Open & distance learning

Magazine

By

-

May 1, 2008

Students Learn English Through Radio

Hundreds of thousands of students in Class 1 and 2 across Bihar, one of the most underdeveloped states of India listen to the radio as it begins its lessons in spoken English. The programme is broadcast three times a week during school hours.

The programme covers nearly six million primary school students in 37 districts in the state and is broadcast through radio sets in government schools. ‘English for Fun’ was launched by the Bihar government in December last year at a cost of Rs 40 million in collaboration with a Bangalore-based NGO, Education Development Centre, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

It teaches spoken English and grammar through 50 songs and simple lessons aired by All India Radio in a 50-minute capsule

Distance Education for Executives Catchinmg On

Over 2.8 million students are currently using the distance education (DE) programme to get their degrees, according to the University Grants Commission (UGC) data. Yet, DE is still regarded as the ‘poor cousin’ of the conventional classroom learning method — especially for freshers.

Among the host of online courses offered by the premier institutions IIM-Calcutta (IIM-C) offers one-year executive programme in business management, programme for development of strategic skills and a programme for development of successful entrepreneurs.

UNESCO Guidelines In Distance Education

Educationists from countries like Britain, Australia, Malaysia and Canada who met along with those from India to discuss the need and advantage of providing higher education through private distance educational institutes said India should follow UNESCO guidelines to weed out unscrupulous players.

Organised by the Commonwealth Education Media Centre, New Delhi and the Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning, Pune, the two-day conference will address how India can follow the example of developed countries that have succeeded in providing quality.

At present 1.75 million students are pursuing higher education through Indira Gandhi National Open University, which is 18 percent of the students enrolled for higher education in India.

There are 35 private open distance education centres in the country. Moreover, 15 state supported and 60 conventional universities in the country have departments that offer distance education,

India news: May 2008

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

SC allows 27% quota for OBCs
The Supreme Court upheld OBC quota in central educational institutions clearing the way for reservation of 27% seats for ‘backward’ castes over a period of three years from the academic year 2008-09.

However, what would have been unadulterated joy for the OBC leadership which campaigned relentlessly for pushing the frontier of the backward quota to educational institutions has been tempered with the five-judge constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan unanimously deciding to keep the ‘creamy layer’ out of the purview of the quota, and recommending review of the quota every five years.

The court also said that the quota would not extend beyond graduation courses, in a ruling which created doubts whether reservations could be extended to the prestigious IIMs. This means that while 27% OBC quota could be applied for MBBS and graduation degrees in IITs, it would not be available for postgraduation and other higher courses like PG in medicine and master’s courses in IIMs.

The court also tried to balance provisions in the Constitution for affirmative action with the concern that quota should not result in merit being jettisoned altogether. It said that the cut-off marks for OBCs could not be substantially lower than that prescribed for general category candidates. On the creamy layer, the court suggested that the government should include the children of former and present MPs and MLAs to the ‘creamy layer’ list by amending the 1993 office memorandum issued by the ministry of personnel.

The court also clarified a confusion regarding applicability of creamy layer criteria to SCs and STs, as was observed in an an earlier judgment. Chief Justice Balakrishnan and Justices Raveendran and Bhandari concurred through their separate judgements that the creamy layer criteria could not have any application to SCs and STs as they were a separate category altogether.

From this year three new IITs at makeshift sites

There is some good news for the 3.2 lakh students who just took the IIT joint entrance exam across the country. There will be three more IITs – in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan taking off this year which will translate into 360 more seats.

IIT-Andhra Pradesh, will operate out of an old Delhi Research and Development (DRDO) ammunition laboratory in Medak while IIT-Bihar and IIT-Rajasthan will work out of rented premises for two years.

IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Delhi have been asked to ‘mentor’ the new IITs coming up in Bihar and Rajasthan, respectively.

Each of these three new IITs will ultimately have to grow to accommodate a student strength of about 3,000 (approximately 2,000 seats in BTech, 500 in MTech, 400 seats for PhD and 100 for post-doctoral fellows).

Committee to select SC/ST students for study abroad

Madhya Pradesh government has constituted a committee for selecting candidates belonging to backward classes for higher education in foreign countries.

Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary of Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare would be the Chairman of the committee.

Principal Secretaries of Higher Education, Technical Education and Medical Education have been made members of the selection committee while Commissioner Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare would be its Convener. The screening committee would present enlisted application forms before the selection committee.

Five candidates belonging to backward classes would be finally selected from among the applications after interviews.

Reliance Communication launches education portal on mobile phones

In a trail-blazing initiative, Reliance Communications announced the launch of an exclusive educational portal on Reliance Mobile Phones.

This unique portal offers a bouquet of useful information on exam results, college admissions, event calendar of exams, admission deadlines, mock tests and tips for performing well in exams. It also contains the list of top universities, colleges, secondary education boards as well as career options. While the educational portal is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based service, it also offers SMS alerts on subscription for exam preparation, performance and even tips for de-stressing to enhance performance during exams. The service will be made available to both prepaid and post paid subscribers.

Students and their parents can access exam results available on this educational portal of various Educational Boards instantly on their mobile phones any time, anywhere in India. Over 100 Exam Results are scheduled to be displayed on Reliance Mobile World’s application suite ‘Exam Results’ with Haryana Board’s-subject to Haryana Board Policy- is slated for mid April (Reliance Mobile World<Exam Results). RCOM’s subscribers can also access the results via SMS.

After IIMs, IITs propose fee hike

With IIMs hiking their fees, the IITs have proposed a similar step to augment their resources.

The students in all the seven IITs are now paying INR 25,000 per annum as fees. It could be increased upto
INR 50,000.

The proposed fee structure, once accepted, will be implemented in the seven IITs. Over 4,000 students take admission to courses in the IITs at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Guwahati and Roorkee every year.

