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Vol. 01 No. 01 January 2015

In this issue

Guest Column 02

Spotlight On 07

CEMCA News 09

Case Study 16

Regional Round Up 20

SMART Tips 21

Technology Tracking 22

Forthcoming Events 24

From Director’s Desk

I t is my pleasure to present the new look “CEMCANewsletter” toyou. In 2014 CEMCAcompleted 20 years of

its glorious service. I have been involved withCEMCA’s Newsletter in the past as acontributor like many of you, and it’s now anhonour to take over the editing. I personallyknow how useful is this publication to many ofyou, and from the other side of the table now Irealize the challenges of bringing a newsletteron time and meet the needs and aspirations ofthe readers. We have tried to cover all theregular features of the Newsletter in this issue.Mr. Vis Naidoo, Vice President, Commonwealthof Learning in the Guest Column discusses‘Skills Development’ by examining thechallenges and key development areas that arechanging the face of higher education.

I have joined Commonwealth EducationalMedia Centre for Asia (CEMCA) when thereare only six months to complete the currentThree Year Plan (2012-15) which ends in June2015. So, obviously our focus is to completethe unfinished tasks against the performanceindicators in the plan. The progress is quitesatisfactory in terms of our engagements in theCommunity Media and Higher Education, asrevealed through independent evaluation ofour activities and outcomes. The time is alsoimportant for our future planning, as theCommonwealth of Learning moves from a threeyear planning cycle to a six year planning. Inalignment with the COL’s six year strategy,CEMCA will dplan its activities within theregion. Our priorities are improving ICTintegrated teacher education, skill

development, community media and promotion ofOpen Educational Resources (OER).

CEMCA would focus on supporting ICTintegration in teacher education programmes. TheCommunities of Practice (CoP) platformdeveloped during the current TYP shall bestrengthened to assist teacher educators use andshare OER. Skill development is still a majorchallenge for many developing countries,including India, which has recognized itsimportance by creating institutional structures toprovide skills training to 500 million people by2022. The National Skills Qualification Framework(NSQF) mandates that all training programmesshould be NSQF compliant by 2018. Consideringthe potential for use of OERs in skillsdevelopment, CEMCA would support thedevelopment of OER-based courses for skillsdevelopment. Community media is a vitalcommunication service, where democraticapproach plays a vital role in overall developmentof the society. To promote non-formal learning,CEMCA has been providing assistance toimprove the quality of community broadcastingservices in member countries, by way of trainingand certifying peer reviewers from theCommunity Radio Stations. While continuing tosupport peer review of Community RadioStations and facilitate development ofCommunity Learning Programmes, CEMCA willalso integrate new ways of providing qualitylearning in the informal sector.

We hope you would like this issue of the CEMCANewsletter for 2015. As always, your supportand continuous engagement is crucial to us. Dowrite to us about what you want to see more inthe coming issues. With best wishes!

Dr. Ramesh C. Sharma

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Guest Column...

Drivers for Change in HigherEducation

By Mr. Vis Naidoo

Introduction

Higher education has been a hall-mark of the educationlandscape and is a vital requirement for economic and socialdevelopment of countries. As the Asian Development Bank putsit: higher education institutions “operate as incubators of theinnovation and creative thinking needed for an economicallycompetitive society.”1 Increasingly technology is beingintegrated into the higher education systems, a factor that bringschallenges and opportunities. Perhaps the greatest opportunityis to reach many learners – millions globally, and the chance toaccelerate learning as never before. This makes the role of highereducation institutions … like those represented here today …more important than ever.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation) has identified higher education as being critical toaddressing the sustainable development goals that the UN andother global and local organisations are setting for post-2015.2

Those global goals, which are to be formally adopted in the UN

This article focuses on the key technology developments globallyand their implications for both the institutions and students. It willnote developments in massive open online courses (MOOCs), openeducation resources (OER), increased access to devices and othertechnology applications and will identify emerging trends forinstitutions and students.

General Assembly during the 70th sittingin September 2015, emphasize thesignificance of higher education: inreducing poverty, improving health,

empowering women and protecting the environment.

It may seem obvious on one level how education in general andhigher education in particular, benefits people: It equipsindividuals with competencies and skills that are needed in thelabour market.

But consider this, from the World Bank, in its Education Strategy2020: Not only do “investments in quality education lead to morerapid and sustainable economic growth and development” … but“Educated individuals are more employable, able to earn higherwages, cope better with economic shocks, and raise healthierchildren.” 3 So the value of higher education goes beyond skillsand competencies needed for a livelihood, it also contributes tothe health and well-being of society.

My presentation today will focus on some of the challenges inthe higher education environment today and what theimplications of these are. In particular, I will focus on three keydevelopments that are changing the face of higher education andits use of technology:

1. shifting economic and social demands

2. rising costs of tuition and of learning resources and, relatedto those costs, changes in how people value that investmentin terms of securing a livelihood, and

3. constant and rapidly changing technology.

So, what are the global developments that areinfluencing higher education?

Let me start with those three key developments I mentioned thatare dramatically altering the nature of higher education.

Changing Economic and Social Demands

First are shifting economic and social demands. In all countries,labour market needs are rapidly evolving. Automation anddigitisation of industry, agriculture and the knowledge economyare changing what is taught, how it is taught and when and wherelearners are likely to want to be taught.

According to a study from Oxford University, “47% ofoccupations are at risk of being automated in the next fewdecades.”4 This means that as many jobs change and othersbecome obsolete, it will be essential for higher education to alsochange to meet new knowledge and skill demands.

At the same time, of course, graduates consistently need toupgrade their skills and companies need to top up their humancapital.

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A 2013 Organisation for EconomicCooperation and Development (OECD)report5 points to the importance of highereducation, especially in light of the 2008economic crisis that hurt many countries.The data illustrates a not-so-surprisingfact: that a great deal of the economic andsocial hardship caused by the crisis fellchiefly on less-educated individuals. Theunemployment gap between well-educated young people and those wholeft school early widened during thecrisis. At that time, across the OECDcountries, on average only 5% of thepopulation with a tertiary education levelwere unemployed, while 13% of thosewithout an upper secondary educationfaced unemployment.

These kinds of statistics were, andremain, much worse in many thedeveloping countries in Asia and Africa,given the already high levels ofunemployment.

The implication here is clear: a person’seducation and field of study, especially atthe post-secondary education level, willdetermine the level of risk she or he facesduring times of economic and socialcrisis.

Coming back to the World Bank and itsEducation Strategy 20206, I quote:

“The stunning rise of the middle-income countries, led by China, Indiaand Brazil, has intensified the desire ofmany nations to increase theircompetitiveness by building morehighly skilled workforces.

“Persistently high levels ofunemployment, especially amongyouth, have highlighted the failure ofeducation systems to prepare youngpeople with the right skills for the jobmarket ….

“Expanding and improving education iskey to adapting to change andconfronting these challenges”.

This quote illustrates the changingeconomic and social demands that arebeing placed on higher education

institutions and as leaders from suchinstitutions, how we respond will becritical to whether we meet thesedemands. It further highlights the need forhigher education institutions to work withthe private sector, government andcommunities to increase opportunities forstudents to learn relevant skills and gainknowledge that will support theirlivelihoods.

The rising cost of education

Let us look now at the second keydevelopment changing the nature ofhigher education today: the rising costsof tuition and of learning resources –costs that are being increasingly felt bystudents and society.

As an article in The Economist noted7,higher education suffers from the BaumolEffect (a.k.a. Baumol’s “cost disease”) –that is, “the tendency of costs to soar inlabour-intensive sectors with stagnantproductivity.”

This phenomenon (described by WilliamJ. Baumol and William G. Bowen in the1960s) is often used to describe whathappens when the quaternary sector ofthe economy, and public services such aspublic hospitals and colleges,8 shows noreal productive gains although wages injobs still rise.

Recall that the quaternary sector is theknowledge-based part of the economy. Itis driven by the services industry – so,those businesses and services involvedin information generation and sharing,information technology, consultation,research and development, financialplanning … and education.

In Asia, tuition fee inflation isapproximately 5% for the past five years9

and this has raised fears of highereducation increasingly becomingunaffordable to the poor, lower middleclass and minority groups. This pressureof costs also impacts on those learnersthat require retraining and continuingeducation as learners strive to stayrelevant in terms of the skills andknowledge.

Besides the basic nature of the highereducation sector driving costs higher, thefact is the demand for higher education isexploding.

From 150.5 million students worldwideseeking tertiary education in 2007,demand grew to 165 million in 2012. It isexpected to reach 263 million by 2025 –just 10 years away.

Given recent high levels of unemploymentin OECD countries – for example, about20% of 25- to 29-year-olds being “NEET”(neither employed nor in education ortraining) – demand has grown foreducation.

The average age of the learners is alsorising as a substantial proportion of themnow come from the workforce looking tore-learn .The rapidly changing workplacehas made lifelong learning more importantthan ever. Higher education thereforeneeds to enable individual learningpathways that can help prepareindividuals to lead productive lives andequip them with 21st-century skills.

All these factors place further pressure oncountries budgets and their allocation tohigher education. Bangladesh is noexception. A World Bank feature story10

on the Higher Education QualityEnhancement Project in Bangladesh notesthat 2.1% of Bangladesh’s GDP isallocated to education and of this, 0.12%is for tertiary education. The leaves littlefunding for research, technology, books,equipment, etc. that are essential for ahigh performing higher education system.

Technology Changes

The third key development changing thenature of higher education today is alsothe most disruptive one: technologychanges.

Rapid advances in information andcommunication technology (ICT) andother related developments are nowconstantly changing job profiles andskills demanded by labour markets. Yet,these advances also offer possibilities foraccelerated learning and improvedmanagement of education systems.

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From Massive Open Online Courses (or“MOOCs”) and Open EducationalResources (OER), to mobile technologies,learning management systems, learninganalytics and the proliferation ofeducational apps, these developmentshave radically changed how weunderstand both teaching and learning.

Let me say a few words about MOOCs.

