TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING AND HIGHER EDUCATION OVER EDUCATION GRID

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TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING AND HIGHER EDUCATION
OVER EDUCATION GRID

• K.R. Srivathsan, IGNOU
• srivathsan_at_ignou.ac.in
• Haryana Secretariat, Chandigarh
• March 29, 2009

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• E-Learning From talks to action

• Aug. 2008 at IIT Guwahati, Dr. Manmohan Singh
  said
• We are one of the youngest nations and,
  according to observers, India has the potential
  to create over 500 million trained people by 2022
  which is over a fourth of the global workforce.
  The big opportunity for India would come from an
  education revolution that we must undertake as
  our most important national endeavor.
• The World of Education is undergoing a rapid and
  quiet transformation How do we in India take
  advantage of this and synthesize a new framework
  of providing
• ? It is time to move from talks to action in
  deploying and using e-Learning.

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SAD STATE OF OUR EDUCATION

• Education (higher/tertiary) reduced to teaching
  classes against Board/university exams.
• No agility in syllabus and students are
  programmed like Artificial Intelligence Systems
  to answer questions!
• University education no longer LEARNING CENTRIC.
  Students tutored for contrived university
  examinations. Aim at securing high pass
  percentages, not promoting learning and
  scholarship.
• Good teachers have little say. Teaching to
  prepare studnts for exams removes teacher from
  engaging students in Learning Activities
• Education not connected with developments be
  they in the scientific or socioeconomic sense.
• ? Indias Intl Math Olympiad rank fell from 25th
  in 2007 to 31st in 2008. China is 1st, South
  Korea 2nd ? Why?

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A Shared Vision for Education

• Bill Readings (Harvard) in his University in
  Ruins The question posed to the University is
  thus not how to turn the institution into a haven
  for Thought but how to think in an institution
  whose development tends to make Thought more and
  more difficult, less and less necessary (p.
  175).
• We need a vision that is enlightening,
  socioeconomically integrated into development and
  empowering.
• QUALITY EDUCATION TO ALL, INDEPENDENT OF
  GEOGRAPHY.
• ENABLE, EDUCATE AND EMPOWER EVERY CITIZEN AND
  COMMUNITY THROUGH KNOWLEDGE.
• ? Most importantly connect education to
  community empowerment and developments
  socioeconomic as well as promoting values and
  scholarship.

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Towards practicing e-learning

• For over 10(20?) years we talk of e-learning.
• Plenty of Technology Laptops and Netbooks, High
  cap thumb drives, IP-TV, iPods, iPhones, GPRS,
  3G, Broadband, Satellite, Virtualization, Green
  IT, etc.
• Whole world of new Internet services/applications
  Google ever improving search engines, Open
  Source systems, LMS, SCIENTIFIC DATABASES, Open
  Content, Open Access Publishing, e-Books,
• Googles Slogan My other computer is a
  Datacentre.
• Increasing reach and Affordability.
• ? Time to move ahead from CONNECTIVITY CONTENT
  to formal systems of Tech Assisted Learning,
  Teaching And Evaluation (TELTE) ? Quality Assured
  Instruction.

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Global Evolution in E-Learning

• 1970s Tutored Video Instruction by James
  Gibbons, Stanford. Satellite Instructional
  Television EXpt. (SITE) in India by Vikram
  Sarabhai / ISRO.
• 80s More Television, Computer Based Training
  (CBT), then CDs, Evolution of Internet.
• Mid 90s WWW and after Sharing and
  Collaboration. Library Automation, Digitization.
• Late 1990s Three crucial developments Learning
  Management Systems WebCT by M. Goldberg of UBC,
  Group Collaboration and Document Management
  Systems, Rapid growth of websites.
• In India, increasing CD based content production.

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Growth of TV and Satellite

• IGNOU established the TV broadcast with phone-in
  interactions from its studios since late 1990s.
• Prof. AK Ray (IIT Delhi, later IIT Kgp.)
  commences classroom video recording of lectures ?
  Later led to NPTEL video content generation.
• Use of Web-CT and Low-cost video with multimedia
  integration and asynchronous discussion forums at
  IIT Kanpur Educational Tech Services Lab.
• Edusat launched in 2003. IGNOU and few limited
  universities (Anna, VTU, AVV) adopted but
  little impact in quality of education ? lessons
  to learn as compared to its value in
  Telemedicine.