The move to hike the fee comes a few days after the IIMs decided to increase their fees for their two-year post-graduate programmes.

While IIM Ahmedabad has decided to increase the fee from the current INR five lakh for both the years of the course to INR 11.5 lakh, IIM Bangalore would increase its fee to INR nine lakh from INR five lakh.

TNAU introduces online examinations

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has introduced on-line examinations for first year students.

TNAU conductedthe mid semester on-line examination in all campuses of the University and about 800 students were taking the examinations. The students were provided with Wi-Fi connectivity in their laptops. They could view the question paper only during the time set by the teacher after entering the password as announced in the examination hall. After the examination, the answers would be stored in a separate file and mailed to the mail ID of the teacher concerned for evaluation.

e-Education consists of e-Teaching, e-Learning, e-Communication,
e-Assignment, e-Examination and e-Evaluation. The new global economy poses more complex challenges to workers requiring higher level education, computer literacy, critical thinking, information analysis and synthesizing skills. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based teaching was being implemented in the TNAU, adding, an e-Learning lab had already established in the University.

Higher education to get more accessible

Spiralling prices have disturbed budgets in majority households, but the middle and l

World news

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

CBSE move to rank schools sparks debate in UAE

The decision of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) of India to rank its affiliated schools based on the performance of students in Science and Mathematics has Sparked a debate in the United Arab Emirates. Parents and principals here are debating whether it is fair to judge students based on their performance in only two subjects.

CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly had said that the new ranking system would help schools in India to compete better internationally. According to the new system, schools will have to submit 20 of its best pupils from grade 4, 5 and 8 for a special test. Schools will then be rated based on their performance.

Some feel it was unfair to rank schools because not all have the same quality of infrastructure and accessibility to learning tools. Rani George, principal of the Global English School in Al Ain, was of the opinion that all subjects should be given equal importance.

Of the 9,581 CBSE-affiliated schools worldwide, 50 are in the UAE and most children of the 1.4 million-strong expatriate Indian community in this Gulf nation attend these schools.

NASA gets serious about educational gaming

NASA has moved a step closer to branching into educational gaming. The agency presented its vision of a science education-focused massively multiplayer online game to more than 200 potential software development partners in a workshop sponsored by NASA Learning Technologies, an educational technology incubator project.

The idea of the MMO educational game is to present NASA content in such a way as to draw students into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning and to spark interest in STEM-oriented careers. It will be aimed primarily at teenagers, according to NASA, focusing on middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college students.

“The use of online educational games can capture student interest in NASA’s missions and science.” The game will be designed to act as a virtual laboratory, a visualization tool, and a collaborative workspace.

John Hopkins univ goes mobile on uPortal

Johns Hopkins University has chosen Unicon to develop and deploy the school’s new mobility theme based on uPortal, the open source enterprise portal for higher education.

The mobility theme is designed to enhance the functionality and content of Johns Hopkins’ campus portal to make it accessible by mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, and PDAs.

The mobility development work and testing is scheduled to be completed and go live in the summer of 2008. The university plans to donate the mobile development work back to the uPortal open source community.

uPortal is an open source enterprise portal collaboratively developed by higher-education. Using Java, Extensible Markup Language (XML), JavaServer Pages Technology (JSP) and Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technologies, the uPortal framework enables standards-based integration with authentication and security applications, single sign on secure access and end-user customization.

Intel to expand its Teach programme in Arab countries

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett used his fourth visit to the UAE to release his programme of education and training. More specifically, Barrett intends to work with the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation to expand Intel’s Teach programme across other Arab countries, and to bring in a volunteer programme with INJAZ al-Arab to help educate Arab youth.

Working with local governments and Ministries of Education, Sheikh Muhammed’s foundation and Intel plan to train more than two million Arab teachers by 2011.Training will occur throughout Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen. The programme aims at developing Arab talent and improving education in the region.

“Every young person deserves a chance at the kind of education that helps them prepare for competing in our 21st century knowledge-based economy,” Craig Barrett believes: “We think teacher training is a significant start. This is a prime example of the potential of public-private partnerships in changing the lives of people, particularly through the adoption of technology.”

Malaysia to upgrade 40 Tamil schools

In a significant decision to boost education in Tamil Nadu, the Malaysian government has agreed to a proposal to spend 41.5 million ringgit (RM41.5 million) which is approximately USD 13 million for the purpose of upgrading 40 Tamil schools in the country.

Under the proposed funding, 40 government-aided Tamil schools throughout the country will be refurbished and upgraded at a total cost of RM41.5 million.

The projects would be implemented under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP). The projects will begin in July

Corporate diary: May 2008

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

NIIT enters into an agreement with CII to help create ICT

As part of this capacity building and skill development endeavour, NIIT and CII will share high quality education resources from India and involve other appropriate players from the Indian industry to help Africa develop human capital for the global IT industry.

Under the agreement, NIIT will provide relevant IT curricula in line with international IT trends, and content for IT, soft skills and entrepreneurship for training in universities and colleges in Africa. CII on the other hand will facilitate internship with the Indian industry.

English course launched online

Cengage Learning, in collaboration with MeritTrac- India’s Largest Skills Assessment Company launched ‘e English’- an online product that offers learning courses in English supplemented with periodic assessments and feedback with the ultimate goal of enhancing employability. The product was launched recently by Dr Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM and Dr K. K. Aggarwal, Vice-Chancellor, GGS Indraprastha University.

HP India launched desktop PC with solid-state drive

Hewlett-Packard India recently launched an ultra-slim desktop PC that features a solid-state had drive. A solid-state drive (SSD) is more robust and due to the lack of mechanical parts that a hard disk has, it is less prone to failure.

The PC also includes a variety of environmental features and meets the stringent environmental requirements of the Electronic ProduC1 Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold registry.

