From Dir ector’s Desk - CEMCA · - Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. G oogle and KPMG in a recent report have...
24
1 Vol. 03 No. 02 July 2017 In this issue Guest Column 02 Sportlight 06 Regional Round Up 08 CEMCA News 11 Book Review 17 Technology Tracking 18 Case Study 20 Forthcoming Events 24 From Director’s Desk With best wishes Dr. Shahid Rasool “Some of the brightest minds in the country can be found on the last benches of the classroom.” - Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. G oogle and KPMG in a recent report have indicated that Indian Education Industry will grow to ‘$1.96 billion by 2021’. The report informs “two-fold increase in online searches for education”, “three-fold increase in searches from mobile devices” and “four-fold growth in education content consumption on YouTube in the last one year”. The growth is attributed to the increasing ‘smart phone penetration’ and ‘improving internet connectivity’ in smaller cities of India. These, incidentally, are the areas which are bereft of quality educational institutions in terms of infrastructure, faculty and educational material. Similar is the story in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Globally online education is growing, making quality education available, at exorbitant costs benefiting rich and leaving behind poor and marginalised. We may very soon experience industry players converting education and knowledge in consumable products and marketing them online in the semi urban and rural areas of South Asian Countries. This will further increase disparity between the rich and the poor. To ensure social, cultural and economic rights to the poor and marginalised, equity and access to quality education is paramount. Martin Bean, the Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT, in his address at PCF8, informed that the YouTube, because of educational videos, has emerged as “the number one search engine in the world”. He stressed the need to integrate video in teaching and learning material for better understanding of learners especially in open and distance mode. Educational videos and multimedia enhance the teaching learning outcomes and bring them at par with the classroom teaching. Therefore, today when most of the conventional and ODL institutions are actively engaged in developing digital course material for online, flexible and open learning, it is imperative to think in terms of embedding videos and multimedia components. If the data provided by Google and KPMG, above, is any indicator, the dream of ‘quality education for all’ is not far away provided we are able to use a multimedia approach in creation and packaging of knowledge. CEMCA has been promoting creation and utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER) by the partner institutions in commonwealth Asia.We have also been stressing and supporting multimedia approach to creation of OERs and launch of OER Repositories. Two such repositories were launched in India, during the last two months, at NSOU, Kolkata and OSOU, Sambalpur. We are also looking for other partner institutions in Commonwealth Asia for similar initiatives. ODL institutions in Commonwealth Asia are seriously working to create educational resources but time and resources available are making it hard for them to match the demand. All of them are working individually at times resulting in duplication of effort. It may serve a purpose to work collectively and pool the resources. CEMCA, therefore, has proposed to create a Consortium, of Open and Distance Learning Institutions, for easy sharing of quality educational resources and courses. This will multiply our efforts to reach a vast majority of students at an affordable cost, and find the “brightest minds in the country” for sustainable development.
Transcript of From Dir ector’s Desk - CEMCA · - Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. G oogle and KPMG in a recent report have...
1
Vol. 03 No. 02 July 2017
In this issue
Guest Column 02
Sportlight 06
Regional Round Up 08
CEMCA News 11
Book Review 17
Technology Tracking 18
Case Study 20
Forthcoming Events 24
From Director’s Desk
With best wishesDr. Shahid Rasool
“Some of the brightest minds in the country can be found on thelast benches of the classroom.”
- Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Google and KPMG in a recent report haveindicated that Indian Education Industrywill grow to ‘$1.96 billion by 2021’. The
report informs “two-fold increase in onlinesearches for education”, “three-fold increase insearches from mobile devices” and “four-foldgrowth in education content consumption onYouTube in the last one year”. The growth isattributed to the increasing ‘smart phonepenetration’ and ‘improving internet connectivity’in smaller cities of India. These, incidentally, arethe areas which are bereft of quality educationalinstitutions in terms of infrastructure, faculty andeducational material. Similar is the story inPakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Globally online education is growing, makingquality education available, at exorbitant costsbenefiting rich and leaving behind poor andmarginalised. We may very soon experienceindustry players converting education andknowledge in consumable products and marketingthem online in the semi urban and rural areas ofSouth Asian Countries. This will further increasedisparity between the rich and the poor. To ensuresocial, cultural and economic rights to the poorand marginalised, equity and access to qualityeducation is paramount.
Martin Bean, the Vice-Chancellor and President ofRMIT, in his address at PCF8, informed that theYouTube, because of educational videos, hasemerged as “the number one search engine in theworld”. He stressed the need to integrate video inteaching and learning material for betterunderstanding of learners especially in open anddistance mode. Educational videos andmultimedia enhance the teaching learning
outcomes and bring them at par with theclassroom teaching. Therefore, today when mostof the conventional and ODL institutions areactively engaged in developing digital coursematerial for online, flexible and open learning, it isimperative to think in terms of embedding videosand multimedia components. If the data providedby Google and KPMG, above, is any indicator, thedream of ‘quality education for all’ is not far awayprovided we are able to use a multimedia approachin creation and packaging of knowledge.
CEMCA has been promoting creation andutilization of Open Educational Resources (OER)by the partner institutions in commonwealthAsia.We have also been stressing and supportingmultimedia approach to creation of OERs andlaunch of OER Repositories. Two suchrepositories were launched in India, during the lasttwo months, at NSOU, Kolkata and OSOU,Sambalpur. We are also looking for other partnerinstitutions in Commonwealth Asia for similarinitiatives. ODL institutions in CommonwealthAsia are seriously working to create educationalresources but time and resources available aremaking it hard for them to match the demand. Allof them are working individually at times resultingin duplication of effort. It may serve a purpose towork collectively and pool the resources. CEMCA,therefore, has proposed to create a Consortium, ofOpen and Distance Learning Institutions, for easysharing of quality educational resources andcourses. This will multiply our efforts to reach avast majority of students at an affordable cost,and find the “brightest minds in the country” forsustainable development.
2
Guest Column...
Leveraging ICT for access to quality highereducation in India
Dr. (Mrs.) Pankaj Mittal
Preamble
The Indian higher education hasgrown exponentially over the lastseveral years with students enrolmenttouching 32 million. Still the GER ofIndia is about 24.6%, which is muchlower as compared to GER rangingfrom 60-70% in the developedcountries. However, with increase inthe school pass-outs due to manypositive policy initiatives taken by theGovernment of India, the GER wouldsoon be touching 30%. Thismassification of higher educationbrings along with it certain issues, whichwe will refer to as the pentagon puzzle of
higher education, bringing forth theissues of equity, relevance, quality,
management and financing. The issue ishow to leverage ICT in solving thispentagon puzzle.
Launch of NMEICT by GOI
The GOI launched the ambitious NationalMission on ICT (NMEICT) in 2009, foremploying technology to provideconnectivity, along with provision formultiple access devices, to institutionsand learners; and for content generation.Under the Mission, more than 810 onlinecourses in various disciplines ofengineering and science have beendeveloped. Over 126 Virtual Labs in nineEngineering & Science disciplines,comprising more than 770 experiments arecurrently ready for use and available. 1500Spoken Tutorials and a large number ofcourses for design have also been createdwhich can be accessed on the Sakshatportal at www.sakshat.ac.in. Under theNMEICT scheme, a total of 403Universities have been connectedthrough 1 gbps optical fiber~ and 22026Colleges so far have been connected with10 mbps bandwidth. Using thisconnectivity, access is being provided tomore than 6,000 e-journals andapproximately 31 lakh e-books to degreecolleges except professional collegesimparting education in engineering,management, medical, nursing, pharmacyand dentistry, under the N-LISTprogramme.
e- PG Pathshala programme of UGC
Under the NMEICT project, the UGC wasentrusted with the responsibility ofdeveloping of e-content in 77 subjects atpostgraduate level to create high quality,curriculum-based, interactive content indifferent subjects across disciplines ofsocial sciences, arts, fine arts &humanities, natural & mathematicalsciences and linguistics andlanguages. The volume of work involvedwas enormous. Each subject involveddeveloping e-content for about 16 papers.Each paper comprised of 35-40 modules to
3
cover 40 hours of teaching duration.Each module was to be developed in fourquadrants consisting of textual andaudio-visual components. First quadrantdefines the course structure along withtext comprising of basic description of amodule, prerequisites (in terms ofknowledge background of a user beforetaking-up a module), detailed textualcontent on the topic/module withexamples. The second quadrantcomprises of multimedia enrichment ofcontent that may include videoclips of about 30 minutesduration, animations,simulations, virtual labs, etc.The third quadrant provideslinks for external resourcesavailable on the Web as well assupporting material like Pointsto Ponder, Glossary, FAQs,other websites, blogs,discussion forum, etc. Fourthquadrant includes the selfassessment material andevaluation questions indifferent formats like multiplechoice questions, true & falsestatements, etc.
This voluminous projectinvolved about 77 PIs or subject matterexperts from more than 44 HEIs all overthe country, including CentralUniversities, State Universities and
Institutions of National Importance eachof whom were assisted by a teamcomprising of 400-500 persons including16 Paper Coordinators, about 300-400Content Writers, about 10-15 ContentReviewers, 2-3 language Editors, amultimedia team of about 40 membersconsisting of graphic designers, videoeditors, camera persons, animators,Instructional designers etc. Hence, a totalof about 3000-4000 experts were involvedin producing this quality e-content.
