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Vol. 18 No. 1 November 2013 A Newsletter of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia

In this issue

Guest Column 2

Spotlight On 6

Worth While Web 8

CEMCA News 9

Case Study 14

Regional Round Up 17

Book Review 18

SMART Tips 19

Technology Tracking 21

Research Shows 22

Forthcoming Events 24

From Director’s Desk

Community Radio station. I am sure you willprovide all support to him to serve ourstakeholders better.

We are thankful to Prof. V.S. Prasad forpermitting us to edit and re-print his lecture atthe IDEA 2013 as Guest Column in this issue. Iam sure, this will provide food for thought to allthose involved/not involved in distanceeducation to reflect and think about improvingquality access to higher education. This issue isa kind of special issue on Massive Open OnlineCourses (MOOCs) and Open EducationalResources (OERs). The sections on Spotlight,SMART Tips, Worth While Web, and BookReview cover developments on OER andMOOCs. In the Technology Tracking section,we introduce you to a new Google innovation toprovide last mile connectivity to remote areas –Project Loon.

We hope that you will like this edition ofEduComm Asia. As indicated always, yoursupport and continuous engagement is criticalto keep us focussed not only to implement ouractivities, but also to bring relevant informationthrough the Newsletter. Do write to us aboutwhat you want to see more in the Newsletter,and how you can be part of the team ofcontributors.

Dr. Sanjaya Mishra

I am pleased topresent this issue ofEduComm Asia to

our esteemed readers, andthank you all for your kind support and bestwishes. In the month of November 2013, we hadthe 13th Meeting of the CEMCA AdvisoryCouncil (CAC), where we presented with pridethe CEMCA Annual Report 2012-13 (available onour website). We also had the opportunity ofwelcoming our new members of the revampedadvisory council. The CAC now hasproportionate number of representatives fromCOL/CEMCA, member states and experts.

The beginning of the new financial year ofCEMCA also brought to us some newchallenges in terms of staff movements. I takethis opportunity to thank Ms Rukmini Vemraju,who left CEMCA at the end of September 2013after serving 10 years as Programme Officer. Shecontributed to strengthening of the CommunityRadio activities of CEMCA, and also shaped thecurrent Three Year Plan (TYP) related toLivelihoods and Health. I am also pleased towelcome Dr. Ankuran Dutta to our CEMCA Teamas the new Programme Officer succeeding MsVemraju. Dr. Dutta, as a young and dynamicprofessional, comes with huge experiences inacademics, research, writing, and educationalmedia production activities, including hands-onexperiences of setting up and running

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Guest Column...

The Disconnect betweenDharma and Karma in IndianOpen Distance LearningBy Prof. V.S. Prasad

This Guest Colum is an edited version of the Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial LectureDelivered by Prof. V.S. Prasad during the Annual Conference of Indian DistanceEducation Association (IDEA) in Hyderabad in April 2013. We are thankful toProf. Prasad for his permission to reprint this in the EduComm Asia - Editor.

“Between the idea and reality falls the shadow”

- T. S. Eliot

At one time I was an active participant inthe procession of Open and DistanceLearning (ODL) in India. Now, I am on theroad side watching the continuation ofODL procession. It is said that the personon the road side has better view of theprocession than the person in theprocession. I am looking at things ‘withpessimism of the intellect but optimism ofthe will’ (with respect to AntonioGramsci). I am a ‘disturbed optimist’ –disturbed about some of the practices ofODL and optimist about its potential.

Fifty years of modern system of ODL inIndia is a story of achievements andfrustrations. With a modest beginning in1962 as correspondence system inUniversity of Delhi, today it is a hugesystem with 14 Open Universities andaround 200 institutions offering ODLprogrammes in diverse areas with anestimated enrolment of around 4 millionstudents. The theme of the discourse isto critically examine the present practices,called as Karma, with principles thatguide us to do right things called asDharma. The Dharma and Karma wordsare used in the secular sense of rightconduct and actual practice. The

presentation is an attempt to understandnegative practices to move forwardpositively.

The Dharma of ODL

The ODL is a way of thinking and a wayof doing. The essential elements ofDharma of ODL include:

An effective instrument fordemocratisation of education: “IvoryTower Thrown Open” is one of the titlesof the books on ODL. It conveys the spiritof ODL. Access to all and learnermanaging their own learning are twoessential elements of democratisation oflearning. The open admission policies arebased on the assumption that it is exitstandards, not the entry standards thatmatter. Like citizen is the centre ofdemocratic polity, the learner is the centreof democratic education system. Theautonomous model of study, without theconstraints of time and space enables thelarge numbers to have access toeducation.

A means for social justice: In developingcountries educational opportunities areless accessible to poor people because of

many socio-economic and politicalfactors. The ODL enables the people toovercome some of these limitations. Theflexibility of study enables the learners tomanage their study along with work andfamily; it includes people in geographiesthat otherwise would be excluded; itsupports the inclusion of women wheretheir independent movement is notpossible; it permits participation ofgroups otherwise shut out by costs. Thisis more an inclusive form of education.

A means for development: The ODL as anational strategy for development findsplace in many developing country’svision documents on education.‘Learning for development’ is the visionand mission of the Commonwealth ofLearning (COL). The ODL is extensivelyused for capacity building, skilldevelopment, and for professionaldevelopment of working population.

Technology mediated form of education:Distance education is a delivery ofteaching and learning by a variety ofmediating processes to those who areseparated by time and space from thosewho are teaching. The technology is usedto expand educational opportunities andto enrich the learning experience. Mindboggling developments are taking placein the field of technology and their use foreducational processes.

Quality imperatives: Quality is essentialfor making the meaning of other elementsof Dharma of ODL. The quality oflearning materials, student supportservices, student evaluation andadministrative services are critical to theeffectiveness of ODL. In the competitivecontext, the ODL legitimacy andcredibility depends on the qualityassurance of its operations. Theopenness of the system makes the qualityof operations amenable for more publicscrutiny.

Teacher as a facilitator: Teachers in ODLare facilitators, than traditionalinstructors. To put it differently there is a

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shift in their role from a ‘sage on thestage’ to a ‘guide on the side’. The focusis shifted from expositional form ofteaching to facilitating form of teaching.Teaching in ODL is also a group activityand a collective-activity. In a multi-mediaform of teaching-learning subject expert isone of the member of the group ofacademics engaged in teaching throughODL. The identity of academics in ODL ismore complex and inclusive.

The institution as promoter: It isobserved that in conventional educationteacher teaches, whereas in distanceeducation institution teaches. Theinstitution as an arrangement forrealization of common purpose is criticalin the ODL system. Good logistics alongwith good learning materials and goodstudents support services is consideredas important requirement for a successfulODL system. The leadership plays a veryimportant role in putting in place resultbased management system to achieve thegoals of ODL.

The Karma of ODL

Indian ODL system can be described “asone system, many models”. There is agreat variation in the practices of thesystem. Any generalisations aboutpractices have to be qualified byexceptions. Here, an attempt is made toidentify broad trends in the present dayODL practices. These include:

Large enrolment: Delhi Universitystarted correspondence programme withan enrolment of 1112 students. Now, wehave ODL institutions with hundreds ofthousands of enrolment. The enrolmentgrowth rate in ODL is higher than thegrowth rate in conventional system. Insome of the dual mode institutions ODLstudents are more in numbers thanconventional students. Some of the OpenUniversities and ODL centres arefollowing open admission policies,particularly in admissions to liberaleducation programmes at undergraduate

level. This is giving second chance to alarge number of dropouts fromconventional system and others whodiscontinued school education forvarious socio-economic reasons.

Diversification of programmes: InitiallyODL institutions started with liberal artsprogrammes, with assumption that ODL isappropriate for education of liberal artsonly. In the first decades of ODL journey,there was a strong resistance forlaunching of Science and ProfessionalProgrammes. Now, the ODL system isoffering all types of programmes inScience, Technology, Education,

Management, Health Science, Agriculture,Information Technology, Arts, andCulture. The flexibility in ODL is enablingmany institutions to offer skilldevelopment and professionaldevelopment programmes in many areasto meet the needs of market andemployers. During the last fifty years ofODL, the pendulum of programmeofferings moved from one extreme ofrestricting only to Arts programmes toanother extreme of offering anyprogrammes.

Active role by private sector: The privatesector, particularly major players inindustry are trying to use ODL fordevelopment of human resources,particularly in professional and vocationalfields. Many private players are offeringeducation and training programmesthrough ODL. Many of these programmesare at certificate and diploma levels, mayor may not be recognized by appropriate

bodies. This mode is extensively used byprivate sector for skill training withemployment potential and is very popular.

Commercialisation as a drive forexpansion: The expansion anddiversification of ODL is driven more byprofit motives of private sector orresource mobilisation drive of publicsector ODL institutions. Thesecommercial motives are influencinginstitutional decisions about learningmaterials, support services, evaluationsystems and administrative arrangements.

Use of technology: The correspondenceinstitutes started with use of printmaterials for delivery of programmes withnot much student support services. Overthe years multimedia in various forms isbeing used by many ODL institutions.Some of the ODL institutions are usinginteractive technologies for delivery ofprogrammes. The ICT is being used bysome ODL institutions for teaching-learning and for administrative purposes.In spite of some of these developments,printed material is the dominant form oflearning material used in the system. Thesignificant difference over a period of timeis only in the improvements made in theprint material formats by incorporatingprogrammed learning strategies, makingthem more suitable for self-directedlearning. The other technologies used aremore supportive in nature and onlysymbolic in many institutions.

