. No regulatory system is good or bad in itself. A common regulatory framework will be good if the activities are carried forward effectively. That’s what happened in USA in 1920s and 1930s. Today, we have not done anything except having followed the system. We also need to start following the best practices in regulation of other countries. These practices ensure appropriate governance with minimal intervention and accreditation for recognition of quality and support. Institutions will automatically come forward to improve quality if they want to sustain, but these accreditation institutions are usually private and not government. Therefore, regulatory bodies will only be effective to the extent of efficient performance that they provide and also to the extent of pro active steps they take to promote higher education in India.

In terms of Foreign Collaborations, BIMTECH has several National and International partner institutions. What are the future plans for BIMTECH furthering these collaborations?

BIMTECH has been identified as one of the top 5 business schools in Indian. The institute has a highly globalized presence. We are working closely with our international partners in terms of student exchange, faculty exchange, research partnership, emerging market programme, joint conferences and capacity building programmes. The creation of research groups and publications is one of the biggest agenda that we are following, and this will help us in knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination.

BIMTECH undertakes its teaching and research activities under various academic centres . How important is research activities in higher education?
Research is the only realization in higher education. Research forms a major part of the professors’ work requirement, as it is also reflected in the classroom interactions. Our focus is to produce knowledge and disseminate it through different publications. We are engaging students so that they are well aware of research activities. However, this training does not automatically restrict their job opportunities to research work per se.

The student engagement is indeed adding to their achievements as they are winning national and international recognitions over their enhanced abilities, which offers them better employment. The research and publication wing of the institute regularly contributes to the academic and industry research undertakings, and faculties share these research and knowledge so generated to inspire and create new ideas.

Does BIMTECH offer Online MBA Programmes to students?

BIMTECH does not offer online education as of now. The present structure is not prioritizing online education as one of the offerings of BIMTECH. It may be considered after the launch of our executive education programme.

Do you think Industry Academia Partnership is important to provide employable skills for students?

There has been much noise on industry academia partnership in India. However, it has not matured much in India. The mutual respect has not been workout between industry and academia and they are still largely in the blame game mode. It is to be realized that business schools are churning out graduates who are absorbed by the industry, and if this dustry academia partnership does not happen, then the industry will have to bear a huge cost in training people to achieve the required quality. This has been realized by very few companies and it becomes a concern when there is a decline in quality.

BIMTECH has always focused on a very good industry academia interface and we ensure that all students are effectively placed after they receive their degree. Many of our faculty members are industry veterans, thereby providing good industry experience and knowledge sharing to students.

Learning in the Digital Era Conclave Distance Education Through Online Platform

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

The next wave in distance education –Learning in the Digital Era Conclave’ series of summit was held in Mumbai and Delhi by LearningMate in partnership with Fortress and Digital Learning Magazine to explore and engage with education community on their views and suggestions on using digital platform to connect the teaching and learning community. The seminar was aimed at higher education in states that included a mix of private universities, vocational training companies and large education bodies – both government and semi-government.The summit was held in partnership with Fortress Financials a leading educational technology company and Digital Learning Magazine in Mumbai and New Delhi..

e-Readiness in Higher Education

As educational institutes try and scale up infrastructure to reach out to more students, the challenge to scale the teaching and learning process remains largely unaddressed. As a comparative, to the market, SamudraSen, CEO, LearningMate said, “What happened in the USA a decade ago in terms of creating robust education technology systems and services to manage the same, is just about beginning here. While many are keen to adopt scalable technology, the lack of quality service providers is rare and there is no precedent in the market. The second issue is not just getting the right technology in place, but supporting it with the right content that is pedagogically sound for a fulfilling distance learning experience”. The last piece is the support services in terms of training the instructors on how to manage and conduct distance education programs using technology. “Thus these three pillars – technology, content and services demand a solutions approach and there in no one size fits all. I am sure very soon the answers to this will be found and like Blackboard, and others, we will soon see a player in India emerge with similar strengths and of significant scale that can service the market” he adds.
LearningMate in 2010 engaged one of the leading consultancy firm to analyse, LMS based e-learning, its current usage, willingness to adopt, and preferences in various streams of higher education in India. The observations showed willingness towards adoption of LMS based eLearning in Engineering, Computer Science / IT and MBA institutes is significantly higher in comparison to other domains. The key participants in the deliberation included Dr. SavitriJhamb, Director – Institute of Distance Learning IDL; Dr D Y PatilVidhyapeeth, Pune; DrSunil Shukla, Chief Faculty, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gandhinagar Gujarat at the Mumbai conclave. Speakers at the Delhi Seminar included Dr H S Sai, GM (IS), MananRachnaVidhyanatariksha Pvt. Ltd., G C Sharma, Head Financial Education, National Stock Exchange on India Limited, AnshulPathak, Managing Director, Town Schools, SumitTayal, Director, Helix Investments.