The e-content is hosted onthe epgp.inflibnet.ac.in website ofINFLIBNET, an Inter University Center ofUGC with a e-PMS platform whichprovides all stakeholders to interact anddisplay current status of development for
each subject. The system provides for theprofile creation of each team member;management of paper / syllabus creationand display assignment of each teammember, updation on work progress madefor each module; report generation and other important documents. The studentsand teachers can use this e-content as anOpen Educational Resource (OER) or asresource material in a Flipped Classroom model where, in contrast to theconventional classroom teaching, thestudents watch the video lecture/studymaterial at home and classroom is usedfor discussions and critical thinkingincluding discussion/problem solving andassignments with the help of teachers andpeers. As on date 12,800 e-texts and10,909 videos in 74 subjects have beenuploaded on the website. It is hearteningto know that the website is very popularamongst students and 27.98 lakh visitorsfrom India and abroad have visited thewebsite till date. The videos are alsoavailable on Youtube and are beingviewed in large numbers by students,teachers, researchers and otherstakeholders while providing constantfeedback on the quality.
Journey to MOOCS
In 2016, the MHRD felt that the e-contentdeveloped can be repurposed into fullfledged Massive Open Online Courses(MOOCs) courses and requested UGC todevise mechanism for converting e-content into the MOOCs Courses toprovide seamless integration ofconventional education with MOOCsthrough SWAYAM platform (Study Webof Active Learning by Young andAspiring Minds an indigenous ITplatform for hosting these courses. Thecourses thus developed will benefitlifelong learners, students, teachers,homemakers and researchers to usemultimedia on anytime, anywhere basisfor acquiring knowledge and skills.MHRD identified eight NationalCoordinators for developing MOOCsfrom School to PhD level on the
4
SWAYAM platform - NCERT for schooleducation from 9th to 12th; NIOS for outof school children from 9th to 12th;Consortium for EducationalCommunication(CEC), an IUC of UGC, forNon-technology UG programmes; UGCfor Non-technology PG programmes;IGNOU for Diploma and Certificateprogrammes; NPTEL for Technical/Engineering UG & PG degreeprogrammes; IIM for managementprogrammes and NITTR, Chennai forTeacher Training programmes.
The UGC trained the PIs forrepurposing MOOCs wherein the PIs hadto develop introductory modulesdefining the course design, pre-qualifications for taking the course,introductory video, assessmentprocedure, credits to be awarded, startingdate/ending date, and expected learningoutcomes of the course. Besidesthis, self-assessment modules, quizzesand tests, weekly assessments, anddiscussion forums had to beincorporated.
Regulations on MOOCs
After the development of MOOCs course,the next issue was to give credibility tothese courses in the formal system ofhigher education. A strong need was feltto allow credit transfer based onsuccessful completion of these courses.
For this, UGC (Credit Framework forOnline Learning Courses throughSWAYAM) Regulation, 2016 were issuedon 19th July, 2016. The regulations clearlydefined the roles of the parent institution,i.e. institution opting for MOOCs courseson SWAYAM and the Host Institutionfrom which the PI offered the MOOCscourse.
The regulations stipulated that onlinelearning courses will be made available onthe SWAYAM platform and be notifiedevery year on 1st June and 1st November.A student studying at a recognizedinstitute anywhere in the country andhaving cleared the online course throughSWAYAM, would be awarded credits tobe transferred from the Host Institute tothe ParentInstitute wherethe student isstudying. Up to20% of the totalcourses beingoffered in aparticularprogram couldbe optedthroughMOOCs. Thehost institutionand the PIwould evaluatethe students
based on predefined norms and theparent Institution will incorporate themarks/grade obtained by the student, inthe final marks sheet. In subjects wherelab experiments or practicals are involved,the parent institution will evaluate thestudent and incorporate these marks/grade in the overall marks/grade. Acertificate regarding successfulcompletion of the MOOCs course wouldbe issued through the Host Institutionand sent to the Parent Institution.
Launching of MOOCs
UGC has developed 72 MOOC non-technology courses for PG level in firstphase which are being hosted on theSWAYAM platform on a pilot basis. The
universities have been apprised ofthe MOOCs Courses uploaded onSWAYAM with a request to initiate actionfor introduction of MOOCs courses afterapproval of their academic/statutorybodies. Most of the universities havewelcomed the idea and are in the processof identifying courses and gettingapproval from their statutory bodieswhich is a very encouraging sign. A softlaunch of the SWAYAM platform wasdone on November 16, 2016. Currently,there are 350 courses running on theplatform.
5
DTH: SWAYAM-PRABHA
“SWAYAM Prabha” is another initiativeof MHRD for disseminating the audio-visual content developed as part of e-Content and MOOCS through 32 Direct-To-Home (DTH) educational TV channels.These channels are broadcastingeducational content in diverse disciplinesthroughout the day, allowing the studentsto choose the time of his/her conveniencefor watching these videos. Contenttelecast covers all levels of educationfrom school education till postgraduateeducation.
Outcome of the TechnologyEnabled Learning Initiatives
As mentioned in the beginning, thetechnology enabled learning will help usto solve the pentagon puzzle of highereducation. The issues of relevance andquality would be addressed throughquality e-content made available to thestudents in the form of ePGPathshala(OER & Flipped Classroom model). TheDTH videos being telecast throughSWAYAMPRABHA would address theissue of equity by reaching to studentsand learners in remotest corners of thecountry. Technology enabled learninginitiatives would go a long way in cuttingdown costs of building infrastructure in the form of brick and mortar class rooms,thereby addressing the problem offinancing of higher education. The onlinecontent will also address the problem ofmanagement of faculty shortage inuniversities and colleges, by providingstudents with the best quality facultyfrom all over the country.
Summing up, OER, MOOCs and DTHwould provide students and teachers withdifferent approaches to learning andinnovation in teaching, and optimallyusing the resources and time on hand.The project would also help the studentsand teachers to update their knowledgeand skills especially for those located in
rural/backward/remote areas and wouldsuccessfully bridge the digital divide and
References
• Initiatives and Achievements of Ministry of Human Resource Development , PressInformationBureau, (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=155999)accessed on 23/05/17
• http://nlist.inflibnet.ac.in/about.php (accessed on 23/05/17)
• http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/
• http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/pdf/Guidelines_Final.pdf
• http://www.sakshat.ac.in/officeDocumentUploaded/2016-04-11/GuidelinesforDevelopmentandImplementationofMOOCsOn11.03.2016.pdf
• http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/0272836_moocs.pdf
Acknowledgement:
Dr. Diksha Rajput, Publication Officer, University Grants Commission (UGC)Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi for the academic and technical support tocomplete this Guest Column….. and can be reached atdiksharajput[at]gmail[dot]com
Dr. (Mrs.) Mittal is working as Additional Secretary in University Grants Commission(UGC) Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, INDIA. She also worked as ViceChancellor of BPS Women University, Haryana, INDIA. She can be reachedatpankajugc[at]gmail[dot]com
would help the nation move towards aninformation-rich society.
6
Spotlight
New age ODL pedagogies for Digital India:The SMU Way
Dr. Anuradha Parasar and Dr. Manoj Kumar Nagasampige
‘Digital India’ has been envisioned as anambitious umbrella program to transformIndia into a digitally empowered societyand knowledge economy. Today, Indiahas more than 400 million mobile internetusers. Children and youth in India havebecome increasingly technology-driven,revealing considerable potential andreadiness to imbibe and learn using digitalmedia. Therefore, there is a need torevamp current educational approachesand implement innovative technologyenabled pedagogies, which enable digitallearning. Sikkim Manipal University usesthe innovative and leading edgeeducational approaches, by activelydesigning, developing and implementingindustry oriented courses.
Sikkim Manipal University (SMU) is aunique Public-Private Partnershipbetween the Government of Sikkim andManipal Education and Medical
Group.The University was established in1995 by an act of the state legislative andis recognized by University GrantsCommission (UGC) under section-2 (f) of
the UGC act 1956. SMU commencedprograms in distance education in 2001 bysetting up the Directorate of DistanceEducation (DDE). Through SMU-DDE, itoffers distance education programs invarious disciplines to cater theeducational needs of workingprofessionals.
Technology Enabled Learning:
SMU leveraged the key capability ofdigital India-mobileinternet penetrationand introducedinnovativetechnologyenabledOpen andDistance Learning(ODL) pedagogies tosuit the learningstyles andpreferences ofpresent day learners.SMU provideslearning resourcesvia EduNxt-LearningManagement System(LMS) as
supplementary material to distancelearners of the digital India.
