SRM University: Promoting Research and Innovative Teaching

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March 1, 2018

SRM University is creating and disseminating knowledge and providing students a unique learning experience in Science, Technology, Medicine, Management and other areas, says Pankaj Agarwal, Chancellor, Shri Ramwaroop Memorial University and Executive Director, Shri Ramsawroop Memorial Group of Professional Colleges, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

Better higher education results in improved career opportunities. What factors should students keep in mind while selecting a specialisation for their graduation and further studies?

Pankaj Agarwal, Chancellor, Shri Ramwaroop Memorial University and Executive Director, Shri Ramsawroop Memorial Group of Professional Colleges

Choosing the right course and institute is one of the most significant decisions that will affect a student’s entire life. This is why students need to first self-assess, bearing in mind their goals. While evaluating an institute, they should analyze whether the ways of learning will be only conventional or if the institute offers modern teaching pedagogy. Further, level of industry focus, quality of faculty and international learning opportunities should also be evaluated. It is also important that the chosen institute has accreditations and affiliations required in the desired course. Having said that, the most important factor is that the student should feel that the course and institute will provide the required skill set to achieve the set career objective.

How are Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence helping higher education system to get more student participation and faculty engagement?

Emerging technologies like IoT and AI are creating a fundamental shift in the way academic operations are run today. In the coming years, they will create new products and services that maximize opportunities and will serve as a face changer for higher education system. They are helping the industry in substantial ways by giving access to unlimited information flow from anywhere and anytime, and by promoting new concepts, designs and ensuring implementation of the same.Further, they are also improving educational outcomes by providing richer learning experiences and by gaining real-time, actionable insights into student performance. With such technology, collecting data on student performance and using it to customize teaching plans has become easy.

How is technology helping the University in nurturing the culture of innovation, a culture that encourages entrepreneurship, discovery, and experimentation amongst its students?

Technology is the biggest tool that drives an environment of innovation, entrepreneurship, and experimentation in the academic blood of an institution. Given this, we decided to move from on-premise ERP implementation to Oracle Cloud ERP, because unlike the on-premise software which requires frequent and continuous time-intensive and costly upgrades, SaaS solutions always stay updated – giving immediate access to new capabilities and features as they become available.

By implementing such new-age technology, we were able to foster an environment of innovation in our university. For instance, now our students can perform complicated experiments using relevant technologies. At a university level, we are now able to provide a common interface to know and understand the industry requirements, give opportunities ofa multi-disciplinary pursuit of knowledge and research to our students, and make research work related to any field from across the globe available.

How best can a university put across a technology vision and an IT roadmap for overall improvement in institutional performance and student success?

To ensure that the transformation process is gradual, consistent and sustaining, a university should firstly, implement a technology platform that unifies academic and related non-academic activities – making monitoring and evaluating possible. Further, technology should be used to provide continuous student evaluation and to make the entire process visible to both faculty and parents, apart from concerned students, to increase chances of improvement. Lastly, all operations should be integrated using a single unified platform,to ensure transparency and high efficiency.

Using technology platforms helps in gathering all activities-related data,of all stakeholders. This big data can be further used for analysis – to draw meaningful and more active decisions related to manpower, finances etc. SRMU uses Oracle Peoplesoft to augment efficiency and effectiveness and for monitoring of classroom activities, evaluation, finance and human resource.

Project-based learning, challenge-based learning and inquiry-based learning are gaining momentum nowadays. Describe the steps taken by the university in this regard.

The above three are the latest and most innovative methods that have made learning more expressive and abiding. At SRMU (Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University) this has been made possible by promoting industry interface to provide hands-on practice of real-life scenarios.By using automated software and running collaborative programs fromOracle and other technology vendors,we have been able to promote shorter learning curves,and by inviting industry experts, who share their experiences and make young minds inquire and learn.

Moreover, our continuous evaluation system keeps students on track and gives them multiple opportunities to improve.We have an extremely qualified faculty to promote an atmosphere of research and consultancy. Our collaborations with various foreign institutions and professional bodies like CII, AIMA, TiE, IICA, FICCI etc. further provides vast opportunities for both faculty and students to take up research and consultancy projects.