Get your degree online!

The effectiveness and popularity of online learning is only growing with numbers of students and new class of working professionals looking for anytime anywhere and self-paced learning modules. According to the study done by LearningMate 80 percent of institutes in Tier I locations, showed preference to have their own content as they considered their in-house faculty members are competent to provide the required content for these courses. Majority of institutes in Tier II and Tier III locations prefer to have external content which enhances the quality of learning through exposure to high quality content. It was observed by participants that currently there is a huge gap of accessibility between quality instructors in the institutes and an online platform can be a useful medium for hosting content, student-faculty interactions and collaborative learning. The voice for a technology focused future was unanimously voted as a welcome change in the distance learning community.

Virtual Laboratories Perspectives from Higher Education Institutes

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 10, 2012

Virtual laboratories today have surfaced as an economical alternative to actual lab experiments. Virtual laboratories have facilitated quality improvement, reduced the time taken for development and testing cycles and thereby have helped cut cost and promote efficiency. We take a look at the perspectives from academicians and the myriad use of Virtual Laboratories in educational institutes

By Sheena Joseph, Elets News Network (ENN)

Laboratories form a significant aspect of engineering education today. They are a part and parcel of practical training and experience for students. Physical laboratories, or the conventional labs, however, take up a significant amount of space, make use of real engineering equipments and need constant technical support and manpower for maintenance.

Virtual laboratories, also known as virtual labs, or cyberlabs, have slowly and gradually become meaningful alternatives to physical labs. With the arrival of latest computer technologies, web-based laboratories are being utilised as a substitute to actual labs. Varied engineering and scientific disciplines are making use of virtual labs using different forms of simulation technologies at their educational institutes.

Virtual laboratories have come in as a boon to engineering institutes across India. Of late, several software packages have come into existence that permit creation of laboratory environments with access to simulations and real equipments via a remote client web interface. Prof Badhopadhyay, Vice Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University elaborates, “There could be different types of Virtual Labs: One is the simulation software based labs. Second is where the institute is connected to a laboratory at a distant location, and third is where there is no human intervention.” Varied types of laboratories may be used by educational institutes based on their need and requirements.

Virtual instruments give the complete characteristics of actual instruments, which enable us to analyse the real systems with the help of computer systems

Ashok Verghese

Director, Hindustan Institution of Technology and Science

“Virtual Instrumentation is a breakthrough technology which puts the focus on the engineering concept rather than the equipment. It encourages students to build their own customized instruments with general purpose hardware and customizable software”, says Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director(IndRA) at National Instruments.

Laboratories with Distance Access

Network Virtual Laboratory (NetVL) provides remote access to engineering equipments through the use of the internet. An internet browser with Java and internet connection is enough to enable this access. These devices can either be real or virtual. Information and Communication Technologies are being increasingly used to enable access to laboratory experiments by students in remote and distant locations. Distance is no longer a barrier and students can learn laboratory experiments even through virtual labs.

IP University will soon be upgrading to Virtual Laboratories as a part of NMEICT programme

Prof Badhopadhyay

Vice Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

However, the advantages of Virtual Labs, according to experts, are not uniform. Distant virtual laboratories may have certain shortcomings. This includes instances where students may not necessarily be available for experiments at one particular time period. Distant virtual laboratories also require the presence of a trained technical manpower at the laboratory in order to ensure proper functioning. Experiments will also be dependent on the number of real devices that may be available at a time. Only one user would be able to access the device. In some cases, the overall expenditure of the virtual system including those on devices, webcams, software and technical staff may turn out to be costly for several institutes.

Virtual laboratories remove the maintenance costs that form a part of having high cost equipments

Prof Pankaj Jalote

Director, IIIT- Delhi

The use of virtual laboratories may be justified in areas where the learners are in remote locations and the cost of building laboratories may be too high.