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2001 and after

• Inflibnet, UGC Infonet, e-Journals subscriptions
  and Online content mostly from outside India.
• Some content digitization projects, IT literacy
  (wrongly directed) training.
• After 2004 Growth of Mobile and now Mobile
  Applications.
• National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning
  (NPTEL) proposed and executed by the IITs/IISc,
  funded by MHRD first major initiative in
  educationally usable structured content.
• Scattered content initiatives, induction of
  e-learning platforms Black Board, Web-CT,
  Acado, etc.
• Some office automation/ERP solutions.

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Education Grid from IITK to IIITM-K
Education Grid is a suite of systems and
collaborative processes over a network of
institutions
Resource Centre 3 Scientific Portals
College 2
College 1
Communication Gateway Resource Centre
College 3
National Education Grid over Broadband
ERNET/Internet ( EDUSAT?) Network
Resource Centre 2 Computational Servers
VISTA Programs Coordination Centre
College n
College 4
Resource Centre 1 E-Learning
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Malcolm Baldridge Parameters for Performance
Excellence in Education

• Visionary Leadership
• Learning-centred Education
• Organizational and personal learning
• Valuing faculty, staff and partners
• Agility
• Focus on the future
• Managing for innovation
• Management by fact
• Public responsibility and citizenship
• Focus on results and creating value
• Systems perspective

Where are our Institutions, Universities and
Colleges ? How do we build a TELT Framework to
support excellence?
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Leverage on Core Strengths of IGNOU

• IGNOU practices a robust system of generating
  printed Self Learning Materials (SLMs) for the
  learners.
• SLMs are pedagogically structured, authored by
  eminent experts.
• IGNOUs SLMs in various courses are globally
  respected and also used in several open distance
  education programs run by the state open
  universities and others.
• Regional Centres of IGNOU provide critical
  logistics support for Study Centres and
  supporting them for conducting the contact
  classes and examinations.
• ? IGNOU now faces the challenge of fitting the
  above system and its best practices in the
  Internet era.

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Prof. Vijay Guptas Observations

• The antiquated affiliation university setup,
  wherein the person designing the course is quite
  different from person teaching it, who again is
  not the one examining the students.
• The affiliation university set-up has
  completely eroded the dignity of a teacher. A
  teacher in an affiliated college today is one of
  the most pathetic figures imaginable. He does not
  have any control on what he teaches. He does not
  have any control on what a student learns,
  because what a student learns is controlled
  totally by what he is examined on. An external
  examination system suffocates any initiatives by
  the teacher in improving the course or its
  delivery.
• A very large portion of our engineering
  education establishment is driven now by purely
  short-sighted commercial considerations.
• An almost complete absence of faculty with any
  passion for teaching. In fact, most have never
  seen what a good teacher can do to excite
  students. Today, teaching is seen as the last
  choice of professions by graduating students.

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Global Developments 2001

• Mostly driven by North America and Europe.
• MIT Open Courseware spreading to several
  universities ? NPTEL from India making global
  impact in Engg. Education.
• Open Access Publishing Movement Large number of
  refereed open journals visit Open J-Gate.
• University Profs posting their content, major
  projects like the SOS Maths, Scientific Databases
  Genomic, Google Earth, Wikimapia, Google Sky,
  Atmospheric, GPS related, Different area
  specific, and more.
• Large number of area-specific Discussion Forums,
  blogging,..
• Major universities establishing e-Learning as
  routine Infrastructure, e.g., NUS Integrated
  Virtual Learning Environment, Stanford Centre for
  Professional Development, etc. ? E-Learning
  support is common.

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Global Developments 2001 Contd.

