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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.

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.

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