Chinese to learn computers from NIIT

Recently, NIIT signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Wuxi Municipal Government in China, to set up IT training centres that will teach computer programs to the locals. Under the MoU, NIIT and Wuxi Government will work together, to develop a talent pool to cater to the demand of IT industy in China.

In addition, NIIT has also signed another MoU with Wuxi New District for educational purposes. Under these partnerships, the NIIT will offer IT education and training as per the industry needs, and Wuxi Government will promote its IT educational policies at all levels of administration.

NIIT is offering IT educational services and trainings in China for the past one decade. About 129 local universities and colleges have tied-up with NIIT for the IT training programmes. More than 170 centers have been setup across 23 provinces, and about 50,000 local people have been trained by NIIT so far.

‘G-Class’ to search in Indian languages

Continuing with its significant contribution to technology development, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has come out with new product, G-Class, a crosslanguage search-plug-in suit. The plug-in suit will primarily meet the complex needs of Indian languages and provide surfing facilities in local languages at available search engines.

C-DAC, also announced the launch of two new products – PARAMNet-3 and INTCOMPv1.0. CDAC has been undertaking research projects for Indian languages since last few years and G-class is an addition to this series. The plug-in product is also a one-stop shop for search engine developers. With G-Class plug- in, the web will work like an information bureau with queries addressed in Indian languages. For example, a person can ask a query in any Indian language on search-engine to get the answer. The in-built transliteration system in the product can translate one script to another. This will simplify surfing for users.

Mahindra MoU with Rajasthan to set up Mahindra Pride School

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Rajasthan to set up a Mahindra Pride School in Jaipur.

Mahindra Pride Schools provide vocational training and livelihood skills to the socially weaker sections of society. M&M has set up its first Pride School near Pune, whose first three batches have had a 95% placement. The Rajasthan government will provide 2500 sqm of land to M&M at Bani Park in Jaipur for 25 years and M&M will bear the cost of building construction. The school will run on a not-for-profit basis and 600 students per year from SC/ST/ OBC will be given vocational training. Students will also be given training in spoken English, basic computer literacy, communication skills which will help them in their over all personality development.

Educomp to invest Rs 125 crore to set up over 500 tutorial centres

Education services provider Educomp Solutions plans to invest about Rs 125 crore to set up over 500 tutorial centres by 2010. Its tutoring subsidiary Learning Hour will establish 50 centres by the end of 2008, taking it up to 150 by 2009 and 500 by 2010 and cover CBSE, ISC/ICSE and state education boards’ syllabii. Eight centres are initially being launched in the National Capital Region and Punjab to provide tutoring in mathematics, science, physics, chemistry, accounts, economics and English.

The facilities at the centres will include live video, two-way audio and shared whiteboards, instant messaging, application sharing, biometric attendance systems in addition to online assignment access, Learning Hour director Chandan Aggarwal said. Tutoring sessions will be also be recorded in the class and made available on the website so that students need not take notes in the classroom. Learning Hour also plans to launch a home-tutoring service shortly. It has a library of over 16,000 interactive, multimedia modules and comprehensive test and assessment programme to track students’ progress, he said.

Reliance launches education portal on mobile phones

In a trail-blazing initiative, Reliance Communications has announced the launch of an exclusive educational portal ‘Exam Guru’ on Reliance mobile phones.

This unique portal offers a bouquet of useful information on exam results, admissions, calendar of exams, mock tests and tips for performing well in exams. It contains the list of top universities, colleges, secondary education boards as well as career options. While the portal is an IVR based service, it also offers SMS alerts on exam preparation, performance and even tips to enhance performance during exams. The service will be made available to both prepaid and post paid subscribers

The application is quite simple and user-friendly. Users have to simply call 53030101 and they will be guided by an IVR instructing them to press different numbers for various category. These services can be accessed at a reduced rate of Rs 1 per minute for which the user will have to subscribe to the ‘Exam Guru’ pack which is priced at Rs 10 with a validity of 10 days. The services are also available to the users at a very nominal rate of Rs 3 per minute by simply dialing 53030303 in case they have not subscribed to the pack.

IBM launches effort to address shortage of Hispanic students in technology careers

IBM has convened an inaugural summit titled “America’s Competitiveness: Hispanic Participation in Technology Careers,” in an effort to bring together leaders in business, education, government, and community orga-nisations to find ways to increase the number of Hispanic students pursuing careers in science, technology, engine-ering and math in the United States.

The effort is aimed at a looming problem resulting from the significant decline in the numbers of Hispanic students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM). This decline could affect America’s competitiveness in the increasingly global market. Demographic data show that the Hispanic community is expected to constitute 25 % of the overall US population by mid-century.

To address the issue, IBM along with ExxonMobil, Lockheed Martin and Univision, and 150 other leaders will meet on May 5 and 6 in New York, to examine the ways the Hispanic community can improve their participation in STEM.

Intel launches Wimax, Classmate PC projects in Saudi Arabia

Citing Saudi government-industry partnership (or private public partnership) as successful model in advancing education, technology innovation and economic development in the Arab World, Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett, kicked off his fourth visit to the Gulf region pledging technical support for building a high-speed wireless network in the country using a long-range wireless technology known as WiMAX.

Barrett also dedicated a pilot project for e-Learning at a Saudi Arabian public school, which is becoming a top priority in many educational systems throughout the world. Barrett is traveling throughout the Middle East in his role as chairman of a United Nations panel on technology, and on behalf of the Intel World Ahead Programme. Intel’s global initiative strives to improve education, healthcare, trepreneurship and government services by accelerating access to computers, connectivity and localized Internet content. He is expected to visit the United Arab Emirates and also Kuwait to further promote “better, faster access to information and communications technology (ICT).” During his visit to the leading OPEC oil producing kingdom, Barrett signed an agreement between STC, Saudi’s telecom operator, and Knowledge Economic City, (KEC) of Medina, to deploy a WiMAX network, scheduled start running by 2011.