Digital India and Skill India are two most ambitious projects of the Government of India, how is the university training its students to be skillful, employable and tech-savvy?

We have always believed that the most important attributes of higher education are – who is teaching students, the methodology of teaching, and what is being taught. If a high standard of these three is maintained, we will be able to train our students to be more skilled and tech-savvy, resulting in better employability.

At SRMU, we ensure that our faculty is recruited from premier institutes of India, and we conduct continuous industry interactions to keep both our faculty and students updated. We have also set-up best-in-class labs which are equipped with latest machines and technology and organize workshops and field visits to test and implement classroom teaching. We have also tied-up with various industry experts who educate us about current industry requirements.

Despite a phenomenal expansion in the education system in our country, Indian universities don’t stand alongside the universities abroad. How can this scenario be improved?

We have made rapid progress in the field of higher education and the same is evident from the number of colleges and universities operating in the county today. To make improvements and get placed on the global rankings we need to adhere to succeeding facts, like improving the quality of faculty, promoting research environment, investing on equipping labs with latest technology, using technologies like IOT and AI to gain access to all talent hubs across the globe, cultivating entrepreneurs by setting up entrepreneurship incubation cells, creating an industry interface to know the skills in demand and finally by setting up technology platforms to standardize and improve internal operations.

What prompted you to implement Oracle Cloud Services? What were the various challenges being faced earlier?

Our motivation to move from an on-premise ERP implementation to Oracle Cloud ERP was based on a number of factors. Firstly, the on-premise solutions require not only the purchase of the software, but also support-costs for license,additional hardware, personnel for maintenance, network monitoring, management tools and more. In the SaaS model, many of these costs are included in the subscription itself – whichensures a lower total cost of ownership, and reduced complexity/ overhead. Time to value, ease of implementation, the ability to try before you buy, and the ongoing vendor accountability and engagement, were among other factors we considered.

Oracle ERP Cloud not only provides robust support by giving easy access to ERP system but is also cost-effective. We were able to easily understand the interface and have also experienced its ease to maintain and upgrade. Also, the cloud solutions easily integrated between heterogeneous software systems.

Class 10 and 12 students with special needs can use laptops in CBSE exams

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 1, 2018

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has allowed students with special need appearing for class 10 and 12 exams to use laptops starting this year.

The notification issued by the CBSE Controller KK Choudhury on 27 February 2018 addressed to all principals and heads of institutions, affiliated to the board, reads, “Use of computer shall be limited to only for typing answers, for viewing the questions in the enlarged font size, for listening to the question items.” The internet connection has been barred for security purpose.

The candidates with special needs (CWSN) will have to produce a medical certificate for writing the exams and also obtain necessary permissions. The board has appointed Centre Superintendent (CS) to oversee if the order is rightly implemented, the order reads.

CBSE exams for both class 10 and 12 are starting from 5 March, 2018. While class 10 exam will end on 4 April, 2018, class 12 exam will end on 12 April, 2018.

The notification has further set “provision of a reader in case student with a disability does not want the facility of the scribe and need a person to read the question paper”. It has also given relaxation in attendance to CWSN students up to 50 per cent.

Centum Learning: Fulfilling India’s National Skilling Mandate

Interviews

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Akash

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March 1, 2018

CentumLearning is a leading organisation the global skills development and vocational training landscape. The organisation is also a key partner to the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) fulfilling India’s national skilling mandate, says Sanjay Bahl, CEO and MD, Centum Learning in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What are the key focus areas of Centum Learning? Please describe in brief.

Sanjay Bahl, CEO and MD, Centum Learning

Centum has been a leader in the Learning and Development space offering business solutions for Livelihood Skills, Corporate Business Solutions and CSR partnerships.

Livelihood Skilling – Centum has partnered with Central and State Ministries, and Public Sector Enterprises to enhance the skills of youth across the country. The partnership will empower youth with skills to boost their employability.