Simulated Virtual Laboratories

The major hitch with actual laboratories and that with distance virtual laboratories is that during the process of experimentation, there may be instances where equipments may break or get destroyed. Repair and maintenance of damaged devices are typically costly and would require the presence of qualified personnel.

Substituting actual equipments with simulators would help surmount this problem. In this, the equipments which are available with the students are fully simulated by computers. There are two ways of creating simulated virtual laboratories: The first way is to develop a simulator in general purpose language and other method is to use general purpose simulation software.

However, the simulator must be able to completely replicate the effects of the real device. It has been observed that simulated laboratories are very useful and effective for pre-training students. “Virtual instruments give the complete characteristics of the actual instruments which enable us to analyse the real systems with the help of computer systems,” says Ashok Verghese, Director, Hindustan Institution of Technology and Science.

CASE STUDY

National Institute of Technology, Karnataka SOLVE: The Virtual Lab @ NITK Surathkal

Funded by National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, (NMEICT), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, The Center for System Design at NITK aims to enhance the learning experience of students through experiential learning of science, engineering and technology in a virtual learning environment at preferred location, time and pace.

The center will set up state of art virtual experimentation facilities (simulation) in selected areas of engineering & science which can be used both through remote access and on site experimental work

The centre has made Science and Engineering education more experiential by having virtual laboratory experiments of almost all the basic concepts learnt at various levels. The virtual lab experiments (remote triggered) are carried out with remote computer access to laboratory instruments and equipments. This allows the students at any location to conduct actual experiments at anytime with the help of information and communication technology (ICT).

Virtual Lab experiments on science and math’s education can help the school students and pre-university students to have better appreciation of the basic concepts and attract them set higher educational goals.

“Highlighting the partnerships of NITK, Dr Dr. K V Gangadharan, Coordinator of SOLVE @ NITK S states, “An MOU has been signed with NITK Surathkal with M/s. National Instruments, Bangalore (NI) in the area of Centre for Graphical System Design. Centre is also pursuing many industries and R&D labs to have active collaborations and MOUs.”

Source: www.solve.nitk.ac.in

With the massive requirement of engineers in the coming years, engineering institutes can very well use Virtual Laboratories to provide laboratory experience to students.

Prof Prem Vrat

Vice Chancellor, ITM University, Gurgaon

“Virtual laboratories are no doubt cost effective in the learning process. All engineering institutes may not be able to afford high cost equipments. But I still feel that students must also have hands on experience. Virtual labs may be helpful in removing initial inhibitions but one should also perform experiments by hand”, says Prof Bandhopadhyay. “I personally feel that students ought to go near the experiments and they have to see it to believe it”, he adds. Virtual labs contribute in terms of providing confidence to students and removes initial anxieties and stress.

Virtual Labs under NMEICT Programme

‘Virtual Labs’, which have gained mileage under the National Mission on Education through ICT, is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which brings together ten national institutes to collaborate for research and education.

The main purpose of the national mission on ICT has been to offer good quality personalised and interactive academic modules through the internet, intranet and through satellite communication to diverse number of learners present in different higher education institutions at an ‘anytime, anywhere’ mode. The service so provided is free of cost. Prof Badhopadhyay while providing a brief on the laboratories present at the University, elucidates that state of the art laboratories in Applied Science, Chemical Technology, IT, Computer Science or even for Soft Sciences, like Management Education are present at the University. All these laboratories are technology enabled. “IP University will soon be upgrading to Virtual Laboratories as a part of NMEICT programme”, he adds.

An innovative intervention in the field of technology, Virtual Labs provide for access to real virtual laboratories to all educational institutions. Virtual labs are a combination of innovative engineering and objective conceptualization methods to provide interactive learning outcomes.

A Cost Effective Option

The cost to set-up a Virtual Laboratory is relatively very low as compared to real laboratories. Unlike real laboratories, replacements that occur on account of malfunction, damage etc. are not required for Virtual Laboratories. “Real time projects have to be done at real values. As we experiment, there will be some other external factors which also affect the experiment. Simulation laboratories will help us see the expected output and at the same time eliminate the costs involved in real time difficulties”, says Dr Verghese

“Virtual laboratories does remove the maintenance costs that are a part of having high cost equipments”, adds Prof Pankaj Jalote, Director, IIIT- Delhi.