Joined by Saudi Minister of Education, H.E. Dr. Abdullah Bin Salah Bin Obaid, Barrett saw the e-learning pilot project demonstrated at Riyadh’s Bishr Ibn Elbaraa School, a public school for boys in grades seven through nine. The school pilot will run in two classrooms, and outfitted with notebook computers and the specially designed Intel-powered Classmate PCs. The smaller, student-sized netbooks are designed to be low-cost, wireless-capable, water- and shock-resistant and fully functional computers that are pre-loaded with standard software and locally relevant educational programmes. All computers used in the pilot project feature Intel’s skoool Learning and Teaching Technology.

Intel worked closely with a set of local businesses, including KETAB, a manufacturer of pen-based collaborative whiteboards; Binary Works, an education service provider that implemented the hardware and provided the School Management System and the Learning Management System; Semanoor, a software vendor that provided Semanoor e-content; and MGD, a software vendor that provided Crocodile Clips virtual labs

Revolutionalising the face of digital learning

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

With supplemental products, management systems, and tools such as Earobics, SkillSurfer, MegaMath, and online levelled readers, HMH is well positioned to understand how technology, animations, virtual tools and management systems can assist beleaguered teachers who are keen to make their students even better learners than they currently are

HMH International Publishers are often associated with the two print publishers that make up its name

Equiping teachers to unleash learners&rsquo: creativity easy now!

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

Despite great advancement in information and commun-ication technology, its use in facilitating quality and accessible teaching experience has been very minimal in the commonwealth countries of Asia and South East Asia. This has resulted in a large number of institutions and teachers being left out of the ambit of the best and the latest standards that these technologies have to offer.

For instance, a wonderful class lecture on Newton's law of gravity delivered by a trained teacher in a well-equipped city classroom May never reach the students of a school in a poorly connected part of the country. Similarly, a village-based educator May find it difficult to create a teaching process based on new ICT tools for a more comprehensive delivery of some educational concept, due to limited resources and poor technical skills.

An attempt is now being made to address the need for creating and capturing delivered lessons using affordable multi-media tools for taking them to wider audience and region.

Although the written, aural and visual media have hugely expanded the range of delivery mode of education, there has hardly been any serious effort to integrate the ICT practices into the training of teachers. Many teachers are either not aware or are untrained in various modes of communication technology to reach a wide variety of learners in remote areas or those who do not have access to formal schooling.

Moreover, not all schools in these countries have teachers well-trained in subjects like science and maths. Hence students May not perform consistently in these subjects. Other stumbling blocks are inaccessibility of formal schooling to the marginalised and high drop-out rates among students. The education system also needs to cater to multiple learning modes as some students May learn by reading while others learn better in the audio-visual medium.

To address these issues, the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) has prepared a unique and cost-effective training package 'Easy Now'. This short-term module equips the teacher to handle simple and inexpensive ICT tools to replicate quality learning materials in as many as nine different multiple media modes, which will go a long way in unleashing the full potential and creativity of the learner.

The package has been developed taking into account the merits of open and distance learning (ODL) and on-campus learning (OCL). It encapsulates the steps of 'capturing, preparing and delivering' high quality course contents in multiple modes of media for a richer and more interactive learning environment. This in turn initiates the learner into a process of life-long learning, even after leaving the school.

The concept of Easy Now came up in mid-2007. It was initially felt that the training module should target the secondary school teachers. However, during consultations with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), with which the CEMCA had collaboration for the preparation of the sample kit, it was felt that tertiary level teachers in ODL and OCL institutions should be targeted in the first phase. These teachers were believed to have better access to ICT in these countries. And these 150 master trainers from the tertiary level would then return back to their countries to train more teachers from the primary and secondary level. Teachers and learners are presumed to be the immediate beneficiaries of this project while establishments employing ICT-efficient task force will be the ultimate beneficiary. The consequent output by sufficiently trained task force is likely to have an impact on the socio-economic development of the region.

The project training comprises a series of six workshops during the span of two years from January 2008 to December 2009. The selected 25 teachers will participate in each of these workshops, which will be of ten-day duration. Based on the feedback received from two workshops held this year, necessary modifications in approach, content and method of conducting workshops May be carried out in the next four workshops in 2009.

Till March this year, two ODL institutions – Open University of Sri Lanka and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik, Maharashtra, have successfully undergone training and integrated the ICT tool in their teaching module. However, the path to incorporating ICT tools like Easy Now project in the education systems in the Asian and South East Asian countries is strewn with various hurdles as it is still a novelty here

Training to be imparted by appointed resource persons will be in three phases. In the first phase, teachers will be trained to capture lessons given in a conventional classroom using blackboard and chalk, through voice or speech-text recording of the audio and complemented with screenshots or electronic documents of the blackboard content. Another method is to video record the whole session.

The second phase involves preparing captured material in several ways like digital audio with paper copy of board content, slide shows of board content synchronised with the audio for use on a computer. Slide shows of the board content can also be made along with audio input for use on a computer. Board screenshots can be converted to movie form and integrated with audio. Video-recorded lessons can be edited and published. The quality of the output can be modified to meet the constraints of delivery and costing. In the third phase, the output thus created can be delivered in many ways, like individual viewing using cassette/CD players, video players/TV and computers. Mass delivery can be made through radio, television and the internet. Using the internet, the teacher can also host online classroom support to conduct question-answer and discussion sessions.

Till March this year, two ODL institutions – Open University of Sri Lanka and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik, Maharashtra, have successfully undergone training and integrated the ICT tool in their teaching module.

However, the path to incorporating ICT tools like Easy Now project in the education systems in the Asian and South East Asian countries is strewn with various hurdles as it is still a novelty here.