The first MOOCs emerged from the OpenEducational Resources movement. Theterm “Massive Open Online Course” wascoined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of theUniversity of Prince Edward Island andSenior Research Fellow Bryan Alexanderof Britain’s National Institute forTechnology in Liberal Education. Thiswas in response to a course calledConnectivism and Connective Knowledgewhich was led by George Siemens ofAthabasca University and StephenDownes of the National ResearchCouncil.11

Tony Bates, in his online open textbook‘Teaching in a Digital Age’ focuses on thestrengths and weaknesses of MOOCsand offers an analysis that essentiallystates it can be a very good developmentor it will wither away in its current form.Bates12 notes MOOCs offer theopportunity to increase access to high-quality education and access to globalleaders in fields of study, all with minimalto no costs. Importantly, it is valuable fordeveloping basic conceptual learning andfor creating large online communities.This potentially becomes a great form oflifelong learning and continuingeducation – important for developingcountries to consider.

But there are some down-sides ofMOOCs too. As UNESCO has summed itup, they can be: (1) costly and time-consuming to produce, (2) mostparticipants are already well-educated,and (3) only about 5% of registrantsactually complete their courses.13

Importantly, we have yet to seesuccessful business models emerging tocover the costs of course developmentand delivery.

For motivated learners who haveappropriate technology and Internetbandwidth, MOOCs provide anopportunity to participate in globallearning and possibly earn credits fromglobally renowned institutions.

Yet, what about those learners who lackthe technological and bandwithrequirements? Several MOOC providersare looking at ways to address thesebarriers.

COL, for example, has run MOOCs withvarious partners in the developing worldwith a view to research and understandthe opportunity this kind of learningplatform offers. In a recent COLpublication, authors Sandi Boga and RoryMcGreal14 note that: “MOOCs as a type ofglobally-networked learning environmentcould become a very useful deliverymodel in the developing world – but notnecessarily when tied to a specificplatform.”

The authors point to the risk ofdeveloping countries locking themselvesto platforms that do not encourage truecollaboration. Instead, learning platformsneed to be flexible to take into account thecontext of the learners and their access totechnology. This is critical if MOOCs areto be successfully used for highereducation globally. In the context ofAfrica, for example, Boga and McGrealidentified mobile phones as important tothe way the MOOCs are constructed.

In Asia, we are already seeing officialgovernment policy that is enablingMOOCs to be set up in support ofeducation, at the university level.Countries like India and Malaysia havealready taken a policy position thatencourages the use of MOOC models toenable widespread education of theircitizens. India is designing its platform tohost massive open online courses. InMalaysia, MOOCs are being rolled out forall public universities. The intention is toimprove learning and teaching method aswell as lessen class time. Students ofpublic universities can access thesubjects anywhere and anytime through a

web portal - www.openlearning.com/Malaysianmoocs15.

The variety of MOOCs is increasing, andin the future they are likely to be moretargeted at specific audiences. You canwell imagine how difficult it is for anysingle learning experience to meet theneeds of thousands of participants whohave varying starting levels of relevantknowledge and experience. Yet MOOCsseem to attract many types of learnerswho have varying reasons to be on thecourse.

MOOCs are also likely to increasinglyoffer credentials of economic value, suchas college credits, badges or certificatesof competency. Then, if employers beginto consider such credentials for hiringand promotion decisions, we anticipatethat participants will be more willing topay fees to cover the costs of MOOCsproduction, which will help ensure thesustainability of MOOCs into the future.

An important component of effectiveMOOCs and underpinning the model isthe availability of the course materials andlearning resources as Open EducationalResources – or OER for short.

COL recognises and promotes OER ascentral to its agenda of learning fordevelopment. COL has adopted thewidest definition of OER, describing themas: “materials offered freely and openly touse and adapt for teaching, learning,development and research.”

While OER are mainly shareable in digitalformats (both online and via offlineformats such as DVD or CD-ROM), COLdoes not see them as just beingsynonymous with online resources,online learning or e-learning. Rather, inCOL’s view, OER can also be in printableformats.16

The term OER was first used at aUNESCO meeting in 2002. An earlymanifestation of OER was theMassachusetts Institute of Technology’sOpen Courseware initiative, in whichteachers placed their lecture notes onlinefor free use. The UK Open University’s

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Open Learn followed by placing existingself-instructional materials, in onlineformat. Another step forward was theVirtual University for Small States of theCommonwealth, or VUSSC, where thecapacity is built to develop coursescollaboratively using free authoringtools.17 COL and UNESCO have beenworking for several years now to promotethe development and use of OER andjointly convened the World OERCongress in 2012.

The NMC Horizon Report18 on highereducation and technology noted 6 trendsthat it believes is and will continue tohave an important influence. While theauthors correctly state that some of thetrends are already playing out indeveloped world institutions, theimplications for the developing worldhigher education institutions could bemore impactful. The growth in socialmedia and the increased access,especially via mobile phones wouldimpact on how learning (both peer andstudent-lecturer/tutor) takes place. Thishas implications for the leadership ofhigher education institutions, enablinggreater engagement with stakeholders inmore effective ways, thereby ensuring thevoice of communities, labour, governmentand business is heard and shapes thepolicy and learning environments.

The use of online, hybrid or blendedmethods is already blurring thedistinction between open, dual mode andface-to-face universities. This blurringoffers unique opportunities to UniversityLeadership and Faculty to see learners ascreators of knowledge and perhaps moreimportantly for developing countries, toharness the creativity and innovation ofthe young student to develop big andsmall ideas that address real worldproblems.

The Higher Education QualityEnhancement Project (HEQEP)19 inBangladesh could support this and is agood example of bandwidth infrastructurethat connects universities to globalnetworks and has established a fullyoperational digital library. The Project

established the Bangladesh Research andEducation Network that providesuniversities with high speed dedicatedconnectivity. This will supportinnovation, improving teaching andlearning and enhancement of researchcapabilities.

The NMC Horizon Project on HigherEducation20 notes other trends withrespect to higher education institutionsusing technology. In particular, the use ofdata-driven learning and assessment isseen as important within a 3 – 5 yearrange. As more data is being collected byinstitutions, analytical approaches similarto that used for determining consumerbehavior is now being employed toimprove teaching and learning. Theemerging science of learner analytics isproviding tools to recognize challengesearly and address these, especiallyimproving student outcomes and success.Learner analytics raises others issues thatpolicy makers need to address. Studentprivacy and the collection and use of dataare key issues. The results of such dataanalysis is being used to inform policymatters like infrastructure, instructionaldesign, support services and relatedareas, working to ensure learner retentionand success.

Other Influences of HigherEducation

There are other changes influencinghigher education, too. Of these,developments in mobile learning(mLearning) are especially potent.

In the developing world, the gap betweensupply and demand for education is wide.However, while Internet services may bevery low in many countries, use of mobiledevices is very high – and growing. Thistrend has opened up immensepossibilities for creating access toeducation irrespective of location,concentration and number of learners –and all at affordable costs, thusaddressing the supply and demand issue.

In 2010, the top four country adopters ofmobile learning were the US, Japan, SouthKorea and Taiwan. They together

accounted for about 70% of themLearning market. By 2015, thesecountries will account for only 40% ofthat market, with China, India, Indonesiaand Brazil coming on with the newhighest growth rates in mLearningadoption.

An interesting statistic in this regard isthe growth of mLearning among UScorporations – 39% of the corporationsare using this form of education andtraining. Often such learning uses thesmartphone and accesses various kindsof courses and other forms of learning viathe Internet. This is further reflected inthe projection that by 2015, 80% of peopleaccessing the Internet will do so from amobile device, especially a smart phone21.

As well, changes in higher education areapparent in the way education is beingorganised. Private higher education isemerging as the fastest growing segmentin higher education, accounting for 30%of global higher education enrolment22.Helping to drive such growth at both thenational and international levels is privateequity – that is, privatisation. This trendis now evident even in public universitiesthat are faced with ever-decreasing fundsand are expected to identify other sourcesof funding and to compete for fundingfrom both the state and the private sector.

A recent report in the University WorldNews23 noted that Bangladesh recentlyformulated rules that enable the PrivateUniversity Act 2010 to be implemented.This allowed foreign universities and jointventures with local universities orinvestors to operate in Bangladesh.

This trend is also forcing many highereducation institutions to become moreefficient in the courses they offer.Courses must, more than ever, be relevantto the needs of the economy and be ofgood quality.

Conclusion

Globally, as labour markets respond torapidly changing economies and just asrapidly changing needs and expectationsof society, so the pressure is mounting onhigher education to keep up.

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At the same time, we can’t ignore thatother big pressure: the escalating costs ofhigher education. Apart from the rareannouncements of free higher education,like the recent one from Germany,education-related costs are on the rise.Such costs are passed on to students inmost instances or are carried bygovernment through taxes.

Technology is at once opening doors tomuch more extensive opportunities – formany more people – seeking knowledgeand skills development, and drivingsignificant changes in both the teachingand the learning processes.

We also see technology reshaping theform of higher education institutions.Developments such as MOOCs, OER andmobile phones offer major avenues foraddressing the needs of citizens in everynation to obtain high-quality learningopportunities that are either free or at veryreduced costs. The outcome is greaterglobal equity in access to learning.

All of these factors have implications forhigher-education institutions in bothdeveloping and developed countries.

I would like to conclude with a fewpositive notes on why the changes I haveoutlined should be positively embracedby the leadership of higher educationinstitutions:

- The changes are inevitable andtherefore it is important tounderstand how to turn thechallenges into opportunities. Thisrequires gathering data, doing carefulanalysis and developing strategies.

