Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia

Open, Distance and eLearning in India: Status and Trends

Sanjaya MishraDirector, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia

September 22, 2013

Structure of the Presentation

Historical Perspective and Current Situation

Problems and Issues Strategies and Approaches

Historical Perspectives

1962: University of Delhi 1964: Kothari Commission 1975: Parthasarathy Committee 1978: CBSE project Open School 1982: Dr. BRAOU 1985: IGNOU 1989: NOS (Now NIOS)

Structure of ODL

National Open University 15 State Open Universities (including 2

private: Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh)

Over 200 Dual mode universities and specialized institutions offering ODL

Chartered Accountancy, Company secretary, Cost Accountancy, etc. also offered programmes in distance mode

Structure of ODL

Programmes offered at all level (Open Basic Education to Doctoral Degrees)

Number of students (over 2 million at School level; 4.2 million at higher education level)

Technical courses through AICTE-UGC-DEC Committee

Some areas still not allowed (e.g. Medicine and Law)

PROBLEMS AND ISSUES

Quality Access Equity Technology Interaction

Quality

IGNOU Act (dual role: offered programme and also monitored quality of ODL in the country)

Distance Education Council established in 1991 under IGNOU Act (first quality agency in the country) – now, part of UGC

Dual standards of quality learning Poor monitoring of quality Poor perception of ODL

Access

Lack of National Human Resource Planning

Planned to have additional capacity of 1 million in ODL in 12th Plan (about 15% in ODL)

Additional 2.5 million in School in 12th Plan; 5.2 million at HE

Reduction in attrition rates in ODL

Equity

Who is the ODL student? Rural-Urban gap Enrolment of Women (about 27%) and

people with disabilities

Interaction

Interaction is the hallmark of quality (this is at least in F2F)

Interaction in ODL through materials, assignments, technology, contact session, different formats of tutorial support (including, f2f contact, telephone, online, mobile SMS)

Technology

Started with supplementary approach to use of Audio and Video

Added teleconference (audio and video) at designated centres

Used Satellite based interaction (again from designated centres)

Learning materials available through eGyanKosh, NPTEL

eLearning is yet to follow pace

ODL Human Resources

Not enough teachers with ODL capacities

IGNOU has MA in Distance Education and Post Graduate Diploma in eLearning

Short term courses organised for in-service training

Large numbers of Academic Counsellors, who are backbone of the support system are untrained

STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

Understanding ODL Ensuring Quality Improving Access and Equity Using Appropriate Technology Strengthening Institutional Capacities Improving perception of ODL

Understanding ODLThe classical definition of Distance Education says, it is a system: Where teaching and learning is mediated by

technology (print, audio, video, computers, etc) Where didactic conversation takes place through

learning materials and assignments Where learning is primarily asynchronous (taking

place at a time, place and pace decided by the learner)

Where the student and teacher are not permanently separated

Where the student is quasi-permanently separated from peer group.

Understanding ODL

Open is all about: No requirement for entry qualification No physical boundary of the institution Flexibility of choice of courses Use of technology to teach

Understanding ODL

Use of eLearning is changing teaching-learning practices: Both face-to-face and distance

education It can be used effectively to increase

quality of student interaction in both the systems

Make teachers and institutions more accountable

It is the new age distance education

Why ODL? NKC recommendation: 1500 universities

by 2015 Do we have the resources? ODL provides Economies of Scale Optimally utilizes the existing

infrastructure and expertise Cost of Open Schooling per child is

about 1/10 of cost in conventional system (NIOS)

Cost of graduate distance education is about 35% of F2F

Costs in ODL

Korea (KNOU): annual cost/student $186 as compared to $2880 in a campus university

Thailand (STOU): studies show cost/learner is $226 compared to $876 for conventional learning

Open and Distance learning in the developing world – Perraton (2000)

Dual-mode provision

University of Nairobi: cost/learner of a residential B.Ed was 3 times that of an ODL programme

For dual mode systems: cost in CCIs were 15% of conventional departments

Perraton (2000)

Open and distance education in mega universities

COUNTRY INSTITUTION ENROLMENT% of Campus

Cost*

Pakistan AIOU 456.126 22

China CCRTVU 2,300,000 40

India IGNOU 1,187,100 35

UK OU 203,744 50

*Unit cost per student as a percentage of the average for other universities in the country, NKC, 2004.

Ensuring Quality

How? Recognition Vs. Accreditation Common quality framework for Learning

irrespective of mode (e.g. QAA of UK ) Internal quality assurance system Development of quality standards

Improving Access and Equity Existing number of colleges (over 31,000) in

the country: Use unutilized space and time All universities offer need based programmes

through ODeL; especially use eLearning for existing courses and programmes

Release all materials produced through public funding as Open Educational Resources under suitable license

Provide special incentives for women, persons with disabilities and economically weaker sections of the society to pursue ODL programmes

Technology and Interaction

Content is King: Make all learning resources digital and Open Educational Resoruce

Content is King, but not ENOUGH: Create e-environment for increasing student-teacher, student and teacher to content and student-student interaction

Support asynchronous learning by accessing learning resources on the Web, Mobile and through on-demand DTH services

Technology Innovation: COL Tablet server

A tablet used as a server can host an LMS or CMS such as

Moodle or Wordpress pre-

loaded with learning

materials.

A portable wireless router can broadcast a network that students can connect to

An external battery can power the wireless router off-grid for up to 12 hours.

Improving ODL Practitioners

Trained human resources for ODeL (in-service vs pre-service training)

Policies aligned with national mandates ODeL as a lifelong learning strategy

rather than second chance to education

Trends in eLearning and OER eLearning initiated in late 1990s, but now it

has become more pervasive Over 80 programmes are available online in

Commonwealth Asia eLearning is used in different ways by both

distance teaching and F2F universities Use of Open Educational Resources

increasing Shift from content development approach

to learning facilitation More of a convergence of distance and F2F

teaching

eLearning Models Use of in-house technology (IGNOU’s PG Certificate

on Management of Resettlement and Rehabilitation)

Use of Open Source/ Proprietary LMS (currently several programmes, including the PGDEL)

Use of Wiki platform for training (2008 conducted online training and delivered online certificate)

Delivery of video lessons online and web courses (NPTEL Courses)

Emergence of MOOC (IIT, Kanpur and COL on Mobiles for Development)

eLearning can bridge the gap between face-to-face and distance education.

Open Educational Resources and MOOC

Making available textbooks in open licences to create an ecosystem for re-use and re-mixing of knowledge resources

Make textbooks accessible to all Teachers will have more time to teach,

explain, mentor students (including in Distance education)

MOOCs can address up-gradation of skills and knowledge of large numbers

Possible Steps

Policy on Open Distance and Technology Enabled Learning as a strategy for lifelong learning

Adoption of an Open license framework for sharing educational resources

Adopting more online learning practices in Indian universities

Adopt consortium approach to delivery of education through ODL

Thank YOU