Skills Development in Schools and Colleges – Centum is empaneled as a Skill Knowledge Provider (SKP) for CBSE affiliated schools to impart vocational courses to students in 16 states. In addition to that, CBSE has empanelled Centum to offer Leadership & Strategic Management Training to heads of institutions, academic staff and teachers. Centum has successfully trained over 1,50,000 school students in over 1,200 schools under this initiative through it’s forum of over 1250 specialised trainers.

Corporate Business Solutions – Centum also provide training solutions for the corporates to help in impacting tangible KPIs for organisations. CentumLearning provides 360-degree solutions that integrate performance with the organization culture through a unique Technology enabled delivery approach.

CSR Partnerships – Centum Learning has a philanthropic division called Centum Foundation. It partners with various corporates to implement vocational skilling, livelihood creation, education and women empowerment programmes. Centum Foundation has also launched a dedicated vertical, called Centum GRO Initiative to empower deaf people in India and assist them in getting respectable jobs in different domains.

What role is CentumLearning playing helping youth get jobs under Government of India’s “Skill India Mission”?

Being one of the partners of NSDC, the approach that Centum has adopted towards skill building consists of five steps: Employment Generation, Mobilisation, Skill Training, Certification and Assessment, and Placement. As of date, we have generated over four lakh letters of intent from various organisations nationwide in various sectors and trades. After selecting a city to skill its youth, we analyse the local market for getting information about the kind of jobs available and basis that, we mobilise the candidates for those jobs. Each state-level centre has a placement head who coordinates with the placement team to organise on-the-job training and placement for trainees. A prospective employer usually visits the centre to conduct interviews and hire trainees. A majority of our trainees are absorbed within the same organisation where they get training.

We work on a backward integration method where we first approach companies and find out their job requirements. Then we start the entire process of mobilising candidates in the neighbouring areas, get them registered, skill them and subsequently get them certified and help to secure a job. We also motivate youth in several cases to set up their ventures.

With which government/publicprivate organisations, has Centum Learning partnered with to provide skill training in different areas of the country?

We have partnered with the Government to fulfill NSDC’s target of skilling 500 million people. Additionally, we partnered with leading organisations like COAI and NSDC to launch massive outreach programmes to mobilise underprivileged youth for skill training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) and several other outcome based skill development schemes across the country.

Centum Learning has partnered with various state governments to implement Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) around Vocationalisation of Higher Secondary Education (VHSE) in different States of India for one to four year periods.

Centum Learning is also working with Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Rural Development, National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, Manipur Urban Development Agency, Department of Industries, Govt. of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission, Meghalaya State Development Society, Odisha Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Development Finance Co-operative Corporation Limited, Madhya Pradesh Council of Employment and Training (MAPCET), Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of Jharkhand, Skills Training for Employment Promotion amongst Urban Poor (STEP UP) as part of its mission to create a skill ecosystem for the youth in India.

With ISO 9001:2015 Certification, our unique approach to training has made us the trusted ‘Go-To’ partner for corporate looking to deploy skills development and vocational training initiatives. With domain expertise in 21 industry verticals and a huge pool of learning and development specialists, it is not surprising that we have partnered over 350 corporate to address the dreaded ‘skills-demand’ gap. Seven years ago, we forayed into Africa anticipating the similarity in culture, topography and linguistic diversity with India. Currently, we have operations across 14 countries of Africa.We also deal with governments, as well as companies (mostly multinational) and international agencies, which run several training programmes in Africa. Many African countries implement training programmes in partnership with multilateral bodies such as USAID and the World Bank who also fund programmes like Farm Inputs Promotion (FIPS) in the Sub-Saharan region.

Please share details about Centum Foundation.

Centum Foundation is working towards skilling and empowerment of PWDs (Persons with Disabilities) in India. A number of initiatives have been implemented for Deaf, Orthopedically challenged and Blind youth. It has launched a unique initiative, called Centum GRO to empower the Deaf in India and assist them to become employable in different domains.

The training model for PwDs has four components i.e. Educating, Preparing, Training, and Sustaining. The medium of training used is in alignment with the disability, which, helps in enhancing the learning capability of the participants, making them employment ready and offering placement assistance.

What is the vision and mission of the company for upcoming years?

