Audio eLearning makes management lessons possible for Visually challenged

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June 17, 2009

How can visually challenged persons better their personality, learn the power of positive thinking and also get management lessons? Hundreds of books on these subjects stacking shelves of major book stores may not be of much help to them. But, an Ahmedabad-based IT firm Third Generation Resources Ltd has decided to mentor lakhs of visually impaired people across the globe, through voice-based Internet learning. Management expert and motivational speaker Dr Shailesh Thaker, the promoter of Third Generation, on his website drshaileshthaker.co.in, has started a weekly column Monday Wisdom' that delivers inspirational stories and lessons in leading a better life. The lessons have been converted into audio form, especially for the visually challenged.

Third Generation has devoted a full-fledged team that works on this initiative. While Thaker writes the articles, someone lends voice to them and then they are recorded and uploaded on the website. Thaker said his company aims to reach out to at least one million visually challenged persons in around 25 countries. At present, the lessons and stories are in English only. But, Thaker said, in the near future this would be multilingual and in many foreign languages so that we can cover maximum people.

Future Learning and Development Limited (FLDL) ties-up with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 15, 2009

After fronting the retail revolution in India, Future Group has now embarked on a new venture. Through its group company Future Learning and Development Limited (FLDL) it wishes to realise its dream of making more and more Indians employable. To achieve this dream FLDL, the education arm of Future Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), to offer skill oriented and career development programs at its centres in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore. The main purpose of this MOU is to allow FLDL to leverage business experience, thereby providing trained manpower to the retail sector in particular and to business in general. This tie-up will also help FLDL provide job-oriented education to all, at affordable prices and guaranteed job placements. Under this agreement, not only will the various short term certificates, on offer by FLDL, get recognised as Non- Credit programs, but will also allow FLDL to develop and deliver Diplomas, Under Graduate Degrees, Post Graduate Degrees and Non- Certificate programs. The uniqueness of these programs is that apart from graduates even 8th standard students who have completed 18 years of age can apply for them, thereby not restricting education to a select few.

Kruben Moodliar- Chief Executive Officer, FLDL, 'We are proud to be associated with IGNOU- the most recognised university for distance learning programs. We are positive that this association will help us leverage our understanding and expertise in the field of retail to educate all those aspiring to make a career in this sector. Making more Indians employable is the vision that drives FLDL, and this tie- up will help us achieve it.'

Boost to student success through e tutoring

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June 15, 2009

Starfish Retention Solutions is partnering with eTutoring.org to help academic institutions identify at-risk students and provide extra help to them in a timely manner. The partnership is intended to help institutions improve retention and success rates during the first year of college. Through simple integrations with an institution's course management system, the joint solution will leverage Starfish Early Alert to identify underperforming students, based on measurements of their daily academic activity such as low grades, poor attendance, or missed assignments. The system will then deliver automatic e-mail notifications to those students, alerting them to the institution's concerns. The e-mail will include a direct link to academic support services provided by eTutoring.org, such as online tutoring and writing support.

The partnership between Starfish and eTutoring.org is a result of industry research indicating that student success is largely predicated on two important factors: early identification of a student at risk and use of tutoring, especially for math and writing. The joint solution enables institutions to leverage technology to automate the monitoring and support of students. Accessible with a single log-in to an institution's course management system, Starfish Early Alert is an early warning and student tracking system that makes it possible for instructors, advisors, and academic staff to identify at-risk students in real time. The system generates performance data for the institution, including resource usage that helps optimize future student service offerings. As a service of the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC), eTutoring.org offers an online tutoring consortium. Students can access a tutor online, submit questions for a tutor to respond to later, or get help with a writing assignment. The tutors are staffed by member institutions within the consortium–reducing the burden for individual institutions. Institutions can join an existing collaborative–or create their own collaborative for a system or group of schools.

International Award to Former IGNOU Pro V-C

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June 15, 2009

The International Council of Distance Education has awarded the individual Prize of Excellence to Professor Asha S. Kanwar, former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). She has been awarded at a function organized at Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Professor Kanwar is vice-president of Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.Her dedication and devotion of making the educational association of open, distance and virtual learning excellent over the past 5-10 years has earned this laurel. She is also credited to have moved the international agenda of open and distance cooperation forward in a convincing manner.

ICT services sought by Whitireia Community Polytechnic

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 15, 2009

A New Zealand government owned education provider in Wellington, Whitireia Community Polytechnic, has issued a tender for an ICT service provider to assess its ICT infrastructure needs for the next 10 years. With a strength of 12 staff-mates, the education institute supports a local area and a wide area otherwise, across the campuses in Wellington, Auckland and Kapiti.It has over 120 virtual servers, 1,500 desktops and laptops, and 90 applications. Voice services include VoIP and standard telephony.