Quality assurance systems: There is agreat variation in quality assurancepolicies, systems and practices followedby ODL institutions in India. At one endof the spectrum we have IGNOU, somestate Open Universities and some ODLinstitutions, which do have qualityassurance practices like good studymaterials, student support services,technology infrastructure etc. At theother end of the spectrum, manyinstitutions are offering sub-standardODL programmes with large enrollment byfranchising delivery. Effective mechanismto ensure quality of these programmes is

During the last fifty years of

ODL, the pendulum of

programme offerings moved

from one extreme of restricting

only to Arts programmes to

another extreme of offering

any programmes.

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yet to be in place, though efforts weremade by the Distance Education Council(now part of UGC as Distance EducationBureau).

Regulatory framework for ODL: In theinitial phase of ODL no regulatoryframework outside the university systemwas envisaged. Later, with offering ofODL programmes by many universities,the University Grants Commission (UGC)developed guidelines for starting of ODLprogrammes. The Distance EducationCouncil (DEC) established in 1991, wasentrusted with regulatory responsibilitiesto maintain standards in ODL. Themultiple regulatory councils in highereducation are also expected to regulatethe standards in professional, technicaland vocational programs, coming undertheir respective jurisdiction. Themultiplicity of regulatory agencies is afeature of Indian higher education systemand ODL is a part of that system. Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon Committee onDistance Education examined in detail thepresent regulatory arrangements of ODLand found it very inadequate andineffective. The alternatives suggested bythe committee are in the process ofimplementation.

The Ar eas of Disconnect

The critical examination of ODL practicesshows some disconnects with the ideal.Some of these are:

Distortion in the goals of ODL: Theprofit making or resource generationorientations of some of ODL institutionsresults in compromises with the socialgoals of the system. It is paradoxical touse the system meant for sociallydisadvantaged for generating resources.The system is subsidised by learners.Some of the public universities are usingODL and affiliating system as a means forresource generation. It amounts grossviolation of academic norms. It isdistressing to observe the attitude ofsome dual mode universities whichaccepts ODL students, but exhibit no

sense of ownership or pride in them. Theirusefulness is measured in terms ofsurplus generation. Some Vice-Chancellors even boast of theirachievements in terms of surplusesgenerated through distance mode.

Constraints on openness of ODLpractices: The products of ODL from theopen admission stream are facinginnumerable difficulties in furtheradmissions to programmes inconventional system and in employment.There are many restrictions onprogrammes to be offered by ODL system.Recently, MHRD issued action points onrecommendation of Madhava MenonCommittee say: “a conventionaluniversity/institution to be granted onlyfor such ODL programs which are being

offered through the regular conventionalmode”. It has not taken into account theneeds of different target groups of ODLand the broader objective of ODLprogrammes for professional developmentand capacity building, in framing thisaction proposal. The limitations ofconventional system should not constrainthe ODL system. Present ODL system isalso not providing sufficient flexibility tolearners to accumulate credits fromdifferent institutions and pursue studiesby different modes.

Limited use of interactive technology:Interaction is the essence of education.The ODL in India is not able to effectively

use interactive technologies in itsteaching-learning activities. Theinteractive technologies will help indeeper academic engagements. The useof social software such as blogs, wikis,podcasts and social networks enables thelearners to engage in networked learning.The use of technology for improving thequality of learning and for requirements ofknowledge based society is not wellappreciated by most of the ODLinstitutions.

Quality deficit: The ODL institutes whoare guided by desire to make quick moneyare more interested in selling theirprogrammes, than the quality of theirpractices. It is quite possible that in acompetitive context the market may be adriving force for quality. But in a contextof demand driven system the supplier canplay all tricks to sell the products. Thesocial demand for qualifications,unmindful of competency outcomes, mayresult in unconcern for quality. It is achallenging task for quality mechanism toweed out the bad apples from the barrel.

Ineffective regulatory system: The ODLin India is an ineffectively over regulatedsystem. It may result in regulation basedon subjective judgment of regulators asper their likes and prejudices. Theregulatory systems are more concerned inrestricting bad practices, than infacilitating good practices. The unhealthypractices in offering technical educationprogrammes by some ODL institutionsresulted in AICTE banning the offering oftechnical education programmes throughODL. The enrollment of thousands ofstudents to research programmes bysome ODL institutions without anyconcern for quality resulted in UGCbanning research programmes throughODL. We cannot blame AICTE or UGC fortheir actions. We, in the ODL have to ownthe responsibility for the irresponsibleactions of some of our fraternity. But, wealso expect from the regulatory agencies adifferent response. It is more appropriateto prescribe the requirements to offer

The ODL in India is an

ineffectively over regulated

system. It may result in

regulation based on subjective

judgment of regulators as per

their likes and prejudices. The

regulatory systems are more

concerned in restricting bad

practices, than in facilitating

good practices.

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programmes through ODL than totallyprohibiting the programme offer.

Lack of professionalism in managementof ODL: The governance system of mostof ODL institutions lack professionalismin their operations. The simpleexpectations of ODL learners are toreceive the materials on time andexaminations to be conducted as perschedule. Even these expectations are notfulfilled by many ODL institutions. Thesystems are becoming huge and adequatestructures are not created to attend to allthe needs of learners. The studentsupport services are to be professionallymanaged. The results based managementis the new age mantra of organisations.The leadership deficit is another concernof ODL institutions.

Ambiguity on the teachers’ role in ODL:Teacher is equally important in ODL asthat of in a conventional system. May beteachers job in ODL is more complex andmore difficult because of use of multipletechnologies for teaching-learningpurposes. There is a constant debate inODL circles about the roles,responsibilities and relationships withothers in the system. The teacher identityis not satisfactorily addressed in ODLsystem. The relationships between themultiple players engaged in teaching-learning in ODL are a constant source ofirritation. There is a feeling that teachersin ODL are engaged more in managementactivities than in academic activities. Thismay not be a satisfying situation forserious academics. The strengthening ofODL system management may relieveteachers from some of the administrativeresponsibilities and enable them to makemeaningful academic contributions.

The way forward

The ODL in India has made significantcontributions in providing the space tospace-less in higher education. The

system has acquired sufficient experienceand acceptance to play an important rolein future. The earlier discussions onlimitations and concerns of the system areonly to emphasise the need to overcomesome of these limitations to reinvigoratethe system to make more meaningfulcontributions. How do you build an ODLsystem which is learner centric,academically acceptable andinstitutionally effective? The suggestionsfor the way forward include:

Reemphasise the social goals of ODL:The Gurukula is considered a teachercentric system; the conventional systeman Institution centric system and ODL is alearner centric system. The social goals ofODL, the service orientation and thedevelopment orientation of ODL need tobe re-emphasised. It is essential toprevent hijacking of the system byprofiteers and racketeers. Marketeconomy may be acceptable, buteducation as a market commodity hasmany unacceptable social implications.

“Mediating processes” of learning mustbe chosen carefully: The “mediatingprocesses” used for teaching learning andfor communication play a critical role inthe effectiveness of ODL. The nature ofthe target group, the institutionalpreparedness and the contextual factorsshould be taken into account in designing

Prof. V.S Prasad is a Honorary Fellow of Commonwealth of Learning, and Former Director,

National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Bangalore, India, and former Pro-Vice-

Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, and former Vice Chancellor of

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, India. He can be reached at prasadvs99@hotmail.com

Acknowledgements: Most of the data in this presentation is based on “Report of the Committee to

Suggest Measures to Regulate Standards of Education Being Imparted through Distance Mode”,

under the chairmanship of Prof. N. R. Madhava Menon, Ministry of HRD, Government of India,

December, 2011. The ideas in this presentation are borrowed freely from the writings of stalwarts like

Gajaraj Dhanarajan, Sir John Daniel, Asha Kanwar, Alan Tait and many others and publications of

COL. Individual references are avoided in the spirit of open ideas used for public discussion.

The future depends on what we do in the present”.- Mahatma Gandhi

the ODL methodologies. It is said that iftwo conditions i.e. learners preparednessto learn through distance mode andinstitutional preparedness to adaptappropriate methodologies of teachingand learning, are fulfilled, the ODLinstitutions can offer any programmes.There is a need for capacity building ofstaff and leadership to understand andmanage the ODL operations.

Make quality the defining element ofODL: The ODL institutions should bemade accountable for quality. They

should be empowered with necessaryautonomy to take measures for quality.

Internal quality assurance system should

build the capacity of staff to understandand manage quality assurance. The

quality assurance frameworks must focus

on social outcomes, not merely theeducational outputs. The social auditing

of learning system and materials in terms

of gender, class and environment makesthe ODL a socially relevant system. The

external regulatory authority should

facilitate the internal systems for qualityassurance and ensure the public

accountability of ODL institutions. The

institutional autonomy emphasised byvarious commissions and committees forconventional system is equally applicableto ODL system. Faith in the system isnecessary for the trust in the system.

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National Repository of Open EducationalResources (NROER)By Prof. Rajaram Sharma

Spotlight On...