Since inception, our vision has been to be the most admired technology enabled blended learning & skill development partner, enabling sustainable transformation. Excellence in training is not just a onetime activity, rather one of the core values of Centum Learning, which is demonstrated by continuous endorsement by our clients whose patronage and feedback has enabled us to grow by leaps and bounds resulting in our presence in 15+ countries today.

We are on a continuous journey to improvise and evolve in the training space where we are moving beyond the current traditional model of training to providing 360 degree learning solutions through technology enabled blended learning approach. We are aggressively working with both the state & the central ministries, not just by participating in their skilling programs but also collectively working with the complete ecosystem to create policies and opportunities to positively impact the lives of the youth.

Union Government to reduce the syllabus by half: Prakash Javadekar

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Akash

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February 28, 2018

Central Government is going to reduce the NCERT syllabus by half in next two to three years, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar announced earlier this week.

Explaining about the Government’s initiatives for quality education in the country, Javadekar said that the idea to provide quality education across the country emerged from the six workshops held by the Ministry along with the high level meetings with state education officials.

“A large number of NGOs, education experts, state government officers, and many teachers took part in these meeting,” he added.

Stressing on that plenty of information is not education, Javadekar said, “Students are not data banks. The main aim of education is to bring out a good human being. It is the need of the hour to inculcate value education, life skills, experiential learning and physical fitness in our daily life.”

According to him, reducing the syllabus will help the students to learn the basic principles of different subjects.

“We have asked the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) to evaluate the present curriculum and decide what can be done away with and what should be retained,” he further added.

The minister also said that the ministry will invite suggestions from teachers, parents, educational experts, students and stakeholders on reducing the syllabus by putting a request for the same on its website.

India-Israel bilateral agreements to boost Indian higher education sector

Article

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Akash

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February 26, 2018

India and Israel’s bilateral cooperation is likely to boost collaboration between in the field of higher education and research observes Hriday Ch Sarma for Elets News Network (ENN).

At present, India and Israel are enhancing their political and economic allies. The cooperation between them is steadfastly increasing not only in the area of defence cooperation, but in anarray of sectors, such as agriculture, water, cyber security, oil & gas and so on. This is really commendable considering the fact that the friendship between the two historic nations is just two and half decades old.

For this new found friendship to unceasingly continue in the future, a solid foundation needs to be created that intricately binds people from both sides. There is, of course, no magic band for this to happen; however, dedicated collaboration in the field of higher education can act as a tool for the pursuit of common goals among the younger generations from both countries. This in turn will shape a common destiny for the two countries in the emerging world order.

Israel presents ample scope for learning of new and advanced subjects, including but not limited to microbiology, nanotechnology, business management and information security, to Indian students. The country has state-of-art education institutes and research centres that are ranked among the best in the world. The most famous among them are: Weizmann Institute of Science, established in 1934, a multidisciplinary public research university offering high academic degrees in the fields of natural and exact sciences; Hebrew University of Jerusalem (also known as HUJI) that serves around 23,000 students from around the world in its 7 faculties and 14 schools; and Tel Aviv University, the largest public university in the country, offers 125 schools and departments across the spectrum of sciences, humanities and arts- qualifying as the most comprehensive institution of higher learning and research in Israel.

In addition to the aforesaid ones, the country has also numerous education and research institutes that are excelling in their respective areas of studies, some even at the international level. Sheba Medical Centre (Tel Ha’shomer), the biggest medical centre in the country, has three hospitals that offer more than 60 programs for medical professionals: doctors, nurses and administrators. The students pursing courses here gain practical experience and “on the job training”. Aharon Ofri Centre (Kibbutz Ramat Rachel), a collaboration of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Ministry of Education, offers diverse educational courses for teachers from all around the world. Here course participants can get trained in: curriculum development, establishing educational systems in rural areas, technology embedding in schools and classes, social rehabilitation of neighbourhoods and drug abuse prevention. The list of such institutes is a long one, which also includes Israeli College for Security and Investigations (Jerusalem), Centre of International Agriculture Development Cooperation (Rehovot), Arava International Trainee Centre (Sapir) and Golda Meir Training Centre (Haifa) as ranked among the Avant grade.