Virtual Instrumentation is a breakthrough technology which puts the focus on the engineering concept rather than the equipment

Jayaram Pillai

Managing Director(IndRA), National Instruments

Prof Prem Vrat, Vice Chancellor, ITM University, Gurgaon seconds the opinion that Virtual Laboratories resolve the issue of having to spend high investment on equipments. “Engineering education is very capital intensive, and with the massive requirements of engineers in the coming years, engineering institutes can very well use Virtual Laboratories to provide laboratory experience to students.”

What Educational Institutes Have to Say

digitalLEARNING did a sample survey of 25 higher education institutes to find out the extent of technological integration and perspective on the usage of Virtual Laboratories in educational institutes. The survey reveals a positive approach towards integration of ICTs in education and tilts towards the advantages of labs in educational institutes.

Flexibility, convenience, and cost effectiveness have been the major reasons for the acceptance of virtual labs as an alternative to actual physical labs.

Academicians and experts are of the opinion that experiments can be done without actually going into the lab. Virtual experiments bring out better results. Simulations and other virtual lab work is the best way to practice for many of those experiments which otherwise would not be possible in labs.

Pedagogical discourses currently reveal the fact that virtual form of communication and processes of educational information is potent instrument to bring transition in the formal interaction.

However, it can be effectively said that Virtual Laboratories, with all their advantages, are yet to be completely integrated into the technical education system. The concept is highly appreciated and accepted, although a complete transformation to virtual experiments is generally not encouraged. The coming years will witness larger number of institutes adopting virtual instruments.

Introducing 4th Generation English Language Learning Portable Language Lab

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 9, 2012

The EnglishEdge Portable Language lab leverages technology to make learning interactive, interesting and engaging. It is an innovative model that provides multiple tablets ranging from 21 – 30 on a single trolley. The trolley comes equipped with a centralized charging unit and provides a wireless environment for the tablets. The wireless connectivity provides strong real time student-teacher interaction. Internet access opens up new channels & provides access to variety of relevant online content. This content can then be used to create engaging discussion scenarios.

Salient Features:
Enables less confident speakers to express uninhibitedly in front of fellow learners

All the learners in the class, including the weaker ones, can now record individually, without the fear of standing in front of fellow learners.
The simultaneous recording feature ensures 10 times more speaking time over traditional classroom.

Allows for creation of user generated videos that can be shared for immediate and active feedback in the classroom

High quality video recording of group activities, like Role plays, group discussions & presentations.
Lets the learners and teachers to thoroughly analyze the performance
Provide appropriate feedback on English communication, personality, confidence and body language.

Open (Wireless) Learning Environment which enables learners & teacher to spread out & collaborate

The trainer can move around freely in the class and project content from anywhere.
She has full control of the learners’ content and their performance. Learners have the freedom to move around, spread out, collaborate and work together

Curtails the investment required in expensive real estate for large physical labs

No need to invest in a physical space for classroom/lab.
No messy network cabling and air- conditioning required.
The trolley moves to the place of learning and converts the classroom into an interactive, activity-based learning environment.

Breaks free from dependence on unreliable electricity

The product lets you charge the tablets in a minimum power situation.
It allows you to run a complete day’s class without any interruption, even in the absence of electricity.

“My sincere appreciation for the excellent co-operation and hard work put in by your team at EnglishEdge to develop the English eLearning module for Navjyoti-IGNOU Community College. I am glad to inform you that the module is most innovative and advanced, which is easy to understand and meets all our and students’ expectations. I am also proud to mention that the auditors of ISO 9001 certification have also acknowledged the same”. – Dr Kiran Bedi, General Secretary, Navjyoti India Foundation

Our First Customers

Shemford School, Allahabad
One of the first schools in India to adopt the 4th Generation Language Learning Lab

Both, teachers and the management were equally excited about the technology. While management found great value in its portability and non-dependence on electricity, teachers were thoroughly impressed with the curriculum followed and the ability to use real time video for feedback.

JRE Group of Institutions (Educomp – Raffles JV)
One of the first colleges in India to adopt the 4th Generation Language Learning Lab

This institute is an up and coming new college with a state of art infrastructure and is open to explore new age learning approaches and technologies. They like the overall concept of open – wireless language learning environment and video based learner activities as an effective –fresh learning approach.

Features of EnglishEdge

Meant for learners who are familiar with English but haven’t had sufficient exposure to it. The exercises and activities are especially designed to suit their needs.

Meant for people who’ve been educated with English as a second language. The aim is to concentrate on Pronunciation, Grammar, and Listening Comprehension, thus improving Fluency.

