Envisioning CEC’s Objectives and

Goals:

Realigning in the Context of Higher

Education Policies on ICT and E-

Learning

Brainstorming Workshop in New

Delhi, November 16-17, 2011

Notes by

K. Mangala Sunder

Department of Chemistry

IIT Madras, Chennai

mangal@iitm.ac.in

CEC’s Role in Higher Education Using ICT

• Alignment with National Mission on Education Through ICT

• Redefine the current role as a support facility to the

University

• Provide much-needed technology support to the parent

University --Web Studio in IIT Madras was created for

supporting IT needs and introducing cultural changes in

teaching and education in IITM.

• Provide centres of activity where new educational

paradigms are created by collaboration

• Be a University technology centre for online and open

support to colleges in and around and affiliated to the

University

CEC’s Role in Higher Education Using ICT:E-learning, knowledge management and knowledge

dissemination

• CEC may provide learning Management system facilities to the

University

• CEC may enable student social learning network activities and

be the creator of focused learning circles

• CEC may enable University online examination and open

educational tools

• CEC may develop / implement simple collaborative online tools

for learning

• CEC may encourage implementation of best e-learning models

developed world-wide and encourage faculty to lead their

educational portfolio with support –

• Open Learning Initiative of Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh

is a very well-known model in educational pedagogy which uses

cognitive learning models and class-room experiences to

develop highly interactive educational modules.

• Quadrants of learning can be integrated and not left as

independent elements.

CEC’s Role in Higher Education Using ICT:Infrastructure and Development

CEC Will need to realign and reassert its role as the communicator—already in its name!

Cloud Computing

facility

Cloud Computing

facility

EMRC1

EMRC2

University IT Environment for contents enabled and managed by

EMRC3

University IT Environment for contents enabled and managed by

EMRC3

EMRC3

CEC’s Role in Higher Education Using ICT:Infrastructure and Development

CEC will need IT Resource persons on project/ contract mode.

May tender partnerships with designers (private companies,

individuals, Open and Online Universities outside of India

where such technical expertise is already available) for

designing new social networking platforms

One technical Consultant in each centre for evolving a master

plan for IT services enablement in each University

Two or three project associates and groups of postgraduate /

final year graduate students in the University campus for

creating web-enabled environment.

Identify faculty from the campus who are IT savvy and who

would volunteer for creating new pedagogical designed

courseware; experts in pedagogy like Prof. A. K. Ray can be

approached for faculty training.

CEC’s Role in Higher Education Using ICT:Bringing Higher Education Focus groups and

Community together• CEC’s decisive role in supplementing and augmenting

higher education through tools and techniques can be

formulated more specifically by studying the MIT model of

faculty-driven, industry-sponsored-incubating agencies

created in the University, for IT development centre

managed by the Office of Academic Computing of MIT,

Cambridge, USA, for example.

• CEC’s role in community engagement for higher education

can be driven by a consortium of learned individuals

identified by the UGC itself– Social partners and faculty

from affiliating institutions have a decisive role in

determining community driven research projects using IT in

a local community. The EMRCs will also have a local

context for their presence. Their role as IT enablers will

extend to the community at large.

These are some of my thoughts I have

articulated largely from my participation in

NPTEL and NMEICT in the last few years. I think

CEC should elevate itself to a different plane

and be seen as the centre for all

communications in education.

Thank you.