Central Institute of EducationalTechnology (CIET), a constituent unit ofNational Council of Educational Researchand Training (NCERT), came intoexistence in the year 1984 with the mergerof Centre for Educational Technology andDepartment of Teaching Aids. Today,CIET is a premiere national institute foreducational technology in India, and itsmajor aim is to promote utilization of radio,TV, films, satellite communications andinformation technology tools in schooleducation. The institute undertakesactivities to widen educationalopportunities promote equity and improvequality of educational processes at schoollevel. Within its mandate to create qualityeducational content for the schoolchildren, it is involved in the developmentand management of the NationalRepository of Open EducationalResources (NROER) of digital resources –documents, audio-visuals, interactiveobjects, images etc.

NROER is a solution developed toaddress the challenges faced by theeducation sector in India. It intends toreach the unreached, include the excludedand extend education to all. It is acollaborative platform involving everyonewho is interested in education. It offersresources for all school subjects andgrades in multiple languages. It bringstogether all the digital resources for aschool system such as educationalvideos, concept maps, audio clips,interactive objects, photographs,diagrams, charts, images, articles, learningobjects, talking books, textbook pagesand documents, any resource that can beserved digitally.

The National Repository is based on theconcept of Semantic Maps. It organizesits collections into an ever growingsemantic map of concepts. The map itselfis a learning resource for teachers,through which they can critically assess

the curriculum and aids them in theconstruction of their own unique learningthemes for their classrooms. The digitalresources are mapped to these concepts.They are further classified into variousstages of schooling and further intomultiple subject areas of the curriculum.Teachers can access various resources,upload resources, share, comment andrate the resources.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MoS for HumanResource Development, Government ofIndia remarked during the launch of therepository – “This initiative is also asignificant step towards inclusiveeducation. Opening access to all requiresa debate on the issue of ownership,copyright, licensing and a balancing ofreach with legitimate commercial interests.This is particularly important for publicinstitutions and public funded projects.NROER frees itself of these boundationssince it carries the CC-BY-SA (CreativeCommons–Attribution–Share Alike)license which allows it to legally reuse,revise, remix and redistribute content. Tocontribute to the repository, one mustensure that they are hosting theresources under a Creative Commonslicense (CC-BY-SA) and that thedocuments uploaded are encoded usingnon-proprietary, open standards.”

The NROER proposes to feature content

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in all the Indian languages. Workshopswill be organized in different states tomultiply the resources and the content onthe repository in regional languages. Thiswill involve the efforts of teachers andstudents and various educationalinstitutions. The process will involvetranslation of existing content in additionto the development of new content indifferent languages.

The National Repository is developed incollaboration with the Department ofSchool Education and Literacy, Ministryof Human Resource Development,Government of India. Metastudio, theplatform hosting the repository is aninitiative of the Gnowledge Labs, HomiBhabha Centre for Science Education,Mumbai. NROER was launched by theHonorable Union Human ResourceDevelopment (HRD) Minister,Government of India Dr. MM Pallam Rajuon 13th August 2013 in New Delhi.Addressing the Conference organizedduring the launch of NROER, Dr. Pallam

Raju said that the school education has inthe recent times witnessed immensegrowth. Having promised our children theright to education, leveraging technologyis important to expand the school system.

The repository is now open to the publicand can be accessed at http://nroer.gov.in.Beginning with concepts in sciences,social sciences and mathematics, therepository will expand to include allclasses from Grade 1 to 12 across differentsubjects. It also aims to cater to theteacher education courses at the D.Ed.,B.Ed. and M.Ed. levels.

For the widespread dissemination andpopularizing the national repository, CIET,NCERT is organizing a series of onlineevents, the first in this series was theevent called ‘Connecting Knowledge,Connecting People (CKCP)’. Launched on5th September 2013, on the eve of NationalTeacher’s Day, it remained open till 12th

September 2013. The response receivedfor this event on the repository from the

teaching fraternity was quiteoverwhelming. The next event onthe repository was organized inthe month of October, incommemoration of the birthanniversary of Mahatma Gandhi,and was called ‘A Tribute toMahatma’. This event startedfrom 2nd October 2013 andremained open till 31st October2013. During this event therepository received quite a lot ofrare images and material related tothe life of Mahatma Gandhi,which adds on to the alreadyexisting huge collection ofimages, photographs and otherresources on the freedommovement.

The National Repository hasreceived an encouragingresponse in terms of uniquevisits, repeated visits, access byusers to different resource pages,number of repeated hits on

various resource pages and bandwidthsof uploaded content in terms of in-houseuploading and external contributions

both. Since launch we have received over

16,269 unique visitors and 871,704 hits onthe Repository (Statistics collected from

13th August 2013 to 10th November 2013).

The dream of a National Repository willbe realized when the NROER becomes

useful to each and every teacher, each

and every child, across geographies,bridging the digital divide. This dream

requires the contribution and critical

participation of each one of us. Be a partof the movement. Join today!

For further information, contact:

Prof. Rajaram Sharma

Joint Director, CIET

National Council of Educational Research and

Training (NCERT)

Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016

Email: jdciet.ncert@nic.in

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Worth While Web

1. Canvas Network, https://www.canvas.net/

Canvas Network gives instructors and institutions an open platform to share their expertise and institutionalexperience with the world. It uses the Canvas, Open Source Learning Management System of Instructure.

2. Coursera, https://www.coursera.org/

Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world tooffer courses online for anyone to take, for free.

3. EdX, https://www.edx.org/

EdX is a non-profit created by founding partners Harvard and MIT. Based on the principle of Open SourcePlatform, its aim is to expand access to education for everyone.

4. Future Learn, https://www.futurelearn.com/

FL is a private company wholly owned by The Open University, with large number of partner universitiesfrom the United Kingdom. Its aim is to connect learners from all over the globe with high quality educators,and with each other.

5. Iversity, https://iversity.org/

A German Company that wants to bring campus experiences online, Iversity provides structured multimediaenabled course environment.

6. Open to Study, https://www.open2study.com

Open to Study is an Australian MOOC platform; courses offered are supported by Open UniversitiesAustralia for accreditation and certification.

7. OpenUpEd, http://www.openuped.eu/

OpenUpEd is a pan-European platform for MOOC, supported by the European Commission. OpenupEd hasbeen initiated and is coordinated by the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU)and mostly involves open universities.

8. P2P University, https://p2pu.org/en/

P2PU is a grassroots open education project that organizes learning outside of institutional walls and giveslearners recognition for their achievements. Registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation in California, itfunctions as a community providing full open courses.

9. Udacity, https://www.udacity.com/

Udacity was born out of a Stanford University experiment in which Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvigoffered their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course online to anyone, for free. Its mission is to bringaccessible, affordable, engaging, and highly effective higher education to the world.

10. Udemy, https://www.udemy.com/

Udemy is an education company in San Francisco, California. It provides a large bouquet of courses in avariety of disciples and subjects.

Ten Platforms for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)

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CEMCA News

Staff NewsMs. Rukmini D. Vemraju left CEMCA on30 September 2013 after serving over 10years as Programme Officer (Livelihoods& Health). She joined CEMCA inDecember 2003, and contributedsignificantly to the Community Mediaactivities of CEMCA/COL. We at CEMCAand COL thank her for contributing tostrengthen the community radiomovements in India and Bangladesh, andwish her all the best in her futureendeavours.

Dr. Ankuran Dutta joined CEMCA asProgramme Officer (Livelihoods & Health)on 18 November 2013. Before joiningCEMCA, Dr. Dutta served the KKHandiqui State Open University, Assamas Deputy Director (Multimedia), and hasbeen active in the Community Radio

movement in India.As a teacher andresearcher, Dr.Dutta specializes infolklore, communitymedia, and humanrights. Dr. Duttahas received theShastri Indo-

Canadian Fellowship for facultyenrichment in 2010-11. We at CEMCA andCOL welcome Dr. Ankuran Dutta and lookforward to his contributions to serve ourstakeholder better.

Award for Former Intern

Ms Rajeswari Gorana of Centre forEnvironment Education, Ahmedabad, whocompleted a short internship for 8 weeksat CEMCA received the InternationalChange Leadership Award instituted by

GIZ, Germany for her project on“eLearning course on ESD for in-serviceteachers” that she prepared during herstay at CEMCA from 1 January to 27February, 2013. Prof. Asha Kanwar,President and CEO of Commonwealth ofLearning while congratulating her for theaward said “Congratulations and welldone. I hope this is only the beginning ofmany other stellar achievements. I’m gladCEMCA was able to facilitate this in someway”. We at CEMCA and COL join her incongratulating Ms Rajeswari.

Interns at CEMCA

The following three interns served forshort duration as Intern and learnedabout the activities of CEMCA.

• Ms. Suruthi Aggarwal• Ms. Kastoori Barua• Ms. Gaganpreet Kaur

We thank them for their interest inCEMCA activities, and wish them verybright future.

New PublicationsThe following documents have beenpublished, distributed, and areavailable through CEMCAwebsite.

• Community RadioContinuous ImprovementToolkit by Vinod Pavaralaand others.