EduNxt is the next generation learning
7
Dr. (Mrs.) Parasar is the Deputy Director at Directorate of Distance Education, SikkimManipal University, Gangtok and she can be reached at anuradha [dot]parasar[at]smudde [dot]edu[dot]in
Dr. Nagasampige is a Professor at Directorate of Distance Education, Sikkim ManipalUniversity, Gangtok and he can be reached atmanojkumar[dot]nagasampige[at]smudde[dot]edu[dot]in
system that takes advantage of modernteaching techniques to create a virtualclassroom, where students come togetherto learn from distinguished faculty andfrom each other. The EduNxt platform isan easy to use delivery system. It createsa collaborative and interactiveenvironment for learning and includessmall group mentoring, virtualclassrooms, simulation, self-studycontent, recorded presentations andshared browsing. EduNxt functions onthe principle of 3 As + 4 Cs. The 3 As ofAffordability, Accessibility andAppropriateness are the guidelines toscaling up EduNxt across distributedlearning. The 4 Cs of Content,Collaboration, Communication andComputing are the basis of developingEduNxt into a means of disseminatingeducation among the not-so-privileged orthe infrastructurally–challenged learners.
M-Learning:
SMU’s EduNxt Mobile Learning Appprovides learning opportunities on thego. The App helps learners:
• get a visual overview of theirprogress in all subjects
• easy access to instructor ledvideos that truly enable learninganytime and anywhere
• recap the lessons learnt
• for last minute revisions,summary cards come in handy
• are able to assess theirknowledge of the lessons learntthrough quizzes
• make learning fun bychallenging their peers to thesequizzes, ensuring better learningof concepts for all.
SMU is providing education to the peopleof northeast and other parts of thecountry, continuously empowering
people and transforming lives. All effortsof SMU are aimed to provide the studentswith the best-in-class academic deliveryand highest level of convenience andflexibility keeping in mind therequirements of a working professional.SMU believes that technology driven
new age ODL pedagogies can transformIndia by leveraging the Digital IndiaInitiative and help in achieving UnitedNation’s Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) –”Ensure inclusive and equitablequality education and promote life-longlearning opportunities for all”.
8
Regional Round Up
International Conference on Quality andAccess through ICT in Higher Education
Under the agesis of the E-QUAL project,British Council in partnership with AllIndia Council for Technical Education(AICTE) organised an internationalconference on Quality and Accessthrough ICT in Higher Education on 11May, 2017 at New Delhi. EQUAL is aEuropean Union funded project beingimplemented by four university partnersfrom India and two from EU with BritishCouncil in the lead.
The objective of the conference was toexplore the potential of emerging learningtechnologies and delivery systems; fosterintegrated modes of thinking; ponderover ways to improve quality and accessthrough ICT in Higher Education; and todeliberate upon policies needed tointegrate non-traditional teaching in theUniversity system.
The inaugural session was graced byAlan Gemmell, Director, British Council,Prof. Anil Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman,AICTE, Mr. R. Subhramanyam, Additional
on issues ranging from innovativeteaching and learning pedagogies, onlineand OER policy for higher education andgovernance and international relations inhigher education. The speakers at theconference were from MHRD, AICTE,UGC, CEMCA, IGNOU, EuropeanCommission, King’s College London,University of Bologna, IIT Mumbai,University of Hyderabad, JadavpurUniversity.
The session on innovative teaching andlearning pedagogies focussed on newmodes of teaching, learning, coursedelivery, and assessments in highereducation. The focus was on learningabout practices related to institutionalchange, quality assurance, internationalcollaboration and the latest trends inonline, open and flexible learning with anaim to discover new strategies to improvestudent learning outcomes.
Speakers from UK, EU and India sharedtheir experience on online and OER policyfor higher education. It was felt across theboard that open IPR policy is the need ofthe hour. The deliberations also touchedupon the issue of governance in highereducation and therequirement to removebarriers to make learning accessible,abundant and customised by better andflexible governance and throughinternational collaboration.
Secretary (TE), MHRD and Johann Hesse,Counsellor and Head of Cooperation,European Commission. The speakers atthe inaugural emphasised upon the use oftechnology in education and itsimportance to increase access and quality.ICT is a means to spread equalopportunity and democratising education.
The keynote session was given byProfessor Deepak Pathak from IITMumbai. Professor Deepak spoke aboutthe policy on MOOCs and its operationalissues. He highlighted five focus areas foronline teaching and learning
1. Learner Centric Approach
2. Co-option of Stakeholders
3. Promote the use of LMS/CMS
4. Skilling
5. Research
All the major stakeholders were a part ofthe day-long conference and deliberated
9
National Seminar cum workshop onDevelopment and Implementation of OERs inForeign Languages in Indian Context
The Centre for Study ofForeign Languages (CSFL),University of Hyderabad hasconducted Two-Day NationalSeminar cum workshop on“Development andImplementation of OERs inforeign languages in IndianContext” during 30-31 March,2017. The aim of the workshopwas to evaluate existing OpenEducational Resources (OERs)and Online Courses (OCs) so as to designthese courses for the Indian learners. Thisis very much required because Govt. ofIndia under Digital India program isactively promoting e-education throughSWAYAM program. The challenge fordeveloping OERs and OCs lies in the factthat the Learners in India are multilingualand multicultural. Such seminar is first ofits kind in India.
The workshop was attended by thescholars in foreign languages fromdifferent parts of the country. Welcomingthe participants, Prof. J. Prabhakar Rao,Director, e-Learning Centre and Head
Centre for Study of foreign languages,highlighted the paradigm shift fromtraditional mode of pedagogy to e-pedagogy. Prof. Rajiv Saxena,Chairperson, CSPILAS from JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi in hisKeynote address on “A paradigm shift inpedagogy: education through ICT”mentioned about developing OERs inforeign languages especially in Spanishunder e-pathsala program. During 2 Dayworkshop, scholars in different foreignlanguages such as German, French,Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Russianpresented papers on evaluating existingOERs in different foreign languages,
OERs and MOOCs etc. Two speciallectures were also organized on licensingand copyright and OERs in 21st centuryby Mr. Kumar Jaganmaya Jagjeet, ProjectTechnologist, India-EU Project and Mr. K.Laxmi Sekhar, Goethe Centrum,
Hyderabad, respectively.
After detailed and longdeliberations, the participants ofthe workshop have come upwith a common format fordeveloping OERs and OCs forbeginners in foreign languages.A 20 hr module in the abovementioned foreign languageswas also designed. Theworkshop has finally made thefollowing recommendations:
1. To develop a common format ofmodules for developing OERs andOCs in foreign languages atdifferent levels.
2. To have a collaborative approachfor designing OERs for foreignlanguages in Indian context.
3. To formulate Guidelines fordeveloping MOOCs in foreignlanguages and submit the same toMHRD, Govt. of India.
The two-day workshop was concluded byMr. Ranjeeva Ranjan, CSFL, University ofHyderabad.
OERs & OCs: Preparation andDevelopment
The teachers training workshop on OERs& OCs: Preparation and Developmentwas conducted on 17th and 18th March bye-Learning Centre, UoHin collaborationwith India-EU Project E-QUAL and UPE-II, University of Hyderabad. The e-Learning centre, which was establishedunder OEP-2016, UoH is workingvigorously on OERs and MOOCs. It is
also regularly organizing workshops onCapacity Building.Hence, theaim of theworkshop is to improve SME’sunderstanding and delivery of technologybased instruction methods forclassrooms, and on use of specifictechnology products to supportcollaborative and interactive learning.This training will be complemented by
sessions on assessment. The workshopwas attended by 30 teachers fromUniversity of Hyderabad.
The inauguration session of theworkshop was inaugurated by Prof. B. P.Sanjay, Pro-Vice Chancellor-1, Universityof Hyderabad. He mentioned in hisspeech that the University is planning toimplement enhanced technology inpedagogy and this workshop willdefinitely contribute towards thispurpose.
10
Prof. J. Prabhakar Rao, faculty coordinatorin his welcome speech highlighted thesignificance of OERs and their use inpedagogy. He also stressed that “All
teachers now became students and learnhow to design online courses.
Prof. Stylianos Hatzipanagos from KCL,started the sessions, with the definition ofOER, its usage and awareness. He
discussed on the challenges andopportunities involved in developingOERs. He demonstrated some of the casestudies which includes the challengingphases of OERs.
Ms. Maria Fragkaki talked aboutdesigning OERs according to MOOCs.She mentioned that there is not a hugechange in the way teaching is done today,but there are some innovations which areproposed that can change the way onelearns. Among the wide-ranging apps,
sites, learning management systems,flashcard creators, and content archivesbring this change. There are better waysto motivate learner with the use of internet
technology.
E-QUAL team ofeducation expertsinvestigated the vastarray of online learningtools to create this listbest, most innovativeonline tools that wethink will change theeducation space.
Dr. Pradeep Koul, Sr.Consultant MHRDdelivered a lecture on
MOOCs policy of GoI on development ofOERs. He also explained the process andway of funding of the courses for MOOCsfrom MHRD, Govt. of India.
The summing up session was taken byProf. StylianosHatzipanagos andProf. Atul Negitodiscuss the real-time challenges onimplementation ofOERs and blendedlearning.
The Day twostarted with somelive and hand-onsessions by Prof.Stylianos
Hatzipanagos. During this session he alsoexplained about innovative teaching andlearning tools used for MOOCs and e-learning. Mr. Kumar Jaganmaya Jagajeet.,Project Technologist, Project E-QUAL,University of Hyderabad, spoke ondifferent licenses for content was theagenda of the session where as use ofopen license and creative commons wasthe major part of the session.