• Growth of Linux and Open Solaris, MySQL, PostGre
  and PostGIS, Suns Datagrid, Growing Open Source
  Movement.
• Services Oriented Architecture, Open Standards in
  many domains, particularly Data Standards.
• Wikipedia, Wikiversity, Wikieducator, K-12
  movement, Curriki.org, ? Open Source Movement
  Open Knowledge Initiatives.
• Gaming, Secondlife.com, Virtual Reality,
  International collaborations in Supercomputing
  Applications
• Major universities establishing e-Learning as
  routine Infrastructure, e.g., NUS Integrated
  Virtual Learning Environment, Stanford Centre for
  Professional Development,
• CMUs Online Learning Initiative Mexicos
  Technologico de Monterrey ? Successful as open
  technical education.

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Leverage on Core Strengths of IGNOU

• IGNOU practices a robust system of generating
  printed Self Learning Materials (SLMs) for the
  learners.
• SLMs are pedagogically structured, authored by
  experts.
• IGNOUs SLMs in various courses are globally
  respected and also used in several open distance
  education programs run by the state open
  universities and others.
• Regional Centres of IGNOU provide critical
  logistics support for Study Centres and
  supporting them for conducting the contact
  classes and examinations.
• ? IGNOU now faces the challenge of upgrading the
  above system and its best practices in the
  Internet era.

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TOWARDS OPEN DISTRIBUTED TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED
LEARNING (ODTEL)

• Present system Syllabus, SLMs, textbook,
  classes, tutorials, centralized exams and
  evaluation, marks and grades ? to be changed to
  Learning - Centered system
• TEL Processes should aim Unit Perfection
  Requirements (like Fred Kellers system)

• How do we build a Learning Centered System of
  Education that leverages upon the
  state-of-the- art ICT systems and TEL Processes?
• At IGNOU, we are synthesizing the Open
  Distributed Technology Enhanced Learning, or,
  ODTEL Framework.

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IGNOUs ODTEL FRAMEWORK

• Challenge How do we use varieties of
  components/ systems of e-learning in each of
  above components.
• Key issue To maximize quality of instruction
  as measured by the depth of understanding and
  proficiency imparted as per the objectives set.

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EDUCATION GRID GATEWAY SYSTEM for IGNOUs
Regional Centres and Study Centres
EGGS
IP/VPN, Internet
EGGS May be hosted by 3rd Party like RailTel

• Low cost EGGS to be enhanced in each Study Centre
  and Regional Centre.

RC/SC LAN WiFi Access Web Studio, Content
Management, Training Facilities
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Tier-3 Content Varieties Management

• IGNOU 2010 SLM ? eSLM or eBooks, MPDD ? eMPDD.
• Improved eGyankosh, Indexed, abstracted,
  Searchable, linking thru http and RSS Feeds, Open
  discussion forum, etc.
• NPTEL Type Recorded Video Lectures full suites
  of 40 lectures per course ? most viewed Indian
  YouTube site. Visit www.youtube.com/iit
• Web Content Like NPTEL or Open Courseware,
  Wikiversity, Curriki.org, etc.
  http//nptel.iitm.ac.in
• IGNOU is a member of NPTEL Phase-2 approved by
  MHRD.
• NPTEL Videos NPTEL RVLs are systematically
  delivered and recorded video lectures 40
  lectures per course - against a syllabus.
• ? Capacity to link relevant open content into a
  course.

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Tier-4 Setting the stage for Quality ODL IGNOU
Open Course Guide System
Instruction Management Cycles
4. Colleges Study Centres
Content Management Cycles
Students Teachers 24 X7 access
1.SLMs,RVLs, Open Web Content
3. CMG to develop Deploy IGNOU Open Course
Guide (IOCG)
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Tier-4 IGNOU Open Course Guide
Course Home Page About the Course,
Prerequisites, Syllabus Instructions to SCs,
Tutors Course Objectives Course
Evaluation approach Course Support and
Counseling details. Sequence of
Learning Modules Course Concept Map with
links to Learning Modules
Recommended Text Books, References, Web
References Course Calendar Instruction Team
and Contact details
IOCG is implemented in IGNOU using Mediawiki
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Tier-4 SAMPLE IOCG MODULE

• Module Topic
• Motivational/anecdotal content
• Instructional Objectives
• Learning Activities Sequencing RVL to
  be played, textbook sections, recommended
  problem set, practice, experiments, etc.
• ? LMS used for all asynchronous Interactions
  and directives to students.
• Guidance for Tutorial
• Monitored Self test as help for students.
• Module test (part of continuous evaluation).
• Mid-term and end term tests conducted.
• Computer Assisted Evaluation methods may be used.