Meant for people who can speak the language but still need to refine and polish their English skills. Here learners move to the next level of English Learning and are exposed to foreign accents to help them improve their communication skills.

Preview: Labs on Demand

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 7, 2012

Company: Edutech India P Ltd
Category: Robotics Lab

Target Vertical: K-12, Higher Education
Product Name:LEGOMindstormsfor Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
Details:With LEGO MINDSTORMS Education students can build robots and use software to plan, test and modify sequences of instructions from a variety of real life robotic behaviours. They gather and analyse data from sensors using data logging functionalities such as graph view. Robotics is an exciting way to bring science, technology, engineering and mathematics to a classroom.Includes the programmable NXT Brick, providing on-brick programming and data logging, three interactive servo motors, ultrasonic, sound, light and two touch sensors, a rechargeable battery, connecting cables, and full-colour building instructions.Key Learning Values:

Developing solutions, selecting, building, testing and evaluating
Brainstorm to find creative alternative solutions
Learn to communicate, share ideas and work together
Hands-on experience with sensors, motors and intelligent units

Company: Edaxis
Category: Language Lab
Target: K-12, Higher Education
Product Name: ILingua
“Ilingua” is a reference which teaches students “how to pronounce English words and phrases correctly and without accent”. Ilingua further includes Listening, Writing and Grammar parts but there is no lesson system in it. This educational method uses “BBC pronunciation” which is the standard way of speaking on BBC radio and on television. In this programme there are 5000 voices already recorded into the dictionary, and about 1500 multimedia exercises divided into six chapters.The training is based on the comparison of your own pronunciation with the sample not only orally, but also visually, by graphic on the screen of the monitor.Bilingual version of software is also available which helps a person to learn English from Hindi or other Indian Languages.Price: 7-8K for single user licence and 85 plus taxes for 30+1 user.

Company: Sparsh Learning
Category: Robotics Lab
Target Vertical: Higher Education
Product Name:iLeanmore

iLeanMore platform contains various advanced exploratory scenarios and real time application development, which focuses on improvements in student learning by providing intellectually stimulating problems that demand higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.

USP: No dependency on other hardware resources. Only windows based laptops, desktops are required.

Price: 20$ per student per year per virtual lab.

Upcoming Digital Labs: Sparsh is piloting Programming in C/C++/JAVA/Python virtual labs and also developing labs in control systems, digital image processing, databases and operating systems.

Company Name: Sanako
Product Name: Sanako Study solo

Sanako Study Solo is a powerful language learning software application with integratedcontent for improving language skills either independently or in the language classroom. Sanako offes selection of content modules to be used exclusively in Study Solo. This off-the-shelf modular content includes different types of exercises for studying English, and is designed to develop all four key skills of language learning: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Content for exploration of English at different levels and with different end goals will be available.In the future content will also be available for other languages. Sanako will also be offering services for larger projects where content can be customised for specific needs.Taking Study Solo into use is easy, and provides Sanako customers with a great stand-alone option for language study. After purchase it can quickly be activated by a token availablefrom Sanako’s internet site. Content modules can also be easily downloaded from the internet and quickly installed into the application’s content library, where users can actively interact with the content and start improving their language skills immediately.

Combining interactive multimedia content and the application of Study Solo makes the language learning not only fun but also very rewarding. Sanako Study Solo has effective exercises for learning pronunciation and intonation – crucial elements when communicating in a foreign language. Most importantly today’s IT-literate students are more motivated when using multimedia tools in general and the same is true for language learning.

Company: NIIT
Category: Maths Lab
Target: K-12

NIIT’s Math Lab builds an appealing world full of color, touch, sound and exploration around the ‘dry’ subject of Mathematics. It comes with multiple Teaching and Learning Aids like Technology Applications, Videos, Manipulative, Measuring Instruments, Tables and Charts. Theme based ambience complete with chairs, tables, posters, floor tiles which creates the right environment.

It helps student understanding Math concepts using concrete objects and improve confidence through learning by doing. It helps teachers to give individual attention to students, promote project based learning.