The post lunch session was thedemonstration of different aspects of “E-QUAL Project” by Ms. Parul Gupta,British Council. She demonstrated OERson project website and discussed thechallenges involved on developing theOERs in E-QUAL Project. The eventclosed with certificate distribution byProf. Stylianos Hatzipanagos and a warmthanking session by Prof. R. Siva Prasad.
11
CEMCA News
Capacity Enhancement Programme for ODLTeachers on Creation of OER for BlendedLearning
Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA) and Bangladesh OpenUniversity (BOU) under their joint OERinitiatives convened a three-day“Capacity Enhancement Programme (CEP)on Open Education Resources for BOUacademics” at BOU eLearning Center,Gazipur Bangladesh. This activity is a partof implementation of CEMCA-BOUProject entitled “OER Policy andImplementation of Blended Approach for
teaching-learning at BOU”. Mr. Abu NaserMd. Tofail Hossain, Ms. Kazi SharminPamela, and Ms. Romana Kader faculties ofthe BOU facilitated the training. Thirty ODLteachers of BOU participated in the handson training on searching and creating OERfor blended learning.
Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi of CEMCAfacilitated the hands on training along withMaster Trainers of BOU. In the inauguralsession, Dr. Panigrahi expressed deep
concerns related to OER practice forbetter learning at BOU. He said that theuniversity authority should encouragethe faculty members to develop OERculture in the university and scale upfurther to academic counsellors, tutors atregional centers and study centres of theuniversity. Prof. Sufia Begum, Chair of theSession, cited that on one handeverything is going online and on theother hand, opponents of distanceeducation have been disregarding thedegrees earned through eLearning. Md.Mizanoor Rahman, the Team Leader of theCEMCA-BOU OER Project stated theobjectives of the CEP for academics andpresented the progress of the project.
In the inaugural address Sabina Yeasmin,BOU mentioned that the “Pedagogicaltransformation through open Educationalresources at Bangladesh Open Universityis not an option, it is imperative to beincorporated in the BOU system. OpenEducational Resources are valuable forBOU and students in terms of energizingteaching and learning at low cost andlaying the groundwork for HigherEducation (HE) programmes that meetsemployers’ needs. The workshop focusedon the Concept of OER, OER policystatements of the university, openlicenses including creative commons,reuse and remix of OER and contributionand strengthens of BOU OER repository.Three-day workshop comprised varioushands on practice sessions including thepre-workshop and post-workshop test.
Open Educational Resource Policy andImplementation Strategies for PSSOUChhattisgarhPandit Sundarlal Sharma Open UniversityChhattisgarh, Bilaspur in collaborationwith CEMCA, New Delhi organised a twodays’ workshop on Understanding ofOpen Educational Resource policies and
implementation strategies from April 12-13, 2017. A total of 34 participantsincluding Vice-Chancellor, Registrar,Finance Officer, Exam controller, 12Faculties, 1 Computer Programmer, 15
Program coordinators and 2 RegionalCoordinators of Pandit Sundarlal SharmaOpen University Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur,participated in this workshop.
While inaugurating the workshop Prof. B.G. Singh, Vice Chancellor, Pandit SundarlalSharma Open University Chhattisgarh,emphasized the need for improving thequality of higher education in DistanceEducation. He appreciated the role of
12
eContentDevelopment UsingOER for QualityLearning
CEMCA in providing the assistance inorganizing this workshop. Dr. ManasRanjan Panigrahi, Program officer,CEMCA enlightened the participants onthe goals of the workshop to understandthe Open Educational Resources (OER)and OER policy for the university.
This two-day workshop involvedunderstanding of OER Quality,understanding of Open Licenses andAttributes, hands on practice forsearching OERs and browsing for OERRepository, discussion on proposed OERpolicy of Pandit Sundarlal Sharma Open
University Chhattisgarh,examining the learningoutcomes of the OER-basedeLearning course; exploringthe concepts on OER, OpenSource, Open Learning andOpen Access in line with thelearning outcomes, andmoderating discussion in anonline learning environment.Convener Mr. ReshamlalPradhan presented theproposed OER policy for theinstitution. Participants ofthe workshop explored
strategic and operational plan forimplementing OER policy in institution toprovide better learning opportunity forthe learners. Participants were exposed totheoretical as well as practical applicationof the OER through hands-on-practicesessions.
Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA) and Central Universityof Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) organised aworkshop for teachers on eContentDevelopment using OER from 19th to 21stApril, 2017, at CUHP Dharmshala,Himachal Pradesh. The workshop startedwith an introduction and the participantsengaged in a 3-day hands on training todevelop and manage eContents to delivercontent digitally to their learners. Thepurpose of this workshop was to providehands-on training to the faculty membersof the University in order to expedite theprocess of e-content generation usingMoodle platform as a part of theUniversity’s OER policy. A total of 36participants actively participated in theworkshop where 25 were university
teachers from 10 departments and 11 werefrom IT support group. With the help ofthis workshop 25 teachers will develop 25courses of 10 PG programmes and willoffer them through online platforms innext academic semester i.e. July –December 2017. Dr. Manas RanjanPanigrahi, Program Officer Education,CEMCA, New Delhi and Dr. IndiraKoneru, OER content development expertbased inHyderabadfacilitated thethree-daytrainingprogramme.
The workshopwasinaugurated bythe honourableVice-Chancellorof theUniversity,ProfessorKuldeep ChandAgnihotri.
During his inaugural address, he praisedCEMCA for extending support forestablishing OER Cell at the University andalso appreciated CEMCA for this newinitiative on OER implementation atUniversity. He also expressed hope that theUniversity may establish an OER Centreupgrading OER Cell in the coming future. Dr.Indira Koneru demonstrated the features ofMoodle as a Learning Management System
13
Launching of NSOU OER Repository andInnovative Course on Inclusive Education
(LMS). The participants were providedopportunity to develop their respectivecourses after demonstrating thefollowing: Editing & updating profile;Understanding course page & editingcontrols; Editing course settings;Recording video (PPT); Publishing onYouTube and embedding the same inMoodle; Creating and gradingassignment; Creating forum and enablingpeer rating; Administering Quiz;Communicating with students; Managing
gradebook; and Course backup andrestore. The participants started topractice the various features of Moodlerequired to develop their eContents usinglearning by doing approach.
Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi facilitatedtwo sessions on using and developmentof OER. After a detailed discussion on theconcepts relating to OER and variousopen licenses, the participants wereengaged in development of an OER in
OER Commons. They were also trained toadd resources and embed OER to MoodleLMS. After the workshop the participantsare expected to develop e- learningcourses under the aegis of OER Cell of theUniversity and CEMCA.
The workshop concluded on 21st April,2017 with an encouraging valedictoryaddress by the Chief Guest of the session,Professor Y. S. Verma, Pro Vice-Chancellorof the University.
Netaji Subhas Open University (NSOU),Kolkata launched the NSOU OERRepository and An Innovative Course onInclusive Education in “NationalConvention on Emanating Issues &Priorities in Teacher Education”, held atNSOU Kolkata on 12th May, 2017.Around 60 Principals, DepartmentalHeads, Senior faculty membersparticipated. The attempt on behalf ofSoE, NSOU was taken for qualityenhancement of the system so that the in-house faculties as well as the otherstakeholders can accrue benefit from it.
In this occasion the formal launch ofNSOU OERRepository and An innovativeCourse on Inclusive Education performedby Prof. Subha Sankar Sarkar, Hon’bleVice-Chancellor of Netaji Subhas OpenUniversity and Dr. Shahid Rasool,Director, Commonwealth EducationalMedia Centre for Asia (CEMCA), NewDelhi in the presence of Prof. NageshwarRao, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor,Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani,Uttarakhand; Prof. Mita Banerjee, Hon’bleVice Chancellor, West Bengal Universityof Teachers’ Training, Education,
Planning and Administration, Kolkata,Prof. A. M. Moorthy, Hon’ble ViceChancellor, Tamil Nadu PhysicalEducation Sports University & chairmanof NCTE Curriculum Committee; Prof.Srikanta Mahapatra, Hon’ble ViceChancellor, Odisha State Open University,Sambalpur, Odisha and SwamiTattwasaranandaji Maharaj, Principal,Ramakrishna Mission Sikshan Mandir,Belur Math. This event marks theeffective association of NSOU andCEMCA in the spotlight. The aim of thelaunch is to have an increased attentiontowards the resulting of CEMCA-NSOUprojects entitled “OER Initiatives for ICTenabled Programme of Netaji SubhasOpen University” and “An innovative
14
eContentDevelopment forMobile Learning
course on Inclusive Education throughblended learning approach” in support ofCommonwealth Educational Media Centreof Asia (CEMCA). On this session it wasreflected that the launch will be attract asmany people from learned society aspossible.
• After the formal launch of NSOU-OER repository basic actions andfeatures was elaborated by theProject Co-ordinators Ms. BarnaliRoy Choudhury and Dr. Anirban
Ghosh. NSOU-OER repository isfacilitating its service beyond theinstitution. This repository isavailable on the web at<nsouoer.krc.net.in>.