Israel offers range of scholarships exclusively for Indian students to not just come and study there; but also enable them to gain understanding of the local culture as it really is.The Government of Israel offers 7 scholarships (2 scholarship for study of Hebrew language and 5 for academic research) annually as a part of the Cultural Agreements between Israel and India. This scholarship is categorized under two categories: 1/ For Masters and PhD Programmes, 2/ For Post Doctorate and Research Programmes. Moreover, the Israeli Council of Higher Education has been offering annual post-doctoral fellowships to about 100 students from India and China since 2012.

Israel is keen to develop joint research projects and academic studies with India for it sees the immense manpower potential in the latter. India, on its part, is trying to equally gesticulate by encouraging Israeli academics as well as businessmen to set up lasting ventures that could be mutually benefiting. Already the Indian government has set up a $40 million joint fund with Israel for research and development in innovation. Moreover, private education institutes in India, such as O.P. Jindal University and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, have joined the bandwagonof strategic bilateral partnership by initiating their own Israel studies centres.

So, it is now up to the young minds in India to grab a pie for themselves from among the endless possibilities of excellence that Israel is offering at the moment! (views above are author’s personal)

Author’s Bio: Hriday Ch Sarma is pursuing PhD under Energy Studies Programme at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Hriday is also a fellow with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), an international research and membership organisation conducting Israel media-monitoring.

Battling between board and competitive exams? Manage the two with following tips

Article

By

Akash

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February 26, 2018

The board exams of class 10^th and 12^th are going to start from March 5 this year. For students in class 12^th, the months of March, April and May are very crucial as along with board exams, they will appear in various entrance exams for admission to engineering, medical and other professional courses. Prachi Mittal writes for Elets News Network (ENN) suggesting ways to keep a balance in preparation for board and competitive exams.

Are you facing difficulty while preparing for your class 12th Board exam and JEE Main? Here are some of the tips that will help you strike the right balance between both the exams.

Objectives

Have a clear goal regarding what you want to become. Depending on your goal, make a plan for each day and give your best in following that plan. Divide your time and energy between school and coaching institutes and pay equal attention to both of them.

Execution

Do not ignore school to focus on competitive exams. Take part in all tests at your school. Look for a reputed coaching center which helps you in striking the right balance between the two. Never underestimate your potential and keep working hard.

Managing time properly

Try to manage your time in an organized way. Though the syllabus of both exams is same, they test different skills. Create a routine and follow it rigorously. You can also use CBSE Class 10 study planner to prepare a time table for you according to your preparation level.

Practice through tests

Take up a test series and solve frequent test papers. Analyze your weak areas. Take coaching from best coaching institute to give a boost to your preparation.

Learning through technology

Countless apps are available on phones, tablets to help with your studies. Apps can be used for taking notes and practicing previous year papers. One such app is Avanti Gurukul app where you will have access to lots of fun-engaging study videos for easy understanding of the syllabus.

Plan activities logically

Never study the late night before the exam day and also do not study 1 hour prior to the exam. Be calm and chilled before the exam starts. Studying just before entering the examination hall will lower your confidence.

The above tips will help the students to prepare well for board as well as for the competitive exams. With the syllabuses of the exams being quite similar, the above ways will help the students to balance their preparation in a stress free environment.

Parental Engagement in the Digital Age

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By

Akash

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February 26, 2018

Parents’ dependency on the technology and digital age has always helped the child to keep themselves ahead in terms of digital learning. Digitally literate parents are capable of educating their children from a very young age, writes Avi Keswani, Co-founder and Director of LISAA School of Design( CREO VALLEY) for Elets News Network (ENN).

To discuss technology dependence in the context of parenting is no less than opening a Pandora’s Box. Apparently, today’s children are well aware about the technology and their umbilical cord has been replaced by technology cord. Probably, this is the time when we could say that the child knows more than parents in term of technology. But it is equally important for parents to be involved in digital learning and educate their children on cybercrime, cyber-bullying, filter inappropriate content and more. Education is, and always will be, the key to helping children, and young people understand the risks and benefits of technology and the online world. Socialisation and digital literacy are skills that can help and nurture through good parenting and engagement.

