1

Vol. 03 No. 04 January 2018

In this issue

Guest Column 02

Spotlight On 05

Regional Round Up 10

CEMCA News 13

Smart Tips 17

Technology Tracking 18

Project Shows 20

Case Study 22

Forthcoming Events 24

From The Director’s Desk

With best wishesDr. Shahid Rasool

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

– Nelson Mandela

Education seems to be a panacea for all illsof this world. Nonetheless, education hasnot liberated the globe of its vices, thus far.

The reasons for failure of education in eradicatinghunger and stress from the planet are many andmostly rooted in the design and delivery ofcourses. The fundamental question being raised iswhy formal education is generating unemployableyouth. As american athlete and author, KareemAbdul Jabbar says, “If they took the idea thatthey could escape poverty through education, Ithink it would make a more basic and long-lasting change in the way things happen. Whatwe need are positive, realistic goals and thewillingness to work”.

The realisation and urgency in bridging the gapbetween education and employability is at theheart of CEMCA’s initiatives. In tune with theSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 4:“Ensure inclusive and equitable qualityeducation and promote lifelong learningopportunities for all”, we are focusing on learningfor sustainable development. COL-CEMCA isstrengthening the capacity of Higher EducationInstitutions and Skill Development organisationsto connect learners to sustainable livelihoods.Higher education degrees must lead to betteremployment prospects, overall socialempowerment and responsible behaviour towardsenvironment which can be defined as sustainablelivelihoods.

To address this issue COL and CEMCA havedeveloped an Integrated Model for HigherEducation keeping in view the relationshipsbetween different players in the higher educationarea. Earlier the stress was only on teaching and

learning. The model, as demanded by thecircumstances, has an added third dimension oflinkages with the labour market. The integratedmodel looks at the whole value chain or at theentire lifecycle of the learner across the highereducation system. Ranging from enrolment tograduation and from graduation to entering thejob market, the learners are facilitated and trackedby the system. The model envisages to increasethe equity and access to education through Openand Digital learning, while maintaining qualityand decreasing the costs. CEMCA startedimplementing this Higher Education IntegratedModel with five Universities spread acrossBangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Studies on Employability in Higher EducationInstitutions in India indicate that employability ofengineers is the lowest. One amongst the manyreasons for this is lack of life skills among them.CEMCA and COL, in collaboration with IITKanpur, therefore, have started creating a MOOC,“Life Skills for Engineers”. A mobileapplication based course, being offered throughmooKIT platform, is aimed to empowerengineering graduates and in-service engineerswith specific lifeskills like: communication, criticalthinking, problem solving, leadership qualitiesand values.

The ultimate objective of these initiatives ofCEMCA is to create employable graduatescapable of contributing to sustainabledevelopment. With the aspiration to re-createeducation resulting in improved lifestyles, westart this year and wish all our readers a joyous2018!

2

Guest Column...

Towards Promoting Quality Education

Prof. I. Ramabrahmam

Following national policies in 1986 &1992, Indian Higher Education offers full-time courses in general & technicalstreams (the one contemplated by presentgovernment is in the offing) that havecontributed immensely for the expansionof higher education including technicaleducation. In the development of thissector, one can observe interestingtrends. After adopting the first educationpolicy, the Government of India laidemphasis on massification of highereducation. There is a phenomenalincrease in the number of colleges anduniversities from 578 & 27 in 1950-51 to42, 257 and 882 in 2016-17. The expansionin higher education is impressive afteradopting LPG policies in the country. Thisperiod saw growth of private sector tofulfill the nation’s educational needs. Acomprehensive review of NationalEducation Policies could have thrownmore light on the major take aways fromthat policy. However, trends show thatthe supply side of education and demandtoo grew. A cluster of public policiesincreased the demand of differentcategories of education, for instances:nationalization of banks, insurance, etc.Thus, expansion of public sector bodeswell for an all classes of education. Theemphasis on strengthening the state andits institutions ensured largerparticipation in national economicmanagement.