• Self-Assessment Toolkit forCommunity Radio Stationsand Practitioners byJayalakshmi ChittoorParameswaran

• OER TIPS: Guidelines forYou to Build YourLearning Materials byPaul Kawachi

• eLearning inCommonwealth Asia2013 by S.K. Pulist

Developing Curriculum and Self-DirectedLearning Materials for Open AccessWith the support of UNESCO, Paris, international multi-stakeholder experts’ meetingon development of curriculum and self-directed Learning (SDL) tool for Open Access(OA) was organized by Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA),New Delhi on September 4-6, 2013. Twenty experts who are philosophers,

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practitioners and scientists working to promote Open Access participated in theworkshop/meeting from Argentina, Croatia, India, Lithuania, South Africa, Sri Lanka,including officials of UNESCO Paris and New Delhi. The meeting was held todevelop the Curriculum blueprint for the SDL on Open Access for three differentgroups of stakeholders i.e., Librarians, Researchers of Universities and UNESCOStaff.

Dr. Sanjaya Mishra, Director, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia,New Delhi welcomed all participants and highlighted the importance of OA as anemerging global phenomenon of high importance. He outlined the meeting’sobjectives and encouraged the participants to frame a dynamic, flexible and object-oriented curriculum for three main stakeholders i.e., Librarians, Researchers andUNESCO staff. Dr. Bhanu Neupane, OA specialist at UNESCO, Paris highlighted theUNESCO’s role in promoting Open Access, and emphasized its commitment toprovide a platform for increasing access to information and knowledge around theworld.

Dr. Leslie Chan through Skype shared an online presentation from Canada on theliterature survey on capacity building needs of librarians. Dr. Anup Das brieflypresented situation analysis of researchers awareness and understanding of OA in aresearch university, i.e. Jawaharlal Nehru University. Dr. Sanjaya Mishra presentedthe outcomes of a Delphi Study to carry forward the main objectives of the meeting.During the workshop/meeting all participants worked in three groups: curriculum forLibrarians, curriculum for Researchers and curriculum for UNESCO staff.

All the three groups developed detailed curriculum and presented to the plenary forfurther clarification. At the end of the meeting Dr. Sanjaya Mishra expressedgratitude to all the participants for sharing their valuable time and contributions. Hespecially thanked Dr. Bhanu Neupane and Ms. Iskra Penveska from UNESCO fortheir supports to this project. Dr. Mishra also thanked Dr. Ramesh C Gaur and Prof.Uma Kanjilal, who are advisors of this project for their kind continuous support.With the support of the experts, CEMCA is in the process of developing the contentof the SDL on OA.

Quality Guidelines for Open EducationalResources

During the 27th

Conference of the AsianAssociation of OpenUniversities (AAOU)held at Allama IqbalOpen University(AIOU), Islamabad, theCommonwealthEducational MediaCentre for Asia(CEMCA), organised anorientation and reviewworkshop on quality

assurance (QA) guidelines for openeducational resources (OER) as pre-conference. About 40 participants fromPakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,Korea, and Japan participated in the pre-conference workshop.

Mr Vis Naidoo, Vice President,Commonwealth of Learning, inauguratedthe workshop, while Prof. Paul Kawachiserved as the lead facilitator. Dr. SanjayaMishra, Director, CEMCA coordinated theworkshop and supported as co-facilitator.The Workshop utilised the QualityAssurance Guidelines for OpenEducational Resources: T.I.P.S.Framework published by CEMCA. Thegeneral aims were to test out the TIPSFramework and see how it can be furtherimproved. This Framework consists ofonly 28 criteria - as a shortened format ofthe OER QA Guidelines version-1 (whichconsisted of 65 criteria). A full list ofcriteria was compiled from a global surveyof OER experts which collated 195 distinctcriteria - and this list is the mostcomprehensive and explicit list of OERQA criteria as yet assembled. OERprospective authors are encouraged toread through and select criteriaappropriate to their own intended context- in view of the fact that each context isunique. The teacher as OER author is wellpositioned to understand the wants andneeds of future students so as to bestdesign OER localised to the context. TheTIPS Framework is intended for use byteachers throughout Asia and the world,and translations into other languages(Urdu and Chinese) are underway.

Currently, the OER QA guidelines are alsobeing tested by teachers, at AcharyaNarendra Dev College and School ofOpen Learning, on voluntary basis forcourse development of select foundationcourses of University of Delhi. ThisWorkshop was successful in raisingawareness of OER, in raising awarenesson the need for QA, and in demonstratingthe effectiveness of the OER QA TIPSFramework. The Workshop participantsbecame keen to create their own OER.

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Open Access WeekCelebrationThe Commonwealth Educational MediaCentre for Asia (CEMCA) in partnershipwith UNESCO, New Delhi and JawaharlalNehru University organised a nationalconference on 21 October 2013 at theConvention Centre, JNU campus on“Opening Up by Closing the Circle:Strengthening Open Access in India” tocelebrate the worldwide Open AccessWeek from 21-27 October 2013. About 400events were held around the world topromote awareness and advocacy for

Open Access to scientific information toall. CEMCA as part of the Commonwealthof Learning has an OER policy for all itspublications, and UNESCO also hasadopted Open Access policy since July2013.

Currently onlyabout 20% ofresearchinformation isavailable in OpenAccess, and thereis a need toincrease the same.Especially for theresearches that aresupported bypublic funds, it isexpected that theresults are also available to all in OpenAccess. Open Access is the free access

to research information to allthrough either a repository or ajournal. There are about 9944Open Access journals and 2452repositories at the end ofSeptember 2013. While onlythree countries have nationallegislation for Open Access inthe world, there are over 180institutional policies and over 80funder policies registered inROARMAP. While the Council

for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) and Indian Council for AgriculturalResearch (ICAR) have adopted OApolices, only a handful of institutionalpolicies are there to promote OpenAccess in India.

This advocacy event participated by over120 student researchers, libraryprofessionals, scientists, and publishersencouraged Open Access throughinstitutional mandates, and wouldsupport an enabling environment towardsnational policy guidelines on OpenAccess to scientific information andresearch. In the inaugural session, ProfSudha Pai, Rector, JNU, Prof S K Sopory,Vice-Chancellor, JNU, Mr Shigeru Aoyagi,Director and UNESCO Representative toBhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lankaparticipated, while Prof RamakrishnaRamaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, Universityof Hyderabad delivered the keynoteaddress. Dr. Ramesh C. Gaur, Librarian,JNU and Ms Iskra Panevska, Adviser forCommunication and Information for SouthAsia, UNESCO coordinated the event.

Community Radio VideoChallenge: Why CommunityRadio Matters?The CR Video Challenge (CRVC) is a

joint initiative of the CommonwealthEducational Media Centre for Asia(CEMCA) and United NationsEducational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO), New Delhi,to engage the Indian youth in CR andpromote understanding andimportance of CR as an alternativemedia for community’s self-expression, learning and development.

The CRVC is a 3 minute video competition amongst studentspursuing media studies in Indian education institutions duringthe period of the contest. A distinguished panel of jury will

adjudicate the submissions andselect the swards which will bedistributed on the World Radio Day2014 (i.e. February 13, 2014).Academic Partner for the event isApeejay Institute of MassCommunication (AIMC) which is oneof the leading media traininginstitutes in the country. The themeof the video competition is WhyCommunity Radio Matters? LastDate: 30 December 2013. Websitefor submission:http://crvc.cemca.org.in/

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Workshops forTeacher Educators toPromoteCommunities ofPracticeTwo workshops were organised by IT forChange, Bangalore, with support fromCEMCA for the faculty members of CTEs(Colleges of Teacher Education) andDIETs in Karnataka from the Bangaloreand Mysore divisions from 21-25 Octoberat Bangalore Rural DIET and for thosefrom Belgaum division from 11-15November at Dharwad DIET, towardsbuilding ‘Communities of Practice” (CoP)amongst teacher educators. The SCERTsin the other South Indian states were alsoinvited to participate in these workshops,and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradeshdeputed SCERT and DIET faculty toparticipate in these workshops.

These workshops were organised by ITfor Change, Bangalore in collaborationwith DSERT, Karnataka. The workshopsfocused on the use of ICTs for teachereducators’ professional development,ranging from building basic ICT skills toparticipating in the CoP platform forteacher educators, including access toweb resources and networking throughmailing groups. Educational tools such asGeogebra, Audacity, PhET, Marble,KGeography, Kalzium, and Freemind,

video creating tool Record MyDesktop, image editing tool GIMPwere covered for providing hand-on training. Participants alsolearnt and practised use of Web2.0 tools, and browsed theKarnatka Open EducationalResources (KOER) wiki portalmaintained by the teachers CoPs,made teams, each of whichchoose a topic to build ‘personaldigital resource libraries’ bygathering digital resources in text,image, video formats from the

Internet, and adding their ownannotations/ comments. The participantsrealised that digital processes are muchmore dynamic and hence there would notbe a ‘final’ resource, since these wouldforever undergo revision and enrichment,this is the spirit of OER (whose ‘4 Rs areReuse, Revise, Remix and Re-distribute).

In both workshops, the participants werevery enthusiastic and enjoyed becomingmore familiar with the digital world. Theparticipants from Tamil Nadu and AndhraPradesh shared that the use of free andopen source tools was an importantlearning for them and that CoP was apowerful and democratic teacherdevelopment model. Both states wouldlike to introduce similar CoP programmesfor teachers and teacher educators andITfC has already shared a proposal withSCERT, Tamil Nadu.