- Higher-education institutions haveunique opportunities to engage in

Mr. Naidoo is the Vice President of Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada.He has been involved in the development of educational technology policy options internationally for more than two decades. He can be reached atvnaidoo[at]col[dot]org

1 Asian Development Bank’s Report. 2011. Higher Education Across Asia2 UNESCO 2014. Sustainable Development Post 2015 Begins with Education - (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/

unesco_sustainable_development_begins_with_education/#.VEQ71018PIU3 World Bank 2011. World Bank Strategy 2020 – Learning for All. Investing in People’s Knowledge and Skills to promote Development.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/ESSU/Education_Strategy_4_12_2011.pdf4 The Economist, June 28, 2014. Higher Education – Creative Destruction. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21605906-cost-crisis-changing-labour-

markets-and-new-technology-will-turn-old-institution-its.5 OECD 2013. The Education at a Glance Report. http://www.oecd.org/general/searchresults?q=The%20Education%

20at%20a%20Glance%202013%20Report%206 World Bank 2011. World Bank Strategy 2020 – Learning for All. Investing in People’s Knowledge and Skills to promote Development.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/ESSU/Education_Strategy_4_12_2011.pdf7 The Economist, June 28, 2014. Higher Education – Creative Destruction.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21605906-cost-crisis-changing-labour-markets-and-new-technology-will-turn-old-institution-its.8 Baumol’s cost disease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease9 http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21605899-staid-higher-education-business-about-experience-welcome-earthquake-digital10 http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2014/03/19/bangladesh-connecting-minds-in-higher-education.print11 Massive Open Online Course. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course12 http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/11/16/why-the-fuss-about-moocs-political-social-and-economic-drivers/?utm_medium=linkedin&utm_source=twitterfeed13 UNESCO Bangkok 2014. Can MOOCs Help Democratise Access to Education by Fiona Hollands.

http://www.unescobkk.org/fr/education/ict/online-resources/databases/ict-in-education-database/item/article/can-moocs-help-democratize-access-to-education/

14 COL 2014. Introducing MOOCs to Africa: New Economy Skills for Africa Program – ICT by Sandi Boga and Rory McGreal. http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=472

15 http://www.pendidikanmalaysia.com/2014/09/massive-open-online-courses-moocs-for.html16 COL. Policy on Open Educational Resources. http://www.col.org/progServ/policy/Pages/oer.aspx17 COL 2013. Ten years of OEL: The Road Ahead by Professor Asha Kanwar. http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2013presentations/Pages/2013-10-

02.aspx18 http://redarchive.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed19 http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2014/03/19/bangladesh-connecting-minds-in-higher-education20 http://redarchive.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed21 http://blog.commlabindia.com/mlearning/mlearning-for-corporate-training22 http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Pages/DocumentMorePage.aspx?docIdValue=648&docIdFld=ID23 http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140612092446500

partnerships with industry,government, NGOs and other bodiesto better understand the needs oflearners within the economy andsociety.

- Technology offers many ways toimprove teaching, increaseindependent learning by students,and widen access to global resources(via MOOCs, OER, etc.). Perhaps,most important of all, though, itoffers a means for a greater numberof people wherever they are in theworld to gain the skills andknowledge they need to liveproductive, satisfying andmeaningful lives.

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Spotlight On...

Institut PenyelidikanPendidikan Tinggi Negara(IPPTN) also known by theacronym NaHERI (NationalHigher Education ResearchInstitute) is managed byUniversiti Sains Malaysia(USM) – a premier publicuniversity in Malaysia locatedin northern PeninsularMalaysia in the state ofPenang. Penang island, anattractive tourist destination,accommodating an industrialfree trade zone, is equippedwith an international airportand is often referred to as the Pearl of theOrient. The research institute is located atthe Science and Arts Innovation Space orSAINS@USM, a planned space for USMinnovations park that is a nexus betweenscience and arts disciplines. Theseventeen year old institute uniquenesslies on its management structures. Theinstitute was established by the NationalHigher Education Council (MPTN) withthe aspiration to play the research armrole for the MPTN and MalaysianMinistry of Education. The institute wasofficiated by the Malaysian EducationMinister in 1997 and USM has beenprivileged to host the institute. Therefore,IPPTN is managed by selected academicsfrom USM. The appointment of IPPTN’sdirector, deputy director and associateresearch fellows are with the jurisdictionof the USM Vice Chancellor. ProfessorDr. Ahmad Nurulazam Md. Zain andAssociate Professor Dr. Munir Shuib arethe current director and deputy directorrespectively.

A Malaysian higher education researchinstitute and the host of the CommonwealthTertiar y Education Facility

By Ms. Norfarah Nordin & Dr. Ahmad Nurulazam Md. Zain

While IPPTN’s director and deputydirector are academics of Universiti SainsMalaysia, its Associate Research Fellowsand Senior Research Fellows areappointed from other universities inMalaysia. Currently, the appointedassociate research fellows are from thefollowing universities: Universiti SainsMalaysia, Universiti KebangsaanMalaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia,Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, UniversitiMalaysia Sabah, International IslamicUniversity Malaysia, Universiti MalaysiaPerlis, Universiti Pertahanan NasionalMalaysia, and Universiti Utara Malaysia.IPPTN’s Associate Research Fellows andSenior Research Fellows have variedacademic backgrounds, disciplines andtheir dispersed locality in otheruniversities help to enhance theinstitute’s research profile.

In view of the fact that IPPTN’s mainfunction is to serve the Ministry ofEducation Malaysia, particularly the

Department of Higher Education Malaysiain terms of providing research basedpolicy advisory, many of its researchprojects are funded by the Ministry ofEducation Malaysia. Some researchprojects are top-down research;indicating that the researches are carriedout based on the demand of the Ministryand there are also a number of bottom-upresearches— researches that areproposed by the Associate ResearchFellows of IPPTN based on current

research in higher education.As of today, the vast majorityof the completed researcheshave contributed to thematuration of the Malaysianhigher education in the area ofcurriculum development forpreparation of an entry-levelworkforce, graduateemployability, governance ofpublic universities, changingconditions for the academicprofession, growth anddevelopment of transnationalhigher education services,higher education and urbanand regional engagement,

comparative studies of higher educationsystems, university rating system andengagement activities on highereducation with Cambodia, Lao PDR,Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Besides conducting research, the institutealso organises a range of highereducation scholars discourse, publiclectures, seminars and the renownedbiennial Global Higher Education Forum(GHEF). IPPTN’s immeasurable networkhas engaged and gathered manyinternational and local higher educationscholars to the forum. GHEF is one of thenetworking platforms among highereducation scholars in Southeast Asia.Due to close support from the Ministry ofEducation Malaysia and positivefeedback from the GHEF participants,IPPTN will be organising the sixth GlobalHigher Education Forum in 2015.

In the international landscape, IPPTN isnow privileged to be hosting thecoordinating secretariat of the

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Commonwealth Tertiary EducationFacility (CTEF) in 2014. Dato’ ProfessorDr. Morshidi Sirat, the former DirectorGeneral in the Department of HigherEducation Malaysia has been recentlyappointed by the Government ofMalaysia as the Director of CTEF. TheCTEF at IPPTN operates within theorganisational structure of IPPTN and isresponsible to the Malaysian Ministry ofEducation and the CommonwealthSecretariate. The network partners ofCTEF are the Association ofCommonwealth Universities (ACU), TheCommonwealth of Learning (COL),University of West Indies (UWI),Ministry of Higher Education SouthAfrica (MOHESA) and Ministry ofEducation Malaysia (MOE). TheGovernment of Malaysia will support theCTEF for a period of 3 years. Thisduration is to be regarded as an InceptionPeriod in which the CTEF will be expectedto demonstrate its value bothprofessionally and financially. At the endof three years, the CTEF should be able toshow that it could be financiallysustainable thereafter.

Three key activity areas for the CTEF atIPPTN are categorised as core activity, in-house projects and contract consultancy.The core activities will include datacollection, research, the production anddissemination of general policy papers,and other services that could be ofbenefit to all member states. This willinvolve monitoring policy changes and

developmentsin tertiaryeducation inmembercountries andin othercountries where tertiary and highereducation practice is globally influential.Meanwhile, the in-house projects arerelated to a particular aspect of tertiaryeducation or a particular region or memberstate, which would have value for theregion or member state, and which areregarded by the CTEF as being of value.Such projects could be partially or fullysubsidised by the CTEF, depending onthe ability of the region or member state topay for the service and its value to thebroader community. On the other hand,contract consultancy would be fullyfunded by a governmental or institutionalclient, thus recovering overheads andactual costs. Such contracts might also beundertaken for international agencies.

On 26-27 of November 2014, CTEF, IPPTN,The Commonwealth and the Centre forTesting, Measurement & Appraisal ofUniversiti Utara Malaysia jointlyorganised a workshop on HigherEducation Funding and Access Issues inselected Commonwealth countries at

Ms. Nordin is a Social Research Officer at IPPTN, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penangand can be reached at norfarah[at]usm[dot]my ; Dr. Nurulazam is the Director ofIPPTN & Professor in School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia,Penang and can be reached at anmz[at]usm[dot]my

SAINS@USM, Penang, Malaysia. Theobjectives of the workshop are toexchange experiences among participatingcountries on funding and financingsystems vis a vis the access to highereducation, benchmarking best practicesof other advanced commonwealthcountries and learn from them the way toimprove higher education financing andfunding systems of the developingnations, and strengthening international

relations, cooperationand partnership in highereducation among theCommonwealthcountries. Scholars,policy makers, academics,administrators who areinvolved in highereducation fundingsystem and access arethe targeted participants

of the workshop.

The CTEF establishment in IPPTN isrecognition of the institute by theCommonwealth Secretariat. The institutewill strive to remain a strong and credibleentity to engage in higher educationresearch nationally and internationally.IPPTN is committed to promote theenculturation of researchers intobecoming active scholars in highereducation research. IPPTN thus welcomesvisiting scholars and internationalresearch collaborators particularly inhigher education to strengthen itsnetworking research function. In the thirdquarter of 2015, IPPTN would like to inviteall scholars, policy makers, academiciansand interested parties to participate in thesixth Global Higher Education Forumwhich will be held in Penang, Malaysia.Please visit our websitewww.ipptn.usm.my to catch up on ourlatest activities and updates and like ourFacebook page www.facebook.com/ipptn.usm.