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IOCG Technology A Canonical Course Management
System
Learners Distributed Over Geography
Course and Instruction Management Team
? IOCG runs like a Course Management Program
Script
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IOCG as Formal TEL Academic System

• Course Management Group (CMG) formally appointed
  by the concerned School.
• CMG Prepares the IGNOU OPEN COURSE GUIDE (IOCG)
  A Wiki based System developed by IGNOU.
• Relevant RVLs preloaded in Study Centre server
  and also distributed to registered students in a
  course.
• IOCG aligns specified Open Content with course
  activities.
• IOCG has built-in Course Calendar of learning and
  assessment activities for the entire semester
• CMG to train and orient teachers (Academic
  Counselors) and tutors in Study Centres on IOCG
  supported Instruction.
• Students interact with CMG, and in the open
  through Discussion Forums supported by SMS Alerts
  System.

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Why IOCG Canonical?

• Canonical refers to concepts that have a kind
  of uniqueness or naturalness, and are
  "independent of coordinates."
• An example A Browser is canonical as an
  interface between user and his/her interactions
  with the diverse information and services in the
  Internet.
• The IOCG System is canonical in the sense its
  structure is quite simple at its core it is a
  Wiki and it allows diverse pedagogies to be
  built over it.
• Any pedagogic option may be built as statements
  and declarations of links to activities in the
  IOCG.
• IOCG guides and coordinates the instruction team,
  learners and those who manage the course related
  resources and information.

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Laying the Basis For Quality Education

• To make our graduates EMPLOYABLE.
• To be PRODUCTIVE ON THE JOB and in LIFE.
• To observe REAL WORLD PROBLEMS, abstract the
  issues and apply what they have learnt and their
  innate sense to solve them.

? The End of Education is Character. Sai Baba
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The Challenge of Immersing Students in Quality
Learning Environment

• At the end of a learning effort, a Learner
  should be able to say I understand ? Add to
  his/her Tacit capabilities.

Codified Knowledge and Processes accessible over
the net, paper Global networked Information and
computational base
Peoples Competencies, Communications, Feelings,
Intuitions, Social interactions, Judgment,
Guestimation, Peoples Real World
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Tier-34 IOCG Categories of Learning Activities
Based Upon Tacit Explicit Interplay

• Adapt Nonakas four types of Learning Activities
• ? Quality Learning with Learning Ambience
  nurtures above SECI ? Innovations Driven Learning
  Environment (IDLE).
• CMG to build the IOCG rich with pointers to case
  studies, learning activities, multimedia
  illustrations, real world situations, term
  papers, projects and field work.
• Use LMS for course events management,
  interactions, discussion forums, assessment
  activities for feedback to students.

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Tier-5 Tutored Video Instruction

• Tutored Video Instruction (TVI) was introduced by
  Prof. J. Gibbons, Stanford University in 1970s.
• TVI involves recording video lectures of class
  and given to students (in distance mode) to
  play and listen. They need not attend the routine
  lectures.
• Weekly contact, or Interaction Classes held for
  tutorials, small tests, answering common doubts
  (as expressed in a discussion forum), conducting
  continuous evaluation exercises, motivational
  topics, case studies and problem solving, etc.
• Interaction classes may be more extended than
  tutorials.
• TVI changes Distance Learning and classroom
  learning to COLLABORATIVE LEARNING.
• Studies show performance of students as a whole
  increases by 0.6s shift in the mean of the
  class.

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Towards Smart IOCG from ACIIL
Regional Services Support for Study Centres
SMS Alerts M-Learn support for Students, CMG,
Instruction Team
eGyankosh Multimedia Content on Demand
Discussion Forums, LMS Collaboration
Education IT Services (EITS)
Web Resources Support
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IGNOU Education and IT Services (EITS) as Back
Office to Support Course Communities
Course Management Group
Teachers Students in the subject
IOCG anchored Course Community
Capacity Building Linkages to RD, Communities
Industry
Subject related Library, e-Journals and open
access publications
EITS

• EITS is operated under ACIIL at IGNOU Delhi by
  integrating IGNOUs existing core services.