See http://www.teacher-network.in

Sharing AudioContent through EKduniya anEK awaazLaunched in 2008 as the first initiativeof its type in South Asia, EK duniyaanEK awaaz (literally translated as OneWorld, Many Voices) offers aninnovative platform to the region’sCommunity Radio practitioners to assist

them share and develop a Community ofPractice (CoP). Popularly known asEDAA, the portal brings togetheroperational community radio stations,community radio initiatives, governmentdepartments and organisations involvedin producing radio-compatible IECmaterial at a common platform.

In addition to facilitating contentexchange and knowledge sharing, EKduniya anEK awaaz aims to promote peer

learning, peer-review and exchange ofcommunity-based knowledge. As ofOctober 2013, EDAA hosts 1,500 plususers, 5,100-plus radio programmes in 28languages and dialects across 36thematic areas, and a 100-plusknowledge resource base.

Commonwealth Education Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA) has been a supporterof this platform since its inception andhas partnered with EDAA for the

13

continuous up-gradation of its technicalplatform. With support from CEMCA,EDAA has introduced modules tofacilitate conversion of radioprogrammes from proprietary formats toopen source formats like OGG Vorbis.With the institution of CEMCA-OneWorld awards for knowledgesharing, the EDAA portal has seen atremendous growth, breaking its pastrecords.

Over 2,500 new radio programmes wereadded to the platform during the pastfour months starting from August 2013– in turn reflecting as an enhanced

bandwidth usage. Currently, the portalhandles a bandwidth usage of around 40GBs every month.

Recent Award Winners are:

• Radio Benziger, Kerala (topcontributor till August 2013)

• Radio Media Village, Kerala inSeptember 2013

• Radio Rimjhim, Bihar in October 2013

CEMCA and OneWorld FoundationIndia congratulate the Award winners!

See http://www.edaa.in

Industry LinkedProgramme forSound DesignersCEMCA is supporting the NationalInstitute of Open Schooling (NIOS)to develop a job role basedprogramme for Sound Designers asper the NVEQF guidelines, and thestrategy developed jointly by NIOSand CEMCA to implement NVEQF forOpen Schooling. A workshop was heldfrom 28th Oct 2013 - 30th Oct 2013 at NIOSSec-62 Noida to develop the curriculumfor the said course.

Seventeen experts for all over the countryparticipated in this workshop, andcontributed towards development of thecurriculum on the basis of thequalification pack of the Media andEntertainment Skills Council (MESC). Dr.S.S. Jena, Chairman NIOS inaugurated theworkshop and welcomed the participants.He explained the modular approach to beadopted in developing the curriculum. Mr.R. Thyagarajan, Head (Administration &Finance) represented CECMA in theworkshop and appraised the role ofCEMCA to the participants.

Dr. Manju Gupta, Dy. Director VocationalEducation, NIOS explained about various

courses and activities of NIOS in the fieldof Vocational Education. This wasfollowed by a presentation by Ms ShivaliChawla on job roles of sound designerand development of self-learning materialsfor the target group in open and distanceeducation. Ms. Sonal Mathurrepresentative of MESC distributed thedraft National Occupational Standardsdeveloped by NSDC for the job role ofsound assistant, sound engineer andsound designer for validation by theexperts. In the next two days curriculumalong with infrastructure norms for therole of Sound Assistant, Sound Engineerand Sound Designer was developed.Participants were duly introduced aboutthe lesson writing format of NIOS, societalconcerns to be taken care of and thecopyright norms. The programme will bedeveloped in a modular manner coveringall the job roles as per the MESC norms.

Prof. G. Ram ReddySocial ScientistAward 2013 forDir ector, CEMCAProf. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Trust,Hyderabad has instituted the Prof. G.Ram Reddy Social Scientist Award tobe given bi-annually to an Indianscholar, preferably 50 year or belowage, who has done significantacademic work in any one of thefollowing areas:

• Public Policy and Governance

• Local Organizations/ PanchayatiRaj

• Education and Distance Education

The Trust has selected Dr. SanjayaMishra, Director, CEMCA to receivethe Prof. G. Ram Reddy Social ScientistAward – 2013 for his contribution toOpen and Distance Learning. Dr.Mishra will receive the Award andcitation in December 2013, and deliverthe Prof. G. Ram Reddy MemorialLecutre.

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Case Study

Online Staff Development Programme forAcademic Counsellors

By G. Mythili

Introduction

Staff development is an essentialcomponent in the organisational growthof any education institutions. The staffswho work in the distance educationinstitutions or open universities comefrom other fields like conventionaleducation system, industry,administrative, private sectors andprofessional fields like medicine,engineering, nursing, teaching etc. Alsodevelopment of distance educationprogrammes need team effort to offersuccessfully. Staff development is acontinuous process and open universitiesprovides such programmes to theirfaculty and other administrative staffs.

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), India, provides variousprofessional development activities fordifferent categories of personnelassociated with the university. IGNOUserves the educational aspirations of over3 million students in India and 43 othercountries through the twenty-oneSchools of Studies and a network of 67regional centres, around 3400 learnersupport centres and around 60 overseascentres. The University offers about 477certificate, diploma, degree and doctoralprogrammes, with strength of around 600faculty members and academic staff at theHeadquarters and Regional Centres andabout 54,200 part-time academiccounsellors from conventionalinstitutions of higher learning,professional organisations, and industryamong others.

Staff Training and Research Institute ofDistance Education (STRIDE) has been

conducting staff developmentprogrammes for teaching and non-teaching staff of IGNOU, State OpenUniversities and Distance EducationInstitutes in India. It is also serving thedistance training, research and capacitybuilding needs of Asian, African and theCaribbean countries. More than 630 majortraining programmes have beenconducted by STRIDE since 1987.

As there is a need for providing trainingon open and distance learning (ODL) to alarge number of academic counsellors ofIGNOU and other open universities theSTRIDE has developed and offers theAcademic Counselors’ Training (ACT-Online) since 2010.

Academic Counsellors of IGNOU

One important category of personnel indistance education system is ‘academiccounsellors’ who are involved in tutoringand counselling to a large number oflearners at the study centres spread allover the country and abroad. As theacademic counsellors are drawn fromconventional universities, industry, healthand agriculture sectors, and non-government organizations, they areusually notfamiliar to theODL system.They needtraining at thebeginning andadvancedtraining after afew years ofservice in theODL system.Normally IGNOU

conducts face-to-face discipline-wisetraining of the academic counsellors atthe Regional Centre level. However, all theacademic counsellors cannot attend face-to-face training due to time factor. IGNOUhas conducted few hundreds workshopsranging from 1-day to 15 days for trainingof academic counsellor. Every monthsome new academic counsellors join andthe turnover is also high. So, STRIDE hasdeveloped an online training programmefor academic counsellors.

Keeping in view the nature of the tasksand responsibilities, the on-line trainingprogramme provides a platform for theprofessional development of the academiccounsellors. Online training offersflexibility to academic counsellors toaccess contents pertaining to technologyand pedagogy and about the distanceeducation system at a time and placeconvenient to them since they areengaged in various activities and tasks.

ACT-Online (AcademicCounsellors’ Training Online)

The ACT-Online is developed and offeredin a fully online environment. The trainingprogramme is a professional developmentprogramme of 3 credits (90 hours). Theprogramme is designed specifically forthose who are engaged in the task ofproviding tutoring, counselling, and othertechnology-mediated support to thedistance learners. The ACT-Onlineprogram is accessible athttp://www.ignouonline.ac.in/actonline.

The ACT-Online is grounded in both the

15

theory and practice of ODL. Thetechnology of online learning helps morein building up interactivity among peergroup and academic counsellor. Pandaand Mishra (2008) developed a frameworkfor online continuous professionaldevelopment within which design oflearning resources can be located. Theyhave also reported a classification ofonline resources into following fiveelements:

• Orientation and organization

• Learning activity

• Interaction and collaboration

• Support

• Analytic tools

The above mentioned five onlineresources are in-built in the ACT-Onlineprogramme. It is envisaged that by theend of the online training the learners(Academic Counsellors) are expected tobe able to:

• Discuss the concept and theoriesof ODL;

• Discuss the development of ODLin the country and abroad;

• Explain the nature, characteristicsand importance of self-learningmaterials;

• Discuss the importance of learnersupport in distance education;

• Differentiate between counsellingand tutoring;

• Organise support services usingvarious modes (face-to-face, audio-visual media, computer etc.);

• Conduct academic counsellingsessions at learning centres;

• Write tutor comments onassignment responses;

• Organise support services foreducationally disadvantaged anddisabled students;

• Use basic information technologyin support services (e-mail, internetetc.); and

• Locate relevant educationalresources on the web.

Curriculum: The 90 hours of workloadcan be completed in minimum duration of45 days, while learners can complete thesame in the maximum duration of 90 daysas well. Thus, the programme is designedkeeping in view the flexibility needs of thelearners. In order to fulfill the objectivesof the programme, the curriculum hasbeen designed and learning materialsdeveloped to cover the following:

• Part-A covers the basic knowledge ofICT for academic counsellors.

• Part-B provides the knowledge ofOpen Distance Learning (ODL)concepts, theories, tutoring,counseling, assessment and so on.

• Part-C engages with variousactivities, case studies, evaluation ofassignments, collecting feedbackfrom students, and so on.