Technology allows to access invaluable resources and learning opportunities:

The world has turned into a technology run globe allowing young people to access the invaluable resources and learning opportunities. This era is a challenge to parents which is inducing them to participate in digital literacy. As parents play a vital part in teaching children the practice of etiquette outside the classroom, the same way parents should be digitally literate to educate technology to their wards. It is essential that we focus on a conscious rather than a habitual use of modern technology.

It is important for parents to have digital literacy

Using Technology is beyond boundaries and age; we need to recognise that current situation is totally different from that of previous generations. Nowadays, every member of a family has numerous options to connect digitally. Whether we’re carpooling, standing in line at the market or sitting at the dinner table, technology is omnipresent and thus it is important for parents to have digital literacy to fulfill their work as their children won’t accompany them everywhere.

A digitally illiterate parent poses a clear risk to their children (online)

Digitally illiterate parent poses a clear risk to the privacy and safety of children. Tech naive parent may post pictures, videos or information about their children online, unaware of violation of privacy rights of children and worse, opening them up for public scrutiny. Privacy management in Internet and social networks is possibly the primary and most important skill that a parent must possess. It is important for every parent to understand that information in the cyber universe is permanent and it is not difficult to retrieve which may thus pose a risk for the child’s future.

Digitally literate parents are more informed

Digital literacy involves making informed decisions, knowing and enforcing limits. Digitally illiterate parents may be naive enough to take illogical stances about technology. Another important skill essential for parental e-literacy is the know-how and commitment to manage their child’s technological activities.

Parental digital illiteracy can cause problems to children

Parental digital awareness hinges not only on the parents being well-informed of the tools available to children for safe and efficient use of technology but also on their personal commitment. If parental digital illiteracy can cause one type of problems to children, parental overindulgence in technology can raise a completely different set of equally serious issues. With an increasing use of technology and gadgets by parents themselves, there is a very real risk of a social disconnect from their children. This disconnect can have serious effects on the development of the child.

Parents should have active interaction

It is very important for parents to have active interaction and open communication channels. When parents are participating in digital literacy they understand technology guidelines at school and classroom well. It helps them to know about the types of technology being used in their children’s classroom and to obtain the tools to follow up and complement classroom education with their children.

Parents are a crucial partner in teaching the children

We all know that how fast innovation occurs in the world of technology, many parents may feel as though they cannot help their children to navigate the endless expanse of internet and high-end gadgets. But, even if parents do not know everything about technological advancement, parents are a crucial partner in teaching children the safe and healthy use of the Internet. As school work to discuss principles of online safety in the classroom, parents can reinforce the media literacy educational messages at home for helping children become effective cyber citizens.

We can say, parents, today are much more comfortable with communication technologies than were the generation of parents who preceded them. Today parents are using gadgets such as TV, smartphones, computers, and tablets to manage family life and to keep children occupied. And as children grow older, parents and children are much less likely to spend time together in mediated activities.

Keep the face-to-face discussion up front

In a world where children are growing up with technology, parents play an important role in helping them learn healthy concepts of digital use and citizenship. Media and digital devices are an integral part of our world today. The benefits of these devices, if these devices are used moderately and appropriately can come great. But, research has shown that face-to-face time with family, friends, and teachers plays a pivotal and even more important role in promoting children’s learning and healthy development. It is important for a family to keep the face-to-face discussion up front, and don’t let it get lost in a stream of media and technology.

Parents are the right stakeholders

Parents are the right stakeholders who educate their children about what programs are appropriate and explain the program’s direct and indirect meaning. The parent modeling often uses ‘co-using approach’ also known as co-playing in educating the child where they too learn with the child. This also means parents are present while the child is using the medium. There is no purposeful discussion on the meaning or effects of content are involved but just sharing the experience from parents. This is important as this is acknowledged as enhancing the parent-child relationship, and facilitating the development of cognitive, motor and other developmental skills.

Therefore, parental approach and involvement towards digital learning could lead children to utilise the technology in beneficial ways.

