G'Biswas Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

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Educational (Science and Technology) Environment
in India and Distance Mode of Delivering
Education - A Proposal
G.Biswas Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
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Background
After the Industrial Revolution (1750 1850),
the Western Countries began to reap the fruits of
industrialization, which led to plenty of
discoveries in science at that time.
The waves of Intellectual Revolution
(Renaissance) and Industrial Revolution touched
India then a British colony during the end
of the 19th Century
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Creation of Modern Universities
1850 1900 5 Modern Indian Universities were
set up. Location Calcutta, Bombay, Madras,
Allahabad and Lahore in the erstwhile undivided
Punjab. 1900 1947 16 more universities were
added. The notable ones include

• Benaras Hindu University (1915),
• University of Mysore (1916),
• Osmania University (1918),
• Aligarh Muslim University (1920)
• University of Delhi (1922).

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Early Recognition (International)
1841 - 1950 12 Indians were elected Fellow of
the Royal Society of London.
A. Cursetjee, Engineer Shipbuilder S.
Ramanujan, Mathematician Sir J. C. Bose,
Bio-physicist Sir C. V. Raman, Physicist Meghnad
Saha, Physicist Birbal Sahni, Palaeo-botanist
Sir K. S. Krishnan, Physicist Homi J. Bhabha,
Physicist Sir S. S. Bhatnagar, Chemist S.
Chandrasekhar, Astrophysicist P. C. Mahalanobis,
Statistician D.N. Wadia, Geologist
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Significant Success - Milestones

• In 1888, H. Hertz at the University of Karlsruhe,
  Germany, generated and received electromagnetic
  waves of wavelength 660 mm and established
  Maxwells electromagnetic theory.
• Sometime later, Sir J.C. Bose developed
• A system for wave transmission at 5 mm
  wavelength.
• Millimeter wave transmission system.
• Point contact Galena detector for the reception
  of millimeter
• waves.
• Bose-Einstein statistics was introduced for
  photons in 1923 by S. N. Bose and generalized to
  atoms by Albert Einstein (Bose-Einstein
  statistics) in 1924.

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Significant Success - Milestones
In 1917, Sir C. V. Raman moved as a Professor of
Physics to the Calcutta University. He was
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his discovery
of Raman Effect. Researchers of Genius
like Sir C. V. Raman, S. N. Bose, Meghnad Saha,
Sir J. C. Bose, K. S. Krishnan, P.C. Mahalanobis
and Homi J. Bhabha created history through their
outstanding contributions in Physical, Chemical
and Mathematical sciences. The torch lit by them
has been kept alight by subsequent generations
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Great Discovery in Biological Science

• G.N. Ramachandran (1922-2001) FRS and A Jewel in
  the Crown of the Indian Science was Professor
  Head, Molecular Biophysics Unit, lISc, Bangalore
• 1955 He discovered the triple helical structure
  of the connective tissue protein called collagen
  
• 'The Ramachandran phi-psi Plot' which has become
  a standard description of protein structure

IISc has become epitome of Indian excellence in
Scientific Research
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Indian Institutes of Technology
The first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
was established at Kharagpur through an Act of
Parliament in 1951. Subsequently, IIT Bombay
(Mumbai), IIT
Madras (Chennai), IIT Kanpur, IIT
Delhi, IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee
were established one by one.
IITR
IITG
IITD
IITK
IITKGP
IITB
IITM
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• IITs have been able to establish respectable
  visibility in research in the recent past. Annual
  research publications (in the respectable
  international journals) are around 3600. Six
  engineering scientists from the IIT system
  appear in the list of Worlds most cited
  engineering scientists (Web of Science).
• Major Problem!!
• The Universities run by provincial governments
  take care of 80 of the post-secondary students.
• Many of these universities are in a bad shape
• Even the few that were nurturing respectable
  education and research 25 years ago (Universities
  of Pune, Punjab, Calcutta, Jadavpur, Bombay,
  Madurai Kamraj) are the shadows (12 noon!) of
  their past.

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• China has taken a decision to create 100 IIT like
  Universities each with annual budget of 25
  million US dollars.
• The annual quality manpower generation rate from
  these Universities are expected to be 0.25
  million.
• In 1980, India was way ahead of China in volume
  and breadth of published research.
• During last thirty years, Chinas research
  production has increased exponentially.
• Today China has outperformed India both in
  quality and quantity (as measured by the impact
  factor). The gap is widening even more!