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Establishing Education Technology and
Information Services
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IOCG Wikis Forums constitute Course Portals
Portals with Course Wikis, to support courses
managed by universities/ colleges
eGyankosh, Online Library, Open Publishing
Open Global Content
Formal Courses
Education Grid Systems ETS
Course Management Groups
IOCG Systems Forums
Each Affiliating University may establish Course
Portals based upon NPTEL and other open/local
content Course Portals may be built and managed
over time.
Universities Institutions
Web Resources
Subject Community Students
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IOCG Supported ODL over Cloud Computing
Universities
Research Communities
Colleges
LEARNERS
INTERNET
STUDY CENTRES
Content
RCs, Other Institutions
Open Learning Collaborations
Web-services 2.0
Scientific Databases
Industries
IOCG Web Server
Students Resources Databases
Linked Computational Resources, Scientific
Databases
Scientific Databases
Web Services Brokering Authentication Services
Digital Library, Open Access Publications,
E-Learning
Content Repositories
IOCG Requires several Systems
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Regional Centres 2010

• Need to look much beyond present roles and
  functions of RCs. RCs given functional autonomy.

• RCs to work jointly with State/Regional
  Organizations through joint MOU.
• Need for Haryana Govt. to remove obstacles for
  collaboration between the States Institutions
  and IGNOU.

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Integrated Multi-modal Collaborative Educational
Technology Services
2
4
Learners Anywhere
3
1
6
5
IGNOU
Kiosk/CSC access
Schools Centres
Internet Accessed Services
TV
B
A
C
Agriculture, Health,
IOSG
Internet
ETIS
7
D
Access
States Colleges Institutions
F
E
Call Centre
8
9
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IGNOU Education Grid (IEG)
IGNOU/Universities/Institutions Open Study Guide
Web Collaboration Services
Education Grid Gateway Systems
Study Centres
University
College
Experts, Mentors

Tier5 Instruction/Evaluation Management Space
(Colleges, Study Centers)
Tier-4 Content Alignment Capacity Building
(AU)
R A I L T E L
Academic Management
Tier3 Content/Web Resources (IGNOU, NPTEL, )
Tier-2 Systems, Applications (Over Clouds and
LAN)
Managed Services
Tier-1 ICT Infrastructure (RailTel, TelCos,
STPI, NKN)
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E-Learning must be built over collaborations

• Best value from Technology Enhanced Learning will
  come from promoting and managing subject specific
  web-communities that support teachers and
  learners.
• Online Study Guides networked through EGGS enable
  such collaborations.
• Need to change education to be Teacher and
  Learner Centric.
• Affiliating University should do the Enabling and
  Empowering Roles.
• Colleges their teachers should do the education
  and evaluation roles without hindrance from
  affilitating university.
• ? Need to introduce Proficiency Certification
  programs for Teachers ? IGNOUs initiatives in
  NPTEL.

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The only irreplaceable capital an organization
possesses is the knowledge and the ability of its
people. The productivity of that capital depends
on how effectively people share their competence
with those who can use it. - Andrew Carnegie
19th Century
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First to IIITM-K for the years
spent experimenting with diverse systems of
eLearning, the Education Grid, KISSAN-Kerala and
others. Second to all those colleagues at
IIITM-K, specifically Dr. Venkatesh, Shri
Radhakrishnan, Shri Ajith Kumar, Shri Pradeep
Kumar, Dr. Dinesh, Shri Arvind Mohan, Shri David
Mathews, and several others. Third to Vice
Chancellor and Board of IGNOU and now Shri Sukan
Kole, Ms. Divya Raj, Shri Rejith. R, Shri Sanjay
Mishra, Dr. VSP Srivastava and others for
supporting the ongoing initiatives.
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T OGETHER E VERYONE A CHIEVES M ORE
Thank You