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CEMCA News

National Capacity Building Workshop onOER-based eLearning in New DelhiCommonwealthEducational MediaCentre for Asia(CEMCA), New Delhiin collaboration withConsortium forEducationalCommunication (CEC),an Inter UniversityCentre of UniversityGrants Commission onElectronic Media, Govt.of India, organised a National Capacity Building Workshop on OER-based eLearning atCEC, I.U.A.C. Campus, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi from December 22-24, 2014. Atotal of 26 teachers from Uttrakhand Open University, Tamil Nadu Open University,Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, K. K. Handiqui State Open University,Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMMRC) and CEC including Education MediaResearch Centre (EMRC) participated in this capacity building workshop. Whileinaugurating the workshop Prof. Rajbir Singh, Director, CEC, emphasized the need forimprovement of the quality in higher education in the country. He appreciated the role ofCEMCA in providing the assistance in organizing this workshop. Dr. Sanjaya Mishra,

Director, CEMCA enlightened on thegoals of the workshop to build thecapacity of the participants on OpenEducational Resources (OER). Theworkshop was facilitated by Dr. SomNaidu, Monash University, Melbourne,Australia and Dr. Manas RanjanPanigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCA.This three-day workshop involvedexamining the learning outcomes of thefive modules of the OER-based eLearningcourse; exploring the concepts on OER,Open Learning, Open Access, OpenSource, Open Scholarship; pedagogicaldesign and developing assessmentcriteria in line with the learning outcomes,and moderating discussion in an onlinelearning environment. Participants of theworkshop explored strategic andoperational plan for implementing OER-based eLearning in their institutions andalso presented their plans to the wholegroup for feedback and reflection.Participants were exposed to theoreticalas well as practical application of theOER-based eLearning programme throughhands-on-experiences.

Capacity Building Workshop onOER-based eLearning in ColomboCommonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), NewDelhi in collaboration with Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL)organised a workshop for capacity building of educators onOER-based eLearning programme from December 16–19, 2014.Forty (40) academic staff members of OUSL from variousdisciplines attended this workshop, which was facilitated byDr. Som Naidu of Monash University, Australia. During thisworkshop, the Faculty of Education of OUSL launched thecourse on “OER-based eLearning”, adapted and developed incollaboration with CEMCA, New Delhi, India. This is a fullyonline course aiming at the professional development ofeducators in integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) inteaching and learning. Dr. Vijitha Nanayakkara, Vice-Chancellorof OUSL officially launched the online course. EmeritusProf. Chandra Gunawardena, former UNESCO/COL Chair andfounding Dean of the Faculty of Education, OUSL, and

Dr. Upali Sedere, renowned educationist and a council memberof OUSL were present as Guests of Honour on this occasion.This 6-month duration online course is implemented under theguidance of Prof. Shironica Karunanayaka, Dean, Faculty ofEducation, OUSL.

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Regional Workshop on ICTLeadership in Higher Educationin DhakaThe Regional Workshop on ICT Leadership in Higher Educationwas organised by CEMCA in association with the BangladeshOpen University (BOU) in Dhaka from December 11-12, 2014. Total30 participants including 18 Vice Chancellors from Bangladesh andIndia were present in the workshop. Besides there were also seniorprofessors, ministry officials and staff of the University.

Inaugurating the event, Mr. Md. N. I. Khan, the Secretary, Ministryof Education, Bangladesh and COL Focal Point, expressed that thetheme of the workshop is timely, as the leaders need to lead fromthe front, and he himself is interested in promoting use of OpenEducational Resources. According to him, the BOU should take therole for the development of a national repository, and COL mayprovide support for capacity building in conventional universities.Prof. M. A. Mannan, VC, BOU expressed happiness and thankedCEMCA for organizing the event and expressed support to all theconventional universities to use the facilities of BOU. The videolecture of Vice President, COL was played. This helped to set the

tone of the discussions in context for the other sessions. Acompilation of presentations of all the three ICT Leadership inHigher Education events was released by the Focal Point anddistributed to the participants. Prof. Badrul Khan facilitated asession on ICT policy in Bangladesh and emphasized that theUniversity Grants Commission in Balgladesh needs to bring outpolicy guidelines to be followed by the universities to developtheir own eLearning strategies. There was also a presentationfrom the information-2-access programme of the Prime Minister’soffice. Participating leaders discussed to equip themselves withbetter understanding to lead from the front in their respectiveinstitutions to use ICT for teaching, learning, research andadministration. Prof. A. K. Azad Choudhury, Chairman, UGC andChief Guest for the concluding session elaborated on the plansof UGC to support teaching-learning and research in Bangladesh.

CEMCA initiativeto Upgrade TVSDcourses to NSQF inGuwahatiCEMCA in collaboration withKrishna Kanta Handiqui State OpenUniversity (KKHSOU), Guwahati,Assam organized a workshop on“Upgradation of the VocationalCourses of KKHSOU to National SkillsQualification Framework (NSQF)” fromDecember 02-04, 2014 in Guwahati. Thirtyparticipants including officials from theUniversity, different Industrial TrainingInstitutes, Polytechnics and othergovernment as well as private institutes ofAssam participated in the workshop.

The Minister of Education, Industry &Commerce, Power and Public Enterprisesof Assam, Shri Pradyut Bordoloiinaugurated the workshop. Heemphasized the fact that the need to have‘community colleges’ in line with the

western countries whereby the learnerswould be exposed to different skill-basedcourses to take on the challenges of thejob market in the long way.

The Vice Chancellor of KKHSOU,Professor Srinath Baruah underlined thatthe University would implement moreskill-based programmes for the learners inorder to strengthen their ability to adaptto the changing market scenario.

Mr. N. K. Mohapatra, CEO, ElectronicsSector Skill Council of India, New Delhisketched that the Government has laid

importance onimplementing theNational SkillsQualification Framework(NSQF) in the country by2018. Dr. Ankuran Dutta,Programme Officer,CEMCA outlined theimportance of theworkshop by saying thatdifferent vocational andskill based programmes

must be upgraded as per NSQF.

The inputs of the participants on thepresent curriculum of the University havebeen taken by Mr. Mohapatra to align theexisting courses of electronics to theNSQF. He acted as the key resourceperson in the workshop. Dr Duttafacilitated the workshop to develop shortterm skill development courses aligningwith NSQF and the participants finalizedeight curricula in electronics, IT,automotive and beauty and wellnesssector.

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Workshop on ICTIntegrated TeacherEducation in Bhopal

CEMCA in collaboration with RegionalInstitute of Education (RIE), Bhopal, aconstituent unit of NCERT, Govt. of India,organised a workshop on ICT IntegratedTeacher Education for DIET TeacherEducators of Madhya Pradesh from November15-17, 2014. The objective of the workshopwas to create awareness and interest amongthe DIET faculties, on the use of ICT in theirprofessional activities.

The DIET teacher educators of the state wereselected and deputed by Rajya ShikshaKendra (RSK) – Sate Education Centre,Madhya Pradesh for the workshop, held atRIE, Bhopal. The workshop was inauguratedby Dr. O. P. Sharma, Additional Director, RSK,Madhya Pradesh. Prof. H. K. Senapaty,Principal, RIE, Bhopal presided over theinaugural ceremony. Prof. Reeta Sharma,former Dean, RIE, Bhopal was the Guest ofHonour of day. Prof. Senapaty in his speechdescribed the importance of ICT in teachereducation. The workshop was facilitated byMrs. G. Mythili, IGNOU, New Delhi andDr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, ProgrammeOfficer, CEMCA. Participants were exposed totheoretical as well as applications of basic ICTtools in teaching and learning.

National Consultation on OER for SkillDevelopment in New Delhi

CEMCA organized a day long National Consultation on Open EducationalResources (OER) for Skill Development in New Delhi on November 28, 2014. Atotal of 35 participants including OER experts and skill development practitionersfrom different parts of India participated in the consultation. The expertsrepresented different educational institutions, TVET institutions, other privateskill development organisations and government agencies such as National SkillDevelopment Corporation (NSDC), National Skill Development Agency (NSDA)of Government of India, and private companies such as IL&FS, Bosch, etc.

The basic objective of this consultation was to facilitate interaction amongconcerned policy makers, practitioners, knowledge and skill developmentproviders, OER volunteers, academicians, livelihood agencies. Prof. Vinay KumarPathak, Vice Chancellor, Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota inauguratedthe consultation and sketched the fact on importance of OER in skilling a hugenumber of Indian population. Prof. V. S. Prasad, former Director NAAC deliveredthe keynote address. Prof. Prasad stated that education is a social function andknowledge is a public good, a public property and it should be a resource foreverybody. Prof. Rakesh Khurana, Chairman, KNI Trust gave an overview on theconsultation. Dr. Sanjaya Mishra, Director, CEMCA enumerated the objectives ofthe consultation and facilitated the interactions among the expert participants.

Mr. R. C. M. Reddy, Managing Director, IL&FS explained the concept of Skill 2.0,where the target is not only the dropouts but all the student community. Dr SapnaPoti of NSDC addressed the issue of the respect for skilling, while Ms. RuchiraChandra of NSDA elaborated the National Policy on Skill Development, 2009 andother initiatives of the Government of India. Among the expert participants Dr. B.Chandrasekar, Mr. Varun Arya, Dr. N. T. Yaduraju, Mr. Viplav Baxi, Dr. AnjleePrakash, Dr. Arupjyoti Choudhury, Dr. Asfa M. Yasin, Mr. Navin Pathak,Dr. Chandrabhanu Pattanayak, Dr. O. P. Goel, Dr. S. K. Soam, Mr. AjayBalakrishnan, Mr. Anurag Gupta shared their views on the areas like SkillsDevelopment – Challenges for India, Using OER for Skills Development, LearningContent in Sector Skills, Technology and OER: Case Studies.

A set of recommendations were made by all the participants, where it wasconsidered that OER provides an excellent route to deliver skill training tomillions. Dr. Ankuran Dutta, Programme Officer, CEMCA extended the vote ofthanks to all the expert participants.

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Community Radio PeerReviewers Trained to use CR-CITin HyderabadCEMCA in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair on CommunityMedia (UCCM), University of Hyderabad conducted twoworkshops in Hyderabad on October 8 -10, 2014 and November26 -28, 2014 aimed at building the capacities of Peer Reviewers inusing the Community Radio-Continuous Improvement Toolkit(CR-CIT), Version 2.0. The Toolkit, developed by the UCCM asan activity of CEMCA and already distributed to all the

OER-basedeLearning OnlineFacilitation andAssessmentWorkshop in PenangCEMCA in collaboration with WawasanOpen University (WOU), Penang,Malaysia organised a workshop forcapacity building of teachers on Online Facilitation andAssessment for OER-based eLearning programme. The workshopwas held at WOU main campus from October 14–16, 2014 forselected faculty members with the objective to enable themfacilitate OER-based eLearning programme to be offered by WOU.With this workshop the WOU is preparing to launch the OER-based eLearning professional development programme for

teachers developed by CEMCA andWOU.