• An innovative Course on InclusiveEducation (SoE-NSOU-CEMCAProject) for different stakeholders tooffer in blended mode was alsoannounced formally on thisoccasion. Dr. Sumanta Chattaraj,Project Director added that at this
juncture, it is heartening thatCEMCA and SoE, NSOU have cometogether to offer an impactfulcertificate course programme “Oncapacity building and professionaldevelopment of teachers and teachereducators for successfulimplementation of inclusiveness”.The Course will be offered throughLMS (Learning ManagementSystem) and will follow a multimediaapproach with SLM, PPT and Audio– Visual materials.
CEMCA-NSOU organised a three-dayCapacity Building Workshop on e-content development as a prelude to theproject titled “Vocational Education &Training offering through MobileLearning: An Innovative ODL Approach”on 18-20 May 2017 at Netaji Subhas OpenUniversity (NSOU), Kolkata. Theobjective of the present project is to offertwo innovative courses “Diploma in Pre-primary Teachers’ Education Montessoriand Tailoring & Dress Designing” usingWeb and Mobile App. For this particularproject the School has to develop e-content of the course materials (non-printversion/ digital version) as well as the A/V lectures compatible to Mobile App.
The subject experts of differentdisciplines were invited to attend thethree day workshop who will be involvedin the development of e-content. Thirtyparticipants (14 Female and 16 Male)attended the programme.
Dr. Anirban Ghosh, Project Coordinatorand Associate Professor, NSOU in hiswelcome address, described the ODL asopen and digital learning instead of openand distance learning. Dr. Manas R.Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCAintroduced the theme and highlighted the
objectives of the present project. Thecapacity building workshop wasinaugurated by Dr. P. K. Das MemberSecretary, West Bengal State Council ofHigher Education, Govt. of West Bengaland former Managing Director of WEBEL.Dr. Das in his inaugural addresshighlighted the merits and limitations ofon-line learning and different open sourcesoftware. Mr. Anirban Guha, Former Dy.Director of CDAC, Kolkata and former Sr.Scientist of BARC stressed upon to usethe ICT extensively for the benefit of oursociety. Dr. Nisha Singh, Dy. Director,IGNOU acted as the Resource Person forCOL-CEMCA highlighted in the inauguralsession the expected outcome of the threeday workshop. Professor Subha SankarSarkar, Vice-Chancellor, NSOU in hispresidential address discussed about theUniversity’s activities for ICT enabled
courses. Professor Sarkar also conveyedhis sincere thanks to CEMCA for theirwhole hearted support for variousprojects.
The three-day workshop was divided invarious sessions like; OER: Introduction;Searching for OER; Instructional Design:AIDDE; e-content scripting; ConceptMapping using FreeMind; Multimediacomponents: Audio-Audacity;Wikieducator: Developing contentcollaboratively; eXe- E-contentDeveloping Tool; Online Assessment:Hot Potatoes. All the sessions involvedactivity/hands-on training in which theparticipants did their work on their ownwith the help of the resource persons.Atthe end, each group presented their e-content developed by them with the helpof software.
15
Science for Women’sHealth & Nutrition:2016-2017In the year 2016, CEMCA carried out thefifth phase of the project “Science forWomen’s Health and Nutrition” catalysedand supported by the National Councilfor Science & TechnologyCommunication (NCSTC), Department ofScience & Technology, in fourteenCommunity Radio Stations across India.The project aims to reach out to thewomen of the marginalized sections of thesociety (in poorly literate as well asliterary challenged sections), both in theurban and rural sectors across thecountry, to increase their awareness andknowledge about health issues and theirlocally possible solutions through themeans of community radio. Throughparticipatory programmes speciallydesigned with specific issues in focusand using the community in participatoryforms of radio-programming, this projecttries to study how best women can beencouraged to take benefits of scienceand scientific knowledge in daily life.
CEMCA, being the nodal agency, with itsexpertise in research, communityparticipation and capacity building hasplayed an extensive role regarding the
implementation and monitoring theproject. The project has been designedand implemented in three stages namely,Baseline Study, Capacity Building andContent Creation. CEMCA appointedexperts for administering the three crucialcomponents and provided support to therespective CR stations for strengtheningthe operations of this ambitiousendeavour.
CEMCA experts, Ms. Shirley Deepak, Dr.Rajendra Mishra and Dr. SushmitaMalaviya, carried out the baselinesurveys in order to gauge the problemsand needs of women located in thelistening zone of fourteen CR stations. On
completion of this, CEMCA embarked onthe capacity building activity ofcommunity women with a view tofacilitating them in programme productionon the identified topics which emerged asa sequel to the analysis of baselinesurvey. A total of 140 programmes wereproduced during the entire project underthe guidance of 20 capacity building andcontent creation experts and about 140other experts who were part of theAdvisory Committee for the project.
The reports for the fourteen CR stationshave been prepared and printed alongwith a consolidated report with a focusedanalysis of priority areas where the CRstations need to work.
Launch of Repair Guru eContenteContent for training people on Mobile Handset Repairing waslaunched on May 20, 2017 by Focal Skills in the augustpresence of Dr. Shahid Rasool, Director, CEMCA and MajorGeneral Mr P. N. Monga, Regional Head, Telecom Sector SkillCouncil. The content was launched as a mobile applicationbranded as “Repair Guru – Focal Skills”.
Repair Guru is also a chain of Electronic Gadget repair andservicing, created by Focal Skills with its operations in Punjab.Mr. Parveen Bansal, CEO, Focal Skill Development Pvt. Ltd.has plans to spread operations in north India in the comingyear. Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia
(CEMCA) and Telecom Sector Skill Council have supportedthis initiative which is directed towards capacity building ofpeople engaged in Mobile Repair and Servicing sector.
Repair Guru App is now available on Google play store, foranybody who wants to benefit from the content. Dr. Rasool,congratulated Focal Skills for having brought this innovativemodel of becoming self-sustainable by closely tying skillingwith entrepreneurship.
The event was attended by about 100 mobile handset repairtechnicians and entrepreneurs. There was presentation by Mr.Jeta who has developed the mobile app, explaining variousfeatures of the app. Maj. Gen. P. N. Monga was pleased toannounce that this content will be made available to all TSSC
16
affiliated training partners through the TSSC portal. During thelaunch event, three best spokes of Focal Skills were awardedmementoes recognizing their good work. The function was followedby lunch. In the afternoon Dr. Rasool, Maj Gen Monga and Ms.Mishra visited the Repair Guru hub and about 8 of its spokes in thevillages surrounding Derabassi and created awareness not onlyabout Repair Guru but also related to Open Schooling andRecognition of Prior Learning. This intervention will be followed upby 5 entrepreneurship development workshops aimed at reaching250 youth and making more people interested in self-employment.Focal Skills is going to set up a helpline aimed at hand holdingyouth, especially women, for setting up their own business.
Community RadioVideo Challenge 2017Film Screening and Award Ceremony washeld in India International Centre, NewDelhi for the 4th edition of CommunityRadio Video Challenge (CRVC).Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia had announced the fourthedition of CRVC for all students pursuingUG/PG/Diploma inmedia. The theme forCRVC 2017 was“Community Radiofor SustainableDevelopment” withan objective ofengaging Indianyouth withcommunity radio(CR), creatingawareness, andfostering anunderstanding ofCR’s importance for the self-expression,learning and development of localcommunities.
CEMCA received 50 entries from all overIndia in various regional languages rightfrom Kashmiri to Malayalam. A panel wasconstituted internally to scrutinize thefilms and check for eligibility of the films.Of the 50 entries, 30 short films fulfilled allthe required criteria of acceptance whichwere presented to a panel ofdistinguished jury who further evaluated
them on the following four parameters:Overall impact (persuasive, informational,educational), Originality and creativity(concepts, ideas, format), Relevance andclarity of message & Technicalproficiency and quality. The jury met onMay 8, 2017 in India Habitat Centre, LodhiRoad, New Delhi who watched the filmscollectively and meticulously one by one,and scored each film independently. Thescores were consolidated and averaged.
The jury was chaired by Dr. Ashok Ograand had Dr. R. Sreedher as Co-Chairman.The other members on the panel were Ms.Neeti Sarkar, Director MIB, Ms. RubyKapoor, Theatre Artist, Mr. RohitSachdeva, Radio Jockey, Mr. Rakesh Khar,GM, TV 18 and Ms. Novel Lavasa, Artist& Photographer. Mr. R. Thyagarajan wasMember Secretary of the Jury.
On May 17, 2017 the films were screenedto all the participants who travelled toDelhi. Cash prizes were given to winners
from all over the country. Dr. Rasool,Director CEMCA, welcomed allparticipants and guests informing themthe three fold objective of the competition– one to create awareness about CRamong the youth, two to make youthaware of UN-SDGs and the third is toencourage the art of film making amongthe media students. Prof. Ashok Ogra,Chairman of the Jury informed thegathering about the importance and
history of CRVC.The Guest ofhonour for theoccasion SriAashish Joshi, CEOLok Sabha TVtalked about hispersonalinvolvement in CRAwarenessworkshops andoffered to screen allthe award winning
films in Lok Sabha TV. The Chief Guest forthe occasion Dr. Suresh, DG, IIMC spokepassionately about the need forCommunity Journalism and the power ofCommunity Radios. He informed thegathering that he has now mandated achapter on Community Radio in all thecurriculum of Mass Media and Journalismacross the country so that awarenessabout this tool of social developmentincreases. The vote of thanks wasproposed by Mr. Thyagarajan, HeadAdmin & Finance, CEMCA.