Technologies: The ACT-Online has beendeveloped in fully online environment.The contents have been uploaded in thewebsite which the participants candownload and study offline. PowerPointpresentations and video clips are alsoprovided as support elements. The onlinetraining environment includes interaction,individual and team-based activitiesrelated to cognitive and psychomotordomain, online discussion board, andcollaboration. This online trainingprogramme has been designed in ASP andDot NET as front-end and MySQL asback-end. The online environment isdeveloped by eGyanKosh, IGNOU.

Online Tools: In the ACT-Onlineprogramme, e-mail, discussion forum andonline chat are used for interactionbetween peer to peer and mentor. Email isvery effective tool for communication. Aseparate institutional mail id is created forACT-Online programme to communicatewith participants. The mentors of ACT-Online programme provide support to theparticipants from entry to exit. Each andevery participant receives tutor commentson their assignments and also receivesacademic support and additional webresources whenever required.

Collaborations: Engaging everybody toparticipate is very important in the onlinetraining. Providing collaborativeenvironment in the online training leadsto peer to peer interaction and learner toteacher interaction. Online interactionsnot only go beyond academicrequirements and expectations but alsomotivate, demonstrate willingness tocomment, and encourage others tocontinue interacting (Patrick, 2003).Academic counsellors of IGNOU are adiverse group placed in every corner ofthe country. Everyone has someexperiences to deal with distance learners.The ACT-Online programme provides theenvironment where the counsellors canshare their experiences, technologiesused for their tutoring/counsellingprocess in the discussion forum, andthrough email.

Assessment: In between the contents,the self check questions have beenincorporated for self assessment. Theacademic counsellors have to complete (i)a lesson plan of three counsellingsessions (organizing counselling sessionfor distance learners) (ii) experientialessay on his/her experience as anacademic counsellor (iii) five samples ofassignment-responses evaluated by him/her as tasks/activities during theprogramme. After completing their tasks,the participants upload these tasks intheir portfolio and also get their resultsonline.

Satisfaction Survey onProfessional DevelopmentProgramme

The ultimate goal of professionaldevelopment programme for academiccounsellors is to improve student learning(Mythili & Biswas, 2013). The use of newtechnology enables the counsellors touse new techniques in teaching learningprocess. A satisfaction survey wasconducted among the participants of thisprogramme to know the effectiveness ofthe online resources. Around 50 academiccounsellors who participated in the ACT-Online programme were selected for the

16

survey. A self designed questionnairewith 5-point scale was used to collectfeedback. Some of the finding of thestudy are described here.

Orientation and Organisation

Welcome and calendar, instructor andlearning community, concept map andsyllabus are the important componentsunder this heading. These componentsare incorporated in the ACT-Onlineprogramme. While analyzing theparticipant’s responses, around 35.25%participants were very satisfied and61.30% were satisfied with the objectives,eligibility, credits, syllabus and otherrelated information. Internet connectivityis one of the essential components inonline training. While analysing theaccessibility of the website, 54.87% ofparticipants expressed their satisfactionon access to ACT-Online website, while28.62% were very satisfied and 17.70%were not satisfied. In terms ofconnectivity, 26.11% were very satisfiedand 49.80% were satisfied with localinternet connectivity.

Learning Activity

Learning activities are the potentialcomponents of online teaching learningprocess which helps to developknowledge and skills. Course materialsand activities help to engage theparticipants during the training. Coursematerials include text as PDF files, audio,video and other multimedia components.Activities are assignments, collaborativediscussion, and self assessment activities.On the contents provided, 82.43%participants were satisfied and 18.55%very satisfied. 55% of the participantswere satisfied with the self-assessmentactivities.

Interaction and collaboration

Online learning provides sufficientopportunities for interactivity. Peer to peerinteraction, pupil to teacher interactionand collaborative projects or collaborativeassignment can be designed in the online

training as required. Interactivity can besynchronous and asynchronous.Synchronous interaction happen real timeby using web conference, online chat, etcto clear the doubts on the subject in fixedtime. Asynchronous interaction have timelag, and are provided through email anddiscussion forum. The ACT-Onlineprogramme is designed as on-going orcontinuous training programme, andtherefore, web conferencing is not

included. However, email and discussionforum are part of the training programme.54.29% were satisfied and 25.71% werevery satisfied with discussion forum while14.81 % indicated dissatisfaction withdiscussion forum. 65% were satisfied withemail communication.

Support

Online environment is not comfortable forall the participants. Participants requiresupport for their learning as well as usingthe online platform. Mentor support andtechnical support are importantcomponent for online training. Mentor orfacilitator provides support to enableparticipants for their learning. Thereshould be 24X7 technical support for theparticipants for any online trainingprogrammes. Around 45.75% weresatisfied, 23.34% were very satisfied and12.21% were not satisfied with supportreceived from the facilitators. Also whilestudying online 52.78% participants weresatisfied and 23.65% were not satisfiedwith the technical support received.

Conclusion

This programme has been successfullycompleted by 95 academic counsellors,while 726 are currently active. A majorityof those who have completed the ACT-Online programme are male and above 30years of age, with at least a master degree.The short term online training programmefacilitates the academic counsellor toupgrade the knowledge on ODL and ICTwhich helps them to conduct counsellingsessions. The overall reaction of theparticipants to the programme is positive,and there is a need to promote thisprogramme to encourage the new andexisting Academic Counsellors to enrolland complete the programme.

Online environment is not

comfortable for all the

participants. Participants require

support for their learning as well

as using the online platform.

Mentor support and technical

support are important component

for online training. Mentor or

facilitator provides support to

enable participants for their

learning. There should be 24X7

technical support for the

participants for any online

training programmes.

References

Mythili, G. Biswas, P.K. (2013). Online Training of Academic Counsellors of Indira Gandhi National

Open University: A Feedback Study. EduTech – A Journal of Education Technology, Retrieved

from the WWW on 15 November 2013 at http://www.edutech.net.in/Articles/1301/

ART00004.pdf

Panda, S. & Mishra, S. (2008) Reflective online resources for online professional development.

Interactive Discourse, 1(2). Retrieved from the WWW on 15 November 2013 at http://

interactivediscourse.com/journal_data/1_2/2-Panda-Mishra.pdf

Patrick, J.F. (2003) Indicators of Support in online Interaction. International Review of Research in

Open Distance Learning, 4 (1), Retrieved from the WWW on 15 November 2013 at http://

www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/129/600

Ms G. Myhili is Analyst at STRIDE, IGNOU, New Delhi and has been involved in design,development and delivery of the ACT-Online. She can be reached at gmythili@ignou.ac.in

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The Allama Iqbal Open University,Islamabad hosted the 27th AnnualConference of the Asian Association ofUniversities (AAOU) from 1-3 October 2013.The theme of the conference was“Leveraging the Power of Open andDistance Learning (ODL) for Building aDivergent Asia –Today’s Solutions andTomorrow’s Vision”. Over 250 researchpapers were presented in the conferenceunder five sub-themes: (i) Emerging Trendsin Open and Distance Learning; (ii) Buildinga Global Future through Research andInnovative Practices in ODL; (iii) ODL andHuman Capacity Building; (iv) Technologiesand Strategies for providing Educationthrough ODL; and (v) Application of ODL inVarious Disciplines. About 40 participantsattended the pre-conference workshop on 1October 2013, organised by CEMCA onQuality Assurance of Open EducationalResources. The workshop was facilitated byProf. Paul Kawachi and Dr. Sanjaya Mishra.

The conference was inaugurated by theMinster of Education Engr MuhammadBaligh-ur-Rehman, and COL Vice PresidentMr Vis Naidoo delivered the keynoteaddress. The valedictory session of theconference was graced by the President ofPakistan, honourable Mamnoon Hussain.The conference also witnessed the electionof Prof. John Chi-yan Leong, President ofOpen University of Hong Kong as the nextPresident of AAOU for 2014-16. He invitedall the delegates to the next AAOUconference invitation to be held at HongKong from 28-30 October 2014.

The 27th AAOU Conference was hosted byAIOU under the leadership of Prof. Dr. NazirAhmed Sangi, Vice Chancellor, andsupported by staff of the Universitycoordinated by Dr. Zahid Majeed. Some ofthe photos of the event are showcased herewith the courtesy of AIOU.

Regional Round Up

Conference of Asian Association ofOpen Universities

18

Book Review

Open Educational Resources:Innovation, Research andPracticeEdited by Rory McGreal, Wanjira Kinuthia andStewart Marshall; published by Commonwealthof Learning, Canada, 2013, pp. xxiii, 239, ISBN978-1-894975-62-9.

By Dr. S.K. Pulist

This is the third book I am reviewing under the theme OpenEducational Resources (OER) published by the Commonwealth ofLearning (COL). The contribution of UNESCOand COL in promotion of concept of OpenEducational Resources (OER) since itsprimitive stage has been commendable. Thebook under review is published by COL andUNESCO/COL Chair on OER at the AthabascaUniversity. The volume brings together theexperiences of 37 scholars in OER from 10countries spread over 5 different continents.In 16 chapters, the book focuses on the fourmajor themes i.e. ‘OER in Academia’, ‘OER inPractice’, ‘Diffusing OER’ and ‘Producing,Sharing and Using OER’.