The workshop was facilitated byDr. Som Naidu, Monash University,Melbourne, Australia. Of the total 22participants, 19 were from WOU’sacademic schools, Library and theEducational Technology &Publishing (ETP) unit, and three fromDISTED College and Universiti SainsMalaysia. The workshop involvedexamining the learning outcomes of

the five modules of the OER-based eLearning course, developingassessment criteria in line with the learning outcomes, andmoderating discussion in an online learning environment. Thiswas a hands-on experience in which participants engaged inonline role play activities by taking part in simulation exercises forbetter understanding of online moderation.

Workshops on Open EducationalResources for DevelopmentCEMCA organised two workshops on “Open EducationalResources for Development” with Maulana Azad National UrduUniversity (MANUU), Hyderabad and K. K. Handiqui StateOpen University (KKHSOU), Guwahati. As a part of theResearch on Open Education Resources for Development(ROER4D) in the Global South, CEMCA has been hosting aproject for investigating into the attitudes, motivations, barriersand perception of quality of OER amongst teachers in Indianhigher education institutions. The first workshop took place inHyderabad from October 7-10, 2014, with a participation oftwenty seven university teachers. The second workshop tookplace in Guwahati from October 15-18, 2014 where 29 universityteachers participated. These workshops assisted the universityteachers’ to understand history and development of OER and

enable them to relate the needof OER in their workenvironment. It also aimed tofacilitate appreciation of theimportance of open licensimgin educational materials.

These workshops also helpedthe research team to collectthe data for ROER4D researchproject through a questionnaire and in-depth interviews of some ofthe selected participants. Apart from these notes and audiorecordings of the deliberations, discussions, panel discussion byparticipants and resource person were also taken to have acomprehensive understanding of the teachers’ views on the aspectsof the research. Dr. Ramesh C. Sharma and Dr. Sanjaya Mishrafacilitated the workshops, and were assisted by Dr. Atul Thakur andMs. Meenu Sharma.

Community Radio Stations in India, has been designed to assistCommunity Radio Stations in undertaking periodic self-assessment of their performance and take necessary steps toimprove their engagements and overall performance in serving thecommunities they represent.

A total of 27 participants attended in the workshops. It also aimsat inculcating appreciation of the core principles of communitymedia. The workshops developed capacities of the participants touse CR-CIT effectively while serving as Peer Reviewers. At theend of the workshops the participants were assessed for theirunderstanding of the toolkit and received certificates for theirachievement.

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Focal Points Meetingfor CommonwealthAsia organised atPenang, MalaysiaCOL’s network of in-country Focal Pointshelps COL’s relationship with eachCommonwealth Member State be moresystematic and interactive. Ministers ofeducation nominate Focal Points, whobecome COL’s primary contact in eachcountry. Regional meetings with FocalPoints are being held as part of the wideconsultation process in the developmentof COL’s next strategic plan.

In 17-19 September 2014, Focal Points inSouth and Southeast Asia met in Penang,Malaysia, hosted by the MalaysianMinistry of Education and Universiti

Sains Malaysia. FocalPoints discussed theirnational priorities andhow these can bealigned with COL’smission and mandate.The meetings are alsoan opportunity torecall COL’s identity, purpose andprogrammes and to present theachievements in each country so far.“Sustainable Learning for Development”has been a recurring theme for suchmeetings.

The main priorities expressed byparticipants at the Asia Focal PointsMeeting were included skillsdevelopment, technology, openeducational resources and massive openonline courses. Some Focal Pointsexpressed the need to broaden the

Lifelong Learning for Farmers (L3F) modelto include fishing, and to shareinformation about COL’s successfulmodels. Two underpinning concernsraised at the meeting were: (i) adoptingnew technologies, given that there isnearly 100% access to mobile phones in anumber of countries in the region, and (ii)making tertiary education more relevant toavoid high rates of unemployment.Participants also discussed how COLcould deepen its work in the region andenhance engagement with Focal Pointsand the ministries.

14th Advisory CouncilMeeting of CEMCAThe 14th Advisory Council meeting was held on16th September, 2014 at Penang, Malaysia. TheAdvisory Council of CEMCA functions as anadvisory body of COL on CEMCA affairs and isresponsible for broad policy formulation in theprogramme areas. Besides, it monitors andevaluates CEMCA’s progress and suggests waysand means to improve performance.

The action taken report on the minutes of theprevious meeting and the report of the Directorhighlighting the achievements during the year 2013-2014 were placed before the Council for the purposeof monitoring and evaluation.

Quality Assurance Policy Developmentfor Open Schools in AsiaCEMCA hosted a workshop onQuality Assurance PolicyDevelopment for Open Schoolsin Asia on behalf ofCommonwealth of Learning(COL), Vancouver, Canada.COL’s Open Schooling initiativedeveloped the QualityAssurance Toolkit for OpenSchools in 2009. Following thedevelopment of this generictoolkit, Open schools wereexpected to contextualize and adapt it to develop their own Quality Assurance(QA) policy and procedures. The workshop was organised for Open Schoolsof Commonwealth Asia with the objectives to support the development ofQuality Assurance policies for Open Schools through expert guidance andpeer engagement; induct Open Schools to prepare appropriate QA Processesas a means for building quality in their delivery operations; enable OpenSchool practitioners appreciate the importance of policy guidance ininstitutionalising robust quality assurance systems in their institutions. Theworkshop was held from September 08-12, 2014 in New Delhi. Dr. EphraimMahlanga from South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE),South Africa facilitated and participants from Open Schools of Bangladesh,Sri Lanka and India participated in the five-day workshop.

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Workshop for the CommunityWomen Broadcasters ofBangladeshCEMCA in collaborationwith Rupantar, anorganisation based inKhulna and Dhakaorganised a master trainingworkshop focused onmutual capacity sharingbetween womenbroadcasters of theCommunity Radio stationsof Bangladesh aiming toimprove and strengthen the community participation in theprogramme production from August 25 -28, 2014 in Dhaka,Bangladesh.

This capacity building workshop provided an opportunity to 20women broadcasters of 10 operational community radio stations

out of 14 in Bangladesh to attain conceptual clarity on theCommunity Learning Program (CLP) model developed byCommonwealth of Learning through collaboration with various

global partners.

The participants wereintroduced to various toolsthat could be used fordeveloping a radio seriesthat blends ‘outcome-oriented learning design’with ‘process-orienteddialogue’ and stakeholderparticipation. This alsoforms the core of the CLPmodel. Dr. Ankuran Dutta,Mr. Saifuddin Sabuj,

Mr. Sumon Francis Gomes and Ms. Rosemary Joydhar servedas key resource persons. Dr. Jahangir Alom and Mr. TofiqueMaruf also delivered lecturers on script writing and programmedesigning. Executive Director of Rupantar, Mr. Rafiqul IslamKhokan attended the inaugural session of the workshop.

AMARC-SIC Meeton CommunityRadio in South AsiaAMARC, Asia-Pacific, in collaborationwith the SAARC Information Centre(SIC), organized a seminar on the ‘Statusand Role of Community Radio in theSAARC Region’ from August 20-22,2014 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It wasorganized in co-ordination with theMinistry of Information, Government ofBangladesh and in partnership withCommonwealth Educational MediaCentre for Asia (CEMCA) andBangladesh NGOs Network for Radio &Communication (BNNRC).

Specific sessions were held to discussthe role of community radio vis-à-visclimate change adaptation, disaster riskreduction and gender equality andother social issues. Capacity buildingof women broadcasters was anotherimportant focus of the meet.

CEMCA organised a plenary sessiontitled ‘Journey Ahead towards aRobust Community Radio Sector,’moderated by Dr. Ankuran Dutta.Prof. Vinod Pavarala and Mr. AHMBazlur Rahman delivered presentationson Peer Review in India andBangladesh respectively. Ms. VenuArora spoke on the CEMCA’s activityon Sustainability and Community Radioin South Asia. On the theme Capacity

Building for Community WomenBroadcasters, Ms. Archana Kapoor andMr. Rafiqul Islam Khokan presentedtheir views in the context of India andBangladesh respectively. Mr. AshishSen elucidated on Looking back,looking ahead - CEMCA’s work incommunity media. Ms. Supriya Sahu,Joint Secretary, Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting, Govt. of India andMs. Reba Rani Saha, Joint Secretary ofInformation, Bangladesh also sharedtheir views among others.

Taking stock of the South Asianexperiences with community radio, themeet put forth recommendations forfurther development of communitybroadcasting in South Asia.

CEMCA offers internship to graduate and post-graduate students to gain work experience in the area of CEMCA’s field of competenceand enhance their academic knowledge through practical work assignments. Internships are available for 2-6 months, and shouldbe part of the learning and development plan of the candidate. For details visit Knowledge Management page at CEMCA Website.

Internship Available

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CEMCA Completed 20 YearsCommonwealth Education Media Centre forAsia (CEMCA) celebrated glorious 20years of its existence to promote learningfor development in Commonwealth Asiancountries in a stakeholder meetingorganised at India International Centre,New Delhi on July 01, 2014. Rememberingthe day when CEMCA was established onJuly 01, 1994 by Commonwealth ofLearning (COL), Prof. Asha Kanwar,President and CEO of COL graced theoccasion and congratulated all the staff andstakeholders of CEMCA. She enumerated

the landmark activities done in the last 20 years, and thanked all the former Directors fortheir dynamic leadership in taking forward the organization. She also shared the COL’scurrent, as well as future activities, and also reflected on the six year strategic planinstead three year strategic plan to be introduced in COL and CEMCA. Dr. SanjayaMishra, Director, CEMCA welcomed the guests and provided historical overview of theestablishment of CEMCA and remembered the contribution of Dr. Abdul Wahid Khanand Dr. Kiron Karnik. Prof. Asha Kanwar released a poster highlighting majormilestones of CEMCA in the last twenty years. Mr. R. Thyagarajan, Head (Admin andFinance), CEMCA proposed vote of thanks to all the dignitaries and participants.

Dr. Ramesh Sharma joined COL as Director ofCEMCA on January 01, 2015. Dr. Sharma servedIndira Gandhi National Open University since1996 as Regional Director of six of regionalcentres. Dr. Sharma steered the distanceeducation activities of the University of Guyana,

South America in 2009-11 as Director of the Institute ofDistance and Continuing Education (IDCE). He had been amember of Advisory Group for the United Nations Conferenceon Trade and Development. We at CEMCA and COL welcomeDr. Sharma for the new responsibility and look forward to hiscontributions in the region.