This unique digital lab is the perfect mixture of technology enabled learning and has the following unique features:

Opportunities for students to explore, reflect and interpret ideas presented through various media
Exposure to a variety of strategies and perspectives in solving problems individually and collaboratively
Facility to frame and test hypothesis, identify, describe, formulate and reformulate problems
Availability of models, Charts, Teaching Aids, Manipulative and Interactive activities to verify math facts and properties
Specialized Software tools such as Geometer’s Sketchpad to enhance the learning of subjects like Geometry, Algebra and Trigonometry more interactively

Math Lab comes with complete hardware, software and infrastructure support. It comes with computers loaded with Windows XP, Antivirus software and Geometer’s Sketch pad for students and teacher. Multimedia based Teaching Learning Material with 487 Activities, Teaching aids like Manipulative, Posters, Charts, Graphs, Measuring Instruments, Faculty Guide and Videos. Theme based ambience with chairs, tables, posters, floor tiles which creates the right environment. The price range is Rs.10-15 lacs.

Company: ThinkLABS
Category: RoboLAB – Robotics Learning System( RLS )
Lab Type: (Language, Science, math, Robotic, etc.): Robotics
Target Vertical(s): Schools, Jr Colleges
Features and specifications:

The hardware “i-Pitara Pro” has numerous components including 4 types of sensors, micro-controller with memory, remote-control unit and more than 70 building parts, which ensures multiple robot designs by clever and skillful crafting.

The software “CiMPLE” is the key feature of RLS. It has not only won hearts of students but it is also the first-ever brand ambassador of the NOKIA – QT Platform (CiMPLE won the recognition from among 85 competing software entries worldwide). CiMPLE is a Visual Programming Language that highlights the relevance of programming (logic and algorithm). A school student does not need to write the actual code. He/she will just drag and drop various elements and build the program for his robot. We have provided numerous options in the software to facilitate students to discover their creative potential and build their problem solving skills. For those who want to learn more, we have provided with a source code editor option too.

The RLS content is mapped with the existing science, math and programming curriculum in the school.
Using i-pitara and CiMPLE, students can make numerous robots, only limited by their creativity.
The micro-controller supports 6 sensors at a time (highest among the competitors). We therefore provide highest number and types of sensors in our kits.
Our product costs only 60% of the internationally available products.
Virtual robotics, an innovation which helps students explore their artistic dimension and teaches students to animate the robots on screen has been developed in the form of ‘Virtu’

Price: Minimum investment of `4.5 Lakhs over three years.

Company: Pearson Cogmed
Category: Cogmed-Working Memory Training
Lab Type: Science (Cognitive Training)
Target Vertical(s): School students- Pre Primary, Primary, Middle, Secondary& Senior Secondary segments

Features and specification: Cogmed is a learning solution in the ICT space because of its focus on addressing a difficulty in learning rather than enhancing the mode of learning. Working memory constraint is a major cause of difficulty in learning. Cogmed is a cognitive training program that improves attention in those with working memory constraints, using an interactive digital platform and a highly animated user interface. Based on a foundation of extensive research and backed by validation in prestigious research institutions all over the world, Cogmed is a fusion of cutting-edge research on memory with innovative computer game design and close professional support. The digital platform enables a trained Cogmed Coach to monitor the progress of each student, and motivate her to ensure completion of the program.Highlights:

Five weeks of engaging sessions using an animated and highly interactive game design format, for five days a week.
Training can be taken at school as well as at home.
Monitored by a cogmed coach and overseen by a psychologist.
Each session adapts its difficulty level in real time to ensure the child is always training at the upper limit of her working memory capacity.
Three versions available: Cogmed JM (Pre Primary School), Cogmed QM ( Primary & Middle School) and Cogmed RM (Secondary & Senior Secondary School).
Successfully implemented in schools globally and available in over 35 countries.

Price: `15,500+tax, per training (one training per user)

Company: Waterford
Category: Waterford Assessments of Core Skills (WACS)
Target Vertical: K-12
Features:

Waterford Assessments of Core Skills (WACS), an adaptive reading assessment for pre-Kindergarten to second grade students, is designed to assess the following reading skill areas: letter names, letter sounds, initial sounds, blending, segmenting, real words, sight words, nonwords, vocabulary, and listening and reading comprehension.