17
Book Review
Linking Research to Practice: Strengthening ICT forDevelopment Research Capacity in Asia
Dr. S. K. Pulist
Edited by: Arul Chib and Roger Harris
Published by: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,Singapore, 2012 (pp. i-xviv, 1-196),ISBN 978-981-4380-00-3, SB.
Year of Publication: 2012
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hasimpacted all walks of human life in the modern era. The policymakers, practitioners and academic communities are trying toharness ICT for development purposes among others. The bookunder review is the product of culmination of the collaborativeeffort of the experienced scholars and mentors under the aegis ofStrengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA), apioneering capacity development programme aimed at promotingresearch skills of budding researchers in the Asia Pacific region.The volume comprises the research findings and experiencesgained out of such collaboration. The book spread across thefour sections, presents perspectives in different categories: 1)management perspective, 2) research perspectives, 3) researchoutputs, and 4) synthesis and conclusion.
The opportunities, issues and concerns emanating from theimplementation of the SIRCA programme are covered in the firstsection. It is emphasised that the ICT for development researchshould be more on the analytical and empirical side rather thanbeing descriptive and anecdotal. As the book focuses on linkingresearch to practice, this linkage is visible in the form ofundercurrent throughout the book. The First Section on“Management Perspectives: Insiders’ thoughts on theprogramme” is spread over four chapters dealing with ICTDresearch, ICT4D and SIRCA.
The Second Section on Research Perspective; TheoreticalReflections by Experts” traversing through six chapters putsforth the reflections in the form of highlight of the key linksbetween theory and practice spread across research institutionsand professional development within the framework of ICT fordevelopment. All the chapters are woven in a way so as tocontribute to take the theme of research forward.
The Third Section throws light on the outcome of the programmeand research work done beneath the umbrella of SIRCA. The
participants agreedthat the programmehas providedconduciveenvironment forincubation of newideas beyondacademic traditions,cultural structuresand nationalboundaries. Wholeof this praxis hasgiven birth to anetwork of scholarswho come togetherwith the sole idea ofusing ICT forfueling MillenniumDevelopment Goalswhich were in voguewhen the projectwas implemented.
The Fourth Section lays emphasis on putting the research topractice though it is not easy since ‘academics and practitionersrarely associate with each other and practice is rarely able tohave influence at the policy level’, though the potential ofresearch for impact on practice should be identified which couldbe actualization of a project like SIRCA. This way knowledgewould be created gradually subjecting the existing knowledge to‘testing, validation, and criticism’. The authors have showngrave concern over fragmented approach to research as a solitaryactivity; the inertia prevailing in the research organisation; lack ofintegration of knowledge so generated to the practice; and, policyso as to effectively utilize it for training and developmentactivities. The concerns raised by the authors might be prevalentin research organisations of the like nature. The authors come tothe conclusion that mapping the research efforts on the canvas ofknowledge supply and knowledge demand among the policy andpractice communities is imperative to constitute a ‘KnowledgeAttic’. In fact the authors put forth four spaces where exchange ofknowledge can happen: Knowledge Attic; Knowledge pump:knowledge publisher; and, knowledge dialogue.
Though the book has been brought out in 2012, its relevance incurrent scenario cannot be understated. It will be a must read forthe academics, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and otherstakeholders who consider themselves as an integral part ofknowledge creator or knowledge user communities.
Dr. S. K. Pulist is working as Deputy Director, StudentRegistration Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, INDIA. He can be reachedat skpulist[at]ignou[dot]ac[dot]in
Perspectives: Harnessing thepotential of ICT for Development
18
Developing H5P-enabled Interactive Videosin Moodle
Dr. Indira Koneru
Technology Tracking
Interactivity is a necessary andfundamental mechanism for knowledgeacquisition and essential for allowing forlearner control of pace and sequence,adaptation, active participation andcommunication and cognitiveengagement for meaningfullearning (Barker, 19941; Sims, 19992). By itsvery nature, interactive content immersesstudents in ‘interactions’ (actions inbetween) that allow them to: pause,rewind, repeat and forward parts of thelearning content; explore scenarios tothink and respond; self-check theirprogress by answering questions; andreceive real-time results and feedback.Interactive content incorporates multi-sensory tools to: engage students inactive learning; promote student retentionand deeper understanding of learningcontent; and break up the monotony ofone-way lectures.
H5P-enabled LearningInteractions in Moodle
eLearning fosters three types ofinteraction: learner-instructor, learner-learner(s), and learner-content. VariousMoodle (Modular Object-OrientedDynamic Learning Environment) coremodules facilitate promoting the first twotypes of interaction, whereas the H5P<https://h5p.org/> plugin supports the‘learner-content’ interaction.
H5P Plugin
The H5P Moodle activity module <https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_hvp> allowsteachers to create reusable interactivecontent, namely, Course Presentation,Dialog Cards, Drag and Drop, Fill in theBlanks, Flash Cards, Interactive Video,Multiple Choice Question, Question SetTrue/False, Summary Questions, TwitterFeed etc. It enables teachers to share andreuse the H5P authored content andcapture assessment interactions throughMoodle Gradebook. Among the variouscontent types, the ‘Interactive Video’ and‘Course Presentation’ aid in developinginteractive lessons. The ‘InteractiveVideo’ is useful for enriching an existingvideo clip with in-video pop-ups, self-assessment questions and othermultimedia interactions, whereas the‘Course Presentation’ is useful forcreating a structured presentation withslides embedding various learninginteractions and audio narratives. Morecontent types and applications areavailable here <https://h5p.org/content-types-and-applications>.
Moodle H5P Plugin Installation
H5P is open source, HTML5 andresponsive and enables Moodlers tocreate reusable interactive content. Thefollowing steps help the MoodleAdministrators to integrate H5P authoring
tool with Moodle and to enable teachersto develop interactive content.
1. Install H5P Plugin: Like any otherMoodle plugin, install the H5P pluginin either of the following two ways:(i) Installing from the Moodleinterface or (ii) Installing manually
2. Install from within Moodle: Navigateto Site administration à Plugins àInstall plugins to install it from theMoodle interface
3. Installing manually: Download H5PModule from <https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_hvp> to install itmanually.
4. After successful installation, verifythe H5P settings, such as ‘Savecontent state’, display ‘Downloadbutton’, ‘Copyright button’ etc. andsave changes.
Creating Interactive Videos usingH5P
The H5P ‘interactive video’ is useful forenriching an existing video with in-videopop-ups, self-assessment questions andother interactions. It allows teachers tocreate adaptive assessment interactionsand students to rewind, replay andforward parts of the video and set theplayback rate. The steps detailedhereunder help teachers to createinteractive content using the H5P plugin.
1. When your Moodle course is onediting mode, pick up the H5P activitythrough ‘Add an activity or resourceà‘Activity chooser’.
2. On the ‘Adding new interactivecontent’ screen, give a name anddescription to the interactive contentand click the ‘Interactive Video’ fromthe Editor list (see Figure 1).
3. The Interactive video editor consistsof three tabs (i) Upload/embed video,(ii) Add interactions and (iii) Summarytask (see Figure 1).
4. Upload/embed video: On the ‘Upload/embed video’ tab, click the plus button
1Barker, P. (1994). Designing interactive learning. In T. de Jong & L. Sarti (Eds.), Design andproduction of multimedia and simulation-based learning material. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
2 Sims, R. (1999). Interactivity on stage: Strategies for learner-designer communication. AustralasianJournal of Educational Technology, 15(3), 257-272. Retrieved from: https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/1861
19
to upload a video file (in mp4 or webmformat) or paste a URL of a YouTubeor Vimeo Pro video. Press the ‘Editcopyright’ button to providecopyright information.
5. Add interactions: Press the ‘Addinteractions’ tab on the ‘InteractiveVideo Editor’ to add interactions.
i. Use the toolbar above the videoclip to add interactions (see Figure2). Click on an interactive elementbutton and drag and drop it on tothe video.
ii. Type in the start time and endtime in the Display time field andcheck the Pause checkbox, if youwish the video to stopautomatically when the interactionappears.
iii . Add bookmarks to your video
Enter the time code in the formatM:SS to take ‘Action on wrong’,i.e., send user back to a specificpart of the video or ‘Action on allcorrect’, i.e. jump to another part ofvideo (see Figure 3).
6. Summary task: The summary task/ quiz will appear at the end of thevideo. Click the last tab ‘Summarytask’ to add set(s) of summarystatements to enable the learnerreflect on the learning contentpresented in the video. By defaultthe first statement is correct.