Dr. Sanjaya Mishra became Education Specialist -eLearning on 2 January 2015. Previously he servedCOL as Director of the Commonwealth EducationalMedia Centre for Asia (CEMCA) from July 01, 2012 toDecember 31, 2014 and Programme Officer from 2001 to2003. Dr. Mishra is one of the leading scholars in open,

distance and online learning. Prior to the service at CEMCA as itsDirector, he was Programme Specialist (ICT in Education, Scienceand Culture) at UNESCO, Paris. CEMCA staff congratulatesDr. Mishra on his new assignment at COL and thanks for hisinitiatives and contribution to fulfillment of the motto of Learning forDevelopment in the Commonwealth Asian countries.

Building Community -Shaping Change:IAMCR Pre-Conference inHyderabadCEMCA supported the UNESCO Chair onCommunity Media, University ofHyderabad in organising a Pre-Conferenceat the International Association of Mediaand Communication Research (IAMCR)conference from July 13 – 14, 2014 inHyderabad. The theme of the pre-conference was ‘Building Community -Shaping Change: the Role of Community,Citizen and Alternative Media in RegionalTransformation’. CEMCA hosted twopanels on the ‘Potential for CommunityTelevision in South Asia’ and ‘Self-Assessment of CR: Tools and Experiences’.Mr. Vasuki Belavadi, Mr. Sajan Venniyoorand Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman shared theirviews on policy imperative for setting up ofCommunity Television (CTV), potential lowcost technologies and experiences of CTVin other countries. The panel discussionwas moderated by Dr. Ankuran Dutta,Programme Officer, CEMCA. In the otherpanel, Ms. Rukmini Vemraju, Dr. KanchanMalik and Ms. Pinky Chandran explainedthe experiences on the existing self-assessment mechanism for CommunityRadio in India, while Mr. Raghu Manali andthe moderator of the panel Ms. Jo Tacchishared experiences of Nepal and Australiarespectively.

CR-CIT Follow UpMeeting in Dhaka,BangladeshCEMCA in collaboration with BNNRCorganised a meeting with the stakeholderson the CR-CIT in Dhaka on August 19,2014. Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman made ashort brief on the process and context of

CR-CIT practice in Bangladesh in thisfollow-up meeting. BNNRC translatedthe toolkit into Bangla. This meetingwas the follow up on the status of theCR-CIT for the community radio stationsin Bangladesh and to share the opinionof three CR stations, who wereparticipated in the field testing inNovember 2013. Prof. Vinod Pavaralaand Mr. Ashish Sen were present at themeeting.

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CEMCA Staff News

16

Case Study

Introduction

In today’s competitive environment,employers look for people who are wellequipped with skills as well as academicqualifications. Employers require personswho will be able to apply their knowledgeand skills in a variety of tasks in anoccupation or job. Althoughqualifications are accepted as areasonable indicator of the learningexperience that the people have gainedthrough formal education system, but thereal test lies with the performance on-the-job, which involves demonstration ofgeneric and domain specific knowledgeand skills (competency).To increase thechances of employment, young peopleneed skills that are relevant to thedemands of the society and labourmarket. Students should possess generic,social and vocational or technical skillsand the ability to adapt to the changingwork environment. Formal educationshould help young people to preparethemselves in a way that they are ableapply their knowledge and skills in avariety of tasks and situations. Providingemployable skills along with vocationalskills to the youth for enabling them toeffectively perform on-the-job will notonly make them productivity, but wouldalso help society in combating theproblem of unemployment.

The educational planners considersecondary stage of education as crucialstage for the students to explore the

Vocationalisation of Secondary and HigherSecondary Education under National SkillsQualifications Framework: A Case Study ofHaryana’s Pilot Project

By Prof. Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Ms. Rekha Menon

potential of various occupations in theworld-of-work and make career decisions.It is the stage at which students startworking for acquiring necessarycompetencies for a smooth transition fromeducation to the world-of-work or furthereducation and training.

Pilot Overview

A pilot project of the revised CentrallySponsored Scheme of Vocationalisation ofSecondary and Higher SecondaryEducation, which was subsumed inRashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan(RMSA) in 2013, was launched by theMinistry of Human ResourceDevelopment (MHRD), Government ofIndia in 40 Government schools ofHaryana in September 2012 under theNational Vocational EducationQualifications Framework (NVEQF). Avocational subject along with the generaleducation subjects was included as partof the scheme of studies from Class IXonwards. The pilot was named as“Applied Learning” project so that thestudents could understand theimportance of applying their knowledgeand skills related to the concepts,theories, principles and laws taughtthrough the various general educationsubjects. For instance, the knowledge oftaking measurements and conversion ofunits learnt through mathematics ingeneral education could be utilized toperform tasks like measuring the lengthand width of automotive parts usingVernier Caliper.

The pilot project attempts to integrate skilldevelopment activities into generaleducation, develop vocational interestsand aptitudes, impart knowledge andskills based on national occupationstandards set by Sector Skills Council,provide greater choice of vocationalcourses and allow students to pursuehigher studies. Forty governmentschools in 8 districts, namely Gurgaon,Faridabad, Mewat, Palwal, Jhajjar, Rohtak,Ambala and Yamuna Nagar were selectedfor introduction of vocational subjects.The project was launched on 3rd

September, 2012.

A National Vocational EducationQualifications Framework (NVEQF) Cellwas set up at the Haryana’s Departmentof School Education for implementing andmanaging the project. The Haryana’sBoard of School Education also formed aNVEQF Cell to conduct evaluation ofknowledge and skill in association withthe respective Sector Skill Council. A Sub-committee of School ManagementDevelopment Committee (SMDC) hasbeen set up in each school, whichmonitors both the implementation andfinancial aspect of the project. At Statelevel, Project Steering Committee (PSC)has been set up to oversee and monitorthe implementation of the project.Industry Coordinators liaison with thelocal industry players for providingsupport for internships and studentplacements.

Beneficiaries and Funding

Students from Class IX to XII (between14-17 years age group) are the beneficiary.Funding for the project came from theMinistry of Human ResourceDevelopment (MHRD) under the revisedCentrally Sponsored Scheme ofVocationalisation of Secondary andHigher Secondary Education andGovernment of Haryana.

Selection of Schools

Selection of schools for introduction ofvocational subjects was done on the

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basis of secondary dataobtained from the SecondaryEducation ManagementInformation System (SEMIS)(2010-2011) and DistrictInformation System forEducation (DISE) (2009-2010).A tool was devised to selectthe schools and 40 schoolswere selected on the basis ofthe following four criteria:proximity to industry, availability ofinfrastructure, strength of students andwillingness of the school to participate invocational education.

Course Offerings

Vocational subjects in four economicsectors, namely Information Technology-IT Enabled Services, Automotive, Securityand Retail were introduced. In Class IXand X, a vocational subject is beingoffered as an additional subject, whereasin Class XI and XII, it is being offered ascompulsory elective subject along withthe general subjects Commerce, Scienceand Humanities stream.

Laborator y / Workshop

A well-equipped workshop or laboratoryhas been set up in each school to providebasic competencies of handling andoperating various tools and equipmentand development of vocational skills. Thelist of equipment and raw materialsprovided by the curriculum developersand endorsed by the Sector Skill Councilswas used for procurement of equipmentand materials. The procurement was doneby the respective schools with the help ofthe Sub-committee of SchoolManagement Development Committee(SMDC).

Orientation of Key Functionaries

Orientation programmes on variousaspects of implementation of variousaspects of CSS of Vocationalisation ofSecondary and Higher Secondary NVEQF(NSQF) were organized for the Principalsand District Education Officers who play acritical role in running the project.

Student Mobilisation

Student mobilization was done byproviding information about the benefitsof the vocational subjects and careeroptions available after completion of thecourses, so that the students can make aninformed choice before enrolling in thevocational subject. Student mobilizationcamps were organized in schools toassess their needs and preferences and todevelop their understanding onvocational subjects. It was noted that lackof awareness about the variety and thecompetency requirements for variousoccupations available in the world-of-work are partly responsible for the lack ofattraction towards vocational courses. Apamphlet was prepared to bring aboutnecessary awareness and mobilization. Aregistration form was developed forstudent’s enrollment. Parents counselingwas an integral part of the studentmobilization.

Industry Collaboration

The involvement of industry is vital toaddress the issue of skill gaps and toreduce the inconsistencies in training ofstudents. Industry Coordinators wereappointed to serve as a link between theInstitution and Industry and liaison withSector Skill Councils and Industries forfield visits or training of students in theindustry.

Curricula and Courseware

Competency based curricula andcourseware, being developed or vetted bythe PSS Central Institute of VocationalEducation (PSSCIVE), a constituent unit

of National Council ofEducational Research &Training (NCERT) located atBhopal are being used toimpart education and trainingto the students. The contentis aligned to the NationalOccupational Standards(NOS) created by therespective Sector Skill Council

(SSC). The content include both generic/soft and domain specific skills. Genericskills include communication skills,working and cooperating with others,information technology, safe workingpractices, health and safety requirementsat workplace, first aid practices, legalrequirements at workplace, disastermanagement, problem solving, collectingand recording numerical data, interpretingand presenting data, dealing withcustomers, etc.

Teacher Training

Vocational teachers were trained onpedagogical and domain specificknowledge and skills.

Teaching-learning

The school time-table was modified toincorporate periods for the vocationalsubject. Guest lectures of practitioners isan integral part of teaching which helpstudents to learn from their experiences.Besides interactive lectures, teaching-learning activities include role play,problem solving, assignments, etc.

Student Portfolio

Student portfolio is a purposefulcollection of student work that exhibitsthe student’s efforts, progress, andachievements in one or more areas ofcurriculum. It represents a collection ofstudent’s best work or best efforts, workexperiences related to outcomes beingassessed and documents the learningexperiences and identified learningoutcomes. Student portfolio is a part ofthe Continuous and Comprehensive

18

Evaluation (CCE) and henceevery student prepares suchportfolio.

On-The-Job Training

On-the-job training, whichhelps the students to learnhow to do a task at the workplace has been mandated fora minimum of 7 days twice ayear for all the students of Class XI andXII. Students were able to relate theorywith practice.