The socio-economic imperatives have forcedthe educational institutions around the worldto emerge as a collective body of OERdevelopers. The OER movement can now beseen as a ‘social practice’ as supported by‘African Health OER Network’. The OER comes to the rescue ofteachers and the taught alike. While the teachers would be busyin using and creating the OER, the learner communities are itsmajor beneficiaries. All this happens while being in their ‘ownsocial spaces and networks’. There are still some spaces whichare conservative in their approaches and need to build mutualtrust for sentiments of OER movement to penetrate deep in theirprofessional practices. The experiences of Open University inNetherlands are a case in point.

The six-stage description of ‘OpenLearn’ development speaksvolumes about the development of OER environment. StephenDownes in his chapter has tried to broaden the horizon of theterm ‘openness’ while defining it from the perspective of OER

usability, which is more encompassing.The OER University (a consortium of 20post-secondary institutions andorganizations) seems to be providing

solutions to some of these issues through its anchor partners.The OER movement has created an entire ‘Value Chain’ that linksthe learners with relevant and appropriate learning materials.

The book is also available in the ‘OER knowledgecloud’ which isslowly taking the shape of a huge OER repository (also with fulltext access). It is expected to meet the ‘growing need for anexpansion of OER research base’ so that new knowledge on OERcould be explored. It could be used to build mutual trust amongOER stakeholders. The authors advocate the importance of‘building bottom-up process of OER generation’ where ‘top-downpolicy support’ would act as mutual ‘trust-based interaction’bridge which is a noble approach to systemic development of theOER body of knowledge.

There are many challenges involved in the journey. Whileavailability of the OER can be ensured to someextent, repurposing the same andaccommodating the cross-cultural and localissues is a bigger challenge. In fact we are yetto know the real potential of OER by realizingbigger initiatives. The OER meta-data alsoneeds to be strengthened. However, the positiveimpact of conversion of ‘formal courses’ can beseen in ‘formation of communities of learnersaround the OER’. In furtherance of thecommitment, different organizations andscholars collectively and individually arecoming up with Massive Open Online Courses(MOOC) in specialized areas and makingavailable to the knowledge-seekers to getcertification. However, a high dropout rate inMOOC is a valid concern as raised by GeorgeSiemens.

While enough awareness has been created among the educatorsand students in addition to the knowledge workers, it is time toexperiment with the usability of OER in different areas, strengthenthe nexus between the OER and knowledge dissemination andcome up with solution and additional opportunities foruniversalisation of knowledge. We need to find ways wherebywe can realize the worth of OER in today’s knowledge society.

The book has the potential to be used as handbook on OERpractices and is a must read for the teachers, students, policymakers, planners and users of ICT for educational purposes.

Dr. S.K. Pulistskpulist@gmail.com

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SMART Tips

How to Offer a Massive Open Online Course

By Ramesh C. Sharma

Successful Media and Research Techniques (SMART) Tips is a section where wediscuss useful aspects of research and learning. Dr. Sharma presents here anintroduction on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and how to start MOOC.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have gained muchpopularity and many universities have launched MOOCs ondifferent topics. In fact the New York Times declared 2012 as theYear of the MOOC. High enrollments in these courses havecaught the attention of educational providers as an alternativeand supplement to traditional university courses. MIT, Harvardand Stanford have successfully set the example and pace forothers to follow. All sorts of organisations and institutions aretrying their hands on offering MOOCs. FutureLearn, edX,Coursera, Open2Study, Udacity etc are providing courses ofdiverse nature and disciplines (see Worth While Web section inthis issue of EduComm Asia).

Before we learn how to run a MOOC, let’s first understand fewbasic things about MOOCs.

Emergence

The term Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was coined byDave Cormier and Bryan Alexander in 2008 in relation to thecourse “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” (also knownas CCK08) offered byStephen Downes and GeorgeSiemens. Dave in his blogsays, “To the best of myknowledge, the term“MOOC” comes out of aSkype chat conversation Ihad with George Siemens...”.MOOCs are planned as webbased courses which thestudents can take fromanywhere, enabling massenrollment. Initially groups ofexperts, instructors andeducators contributed avariety of content to a centralrepository where the coursematerial and the course itself are open and free. However, a fee isalso changed for those who need a university credit orcertification.

Types of MOOCs

Traditionally MOOCs were grouped intotwo groups: cMOOCs and xMOOCs.cMOOCs are based on the Connectivism(as propounded by George Siemens,Stephen Downes and Dave Cormier)where community building is core to theprocess. cMOOCs were the first MOOCscreated as the next evolution innetworked learning. Here the learners settheir own goals and kind of engagement.xMOOCs are kind of courses involving

instructions or content offered via “concise, targeted videocontent” with some sort of inbuilt automated testing for trackingstudent’s understanding while they progress in the course.Mostly students learn in a linear fashion in xMOOCs.

Pedagogical implications

• MOOCs augment peer-to-peer learning as the students areencouraged to create and share their own content.

• Being self-paced, students’ progress as per their conveniencetowards completion (one of the reasons for high dropoutsalso). Students are trying new courses which were notavailable to them locally.

• MOOCs promote life-long learning as is evident from the agedemography of students being opting for courses fromyounger to seniors.

• There may be a lack of personal interactions.

Offering a MOOC!

MOOCs are being designed andoffered by individuals andinstitutions. So you may also beplanning to organise a MOOC onsome theme where large number oflearners can enroll. Having been partof the “OER MOOC” (see http://www.wiziq.com/course/28219-the-oer-mooc) launched under the banner ofLMP Education Trust (and supportedby COL), I proffer here some helpfulsuggestions for you to start MOOCand become part of the neweducational revolution. There aresome issues to be considered firstbefore organising a MOOC.

1. Selecting a topic: The topic should be of such nature which isneed based and can attract right kind of learners in largenumbers. Since MOOCs are designed for large clients,

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MOOCs on popular topics stand a great chance of success.We selected ‘The OER MOOC’ topic because OpenEducational Resources (OER) are being adopted by many ingovernment, non-government, private, business andeducational institution. Our MOOC was designed to helpimpart the knowledge and develop the skills needed to besuccessful in learning from OERs or teaching the chosensubject to post-secondary students and life-long learnersusing OERs.

2. Duration : We need to decide on the length of the MOOC. Itcan be as short as for a week or may run into few months.The duration of the MOOC will depend on the theme of theMOOC and the nature and quantity of the content and kindof assessment activities. The OER MOOC was a 4 weeksonline programme designed to enhance knowledge aboutOERs and to equip for effective use of OERs for courseoffering. The programme also helped learners to create theirown OERs and contribute to the pool of OERs. The nominalduration for completing this course was 4 weeks. However,because of the nature of this programme which allowsflexibility and personalisation, participants were allowed totake another 2 weeks if they wished to complete the course.

3. Course Content: Next step is to assemble a team of contentcreators who will contribute to the course content. Some ofthe MOOCs are making use of OERs. The content can be inthe form of reading materials or audio or video lessons. Someform of materials can be:

• Introductory Text based materials• Introductory Video• Lecture Presentations• Blog posts for learning materials• Tweets from time to time• A resource base of links to relevant resources

These can be uploaded on the course site to help thelearners read asynchronously. We also need to plan aboutassessment activities so that understanding of the learnerscan be assessed while they progress during the course.There are various ways to do so. Many of the MOOCs prefercollaborative and reflective learning. The learners areexpected to read the materials, listen to audio or watch thevideos and then make comment on the content (based on theassignment) like in their blogs or on social media throughmicro-blogging (say Twitter or identica). The students areasked to use some hashtag (#) while making comments sothat the aggregators compile all messages or comments atone place for learning or analysis.

4. Choice of Platform: There can be different ways to launch aMOOC. It can be synchronous and asynchronous. Weadopted synchronous way to run the OER MOOC based onWizIQ online teaching platform. Here we uploaded allmaterials (OERs) and an international team of speakers tooksessions (one hour each) to address a specific issue.Participants attended these live sessions which were also

recorded for later viewing for anyone those who could notattend live session. The recorded video session provideadvantage of asynchronous learning opportunities to thestudents who can access the materials any time. It has beennoted that attendance in synchronous online live sessionswere not high due to different time zones or timings notsuitable for all. There are many platforms to offer MOOC.Even the WikiEducator platform can be used to offer MOOC,and if you so desire, a Moodle course can also becomeMOOC (as was the case with the first ever MOOC). Thoseinstitutions having some LMS implemented on their serverscan also mount a MOOC and manage content. You may alsouse a Blog or a wiki page to launch your MOOC. Theplatform you use must be able to support different fileformats as you may be providing content in the form of pdf,doc files, audio, video lessons, embedded YouTube video,presentations, interactive games etc.

5. Enrollment: Adequate publicity is a must for attractingstudents to your course. Use various social media to tell theworld about your course. Sending out messages to differentlistservs or online groups is a good idea. Ask yourcolleagues to spread the word about the course. The systemyou have used to mount your course must be able to handlelarge enrollments.

6. Support: Since MOOCs are online courses with massiveenrollments, the students belong to all time zones and theymay need support anytime 24x7. Hence we need to make sureof responding to the queries of the participants at theearliest. A welcome message by the course coordinator/s tothe participants in the beginning of the course, regularcontact during the course and post-course follow up aredefinitely ways to keep the participants feel involved in thecourse. We may also create discussion forum where theparticipants can have peer interactions. For sophisticatedplatforms, Helpdesk with a ticketing system is welcome andthe support service may be reachable through toll freenumber or SMS or a designated email id.