Gamification motivating student learning process

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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February 26, 2018

Digital games have instilled a profound impression in human lives. They make users interested to complete an activity in a given time frame through its user-friendly website and app-based platforms. Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN) explores the use of Gamification in Education.

In today’s Digital Era, the term Gamification is rapidly gaining attention, especially in healthcare, entertainment, retail, consumer goods, media and marketing to help staffs in increasing the productivity of the tasks often to attain the desired result. The essential use of technology in education is amplifying gamified learning. In India the use is not unknown to the sector, although emerging at a slow and steady pace. The applications are designed taking the game-elements to build a teaching-learning platform, especially for e-Learning and also for classroom environment. Popularly used to train employees on lessons and manuals prepared by organisations, it is developed to assist humans as a technique to motivate their learning process through popular technologies like mobiles, tablets and laptops.

India-based Oliveboard provides learning materials, conducts online tests — a tutorial that helps while preparing for government and bank recruitment exams. The online platform recently achieved two million registered users. Playablo is a gamified assessment platform, containing lessons on English and Maths. It contains quizzes, assignments, data tabulation, tracks progress according to school lesson plan. eMee, is another platform that looks at gamification in multiple domains and verticals as per requirements of industry, enterprises, e-Commercials, education institutes, etc. Some of its gamification products include Gamification for BPOs and Call Centres, Gamified Healthcare portals, Gamified Assessment and Quizzes mentions it’s websites.

Reports suggest e-learning market of India estimates to become a $1.96 billion industry, and with around 9.6 million users by 2021. India budget 2018-19 has also allocated Rs 3,073 crore for the “Digital India”. Markets and Markets estimates, global gamification market trending to become an $11.1 billion industry by 2020.

Gamification In Classroom
Bloomsburg University Instructional Technology Professor and TEDx Speaker Karl Kapp in his YouTube channel, says, “Using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking, gamification engage and motivate people and action, promote learning, and solve problems in a non-game context.”

Another professor from Mississippi Valley State University Assistant Alfred Boyd writes in his blog, “It is important to differentiate between ‘game-based’ and ‘game-informed’ teaching in applying the principles of gamification to the classroom. Game-based teaching uses games in the classroom setting to teach and monitor the progress of students. Gamification, on the other hand, uses aspects of the gaming model in traditional classroom teaching to motivate students and reshape the learning process.”

When utilised correctly, experts opine, it helps in motivating students in their learning process. Some Gamification Features Gamification uses gaming elements, for example, points, competition, rewards integrated with social forums programmed into the platform.

Oxford Analytica in its report ‘Gamification and the Future of Education’ highlights Mechanical and Personal elements of Gamification.

Mechanical Elements of Gamification: It says there are game mechanisms which have gained prominence as the most fundamental with wide applicability, particularly in education:

• Incremental progression system — Goals, challenges, and quests
• Badges
• Onboarding and Increasing Accessibility
• Instant Feedback

Personal Elements of Gamification: Games also increase player’s engagement with a sense of identity, a technique which can help educators motivate student engagement in the learning process, the report states.

Global Apps Using Gamified Learning

KnowRe: Seoul-based online math learning site for secondary students. Class Dojo: Assists teachers to track behavior and communicate with parents.

Socrative: A cloud-based response system where teachers can quickly put together quizzes for student engagement.

Minecraft Edu: With over 5,500 teachers in 40+ countries using MinecraftEdu, the application hosts a library of STEM lessons through the use of Minecraft in the classroom.

Play Brighter: The App allows teachers to test students’ knowledge. Students learn and proceed through the level of the games, they will be rewarded with online currency to improve their performance on the platform.

Zondle: The website hosts many free learning games. It’s easy to set up the class and have students enroll on their own.

Virtonomics: The free online game focuses at players who understand the real life laws of economy, business, and finance.

Course hero: An online learning platform to enhance learning outcomes via document sharing.

Duolingo: Online language learning platform. Class Realm: Teachers can use ClassRealm to set up specific goals and achievements for students.

Kahoot: Education quiz app across varied subjects and ideas that can be taken in competition with others.