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Setting the Standard
The National Programme on Technology Enhanced
Learning (NPTEL) was initiated by Indian
Institutes of Technology (IIT) Indian Institute
of Science (IISc) Bangalore in 2003 under the
leadership of Prof. M.S. Ananth. The NPTEL
programme is funded by the Ministry of Human
Resource Development for a total budget of 205
million Indian Rupees for the creation of 120 web
based courses,120 videocourses and conversion of
existing 110 video courses.
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Setting the Standard
The first phase of the project is completed and
has ensured complete coverage of the first three
years of the undergraduate curriculum in 5 major
Engineering branches (Web site
http//nptel.iitm.ac.in)

• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics and Communication and
• Mechanical Engineering.

These were supplemented by the courses in the
Core Sciences and Management. The Video contents
are hosted by Youtube
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Need for Virtual Technological University
Success of NPTEL has initiated the thinking about
the Virtual Technological University (Virtual
Tech). The Virtual Tech is envisaged to have 5
broad Schools covering different areas of
expertise. Each School will float a suitable
number of courses in order to cater to the need
of various disciplines associated with the
school. Following 5 Schools can be
delineated

• School of Education
• School of Engineering Sciences
• School of Natural Sciences
• School of Management Sciences
• School of Human Sciences

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Role of Virtual Technological University
Virtual Tech is envisaged to Develop Course
Material using the expertise available in the
country as well as in partnership with the other
partner universities across the world. The
course material will be in the form of Video
Tapes, Web based learning information as well as
course ware in the form of Reference Material.
For the creation of all the course ware,
Virtual Tech will engage a large
pool of talented faculty members from IITs,
IISc other well known Technological
Institutions including
superannuated faculty. As such the huge reserve
of well known superannuated faculty members from
the IIT system, and IISc will play a vital role
in content creation.
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Virtual Tech Virtual Laboratories
Academic Programme at the Virtual Tech should
develop boundary-less academic environment. It
must put more emphasis on interdisciplinary
topics and ideas. Laboratory, Experimental work
Research is crucial in Higher Education.
Providing such training for large system is very
difficult. Technologies of Virtual Laboratory
and Simulation may fulfill requirements of
training for the students in laboratory work.
Experiments at one place are to be perfected
and also sharpened, especially in the light of
new complementary features of the knowledge
available in open literature. Experts will
conduct thoroughly designed version of the
experiments at one place and the procedure data
reduction will be transmitted to remote
classrooms at the Institutes where creating such
facilities are not possible due to the financial
reasons.
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Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs
In addition to prepare the courseware for the
undergraduates elsewhere, Virtual Tech would also
like to make use of its expertise in imparting
training to the working professionals in
different organizations. Virtual Tech also
proposes to convert this effort into a
credit-based academic pursuit for the practicing
engineers. The proposed academic program would
cover the entire range of courses in the
continuing education mode like those under QIP or
under SELF FINANCING schemes.
A typical course shall consist of either 1 or 2
or 4 credit units. Accumulation of a certain
number of credits will enable a professional
student to earn a Certificate/ Diploma/ Degree.
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Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs
A course of 1 credit under this scheme would
comprise of 10 hours of lectures (instructions),
2 hours of tutorials, 8 hours of home work and 1
hour of test. This is equivalent to earning 1
credit point. The expected duration of a 1 credit
course is between two weeks (minimum) and one
month (maximum). The tutorials would be used to
assign home work, provide necessary help in
sorting out difficulties in solving the problems.
A course of 2 credits would have 20 hours of
lecture, 4 hours of tutorial, 16 hours of home
work and 2 hours of test. Likewise a course of 4
credits would have 40 hours of lecture, 8 hours
of tutorial, 32 hours of home work and 4 hours of
test. Announcement and Selection The
selection of the candidates will be done through
a set of questionnaires that will be made
available to the applicants.
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Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs
Certificate Program Academic Requirement for a
certificate course is 16 credit points. (Here
tests would be optional and no grades would be
awarded) PG Diploma Academic Requirement for a
PG-Diploma is 32 credit points. One has to earn
the credits through several modules having 1 or 2
or 4 credits. One has to appear for the tests in
the modular courses, if he/ she desires to obtain
a PG Diploma at the end of attending the required
number of courses. On completion of the program,
grades would be awarded for the PG Diploma.
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Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs
Masters Degree Program Academic Requirement for
a Masters Degree is 64 credit points. Here,
also the tests are mandatory. There can be a
residential requirement of about one month for a
term paper project of 4 credits. On the
completion of the program, grades would be
awarded for the PG-Degree. The degree proposed is
Master of Engineering (M. Eng.). The proposed
initiative calls for major investments and
variety of requirements along with appropriate
technologies for a sound beginning of this new
paradigm of Outreach Education.
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Acknowledgement The proposal for the Virtual
Tech was prepared jointly by Prof. S.G. Dhande
and the speaker T h a n k s !