First of all it May be difficult to locate suitable trainees, who can get sufficient time to spare from their already overburdened schedule of duties. As it takes extraordinarily long time to develop contents, planning should be
made to select quality courses in printed or oral lecture
form as the basis for training. Teachers are not among the highly paid employees in these countries and hence May expect financial incentives from their employers for undertaking the training and also in applying it in their teaching modules. So concerned educational bodies need to keep this constraint in mind.

Another significant constraint is the lack of systemic and institutional support to the application of ICT for delivery of course contents. Easy Now project involves a series of multimedia that teachers can easily deploy, provided the institutions make available necessary infrastructure.

Further, the training will have to be content with the use of basic and relatively less expensive equipment for converting the course content into audio format and its presentation as radio programme. With government support to institutions in the form of funding, teachers can also convert their course contents into visual formats.

Following the completion of the training in the participating institutions, concerned stakeholders in each country, participating in the project, are expected to commit to carry the project forward. As more and more teachers get trained, the use of ICT for imparting course content in quality starved OCL centres as well as good learning material starved ODL institutions in the Asian and South East Asian region is expected to get an impetus.

Pan-african e-network

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

The former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while addressing during one of the sessions of the Pan-African Parliament held at Johannesburg proposed a programme to connect all the 53 African nations by a Satellite and Fiber Optic Network that would provide effective communication and connectivity among the Nations, a network to primarily provide Tele-education, Tele-medicine, Internet, video-conferencing and VOIP services. Launched first in Ethiopia, the project is seen as Africa’s biggest ICT project ever, with online education and telemedicine programmes expected to extend ICT infrastructure to rural areas and other underserved communities. During 2006, based on the expression of interest submitted, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) was identified as a nodal agency to evaluate a tele-education component of this project.

The network is designed to have 169 VSAT terminals, with 3 VSAT terminals in each country to provide Tele-education, Tele-medicine and Heads of State (VVIP) connectivity with a Satellite Hub earth station in Senegal. The Tele-education services are to be provided from 7 reputed Universities in India and 5 leading regional universities in Africa. The project is conceived as a turnkey solution to provide e-Education services and make it sustainable so that Pan-African countries will be able to carry on with their own services after 5 years duration.

As a precursor to the Pan-African e-Network project, Ethiopia Pilot project was initiated to provide Tele-education services from IGNOU at New Delhi. The project is commissioned in 2006. As part of this project, 40 students of Addis Ababa University and Haramaya University are taking MBA course from IGNOU through tele-education.

The interactive educational content from IGNOU is transmitted to Ethiopia on submarine cable based 2Mbps International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) between India (landing station Mumbai) and Ethiopia (via Djibouti).

Tele-education Services:

An integrated Tele-education delivery system software has been provided to bring virtual remote classrooms in a multi-studio and multi-class environment with seamless two-way interaction between the teachers and students through collaborative tools. This system provides seamless, one-to-one, one-to-many connectivity through heterogeneous network platform in an IP-based multicasting mode
of delivery.

The infrastructure consists of one Application server, one Database server, one Control server, one Agent server and one workstation for the Tele-Education applications. These servers are capable of running on Windows and Linux Operating system. The Application server, Database server and workstation for live streaming purpose (Total of three servers) are connected to the Storage Area Network (SAN).

A dedicated website www.panafricanenetwork.com/.org/.net/.in has been hosted to facilitate dissemination of information to various countries of African union and interested groups.

Tele–Education centre at Addis Ababa University and Haramaya University, Ethiopia have successfully got installed and commissioned the equipment at both the centres. Tele-Education content is received by the students at University center at Addis Ababa and Haramaya learning center in Ethiopia. Professors from IGNOU are delivering lectures on MBA course from the Studio of Tele-education set up at IGNOU, New Delhi. Acoustically designed studio environment has been created at the learning centre at Addis Ababa University which in future can be utilised for transmission of learning material or courses from Addis Ababa University.

The Tele-education project provides a universal platform for distance learning with a synchronised multimedia delivery in number of platforms to the remote end through VSAT, Broadband and Internet coupled with collaborative tools, Return video and audio, e-Learning and campus management system, Integrated digital library and content management system as an integrated package under the educational portal. The educational portal comprising the above-mentioned modules installed at the University centre and a centralised management system provided at for scheduling, organising and managing the Tele-education system in co-ordination
with various universities in Africa and India

Teaching and learning at a distance

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

A third of India’s adult population is illiterate and just over one tenth of its children manage to finish high school. In a scenario such as this universalisation of education poses a daunting challenge for the nation. Attempts have to be made to reach out to the vast geographical spaces and infrastructure divide.

It is in this context that Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is being seen as a means for ushering in a revolution in delivery of quality education in a cost effective and need-based manner.

But availability of appropriate technology addresses only a part of the challenge as trained teachers and appropriate ICT content is in short supply.

India’s ODL systems have not succeeded fully in taking advantage of the technological advancements. Further, a wide variety of technological tools like Direct to Home through Satellite, televisions, radio, mobile phones and the internet have failed to reach those learners who live in inaccessible or remote areas or who are at a disadvantage due to socio-economic reasons.

Around 1.50 lakh teachers are added every year into an already existing pool of 30 million. But there is no homogeneity in the geographical distribution of teachers and the biggest sufferers are the rural population who are deprived of best teaching practices.

Although the technological advancements in ICT have expanded the delivery modes of imparting teaching, the teachers have been left out of its purview. Majority of teachers are either not aware or are untrained in using the ICTs in their teaching. The education system needs to co-opt the teachers in to these multiple teaching modes.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University, set up in 1985, has made a visible intervention in this regard with the creation of a pool of master trainersto supplement the conventional teaching-learning methods with ICTs and satellite-based systems. Today IGNOU has the distinction of being the world’s largest university and serves the educational aspirations of more than 1.8 million students in India and 35 countries abroad through its 21 Schools of Studies. In all these years, the IGNOU’s focus has been on extending its reach to the doorsteps of the hitherto unreached.