Assessment and Certification

Assessment includes three components:(a) internal assessment, based on theguidelines issued by the Board of SchoolEducation, Haryana for Continuous andComprehensive Evaluation (CCE), (b)external theory examination conducted byBoard for School Education, Haryana and(c) practical examination conducted bythe Board in association with Sector SkillCouncil.

Project Management

Coordination and management of the pilotproject is being done by the NSQF Cell ofHaryana’s Department of SchoolEducation and Wadhwani Foundation, anon-profit organization with a mission torevolutionize skill development byleveraging technology to create millionsof highly-skilled manpower.

Learnings from Pilot

Mindset change

Vocational education lacks the status itdeserves and is often perceived assecond class option. This perception haschanged when the students realized therelevance of vocational education inenhancing employability. The pilot projecthas brought about a change in themindset towards vocational courseswhich could be achieved through regularinteractions with parents, students andother stakeholders, multiple levels of

orientation and awareness programmesand offering relevant courses. There isincreased awareness among parents,teachers and students about skilldevelopment.

Promotion of Skill Developmentand Applied Learning

The strategy of integrating education andtraining by adding a vocational subject tothe general education stream has helpedstudents to develop skills and apply theirliteracy and numeracy skills in performingvarious activities and tasks. Teaching-learning is predominantly practical, withgreater emphasis on skill development.

Greater Learning Choices

The scheme provides more options tostudents to choose vocational subjectsdepending on their aptitude and economicrequirements.

Quality Assurance

An overall quality assurance system hasbeen developed by linking learningoutcomes with teaching and training andassessment activities. Providing trainingbased on national occupation standards,set by Sector Skill Councils, has helped inreducing the mismatch between thedemand and supply of skills.

Increased Employment Prospects

Students got motivated to takeresponsibility for their own professionaldevelopment and developing acommitment to lifelong learning. In 2012-13, out of 382 students enrolled in IT-ITeSenabled services related vocational

subject in Class XII, 128(33%) students expressedtheir desire to take up a jobafter passing Class XII,whereas 254 (66%) of themwanted to pursue theirstudies for degrees likeBachelor in Commerce,Bachelor in Technology,Bachelor in VocationalEducation or join a

professional course. In this batch of 128students, only 49 (38%) of them wereabove 18 years and eligible for placement.In IT-ITeS sector, 38 students gotplacement or offer letters from reputedcompanies, including Spanco, Net Ambitand Navigant Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Sixteen students were able to find jobs asData Entry Operator or School Teachers.

Recommendations

Vocational teachers should be trained inusing computers and e-learning materialsfor teaching and training.

Teaching and training activities inschools need to be standardized andregulated to achieve the desired learningoutcomes.

Some income-generating activities shouldbe taken up in schools to developentrepreneurial skills among the students.

• Regular upgradation of skills ofteachers and trainers should bedone to keep them update with thesubject specific or domain specificknowledge and skills.

• New environment-friendlytechnologies should be tested tosupport training and innovations.

• Non-vocational activities aimed atachieving the social objectivesshould be included andcompetitions should be organizedfor developing healthy competitivespirit among students.

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Feedback from the Stakeholders

“Haryana has emerged as a frontline State in theimplementation of the NSQF Pilot Project in India. The State

has been keenly focusing on the growth and the developmentof new and emerging technologies in the area of education.NSQF has facilitated new career choices for the students toimprove their life and chances of employment in the timeswhen the economy of the country is undergoing changes. Theprogramme is designed as desired by the industries which will

provide job opportunities to students completing Class XII andsupplement government’s efforts in creating employment in theState. In the modern technology era, students should possessboth education and skills for using the technology on-the-job”- Shri K.K. Agnihotri, Additional Dir ector (NSQF), Departmentof Secondary Education, Government of Haryana

“There is a high demand of applied learning subjects amongthe students. We have got around 700 applications for 50seats. I can see the confidence level of our students drasticallyincreased due to the industry visits, guest lectures and on-the-job training. - Smt. Kiran Kaushik, Principal, GGSSS, NIT 05,Faridabad

“We have Retail and IT-ITeS vocational subjects in ourschools. Girls are taking lot of interest in this subject. Thisprogramme has not only benefitted the students but even us asit gives us avenues to interact with various stakeholders. Some

of my students have also got placements post 12th Class”. -Shri. Manoj Mishra, Principal, GMSSSS, Sarai Khwaja,Faridabad

“I am happy that my school has been selected for thisprogram. Vocational Education is the need of the hour. All thestudents take lot of interest in their classes. The enrollmentrate of my class 9th has increased from 60 to 140. I will do mybest for the successful implementation of the project”. - Smt.Sheel Kumari, Principal, GGSSS Jacobpura, Gurgaon

“Vocational education is the only way forward for theupcoming generation. The interest level of the studentsdeveloped and increased due to this subject. The curiosity andlearning has also increased. The communication skills hasimproved, we can also see that even among class 9th and 10th

there is an drastic improvement in soft skills likecommunication. Students has also understood the importanceof other academic subjects, their attendance has alsoimproved.” - Shri. Sukhvir Singh, Vocational Teacher, IT-ITeSSector GSSS, Mulana, Ambala

“We are providing skills which are required in the Industryand that too for those students who actually need them. WithVocational Education, we can say that we are fulfilling twogoals of our nation, i.e. giving employable skills to thestudents and preparing them for employment”. - Ms. SeemaGhanghas , Vocational Teacher, Retail Sector, GGSSS,Balabhgarh

Prof. Mehrotra is the Head of Curriculum Development & Evaluation Centre & NSQF Cell, PSS Central Institute of VocationalEducation, NCERT, Bhopal. He can be reached at drvs[dot]mehrotra[at]gmail[dot]com. Ms. Menon is a National ProgramManager, Skill Development Network (SDN) of Wadhwani Foundation, New Delhi. She can be reached atrekha[dot]menon[at]wadhwani-foundation[dot]org

Suman Speaks“I feel I am so lucky that in my school vocational subjects were started and I couldenroll myself in IT-ITeS subject. Prior to this I was IT illiterate but now I am aconfident person who can operate Word, Excel, Internet, etc., which helps me a lotduring my work. I am happy to get a job by which I can support my family. Ourannual income earlier was only Rs 60,000 but now it is Rs 3,24,000. I have asked myyounger sister to take vocational subject in IT-ITeS in Class IX. I am thankful to allof them who helped me to become what I am today. I will also pursue my highereducation simultaneously through correspondence course”. Suman

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Regional Round Up

28th Asian Associationof Open Universities(AAOU) ConferenceAnnual Conference of Asian Associationof Open Universities (AAOU) wasorganized at the Open University of HongKong (OUHK) from 28-31 October, 2014,during the University’s 25th anniversary.This is the third time that OUHK hashosted the AAOU conference, earlier itwas hosted in years 1993 and 1998.

Prof. Yuk-Shan Wong, President ofAAOU and Vice-Chancellor, OUHKwelcomed all the participants in theopening ceremony. He highlighted thatAAOU has been instrumental indeveloping distance education throughfriendship and close exchange amonginstitution of open higher learning inbeginning of opening ceremony.Research is a focus of this conferencebecause it is essential to improve how weteach, and because it informs everyaspect of how we run over institutions,was his leading concern to communicatethe conference theme “Advancing Openand Distance Learning: Research andPractices” in his welcoming speech.

Further, Dr. K. C. Li, Secretary-General,AAOU and Director, University ResearchCentre, OUHK, underlined the major goalof the conference by emphasizing onbuilding relationships and facilitatingsharing, non-academic activities are anessential part of the programme. At theend of his message, he expressedgratitude to the members of theConference, and thanks to keynotespeakers, workshop facilitator, sessionchairs and paper presenters.

Prof. Asha Kanwar, President and CEO ofCommonwealth of Learning, appreciatedthe initiative of open universities duringher Keynote Session. She highlightedthat open and distance learning has

emerged as a major force in the educationsector during the last five decades.Research needs to be perceived from twoangles: as strengthening education and asstrengthening outreach, were the majorthemes of her speech.

In the four day conference, participantsfrom 15 countries across the Asian regionas well as several countries in Europe andNorth America were participated. Inaddition to parallel paper session,numbers of workshops during theconference covering the topics ofMOOCs and mobile technologies andapps, as well as a post conferenceworkshop were also organized. FourKeynote speakers and more than 234papers were presented in six sub-themesi.e. Multi-mode education with in openand distance learning institutions,Nurturing and institutional researchculture, Institutional advancement andinnovations, Research in innovative ODLpractices in different areas, Studies onOCW and MOOCs and Funding andinfrastructure for research anddevelopment. Each session was verystimulating with substantial conversation.

In recognition of the efforts of theparticipants and the quality of the work,four awards: Best Paper, Best PracticeAward, Young Innovator Award andMeritorious Service Award were alsoincluded in this conference. Each yearAAOU presents the Best Paper Awards

comprising one gold and two silver medalawards for deserving candidates.

Indeed, it’s a matterof pride forCommonwealthEducational MediaCentre for Asia(CEMCA) as papersubmitted for this28th AAOU AnnualConference 2014,entitled“Development andValidation of a Scaleto Measure FacultyAttitudes toward

Open Educational Resources” under thesub-theme of ‘Development and adoptionof OER’ written by Meenu Sharma,Dr. Sanjaya Mishra and Dr. Atul Thakur(research team of ROER4D subproject-3,India) was shortlisted for the AAOU 2014Best Paper Award.

Experts from OER and ROER4D groupswere also presented in this Conference.Prof. Fred Mulder, UNESCO/ICDE Chair inOpen Educational Resources and formerRector, Open University of theNetherlands highlighted on Openuniversities in MOOCs and opening upeducation in Asia. Mr. Albel Caine,UNESCO Programme Specialist OER, Pariswas highlighted on OpenupEd and itsaims. He emphasized on UNESCO,recognizing the potential of MOOCS forits ambition to bring about ‘Education forAll’, embraces opportunities forglobalizing the ideas behind OpenupEd inthis respect.

Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan of WawasanOpen University recollected and sharedhis history of during mid-1989 when hewas invited by the colonial government ofHong Kong to helped in establishing theOpen Learning Institute of Hong Kong(currently the Open University of HongKong) when he was first appointed as theAssociate Director (Academic) andsubsequently promoted to Director from1991 – 1995 at the end of the closingceremony of Conference.