Explore various activity and assessmentinteractions of the Moodle H5P plugin to:create videos interspersed with pre-defined interactions and self-checkassessments at predetermined times andprovide immersive and engagingexperience to students on par with otherMOOC providers, namely, Coursera,Udacity, edX etc.
Figure 2. Icfai University H5P Interactive Video
Figure 3. Adaptive Assessment
Figure 1. H5P Interactive Video Editor
Dr. Koneru is a Faculty Member, eLearning at IBS (Icfai BusinessSchool). She manages the IBS eLearning Department and administersMoodle for six IBS Campuses. She trains Professors at Icfai Group ofInstitutions and at various Academic and Research Institutions acrossIndia on eLearning – Moodle, Educational Technology and Tools,Blended Learning, Learning Design, Open Educational Resources,eAssessment etc. She is a Doctorate in Open Distance Education and aCertified Instructional Designer. She has developed DistanceEducation Self-Learning Materials (SLM) for Icfai University, Dr. BRAmbedkar Open University and ICAR-NAARM PG Diploma inEducational Technology and Management (PGD-ETM). OER-enabledeLearning and Teaching-Learning Analytics are her research interests.She can be researched at indkon[at]gmail[dot]com
either to draw students’attention to or enablestudents skip to specifiedparts of the video (seeFigure 2).
iv. Click onotherbuttons onthe toolbar
to add interactions,such as text, image,link, questions(MCQ or True/False) etc. Blue andpurple dots addedto the timelinebelow the videoindicate theinteractions added to the video(see Figure 2). Purple dots indicatethe assessment interactions.
v. Create assessment questions,such as MCQ to promote self-assessment. Add the question,multiple answers and feedback tocorrect and incorrect answers.Similar to other interactions,specify the start time and end timefor the self-assessments and checkthe Pause checkbox to stop thevideo automatically when theassessment questions appear. Thishelps us to capture student’s scorein the gradebook.
vi. Use the adaptivity feature forassessment questions.
20
MOOCs in Agricultur e- An experiment
G.R.K. Murthy*; D.T. Raju; S. Senthil Vinayagam; and M. Krishnan
This is a success story of MOOCs implementation witha very high course completion rate of 52 per cent.
This case study introduces a very important domain inIndia – Agriculture and its relevance for MOOCs andaddresses the most pertinent question – “What makes
a successful MOOC?”
Knowledge in Agricultur e – Aprelude
Agriculture is an evergreen sector forIndian economy and sustenance ofmankind. All key players in the supplychain from farmer who produces the foodto the end-user who consumes it requireproper synergy and coordination. Anyweak link in the supply/value chain canseverely affect the rest of thestakeholders. Knowledge and informationat every stage form the key component inthe activity planning and growth of thedomain. Consider the following real lifescenarios.
A Rice transplanter while working in apuddled wet paddy field gets boggeddown. The farmer needs an urgentassistance or technical help to repair themachine. If there is delay in attending torepair, entire effort of land preparationwill be a waste. The farm operationshave to be started afresh. It results inwastage of resources like water, labourand energy and of course the cost ofcultivation. Timely help to provide rightadvice or expertise in such situations isvery critical.
A rural youth hears about the profit-
making entrepreneurship avenue likemushroom cultivation or floriculture orartificial insemination in cattle. He isinterested in setting up such venture inhis village but doesnt know how to startthe process and where to contact andmarket.
A housewife has a backyard poultry andwants to expand it further to improve herincome. She is interested in learning themanagement aspects of the poultry toexpand the activity for high profitability.
A teacher in an educationalorganization wants to enhance histeaching competency by adopting betterteaching methods and styles. But hisacademic commitments constrain him toopt for attending any trainingprogrammes offered elsewhere because ofshortage of time and convenience.
All the above examples lead to onecommon point- need to train or sensitizethe client in the concerned area. Buildingthe capacity of the clientele throughsensitization or skill building or trainingprogrammes in conventional method canonly train few in a restricted geographicalboundary. It also involves needsassessment in each area and designingthe programmes accordingly.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)can provide an answer to theaforementioned contexts. It is a growinglyaccepted practice in spreading knowledgefaster and wider across all subjectdomains. It has relevance in countries likeIndia where there are larger masses to beprovided education, knowledge, learningwithin the framework of availableinfrastructure.
MOOC in Agricultur e – How is itdifferent from other domains?
The key factors that makes MOOCrelevant in agriculture are
i. Diversification in the subjectdomain
ii. Varied formats of knowledgedelivery
iii. Diverse users
iv. Remote location of clientele
Diversification in the subject domain
It is a general notion that agriculture dealswith plants and their management. Oncontrary, it comprises many subdomainslike
• Crop sciences/Agriculture
• Animal Sciences/veterinary
• Engineering and Technology
• Home science
• Horticultural Sciences
• Fishery Sciences
• Dairy Technology
• Food Technology
• Forestry
Knowledge in Agriculture is science-oriented and skill oriented also. Theknowledge in the form of science isavailable in organized format throughstructured educational programmes likeGraduate and Post graduate programmes.However, the skill related activities are notproperly structured and are not availablein open domain of knowledge. If these
Case Study
21
activities are capsuled in proper format, itcan help skill development, provideinstant solutions to practical problemsencountered on field and provide scopefor those who want to get updated ortrained in a particular area. Thegranularity of these knowledge nuggetscan be used in modularity across subjectand application domains. Thus theduplication can be avoided in deliveringthe same content for different contextsand purposes.
Unlike many sectors, agriculture has aspecificity with region (based on soiltype), climate (based on rainfall and otherfactors), social structure (based oneconomic status of farmers, locallanguage, literacy level, rural backgroundof students etc.,), nature of clientele(farmers, students, workingprofessionals), purpose (Graduateeducation, para-disciplinary courses foremployment generation, farmer servicecenters) knowledge in this domain has tobe treated with different approaches tomake them meaningful to MOOCs.
Most of the state agriculture universitiesin India still use traditional method ofteaching and obsolete resource material.They lack good text books combiningtheory and case studies. Ineffectivecommunication skills of some faculty isanother problem (Tamboli and Nene 2013).Many of these issues can be addressedby taking of advantage of technologieslike MOOCs.
Varied formats of knowledge delivery
Unlike other sectors, Agriculture has awide variety of knowledge applications-
• traditional education touching uponscientific aspects of crop and alliedsectors,
• vocational education whichtransforms the semiliterate or ruralyouth to build a sustainablelivelihood occupation,
• skill-building for rural folk or aprogressive farmer who can develop
people in these areas with knowledge is adaunting task. There has been steadyimprovement in communicationinfrastructure in these areas in the recentpast.
Technology milestones like the mobilerevolution is a silver lining in takingknowledge to the doorsteps of those livein remote locations.
MOOCs implementation inagriculture
Implementation of MOOC had theproblem of low completion rates (beingless than 10 per cent) in most of thecourses. Since MOOC is relatively newconcept which needs to be carefullyintroduced in the domain of agriculturaleducation, proper standard operatingprocedure needs to be evolved forensuring proper course completion rates.The ICAR-National Academy ofAgricultural Research Management,Hyderabad tested MOOC on a pilot basis.
MOOC implementation – TheProcess
i. Developing MOOC platform:Technology Selection
MOOC is generally hosted on a thirdparty platform. Though this is a simpleroption, it depends on policy levelinterventions to standardize the contentdevelopment, management andadministration processes. Agricultureeducation in India has been familiar withe-learning technology called MOODLE onwhich a wealth of graduate level courserepositories were developed and madeavailable in open access environment(http://ecourses.iasri.res.in). Thisprompted to use the already familiarlearning environment to be converted intoMOOC platform. Hence some preliminarystudies were conducted during sometraining programmes conducted at theAcademy where the users wereencouraged to access the content inMOODLE and interact in MOOC-like
few competencies that address day-to-day agri-related issues,
• distance education that providesopportunity to mid-careerprofessionals or other aspirantswho want to learn but havingconstraints of time and locationlimitations.
Diverse users
The knowledge in agriculture is beneficialto a wide range of end users like - farmers,students, policy makers, line departmentofficials, Industry who all view the samecontent from different perspectives.Consider the example of Knowledge ontractor. It needs to be delivered
• for farmers from practicalstandpoint like repair, maintenance,method of driving etc.,
• for students with scientificprinciples and relating it to thetractor using theory from Internalcombustion engines,thermodynamics, automotivemechanics etc.,
• for policy makers with touching theeconomic aspect of the tractor andits suitability to different regions
• for line department officials withinformation on subsidy, availabilityand utility etc.,
• for Industry with informationpertaining to Research andDevelopment, Marketing potential,techno-economic feasibility etc.,
Remote location of clientele
India lives in over 6.5 lakh villages whereagriculture is the chief occupation of over50 per cent of the Indian population. Mostof the villages lack basic amenities. Theconcept of last mile connectivity is still adream for many of them. Most of theagricultural universities and research andtechnology transfer organizations also arelocated in these areas. Empowering the
22
environment. After ensuring the rightenvironment for MOOC that can beenabled through MOODLE, a prototypeMOODLE site was developed and hostedon web.
ii. Subject selection and contentdevelopment
Subject to be dealt in MOOC is decided inorder to reach maximum number of users.MOOC has to deal such a subject thatcan be of interest to all. Since teachingcompetency is one of the commonly feltarea where training is required, it isconsidered as the focal theme for offeringMOOC.