The current issue of Digital Learning is an attempt to capture the essence of ODL and also its best practices. We have received immense support from the IGNOU in bringing out this colloective issues.

Building an online learner support system

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

Dr. Vijay SP Srivastav

Head-Computer Division
Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi
vijaysrivastav@ignou.ac.in Indira Gandhi National Open University is the largest university in the world today with more than 1.8 millions of students enrolled. There are more than thousand academic courses offered under the umbrella of about 140 academic programmes. Meeting the student requirements at such level is indeed a great challenge. Information prior to admission, admission details, SIM (Self Instruction Material) despatch details, examination date sheet, examination results, on line forms submission are some major requirements which IGNOU has to meet timely. Having perceived the demand, Computer Division at IGNOU started developing and putting online solutions through www.ignou.ac.in.

Distance education was started in India in 1962 in the form of a pilot project through correspondence course in the University of Delhi. Having discussed at many forums through various committees, a recommendation was made to set up an “Open University”. The very first step towards this was made in 1982 by Government of Andhra Pradesh, one of the States in India, by setting up an open university to strengthen non-formal education in the state and to provide access to higher education to the adult population of the State. The model chosen was that of the British Open University.

Soon, Govt. of India decided to have an Open University at national level and a bill was moved in the Parliament to set up Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). The bill addressed education for all, life long education, weaker and disadvantaged section of the nation. As the result, IGNOU, which is one of the most popular and pioneer open institution in the world, was set up on September 20, 1985 by an Act of Parliament. It combines in it the functions of a regular university and a national body to promote, coordinate and determine the standards of distance education in the country. With the evolution of new methodologies in imparting education and aid to both learners and the teachers distance education is proving to be boon in providing access to the spatially and geographically disadvantaged.

To promote education at state levels there are about 14 state level open universities. Distance Education Institutions (DEI) which offer courses in dual mode of educational delivery has grown from one in 1962 to 132 in 2007. The programmes on offer cover all from certificate to doctoral degree. To take care of the need of further marginalised group National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has been in existence with state level branches. All the distance education programmes in India are promoted and maintained for their standards by Distance Education Council. It was established by IGNOU in 1992 with unique mandate to focus its role as an apex body of distance education in India. It supports State Open Universities (SOUs) and Correspondence Course Institutions (CCIs). Programmes offered by CCIs are through the dual mode universities and they impart education through correspondence/ distance mode. Under the Convergence plan efforts are being made to achieve more and more educational requirement goals under joint collaboration of conventional and distance mode of imparting education.

Courses and Programmes

IGNOU academic programmes on offer vary from community based short term to doctoral level. They cover a wide spectrum, starting from awareness courses, say, on Internet and eMailing or a course on office automation tool. Other programmes are related to certificate, PG certificate, diploma, advance diploma, PG diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degree. Course design and development procedures are rigorous, based on the principles of good practices in curriculum development and Self Instructional Material (SIM) design. In order to accomplish the mammoth task it utilises the expertise available in-house and with international and national institutions and non-government organisations in the team approach. The programmes are developed for the various fields to cover learners from rural and tribal areas, disability groups, jails and rehabilitation houses, government and non-government sectors, parents and home-makers, employers and the employed. IGNOU offers today a total of about 140 academic programmes, altogether offering about 1050 courses. The remarkable achievement in students’ enrolment and their interest is not only because of one reason. While the IGNOU programmes are seen to be popular and attractive for all in the country, the course delivery and services to student through IGNOU site are equally found to be contributing multi fold. This happens because of innovations almost in all respect for better and better delivery and support. With the objective of making the course delivery at the door-steps all efforts are put in to facilitate the students through IGNOU website for static and dynamic information.

Services to Students

An open and distance delivery system has a number of activities required to be performed, like Admission, Academic courseware production and distribution, Pre Examination, Performance Evaluation, Post Examination, Multimedia production and Communication facilities.When planning about technology for distance education we must keep in mind that the distance learners need clear goals and objectives. Websites and on line service deliveries must be congruent with the course and course goals

The very first requirement is that of bridging the gap of distance between learner, teacher, and the service provider. Once student takes admission, then making available SIMs to the right address at the right time, that is, well before conducting the counseling session is the next challenge. Bringing out regular updated SIMs, Multimedia CD’s, web contents etc. are another challenges need to be addressed time and again for updating the materials. Target group may not have access to library system, whether online or offline in their neighborhood. Hence SIMs have to be self-explanatory and presented in concise and precise manner.

Performance evaluation in terms of assignments and examinations are required to be carried out in each semester (term end). Evaluation activities, as such, are further required to be met. Preparing for appearing examination (pre-examination) invites requirements like : getting registered for those many courses in that particular semester, submission of examination form for writing examinations for the courses (at most) registered for, preparation of Examination hall ticket/Admit card and making the same available to eligible students, apart from other administrative and monitoring reports for arranging examination halls and preparing hall wise list of students/invigilators/assistants and so on. Once the evaluation of examination papers has been accomplished, it requires to prepare the result, semester wise and comprehensive, and then informing students through post or through web site. Further preparing convocation list, and for others like list of awardees etc. may be required towards post-examination activities. Meta data maintenance has to be sufficient enough for meeting all kind of requirements including management reports for day wise operations, MIS and others for the apex body at the top management level in terms of strategic reports.

Communicating with students is yet another aspect to be met preferably, through e-Communication. Addressing general queries, timely feed back, and communication with students/teachers/coordinators/service providers and so on using the state-of-the-art technology in terms of e-Communication, tele/video/radio conferencing should have sufficient coverage for effective delivery. Hence, virtual campus setting up, their running, maintenance and management has to be efficient and effective enough to interact with students, time and again for occasional address, orientation, and imparting education in ODL.

