NETWORKENABLED OPEN EDUCATION NEOEd

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NETWORK-ENABLED OPEN EDUCATION (NEO-Ed)

• Dr. Vijay Kumar
• Assistant Provost and
• Director of Academic Computing
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Advisor, National Knowledge Commission, India

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THE OBJECTIVE

• To build excellence in the educational system to
  meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century
  and increase Indias competitive advantage in
  fields of knowledge.
• This consists of
• WIDENING ACCESS
• PROVIDING QUALITY

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THE CHALLENGE

• Scaling the excellence of institutions like IITs,
  IIMs, IIIT, etc.
• Current approaches
• Building new institutions (additional IITs, etc.)
• Improving existing institutions (NPTEL, TEQIP)
• Extending distance education to a limited extent
  (IGNOU, Eklavya, EDUSAT)
• These are insufficient for the quantum leap in
  scale and quality of educational opportunity that
  the NKC seeks to achieve.

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A SOLUTION

• Increasing capabilities of high bandwidth
  networks and open educational resources offer
  unprecedented opportunities to
• Serve the knowledge needs of diverse communities
• Amplify interaction among students and teachers
• Introduce innovative and interactive educational
  experiences
• The Internet is changing the face of education.
  India can use it to make optimal use of global
  educational resources.

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PRESENT SCENARIO

• E-learning/Open/Distance Education are considered
  inferior to traditional methods.
• Existing initiatives are lacking in
• Interactivity
• Hands-on experience
• Quality content
• Alignment with university system
• Addressing the needs of teacher training

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Current Network Status

• Very few institutions connected reliably
• Limited b/w ( KPBS to low mbps)
• Upgrade efforts underway
• EDUSAT offers alternative
• Access to e-resources (journals, publishing)
  limited
• Virtual classrooms limited Virtual labs
  unavailable
• Collaborations and Sharing constrained

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CURRENT INITIATIVES

• NPTEL
• IGNOU
• Kerala e-Grid
• TIFAC - Mission REACH
• EDUSAT (ISRO)
• TEQIP

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IMPACT OF INITIATIVES

• The impact of initiatives is stymied due to
• Dearth of quality resources (content)
• Lack of infrastructure for delivery
• Lack of appropriate organisational alignments
  between public institutions/agencies engaged in
  e-learning and distance education.
• General Impediments
• Unclear Regulatory framework
• A few Good Ones
• Impoverished pedagogical practices (
  inflexibility, lack of liberal education Rote
  focus)
• Lack of coordination is a source of poor
  performance and visibility.

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A NEW PARADIGM

• E-learning and distance education are not
  alternatives or supplements to conventional
  methods.
• Network-based delivery needs to become the
  central modality for delivering quality
  education.
• A blended process intelligent combinations of
  physical and virtual elements.
• Distributed Repositories, Domain-specific Grids
  and Portals, Interaction facilities, Robust
  connectivity key components of NEO-Ed.
• Open Educational Resources- Content, Applications
  and Infrastructure can be productively leveraged

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NKC Targets of Opportunity

• For education (higher education in particular),
  the NKCs efforts to be directed toward building
  capacity at 3 levels
• Access (low threshold for entry into the enabling
  infrastructure for advanced applications and
  quality educational resources)
• Application/Practice Content, tools and best
  practices in strategic areas.
• Process (Sustainability) organizational, and
  policy enablers to realize synergies and to move
  projects to practice and services.
• Overall aim to develop ecology for sustainable
  transformation of education and research in India.

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Scaling Excellence in Education and Research

• Extensive Access to Quality Educational Resources
• For faculty development
• Direct education (formal and non-formal)
• Meet hr (knowledge worker) needs in all sectors
• Quality Educational and Research Interactions
• Global Participation in Research and Education
• Sharing
• Benchmarking

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Implementing Opportunity

• Grids and Portals
• Domains Sectors Communities
• Research
• Education
• Knowledge Sectors
• Community Interactions
• Labs and Simulators
• Order-of-magnitude higher number of educationally
  meaningful laboratory experiments through the
  Internet based on hardware dispersed around the
  world
• Open Educational Resources
• OCW large pool of shared and open content for
  diverse needs
• Mednet network and content for health education
• GELC

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ADVANTAGES OF NEO-Ed

• Proximity Content-Learner, Teacher-Student,
  Research-Teaching (e.g. i-labs)
• Adaptability Common infrastructure to deliver
  quality digital content in different sectors.
• Flexibility Learners structure the reality of
  their educational experience.
• Interactivity Virtual learning environments
  facilitate peer interaction, which is invaluable.
• Quality Global alliances and initiatives can be
  leveraged for quality content and benchmarking
  purposes.
• Sustainability Continuous supply of skilled
  workforce with contemporary competencies and
  abreast of technological change.

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INFRASTRUCTURAL REQUIREMENTS

• High bandwidth connections national backbone
  connectivity with global networks.
• User applications service-oriented architecture
  delivery systems digital libraries publication
  localisation and contextualisation.
• Relevant, quality content distributed
  repositories standards global alliances (OCW)
• Support for adoption pedagogy
• Policy framework ( quality regulation)

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INFRASTRUCTURAL REQUIREMENTS

• Physical high bandwidth connections national
  backbone connectivity with global networks.
• Delivery user applications service-oriented
  architecture localisation and contextualisation.
• Pedagogical relevant, quality content
  distributed repositories standards global
  alliances (OCW).

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NETWORK-ENABLED OPEN EDUCATION (NEO-Ed)
End User Communities
Domain Grids and Portals
Tools/ Applications
EDUCATION SOFTWARE
EDUSAT/LAN/WAN/Wireless/INTERNET2
Communication
Service Interfaces
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SUSTAINABILITY

• Technical
• Resilient content takes advantage of tech.
  changes
• Open standards-based architecture
• Robust networks
• Financial
• Taxation on content used by private institutions
• Commercial model for value-added services
• Government funding, especially in initial stages
• Organizational

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EMERGING TRENDS

• Industry already involved already involved in
  developing standards-based architecture for
  e-governance. Indicate interest in NEO-Ed.
• MoU between Ministry of IT and Internet2
  framework for advanced networking capability with
  ubiquitous broadband availability.
• Global Open Educational Resources (OER) movement
  is gathering momentum.
• OCW Consortium - Viability of NPTEL, TEQIP
  joining being explored.

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CONCLUSION

• Network-Enabled Open Education is central to the
  Knowledge Commissions goals of delivering access
  and quality in education.
• It is a critical component of the infrastructure
  of any knowledge economy, and must therefore be
  pursued vigorously as a strategy for building
  excellence in the education system and increasing
  Indias competitive advantage in fields of
  knowledge.

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• THANK YOU