7. Certification : Certification on the completion of course canbe provided. This can be with or without a charge to theparticipant. Online badges (like Mozilla) are actively createdto assess the performance of the participants and as soon asthey complete an assignment or activity.

MOOCs have emerged as a promising technological andpedagogical model to teach millions of learners. They providegreat opportunity to anyone who has something to teach toothers. We are witnessing a teaching and learning revolution, andI urge all the readers of EduComm Asia to join the bandwagon.Here is an opportunity, and challenge to show to the world, whatyou can offer. The technology is no more a deterrent. Are youready to adopt it?

Dr. Ramesh C. Sharma is a regular contributor of EduComm Asia, andcan be reached at rc_sharma@yahoo.com

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Technology Tracking

Project LoonBy Sanjaya Mishra

In 16 May 2011, a report of the SpecialRapporteur was presented to UnitedNations General Assembly thatencouraged all states to ensure universalaccess to Internet as a top priority.Internet has emerged as an indispensabletool to promote human rights, combatinequality and accelerate developmentsincluding providing access to educationalopportunities. Over 60 per cent of worldpopulation today do not have access tothe Internet. The problems of Internetaccess are largely due to the last mileconnectivity to the users. While with theincreasing access to mobile telephony,last mile connectivity issues are reduced,broadband connectivity over mobile is yetto grow.

Google, the leading search enginecompany, has initiated a project called“Project Loon”1 to provide Internetaccess to remote and rural areas withlimited access to terrestrial connections.Project Loon is a network of balloonsplaced in the stratosphere, 20 km aboveearth’s surface, to provide wirelessconnectivity to all.

How Loon Works?

Layers of winds in the stratosphere varyin direction and magnitude. The wind

layers in thestratosphere arenormally steadyand slow-movingat between 5 and20 mph. Usingwind data fromthe NationalOceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA), theballoons are managed to float byadjusting their altitude to a wind layerafter identifying the wind layer with thedesired speed and direction. Google usessoftware algorithms to determine whereballoons need to go. By moving with thewind, the balloons can be arranged toform one large communications network.Users of the service connect to theballoon network using a special Internetantenna attached to their building. Eachballoon can provide connectivity to aground area about 40 km in diameter atspeeds comparable to 3G. For balloon-to-balloon and balloon-to-groundcommunications, the balloons useantennas equipped with specialized radio

frequency technology. ProjectLoon currently uses ISM bands(specifically 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands)that are available for anyone touse2.

The Balloons

The balloon envelopes and arecomposed of polyethylene plastic

about of about 0.076 mm thick. These arespecially designed to withstand superpressure, and are filled with helium. A fullyinflated balloon stand 15 m (49 ft) acrossand 12 m (39 ft) tall and carry a custom airpump system that pumps in or releases air.A small box, containing circuit boards that

control the system, radio antennae and anUbiquiti Networks Rocket M2, weighingabout 10 kg hangs underneath theinflated envelope. The box also hasbatteries to store solar power to operateduring the night. A parachute attached tothe top of the envelope allows for acontrolled descent and landing when a

balloon is readyto be taken out ofservice. Theballoons typicallyhave a life ofabout 55-100days.

The balloonsfloat in thestratosphere

mostly from west to east at differentlatitudes providing access to differentcounties in the same latitude at differentpoint of time. Thus a band of balloonswould cover the entire world to provideInternet access to population in differentcountries. The system intends to provideconnectivity to remote areas currentlyunderserved, and also helpcommunication during natural disaster.Notwithstanding the enormouspossibilities, the cost of the technologyto install balloons over particular latitudemay prohibit its wide deployment toassist people in the developed countries.

Before this technology changes statusfrom pilot stage, there are several issuesto be considered. Some of these includeissues related to permissions for airspaceuse over several countries, and perpetualavailability of the unlicensed spectrum foruse by Loon Project. Also, the costs ofaccess to end users as well asmaintenance cost need to be very low toattract users have wireless broadbandaccess.

1 http://www.google.com/loon/2 http://www.google.com/loon/how/

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Research Shows...

eLearning in Commonwealth Asia 2013Snapshots from the Report entitled “eLearning in Commonwealth Asia 2013”

by Dr. S.K. Pulist

Introduction

How is eLearning used in the AsianCommonwealth countries? How aredifferent activities pertaining to eLearningbeing managed by different institutions?What are the challenges andopportunities faced by institutions foreffective implementation of eLearningacross disciplines and subjects? To findanswers to all such questions, asystematic study was undertaken to trackthe growth and development of eLearningin Commonwealth Asian countries i.e.Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, India,Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Singaporeand Sri Lanka.

eLearning is a broad term generally usedto refer to web-based learning, onlinelearning, blended learning, networkedlearning, distributed learning, flexiblelearning, etc. However, it is still emergingas a specialized field of education.Analyzing the various definitions ofeLearning, for the purpose of this study,eLearning has been defined as use ofonline technologies for performingteaching and learning in any of the threemanners such as:

• completely online,

• blended learning (mix of face-to-faceand online), and

• use of online as supplementary toface-to-face for some activities.

Major Findings

The following are major findings of thereport.

• The number of male students (52 percent) outweighed the number of

female students (48 per cent) ineLearning programmes.

• Majority of institutions (54.1 percent) had adopted an ‘eLearning’policy which focused on training andstaff development (64.7 per cent),eLearning management mechanism(63.2 per cent), content development(61.8 per cent), assessment (58.8 percent), quality assurance (50 per cent)and copyright/licensing issues (45.6per cent).

• As many as 28 per cent institutionshave adopted a differently-abledfriendly policy for eLearningprogrammes.

• The eLearning activities arecoordinated by specified/designatedunit (36.1 per cent) followed bycommittees at central level (30.9 percent).

• The most used tools of the LMS arecommunication tools (86.7 per cent),assessment tools (68.9), contentuploading tools (68.9 per cent),navigation tools (60 per cent),collaborative tools (58.9 per cent),news and social forums (56.7 percent), calendar of activities (54.4 percent), presentation tools (54.4 percent), administrative tools (42.2 percent), editing tools (37.8 per cent) andsearch tools (37.8 per cent).

• The design for eLearningprogrammes include assignments (80per cent), e-content available on theLMS (66 per cent), working onprojects (57 per cent), quizzes (49 percent), group discussion (48 per cent)and printed reading material (44 percent) among others.

• The e-contents is provided to thestudents in a variety of waysincluding LMS (77 per cent),downloadable from the web or linksto OERs (61 per cent), printed books(57 per cent) and through USB pendrive or CD (41 per cent).

• The evaluation system used ineLearning programmes includecontinuous evaluation through LMS(83 per cent), paper based term endexamination (83 per cent), paperbased continuous evaluation (78 percent) and term end examinationthrough LMS (64 per cent).

• Tools for evaluation of studentperformance used are multi-choicequestions (92 per cent), short answerquestions (84 per cent) and essaytype questions (73 per cent).

• Motivating factors:

♦ Institutional emphasis onpromotion of eLearning (78.8 percent)

♦ User-friendly LMS (65 per cent)

♦ Emergence of new ICT culture inthe wake of technologicalrevolution globally (58.8 percent)

♦ Highly motivated faculty andstaff (55 per cent)

• Challenges for implementation ofeLearning programmes:

♦ Technical problems (57.3 percent)

♦ Work overload on teachers (56.1per cent)

♦ Future plans of educationalinstitutions:

♦ Introduction of more eLearningprogrammes in the existingdisciplines/areas (80 per cent)

♦ Diversification of eLearningprogrammes in new disciplines/areas of specialization (56.3 percent)

♦ Updating and modernisation ofexisting LMS (56.3 per cent)

♦ Integration of social media with

23

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Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA).

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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

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visit us at:13/14, Sarv Priya Vihar

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Our Fax No. is0091 11 2653 7147or visit our website:

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the existing LMS (55 per cent)

♦ Use of mobile technology forimparting instruction/ sharing

information with students inorder to provide them enhancedmobility (53.8 per cent)

24

Forthcoming Events

IDEA Conference 2014

12-14 March 2014, Directorate of DistanceEducation, University of Jammu, India

Conference Theme: “Quality AssuranceAnd Sustenance of Open DistanceEducation : Issues, Concerns, ChallengesAnd Developments

For more information, contact:

DDE,University of Jammu,Jammu-181006, J&K,India.E-mail :ideaconferencejammu2014@gmail.com

7th Annual EmergingTechnologies for Online LearningInternational Symposium

April 9-11, 2014 · Sheraton Dallas Hotel -Dallas, TX

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2nd Regional Symposium on OpenEducational Resources: BeyondAdvocacy, Research and Policy

June 24-27, 2014, Penang,Malaysia

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EdMedia 2014

World Conference on Educational Mediaand Technology, June 23-27, 2014,Tampere, Finland.

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E-LEARN 2014 - WorldConference on E-Learning inCorporate, Government,Healthcare & Higher Education

New Orleans, LA: October 27-30, 2014

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28th Annual Conference of AsianAssociation of Open Universities

28-30 October2014, Hong KongSAR, China

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Learning: Research and Practice

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