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Dr. Thakur is a researcher of Open Educational Resources and a teacher educator. Hecan be reached at atulsthakur[at]gmail[dot]com

SMART Tips

Installing Creative Commons licenses forMS Office

By Dr. Atul Thakur

Open Educational Resources (OER) haveemerges as a concept of great potential tosupport education especially indeveloping countries. OERs are releasedeither in public domain or are licensedappropriately with a creative commonslicense to specifically mention the extentof openness. There are many resourceswas to create and contribute to OER,adding to online repositories or adding anopen license to any document created bythe teachers or students. Since indeveloping countries 24X7 access tointernet is neither available and noraffordable, therefore the latter option isthe easiest way as it enables the users tocreate the resources in offline mode too,which can be shared online later on. Wehave now an add-on for Microsoft office2007, 2010 and 2013 which helps us toattach a Creative Commons open licenseto a document created (Word, Excel andPower Point).

Points to consider:

1. One needs to have internetconnection to download the variousCreative Commons license files to asystem.

2. Once all or required licenses areinstalled and saved in localrepository no further internetconnection is required.

3. These licenses in the localrepository cannot be copied to othersystems.

The steps to add Creative Commons add-in for MS office are as follows:

1. Search for Creative Commons add-infor MS office 2010 (or the MS officeversion you are having).

2. download the addin and install it.

3. Select all three options for add-ins forword, excel and power point.

4. After completion of installation aword file will open with CreativeCommons tab with two options‘Document not licensed’ (it will showthat a specific documents is licensedor not) and ‘the type of licenseassociated with it’.

5. Now we need to add all CreativeCommons licenses to the localmachine repository.

6. To add licenses in the localrepository:

a. Go to Creative Commons tabLicenses New license.

b. A new window will open with fourtypes of Creative Commons

licenses: Public domain, publicdomain mark, Sampling, CreativeCommons (add all these licenseone by one to the localrepository).

7. All the installed licenses will appearunder Creative Commons tablicenses as follows.

8. To remove license permanently fromyour local disk.

a. Go to Creative Commons tab

b. Licenses dropdown

c. Select remove license from thedisk

d. In the popup window select thelicense to be removed and clickRemove licenses

9. Using these licenses

a. After creating a document in MSWord, Excel or Power Point

b. Place cursor at the place you wantyour license to appear (either atbeginning or end of thedocuments) Go to CreativeCommons tab licensesselect appropriate license thelicense will appear at appropriateplace.

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Edmodo: Connecting beyond Classroom

By Dr. Anubhuti Yadav

Technology Tracking

Introduction

A classroom is a representation of mixedculture, language, interests and learningabilities. Despite the innumerable effortsto bring in uniformity by offering samecourses, uniforms, duration of courses,there still exists heterogeneity.Heterogeneity in context of languagesunderstood by the students, in context oftheir interest areas, in context of theirlearning abilities. Teachers often in herclass find variety of students some areslow learners, some fast learners, somevery inquisitive and some who requireextra prodding to open up. Thisheterogeneity poses a huge challenge infront of any teacher. Staffroomdiscussions often revolve around how totackle such heterogeneity in a classroom.Is there a standard way of teaching thatcaters to all. The answer is no. If teacherfollows a pace recommended incurriculum, she would find some laggingbehind, if she slows down a bit she wouldsee some disinterested faces in theclassroom. She has to maintain a balance.This can be done by understanding theneeds of her students and by connectingwith them beyond classroom. Well,teachers who are reading this might raiseeyebrows, connecting beyond classroom!Where is the time in already packedschedule of a teacher which expects herto do teaching, paper setting, andevaluation in addition to theadministrative work that has beenentrusted to her? Well, the solution couldbe connecting with them through someonline platform. I as an educator keeps onexploring digital tools which can help meas well as my students. One such tried

and tested platform by me is Edmodo. NicBorg, Co-founder and Chief ProductionOfficer puts it very beautifully, “We’removing to a world where you can look atspecific experiences and specific studentsand understand what’s working forparticular types of learners. Empoweringteachers is the only path to getting betteroutcomes.”

About Edmodo

Marketed as facebook for schools,Edmodo is a “social learning platform”website for teachers, students, and parentswhere over 44 million teachers, students,and parents are connecting to collaborateon assignments, discover new resourcesand thereby making teaching learningprocess meaningful for both teachers andstudents. It was founded in Chicago,Illinois, in 2008 when two school districtemployees (Listen to Nic Borg, Jeff O’Haraat https://www.edmodo.com/about) set outto bridge the gap between how studentslive their lives and how they learn inschool, Edmodo was created to bringeducation into a 21st century environment.Today, Edmodo is based in San Mateo,California with 98 employee and 44,758,240members and is one of the most popularsocial learning platform.

What Edmodo offers to teachers?

Using Edmodo, teachers invite studentsinto private groups that can be used foronline classroom discussions, but in aformat that keeps the teacher firmly incontrol. A signup code is generated andteachers give students a class signupcode, which can be deactivated once all

students have signed up, and students inturn are encouraged to share the codewith their parents, allowing them tomonitor their own child’s activity. As aninvitation-only social network, Edmodo ismeant to mirror a secure offline classroomthat intruders cannot access, with rules ofdecorum enforced by software. Forexample, just as students aren’t supposedto pass notes in class, they can’t sendprivate messages to each other. They canpost only to the group or the teacher, andgroup messages can be moderated by theteacher if necessary.

How to sign up as a teacher onEdmodo

1. Visit www.edmodo.com

2. Sign up as a teacher with youremail ID

3. Follow three steps

1. Find your school/Add yourschool

2. Update Your teachers Profileand

3. Set up your classroom

Once the classroom is set up, a teachercan do the following:

1. Create Specific Groups

2. Send group code to students formaking them join the group.

3. Send alert to students

4. Create an online assignmentwhich is to be submitted onlineby the students

5. Upload reading material/presentations in Library

6. Create a quiz and take a poll.

7. Award badges to students asper their performance.

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A typical Edmodo page of a teacher lookslike this:

Figure 1 Teachers’ Page

Figure 2 Library page

Figure 3 Progress page

What all Edmodo offers tostudents

1. Interaction with teachers beyondclassroom

2. Accessing resources through Library

3. Particiapte in poll/quiz

4. Submit assignments online

5. Get instant and detailed

feedback from students.

6. Track his/her progress

through progress page.

7. Add relevant resourcesto backpack

8. Receive badges from teacher

A student just have to enter thegroup code shared by her teacheralong with some personal detailsto signup. A typical Students’page look like this

What all Edmodo offers toParents

1. Once students sign up, theyare also provided with the groupcode that can be shared with theirparents.

2. Once parents sign up theyare able communicate withteacher.

3. Parents get informationabout due assignments, lateassignments, grade andupcoming events.

Figure 4 parents’ page

Edmodo is a platform thatconnects teachers students andparents and makes teachinglearning exercise a collaborativeexercise in real sense. This is thetool worth exploring by thoseteachers who wish to connectwith their students beyondclassroom also. This platformoffers a continuous relationshipwith the students even when the

students move on to other grades. Withedmodo teachers can help all learners toconnect with the people and resources theyneed to reach their full potential.

is normally published quarterly by

Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA).

CEMCA, a regional centre 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. For more information,

visit us at:13/14, 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 7147

or visit our website: http://www.cemca.org.in

e-mail: admin[at]cemca[dot]org[dot]in

Editor-in-ChiefRamesh C. Sharma, PhD

EditorsManas Ranjan Panigrahi, PhD

Ankuran Dutta, PhD

LayoutSabyasachi Panja

Printed and Published byR. Thyagarajan

For and on behalf of CEMCA

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.

Dr. Yadav is an Associate Professor ofNew Media at Indian Institute of MassCommunication, New Delhi and she canbe reached atanubhutiy[at]gmail[dot]com

24

Forthcoming Events

5th Annual CommonwealthCybersecurity Forum

April 22-24, 2015. Hosted by theCommonwealth TelecommunicationsOrganisation and British Telecom.,London, United Kingdom.

For more information, contact:

http://www.cto.int/events/upcoming-events/

6th International Conference onNew Trends in Education andTheir Implications (ICONTE)

April 24-26, 2015, Porto Bello Hotel,Konyaalti-Antalya, Turkey.

For more information, visit:

http://www.iconte.org/

International Conference onCommunication and Mass Media

May 11-14, 2015, Athens, Greece

For more information, visit:

http://www.atiner.gr/media.htm

International Conference onOpen Source Systems: OpenFrameworks - From Service toCloud

May 16-17, 2015, Florence, Italy.Theme: Open Frameworks: from Serviceto Cloud

For more information, visit:

http://www.oss2015.org/

4th International Conference onCommunication, Media,Technology and Design

May 16-18, 2015, Dubai, United ArabEmirates

For more information, visit:

http://www.cmdconf.net/

Global Conference on Teachingand Learning with Technology(CTLT 2015)

June 10-11,2015, Singapore

(CTLT 2015) conference is a collaborationbetween University of Malaya andAventis School of Management foracademics & learning professionalsseeking new ideas on learningtechnology. Harness technology forteaching efficiency gains.

For more information, visit:

Aventis School of ManagementDeadline for abstracts/proposals: 16thMarch 2015http://academy.edu.sg/ctlt2015/

IAMCR’ s 2015 Conference

July 12-16 2015 in Montreal, Canada.

Hosted by the Faculté de communicationat the Université du Québec à Montréal,IAMCR 2015 will be the first IAMCRconference in North America.

Conference Theme: Hegemony orResistance? On the Ambiguous Power ofCommunication.

For more information visit:

http://iamcr.org/congress/iamcr-2015-in-montreal

The 3nd InternationalConference on EducationInnovation

18-20 November, 2015, Chiang Mai,Thailand

For more information, contact:

Higher Education ForumE-mail: icei@icei-conf.org

The 26th ICDE WorldConference

Pre-conference workshops:13 October, 2015

Conference: 14-16 October 2015Conference Theme: Growing capacitiesfor sustainable distance e-learningprovision

For more information, contact:

www.unisa.ac.za/icde2015email: icde2015@unisa.ac.za