The major strength of WACS is its adaptive sequencing technology. As children correctly answer questions within a content area, the questions’ difficulty level will increase up to a fourth-grade level. If a child fails to answer questions correctly within a content area, he or she will receive less difficult questions in order to identify the area in which more instruction and practice is needed. In this way, WACS can indicate the full range of a child’s capabilities rather than just providing a satisfactory or unsatisfactory assessment, thereby providing invaluable information about a child’s needs, abilities, and strengths. In addition, because the test adapts to the child’s input, a significant level of detailed information can be gleaned in one testing session, thereby reducing both testing time and the stress associated with multiple testing sessions. WACS designers have developed 4 times the number of items on a typical elementary-school–level assessment: 30% at the beginner level; 40 percent at the intermediate level; and 30 percent at the advanced level for each grade per content area.

WACS is based on nationally recognized guidelines for reading assessment and scientific research, including the guidelines presented in the National Reading Panel’s report, “Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction,” which established guidelines for educators, curriculum developers, school administrators, and assessment content designers.

Chemistry Labs Simulating the Lab Experience!

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 7, 2012

Chemistry beyond textbooks happens to students when they enter the chemistry lab and take on the experiments live. Imagine if you could do all this and much more just sitting into your classrooms in a ‘Virtual Chemistry Lab’. Read on to find out more.

By Rachita Jha, Elets News Network (ENN)

Every child is unique and so is the way they learning. More often than not these learning outcomes come from experiences beyond the classrooms. Is it justified to expect all the students to learn and grasp equally by following just one classroom instruction medium. As proposed by Howard Gardner with this Theory of Multiple Intelligences, there are nine different intellectual learning orientations. Each orientation corresponds to a set of learning styles. Kinesthetic orientation learns best with experimentation and activities, linguistic by reading, musical through association with rhythms and rhymes. While we connect with them with regular classroom instructions and discussion, only a part of the class connects best with these sessions. Science subjects become part of the real word when students experience the theories and concepts hands-on in the laboratories, as in chemistry when all the reactions and equations come alive in the lab!

Application-oriented Experimental Space
Any Learning Lab provides for holistic learning approach and better understanding of theoretical concepts by providing concept simulation and assembly, interesting reading of subject topics through the comic books, animations and videos detailing the concepts etc.

It acquaints students by not just elaborating the concept but also their applications. The retention of concepts and, thus, the learning outcomes are maximized as students relate to these concepts. This also helps in developing a scientific temperament amongst the students and inculcating innovativeness in them. The same is applicable for Chemistry – a virtual lab experience with access to many elements and reagents sparks the imagination and curiosity in students pushing them to self-learn which builds the continuous learning approach among them.

A Learning Lab for 9 styles of learning

Iken Learning Lab developed by Mexus Education sparks the imagination and curiosity in students pushing them to self-learn which builds the continuous learning approach among them. The Lab enables a school to bring together several modes of instructions that relate with all of the nine styles of learning. The kit comprises of Iken zing – a series of interactive touch-read books, Iken Joy– A range of curricular concept developed to inculcate activity-based learning model, Iken Math – A worksheet designed to take students through mathematical concepts in creative and engaging fashion, Iken Pro Series – A wide range of self learning short films on global best practices, Iken Library that seamless integrates digital content repository and a Learning management System and many more learning tools for a fun-filled teaching-learning environment.

Chemistry Virtual Labs
There is a growing focus on practical classes especially in science subjects across schools in India. As a result we see the rise in popularity of simulations in science subjects and its effectiveness in learning outcomes that has led to the arrival of virtual platforms of learning in the education sector. Experimental work is core to the learning of chemistry, however although we get introduced to the chemistry concepts in 4th or 5th grade, the live experiments in the laboratory only happens in the 9th grade. An early exposure to these concepts in a virtual simulations environment coupled with scenario-based learning activities, and concepts tests incorporated into a variety of teaching approaches as pre-labs and in-class activities for individuals or groups can make the subject more interesting for the students and help them revisit the chemistry concepts as they move up in to higher classes.

Virtual blast!
The arrival of leaning labs has set a remarkable paradigm shift in Indian Education scenario. Assembling Science and Math concepts in the form toys help in taking students through the lesson while weighing them down with tedious theories and textbook concepts. As the attention span of kindergarten children is very less, through the interactive touch-read books, there is both audio and visual connect which retains their attention for a longer duration making it possible to read through the concepts. This also pushes up the engagement level of the class. The teacher also benefits from this platform as formative assessment system offers the schools a tool to measure the effectiveness of the session and identify the level of the basic understanding of the class. This allows teacher to us, practice remedial teaching, thus, allowing continuous assessment.