6th School Leadership Summit: When Top Educationists Brainstormed Vision for School Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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February 25, 2018

The 6th School Leadership Summit on Saturday felicitated 180 educational institutes — including preschools, boarding schools, and CBSE/ICSE affiliated schools — across the country for their efforts to impart quality education.

The Summit witnessed educators, policy makers, industry leaders and key stakeholders share innovative ideas, best practices, latest trends and who also opined to form a consensus to develop a common forum that identify and solve key challenges prevailing in the sector.

On the occasion, Chief Guest HRD School Education Secretary Anil Swarup while inviting suggestions, said, “My concern is how to make things happen on the ground. It is in events like this (School Leadership Summit) where solutions emerge.”

A very useful interaction with school leaders at the Summit today. These are performers in the field that are creating a #nexusofgood. Public-Private partnership rightly emerged as the key to transforming school education in the country. pic.twitter.com/KzV6Jzq3Bx

— Anil Swarup (@swarup58) February 24, 2018

The Summit also witnessed interactive sessions on topics ‘Importance of Inducive Policies to Build Effective School Education Ecosystem’, ‘How Technology is Transforming Teaching-Learning Process in the Schools of Tier 2 Cities’, ‘Collaborative approaches for redesigning of schools’, ‘How can schools work with others for Designing Tomorrow’s Schools?’ and ‘Future of Boarding/International Schools in India — Plans and Challenges’.

Industrialists also deliberated a PPT presentation and the exhibitors showcased an array of innovative solutions during the 1-day summit.

While on the session, CTET, JNVST and Misc Exam Director MVV Prasada Rao feels the biggest challenge is the behavioural and attitudinal changes in children.

“If parents and schools do not come together, it will be very difficult to develop the child. And this aspect is missing in today’s education scenario,” he added.

According to Rao, a school leader should have a “PHD — Passion for work, Hunger for competition and Discipline for commitment”.

Kalorex Group MD and CEO Manjula Pooja Shroff, a moderator in one of the sessions, said, “Today education is in transition and has to regrow and reinvent. Conferences like this help in expanding the horizon and, of course, networking.”

Ryan Group of Institutions CEO Ryan Pinto recalled the previous School Leadership Summits organised by Elets. He added, “Elets has taken the brand of Indian education overseas.”

Founder and MD of MT Educare Mahesh Shetty while deliberating on the topic, ‘How Technology is Transforming Teaching-Learning Process in the Schools of Tier 2 Cities’ quoted George Couros: Technology will never replace the great teacher but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational.

Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, a premier technology and media research organisation of Asia and the Middle East, had organised 5th School Leadership Summit on January 12 in Bengaluru this year.

The organisation will host the 7th School Leadership Summit in Lucknow on April 14, 2018.

Don’t limit yourself to criticism, recognise good works: Education Secy Anil Swarup

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digitalLEARNING Network

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February 24, 2018

Emphasising the need of highlighting the good works done by teachers and organisations in nooks and corners of India, HRD School Education Secretary Anil Swarup on Saturday said wisdom does not lie in Delhi, it lies in the States.

“Don’t limit yourself to criticism, recognise the good works happening around you. The good works need to be replicated…We have to see and highlight the scalable part of the good work,” Swarup told a gathering of educationalists at the 6th Elets School Leadership Summit held at Eros Hotel in New Delhi.

He further said that his objective is to “create a conducive environment so that the education in India could flourish”.

“My concern is how to make things happen on the ground…It is in events like this (School Leadership Summit) where solutions emerge,” the top bureaucrat said.

However, in a word of caution, he said, “Every idea has to be politically acceptable because we live in a democracy. Also the idea has to be socially acceptable.”

A very useful interaction with school leaders at the Summit today. These are performers in the field that are creating a #nexusofgood. Public-Private partnership rightly emerged as the key to transforming school education in the country. pic.twitter.com/KzV6Jzq3Bx

— Anil Swarup (@swarup58) February 24, 2018

HRD School Education Secretary Anil Swarup tweets about the 6th School Leadership Summit — New Delhi.

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