Once the theme was decided, the contentfor the same was delineated and the panelof content developers having relevantexpertise was identified. Academy’s stateof art Technology Enhanced Learning(TEL) Laboratory was used to developthe video-based lectures. TEL acted as acenter for developing all the relevantcourse content. Five subject experts havecontributed content for the course. Thecontent is edited and transformed intosuitable format for accessing throughweb.
iii. Course administration andmanagement
Course administration included thestrategy to reach out to the clientele andfacilitate them to register for the course.Apart from electronic communicationsincluding emails, social media, webannouncements, some of the trainingprogrammes and national fora are alsoused to spread the awareness about theprogramme. An online registration formwas created and integrated into MOODLEhome page. Registration process wasallowed till the first day of the coursestart.
The content in the form of videos,documents, presentations, internet linksare provided week wise. Each lessonvideo had a provision to discuss aboutthe topic. First three weeks are devoted to
impart the necessary knowledge and skillsabout the subject while the fourth week isscheduled for the activity of participantswhere they are expected to develop modelteaching video of 3-5 minutes durationand upload the same. The videos byparticipants are evaluated along withnecessary remarks by peers and experts.
iv. Evaluation, certification andfeedback
Interaction between teacher and learner isvery important in a MOOC. Discussionforum is widely used as a platform forinteraction. A forum called coursefeedback and Community of Practice wereintroduced to invite the feedback andsharing of resources from all theparticipants of the MOOC. Certification isan important driving force for a learner toparticipate in MOOC as it providesrecognition of the learner’s efforts to seekknowledge in MOOC mode. Followingprocedure is adopted to qualify forcertification.
• Certificate of Participation–forParticipants who have participated ina minimum of three online discussionthreads
• Certificate of Completion-forParticipants who have participated ina minimum of three online discussionthreads and have uploaded teachingvideo as per course guidelines.Participants shall post a minimum ofthree discussion threads spread overentire course duration (FOUR weeks)and different topics for the award ofcertificate.
Entire MOOCprocess isdepicted in Fig 1
Learningsfrom the Study
The MOOCexperience wasreplicated twice intwo years with
completion rates of 22 and 52 per cent.These rates are by any means a veryimpressive completion rate and hence theprocess evolved can be called a verysuccessful attempt. The reasons for thesecan be attributed to the following factors
i. Brand value: ICAR-NAARM, aunique organization in the countrycarries a brand value because of itsglobal visibility and linkages. Theregistered students could realize thevalue of certification from a reputedorganization by simply attendingonline without having to undergothe programme in person.
ii. Focussed work group for highlyresponsive environment: MOOCinvolves coordination among thecontent management, useradministration, evaluation, networkmanagement etc., which requiresmultiple competencies. MOOCactivities were designed with thetechnologies on which localcompetency was available. Since allthe activities were done in house,there is less downtime/ responsetime in any technical emergency andattending to the user-related issues.Sustaining user interest is veryimportant in MOOC. Any difficultyin MOOC experience will severelyinfluence the interest in the user tocontinue in the participation inMOOC.
iii. Multiple support formats for thelearner: It is important to recognize
Fig. 1 MOOC implementation framework
23
that most of the users are either newto the kind of online learningenvironment or not comfortable inthe beginning with the navigation toaccess content or logging into thecourse pages. Any difficulty in thebeginning can turn off the usersonce for all. Hence, it is vital toattend to the user’s queries/issues atthe earliest through email, mobilecommunication platform like SMS orwhatsapp or even some times phonecall. All these formats will ease outthe initial learning inertia. This is alsoa major factor influencing highcourse completion rates.
iv. Coherence in group: Though thebasic philosophy of MOOC entailsanybody to learn, an element ofseriousness/ purpose in learnergroup is needed to complete theMOOC. This can happen only whenthere is some uniformity in the userprofile who have a similar learning
requirement. In this attempt, besidesopening the MOOC to anyone toregister, the group of teaching andaspiring teachers like Post Graduatescholars were specifically targeted inoffering the MOOC. This broughtcoherence among the groupinteraction and knowledgerequirements.
MOOC- Potential in Agricultur e
The experience in implementingMOOChas shown that there is vast scopefor MOOC in agriculture for variouspurposes- distance, vocational, skillbuilding etc., and various user type-students, farmers, policy makers etc., Theinnovative MOOC implementation usingopen and freely available technologies isvery effective and can be replicated in abig way. The same can be integrated intoany larger MOOC initiatives taken up on alarger scale.
Dr. G.R.K. Murthy is working as Senior Scientist at Education Systems Division, ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad, INDIA. He canbe reached at grkmurthy07[at]gmail[dot]com
References
Anonymous, 2005. Redefining agricultural education and extensionsystem in changedscenario, Policy Paper 31, National Academy of Agriculture sciences, New Delhi.Pp8, http://naasindia.org/policy%20papers/policy%2031.pdf accessed on 1-1-2017
PM Tamboli and YL Nene, 2013. “Modernizing Higher Agricultural Education System inIndia to Meet the Challenges of 21st Century” Asian Agri-History Vol. 17, No. 3, Pp251–264.
Li Yuan and Stephen Powell, 2013. White paper on “MOOCs and Open Education:Implications for Higher Education”, The University of Bolton accessed from https://www.oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/MOOCs-and-Open-Education.pdf on 1-1-2017.
Koutoumanos, V. Protonotarios, A. Drakos, M. Toader, 2014.Seeding Courses onMoodle: the AgriMoodle Case, Agris on-line Papers in Economics andInformatics,6(2), Pp 49-58.
is normally published quarterly by
Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA).
CEMCA, a Regional Office of theCommonwealth of Learning (COL)Vancouver, Canada, is an international
agency.
CEMCA’s mission is to promote the
meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of
ICTs to serve the educational and training
needs of Commonwealth member states of
Asia.
visit us at:7/8, Sarv Priya Vihar
New Delhi - 110 016, India
please call us at:
0091 11 2653 71460091 11 2653 71480091 11 2651 6681
Our Fax No. is0091 11 2653 7147or visit our website:
http://www.cemca.org.ine-mail: admin[at]cemca[dot]org[dot]in
Editor-in-Chief
Shahid Rasool, PhD
EditorsManas Ranjan Panigrahi, PhD
Sanjogita Mishra
LayoutSabyasachi Panja
Printed and Published byR. Thyagarajan
For and on behalf of CEMCA
Printed atAnil Offset & Packaging
New Delhi
You are welcome to reproduce or translate
any material in this newsletter. Please credit
us appropriately and send a copy of the
reproduced material for our information.
The views expressed in the articles are those
of the authors and not necessarily that of the
publisher. Products mentioned in the
newsletter are only for information and do
not mean endorsement by CEMCA or COL.
24
Forthcoming Events
The 27th International Council forOpen and Distance Education(ICDE) World Conference.
Theme: Teaching in a Digital Age - Re-thinking Teaching and Learning.
Venue: The Sheraton Centre Hotel inToronto, Canada
Date: October 17-19, 2017
For More Information:
http://onlinelearning2017.ca/en/
1st International Conference willbe organised by Krishna KantaHandiqui State Open University,Guwahati, Assam, India
Theme: Developmental Interventionsand Open Learning forEmpowering and TransformingSociety
Venue: NEDFi Convention Centre,Dispur, Guwahati, Assam, India
Date: December 16-17, 2017
For more information:
http://conference.kkhsou.in/index.php
The National Higher EducationResearch Institute (IPPTN) andthe School of Humanities,Universiti Sains Malaysia incollaboration with SunwayUniversity and Han ChiangCollege will be organising aNational Conference.
Theme: Creativity in Education &Humanities 2017: EmpoweringPeople (NCC2017)
Venue: Chancellory 2, Universiti SainsMalaysia, Penang
Date: October 25 – 26, 2017
For more information:
http://ncc2017.usm.my/
ICTLHE 2018: 20thInternational Conference onTeaching and Learning in HigherEducation
Venue: Holiday Inn ParisMontparnasse, Avenue DuMaine, 79-81, Paris, 75014France
Date: June 25 - 26, 2018
• Abstracts/Full-Text PaperSubmission: August 25, 2017
• Notification of Acceptance/Rejection:November 25, 2017
• Final Paper (Camera Ready)Submission & Early Bird Registration:February 25, 2018
For more information:
https://waset.org/conference/2018/06/paris/ICTLHE
The Singapore EducationTechnology Conference 2017(SETC 2017) jointly organized byEast Asia Research and SiamUniversity will be held in thecosmopolitan city of Singapore.
Date: August 23-24, 2017
Venue: Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium,317 Outram Road Singapore(169075)
For more information:
http://setc.ear.com.sg/
12th International Conference onICT for Development, Education& Training
Theme: Learning in Context
Date: September 27-29, 2017
Venue: Intercontinental Resort, BalaclavaFort, Balaclava, Mauritius
For more information:
http://www.elearning-africa.com/index.php