Breaking the Language Barrier

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 7, 2012

Sanako Corporation is the global leader in developing language teaching software and language labs. They have worked closely with the customers around the world for the past 50 years to enable better speaking, comprehension and communication skills for language learners. Their solutions have been deployed at some of India’s premier institutions. Since, launching its operations in India in November 2009, EBS has been one of the early adopters of Sanako’s services.

Sanako Study 1200 Lab at EBS
After an exhaustive review of Era Business School’s (EBS) requirements, Sanako recommended Sanako Study 1200. This learning system includes all the features and functions that are essential for effective and enjoyable teaching and learning, such as screen transfer features, audio and text communication tools, web browsing and programme launch capabilities, file functions, and classroom management and control features. It even facilitates group and individual learning through one-to-one communication between a teacher and a student and among students, that is peer-to-peer learning.

Key Benefits for EBS
Language Agnostic Solution: A prime example of where Era Business School’s faculty found the Sanako Study 1200 solution extremely useful was in teaching Mandarin to the students; it is considered one of the most difficult languages in the world. The solution set-up allowed the teachers to decide which student would converse with whom in a group, which in turn enabled the smart students and quick learners to help the shy and less-skilled students. Furthermore, the Sanako Study 1200 solution facilitated one-to-one, peer-to-peer, one-to-many, group leader-to-student group conversations. In fact, the faculty at EBS discovered that peer-to-peer training gave better results than tutor-to-student training.

“Language Lab has enabled better management of language classes. We see unlimited opportunities to enhance our language instruction offered by the system. Teachers and students are more motivated and the learning experience is richer”, says Dr Sanjiv Marwah, Director, EBS “With Sanako Study 1200, Voice Insert & Voice Graph Activity, I have managed to overcome my fear of public speaking and gain much more confidence,” Anil Sharma, Student

Sanako Lab 100 at CIIL
Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is an apex government institute in India that promotes multilingualism and teaches various Indian languages to thousands of young and energetic students in India, through its regional language centers.

One of the biggest branches of CIIL is its northern wing – Northern Regional Language Center (NRLC) in Patiala. The key languages taught at NRLC, Patiala are Kashmiri, Urdu, Dogri and Punjabi. CIIL believes in using different technical aids to help enhance language trainings and is pleased to be associated with Sanako Corporation.

Sanako Corporation has implemented Sanako Lab 100 at Northern Regional Language Center (NRLC) in Patiala. This learning system supports different facets of language learning, from listening comprehension and model imitation to discussion exercises and interpretation activities.

Students operate a handy User Audio Panel that combines traditional recorder functions with additional language learning and testing features which make lesson participation easy, as well as enable students to have an active role in the learning process.

“At NRLC we are glad to be associated with Sanako Corporation. We have been using Sanako Language software for over five years now. The Lab not only provides the students and teachers of NRLC with audio/ visual aids, but also simplifies and makes the entire process of learning the language effective and interesting”, says

Dr R K Bhat, Principal, Northern Regional Language Center (NRLC), Patiala Students can simulate real life situations, such as conversations, phoning, presentations and interpretation, keeping students motivated and excited while acquiring needed language skills for personal and professional development. It allows more students to practice speaking in less time and focuses students on comprehension and fluency of speech.

With its exceptional audio quality, Sanako Lab 100 offers students the opportunity to develop their foreign language skills, as well as their listening proficiency, in an environment that is entertaining and stimulating and which promotes effective language acquisition.

Dr Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India speaks on his Pre Budget expectations

Features

digitalLEARNING Network

March 6, 2012

Dr Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India

“There are a lot of expectations pinned to the 2012 Union Budget, due to the global supply chain disruptions, rupee devaluation, high interest & slackening of policy reforms that 2011 witnessed. For India Inc. to be able to rise and flourish, it is important that the Budget, as a statement of intent, expresses the long term proposal for the economic stability besides radical reforms in taxation space, which the industry today yearns for. Aspects like, implementation schedule for GST for attracting FDI, Duty corrections like in lenses of Cameras, Removal of inverted duty structure, Withdrawal of MRP based assessment for IT Products, elimination of ambiguity on transfer pricing rules and implementation focus on manufacturing centric policies, further adoption and expansion of IT products along with help increase manufacturing of IT products along with sustained focus on education, healthcare should be a part of the immediate focus. With forward looking policy announcements & structural corrections, the 2012 budget could be a great opportunity window for finance minister to inject both sentiments & substance to growth renewal.”

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