Student Support through IGNOU Website

Regional Centres, Study Centres, and Tele Learning Centres all over India and in other countries come together through Internet using web based applications running at IGNOU headquarters in New Delhi. As stated above, both static and dynamic information are made available with frequent updating of the site. After the students are admitted at the country wide Regional Centres, they are allotted Study Centre in their neighborhood at the nearest location of their residential addresses given while applying for admission

As in other ODL institutions, IGNOU students admitted are from various background – some may be working on transferable job, some with parent’s transferable job, some may be female students married while pursuing the course and so on. Hence there is requirement of “address changes” around the year. Similarly when Term End Examination (TEE), at the end of each semester, is held in June and December every year, results are required to be put at IGNOU site so that students could know about their performance from any where they have access of Internet. Prior to conduct of the TEE Hall Ticket, for appearing in the examination, is required to be made available online. Input to the Hall Ticket comes from the earlier submitted Examination Form, provision for which has also been made through the IGNOU site with payment gateway, apart from off line submission of the form. Comprehensive Grade Card, which reflects all the courses in terms of marks/grade obtained by individual, is also required to be made available through IGNOU web site.

Similarly when Entrance Tests are conducted, as the pre requisite for taking admission in some IGNOU’s programmes like: Management Programme, Bachelor in Education, Bachelor in Nautical Science and so on, then, respective results are required to be put on site. Other applications through virtual data base which are required to be put on IGNOU website are study material dispatch status, final certificate/diploma/degree dispatch details (if not collected in person on the convocation day) and notifications on various schedules like: Practical examination, TEE, TV channels , Radio Counseling, Edusat programmes apart from other which are required to be provided, now and then, for the benefit of students and also for those who wish to be IGNOU students.

Having seen the enormous requirement towards student support services as above IGNOU developed the very first application for the comprehensive “Grade Card” and “Address Checking”. The response in terms of access to IGNOU site was overwhelming. Demand started pouring in for further coverage in terms of wider applications for student support services. The next application in this internet based virtual data base approach was declaring the semester wise “Term End Examination Result”. This had further better response through the website hits.

Today, applications corresponding to all requirements as enumerated broadly in previous paragraph are available on line. This has resulted in great demand of frequent updating which takes place almost daily. Once the data is available from Service Divisions, they are prepared and uploaded, in most of the cases, on the same day. The IT Division runs all seven days a week. A tour to IGNOU website will enrich with all such facilities being delivered online. The latest additions are online examination form submission with payment gateway, online grievances redressal, alumni details, and additional information (eMail, Mobile number etc.) submission through www.ignou.ac.in. Further, online admission with payment gateway is targeted from July 2008. For the forthcoming term end examination to be held in June 2008, a total of 93357 forms have been received online.

Metadata is maintained separately for Student Support Services in Microsoft environment. Integrated modules talk to each other for data sharing. Application servers are maintained and populated by in house team. There is a separate in house team responsible for maintaining and managing browser/mail/DNS/Web and other project related servers.
To have integration at the organisational level covering all processes, IGNOU has started implementing ERP modules. To cover such functionalities it has started from back offices automation which is targeted for implementation by October 2008. Further processes are under study for integration and incorporation to have integrated management solution through a world class data centre and storage system at Computer Division in headquarters.

Advantages of virtual data bases and Internet applications can be planned and worked out for bringing more and more facilities to ODL learners and making the delivery system friendly, in time, and demanding. When planning about technology for distance education we must keep in mind that the distance learners need clear goals and objectives. Websites and on line service deliveries must be congruent with the course and course goals. Such services must be prompt enough in responding to all queries. System design, as such, must be exhaustive to accommodate total and prime requirements with enriched metadata. Alternate solution for the system, proper and sufficient manpower support, adherence to time frame are some of the vital issues which require attention of one and all in providing support services. System should be flexible enough to meet the demand based requirements from learners for delivery, answering to queries keeping in mind the various needs and motivations for enrolling in distance education.

Building knowledge society with open and distance learning

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2008

In spite of our significant efforts and achievements in the post-independent era in India even now one-third of the adult population is illiterate, only 12% of the school eligible age children complete 10th standard, and only 10% of the university eligible age group gets enrolled in our 18600 colleges and 360 Universities. Can conventional methods cope up this scale of educational challenges? Can we make a major foray into educational technology by launching open and distance learning system?
Today all over the world, we hear the agenda, Learning for Development. Professor Amartya Sen portrays development as freedom, expressed concretely in the widely accepted programmes for bettering the human conditions that includes the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, the Goals of Education of All, the Commonwealth objectives of peace, democracy, equality and good governance and sustainable development. Expanding human learning is essential to the achievement of every element in this agenda and knowledge is the path to freedom. Conventional teaching-learning methods cannot cope up with the scale of educational challenges, particularly in highly populated developing countries.

Technologies of different kinds need to be harnessed to supplement the conventional teaching and learning process. We need to promote powerful models for applying technology to learning for various purposes. We need to eliminate illiteracy and ignorance, we have to create wider access to schooling, we have to improve the health condition of the people, we have to find out methods for increasing the income of our farmers, and we have to link learning to better livelihoods.

If you look at the growth patterns of the developed countries, you will identify three innate educational criteria related to literacy, school education and post-school higher education attainments. All the developed countries have achieved universal literacy. That is over 95% of the adults can read, write and count. The female literacy levels are also equal or even higher in these developed countries. The completion of school education of the school-eligible age children in the developed countries is near-universal, over 85%. The post-school higher education opportunities are there for between 50 and 80% in all developed countries. In spite of our significant efforts and achievements in the post-independent era in our country even now one-third of the adult population is illiterate, only 12% of the school eligible age children complete 10th standard, and only 10% of the university eligible age group gets enrolled in our 18600 colleges and 360 Universities. These educational gaps are characteristics of all developing countries. Only by appropriate and innovative use of technologies we can address these challenges of scaling up of educational opportunities.