With approaching deadline for receiving the entries by March 12, 2010, the bidder to be selected is to assess the ICT server and network infrastructure, develop an architectural framework, define the roles of ICT staff and establish a connection to the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN).

Australia lowers fee, post attacks on Indian students

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June 15, 2009

Staring at a huge dent in the AUS$12.16 billion market for overseas students in Australia, its third biggest export earner, universities there are now badgering immigration agencies in Punjab and Chandigarh, which reportedly send 50,000 students to Oz for studies, to impress upon prospective students that not only will their fees be reduced , but that there's stepped up security for their protection in place now. Immigration consultancy firms, which act as a vital link between foreign universities and students, and get a fat 25% commission for every student they send off, say they have been flooded with requests via e-mails, faxes and bulletins from a string of Australian educational institutes to 'get down to saving business.'

Amar Manchanda, director, AIMS Global Education, which represents 15 universities and institutes based in Melbourne, said, 'Fearing fewer students will opt for Australia after the recent string of attacks on Indians, a host of private universities and institutes authorities in Melbourne have rolled out a few lucrative schemes for prospective students. These include reduction in course fee as well as hostel fee. Also, the scholarships , which were earlier just limited to students getting higher percentages, will now be offered to students getting slightly lesser grades.'

Larger private investment to come up at 20 new IIITs

Higher Education

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June 15, 2009

The 20 new IIITs may come up with larger investment from the private sector and could introduce performance-based salary package for teachers to ensure quality, if a proposal of NASSCOM in this regard is accepted by the government. These new institutes will be set up in Private-public-partnership mode and the software exporters body, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), has prepared a Detailed Project Report for the purpose.

NASSCOM has proposed that the Indian Institutes of Information Technology be set up with INR 30 crore as initial investment, of which the government's share should not exceed INR 14.9 crore while the share of partnering companies should not be less than INR 15.1 crore. NASSCOM has also proposed that salary of faculty be linked to their output and the institutions have provisions of differential salary package. As per the proposal, the IIITs will be autonomous degree awarding institutions. Each institute will have its own Board of Governors comprising 13 members, including one representative from the government. The government will give a loan of INR 100 crore to each institute with five years moratorium period and repayable within ten years time, explained NASSCOM Vice President Rajdeep Sehrawat.

Honorary Doctorate to Amartya Sen by Cambridge University

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June 15, 2009

Amartya Sen was honored with honorary Doctorate of Letters on Nobel laureate by the University of Cambridge. Working as Professor of Economics and Philosophy, he is currently associated with Harward University. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh conferred the honorary degree on him at the 800th Anniversary Honorary Degree Congregation at the Senate House in Cambridge.

Besides Sen, Bill and Melinda Gates were conferred the honorary Doctor of Laws degree and Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan was conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Two new courses by TERI University on its 10th Anniversary

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 13, 2009

Two new course are being started by TERI University, associated with the think tank The Energy and Resources Institute, this academic year. This is the tenth year of the University since it got the status of a deemed university. The university, located in New Delhi is starting a specialised MBA programme on business sustainability, which will produce people able to manage businesses in such a way that natural resources do not get used up, announced chancellor R.K. Pachauri.

The second programme is a masters in economics with specialisation in environmental and resource economics, to be headed by well-known scholar Badal Mukherji. He said 28 out of 30 students for the first batch had already been selected, and they had better scores in their graduation examinations than students being admitted in postgraduate economics courses at Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Pachauri and Mukherji said the course would be enriched by the large amount of research material available at TERI. TERI University was established in 1998 and was granted deemed university status by the University Grants Commission next year. It now has around 350 students in its eco-friendly new campus in Vasant Kunj, southwest Delhi, to which it shifted last year.

SNIA South Asia to increase its educational outreach to Malaysia

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digitalLEARNING Network

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June 13, 2009

Recently, the Storage Networking Industry Association for South Asia (SNIA SA) announced that they have formulated a new part of their organisation to represent Malaysia. With major demand for educational content come from the Singapore region till now, SNIA South Asia is seeing many requests from countries out of which Malaysia stood prominently, with increasing interest in storage technologies.

Customers in Malaysia will now have access to SNIA's storage standards and best practices as well as a comprehensive library of vendor-neutral, educational white papers and presentations on all storage related technologies. SNIA South Asia is to work with their colleagues in Malaysia to map out a program to extend the SNIA Storage Networking Certification Program (SNCP) and to introduce storage training and certification to the region.

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