Educational technologies are particularly important for developing countries in the areas of higher education, teacher training, schooling, and non-formal learning. The large scale application of technology to learning began at the post-secondary level because success there was more likely to stimulate adoption at other levels than the other way round. For a number of developing countries, launching an open and distance learning system was the first major foray into educational technology. Higher distance learning has grown at an accelerating pace in the last two decades. These countries have also a tradition of dual-mode institutions that combine distance teaching with campus instructions. The developments in distance teaching-learning have had a huge impact on access all over the world. In our country, distance learning accounts for 24% university students and the government policy aims to raise this to 40% in the coming years.

Distance education has been particularly helpful for women. In South Africa, 4 out of every student enrolled in higher education study at a distance. In India, women make up 40% of distance students compared with 28% in the conventional face-to-face mode.

Availability of trained teachers has been the major obstacle to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education. Africa alone must train and recruit 4 million new teachers in the next 10 years to reach the goal. In the last 15 years, teacher education at a distance has expanded its purpose and audiences, improved its effectiveness, and harnessed information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a sophisticated, but steady manner.

Achieving universal primary education is a vital developmental goal. Educational technology directly as well as through its application to teacher education can only address this challenge. Countries are focusing to alternative means of secondary schooling. Open Schooling uses high-quality self-instructional materials coupled with networks of local centres and trained facilitators to support the learners. Common curricula across the school systems make it easier to achieve economies of scale.

In addition to the application of technology to expand and enhance the formal education system in the areas of school education, teacher training and higher education, the basic development agenda of improving health, reducing poverty and in sustainable development, calls for learning on a massive scale. This should have the focus on improving livelihoods and fostering a healthy population. Improving the livelihoods in rural areas is central to poverty reduction. These livelihoods are mostly farming- dependent and agricultural extension is still largely based on face-to-face communication and demonstration. Communication technology has a great role in these areas of agricultural extension and sustainable development.

The United Nations have proclaimed the years 2005-2014 as the World Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Sustainability is the key goal for the 21st Century. It means that future generations should have the same change of leading a fulfilled life as the earlier generations. At the same time, the opportunity to live a quality life must be more fairly distributed around the world today. Sustainable development combines economic progress with social justice and conservation of the natural environment. Sustainability is as pressing a task as it is great and noble one. It cannot be merely decreed from the top hierarchy; it must be learnt. In this context, Education for Sustainable Development instills the competencies that are required if we are to build our lives in a manner fit for the future.

The aim of ESD is to integrate the idea of a form of development which is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable into education around the world. Education for Sustainable Development is equally relevant to learning in kindergartens, schools, universities, further education and cultural institutions, or research institutes. The necessity of realizing the objectives of achieving a balance between economic efficiency, social justice and conservation of ecosystems and the responsible use of natural resources has to be integrated to the teaching-learning at all levels.

If the damaging consequences of global climate change are to be understood, and if effective countermeasures are to be developed, research is essential. Education, science and politics should work together to formulate the path for sustainable development forwards, large numbers of scientists must work together in an interdisciplinary environment. They must make sure that scientific and research findings get through to education, the general public and public debate.

The most challenging problem which our country, and developing countries all over the world, have to face in coming decades will be to provide food, health, and economic security to millions of our population. This requires a careful matching of scientific and technological vectors with social dynamics. Building up sustainable regenerative capacity of the land and water resources to provide basic food and economic security to the people at large, without compromising on the ecological and environmental integrity is the challenge before all of us. In this context it is absolutely imperative that we make use of advances in Science and Technology for building up the carrying capacity of the country on a sustainable basis.

Sustainability Science in India

Sustainibility Science provides the theoretical basis for the planning and implementing sustainable development programmes and activates. It is an academic amalgamate/malange of multiple disciplines such as economics, engineering, environmental sciences, geography, sociology and political science. The alarming rate at which ecological degradation is taking place has highlighted the crucial need to reform the current development model and resort to a more sustainable one thus ensuring enhancement of the quality of human life. In keeping with its vision of promoting the goal of ecological sustainability and fostering eco-friendly development strategies, IGNOU established a Chair chaired by Professor M.S. Swaminathan who has been referred to by the United Nation Environment Programme as the ‘Father of Economic Ecology’. The chair seeks to carry forward research and development in the field of Sustainability Science by adopting a systems approach for the development of strategies for sustainable development and initiate ‘action education’ programmes in major eco-systems. The chair will also create various courses for scientists, stake-holders and decision makers and along assisting government bodies with research.
Some of the activities of the Chair are as follows:

Action Research Projects on Sustainable Development in seven Agroclimatic Regions of the country (hill, arid, semi-arid, coastal, irrigated, mountain and island),
Education and training material,
Policy Studies for preparing a document on Sustainable Development resulting in the development of an ‘Agenda 21 for India’,
Organized sensitization and regional workshops on the five priority areas highlighted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 i.e. Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management,
Spreading Public Awareness,
Research and Development,
Networking and building databases.

Any successful educational programme has to take into account the needs of the intended learner. We also have to find out what type of knowledge work is needed for the real growth of the country and what type of skilled force. We have to look at the market requirements, service sector, we have to probe the agricultural sector, organised sectors of the country and see what are the types of knowledge they require, what are the kinds of skills they need. Then let us analyse the skills and knowledge we provide to our graduates. Then see the mismatch and fill the gaps. Find out the additional knowledge and additional skills required and create a mechanism for providing this additional skill, additional knowledge.

LATEST NEWS

EDITOR PICKS

Top Trending News

POPULAR POSTS

Top Trending Categories

POPULAR CATEGORY

Latest Articles