The shift in the policy perspective fromstate-centric to the market broughtenormous changes in the economy withresulting impact on social sectors like:

education, health, etc. During the haydays of state-dominated developmentmodel too, there were issues relating toemployment, but, this problem assumedgreater importance after adopting the NewEconomic Policy-1992. The process ofglobalization facilitated by InformationCommunication Technology (ICT) speltfaster changes in structure and delivery ofeducation. The constant rise in theapplications of IT in manufacturing andproduction sectors led to the expansion ofopportunities in the service sector. Whilecore knowledge of technical subjectsremains, so, emphasis gradually shifted toadvance technical courses with the helpof IT sector. The state agencies tooresponded positively by starting courseslike BCA & MCA in the end of 1990s.However, the phenomenal rise in demandfor technical & management education,especially, is followed by rapid fall in thedemand. Among the reasons envisaged isthe low employability due to poor skillsets.

Education: A Macro Setting

Not withstanding differing estimations itis generally stated that 64 per cent ofIndia’s population falls within workingforce, of which projections show thatIndia emerges as a country with 30per cent of its population belonging to theyouth category. It is increasingly statedthat there is a not only a noticeabledeficit of work-related competencies, butalso lack of training in life skills. As aptlystated by Arther Nathan ‘you can’t teachemployees to smile. They have to smilebefore you hire them.’ According to E.Balaji, President of People Services,“teacher’s pets and classroom toppersneed to prove their skills in team play,resilience and healthy attitude”. Indianorganizations seems to be shiftingtowards recruiting young people fromsemi-urban and rural areas. Students fromsmall cities are preferred as themanagements are finding them humble,eager, and are adaptable. In evolving‘technology dominated’ businesses,organizations are updating their workprocesses using big-data, Fintech, AI anddeep learning through case studies in thehealthcare, autonomous driving, highlanguage reading, music generation andNLP. It is stated that AI is increasinglytransforming multiple industries.

Another projection states that more than60 per cent of children entering schoolsnow will be required to work in jobs/professions that right now don’t exist.Identifying further talents may provecritical. How to get new perspectives andhow to provide congenial atmosphere forpromoting ‘out of box’ thinking is thechallenge. Selection based on mereacademic competencies may not beadequate to negotiate the transition.Therefore, organizations have to try newtools to test leadership traits whichinclude motivation, interest, curiosity,engagement, and determination evenamong the young. Then, how to identifyspecific skills in people? Traditional

3

perceptions like growing with theorganization are on the way out as theorganizations will be looking for qualitieslike strong growth mindset, challengingstatus quo by new strategies andmethods, superior communication andclear execution plans. More and moremanagements are showing interest inhiring those with mission-mode projects.

What is the future scenario? Theeducational policies are expected toreflect challenges that lay ahead. Let’slook at the contemporary scenario inIndian higher education. There appearsto be a disconnect between demand fortrained workforce and the presenttraining processes. Most curriculaaddress the knowledge acquisitionmode. Documented works in the area ofeducation and employment show thatour graduates have to add ‘Value’ totheir degrees.

In order to study the cause & effect intechnical education fields, a minor studywas attempted on a selected population.Using secondary data published byTelangana State Council of Higher

Education, the author tried to probe thereasons for low skill sets and how toaugment the study profile in order toequip one-self with new skill sets. Whatfollows is a brief description of the studyresults.

The table shows the number of vacantseats in the engineering and computerscience which is more than 40 per cent. InMBA, it was 58 per cent, and the rest ofthe years it is 20 per cent. Even in thepharmacy, it was 54 per cent in 2015-16 and25 per cent in 2016-17. Several reasons areadvanced for as to why so many seats layvacant in technical streams. The mostimportant reason being that companiespreference for those with specific skillsets.

As stated, a sample survey is conductedto know whether courses offered bytechnical educational institutions aregood enough to get into jobs straightaway after the graduation. If not, why is itso? Where is the gap between demandand policy? What sort of policy changesare needed to improve the quality? Theidea of doing this small study further

Table 1: Number of seat s, numbers enrolled and vacant seat s inTechnical Education:

A Case Study of T elangana

Sl. No Year Engineering Pharmacy MBA MCA

1 2015-16 Colleges 266 145 347 49

Seats 115912 11490 41796 2966

Enrolled 70792 7455 31975 632

Vacant 45120 4035 8171 1484

2 2016-17 Colleges 219 123 303 35

Seats 104598 9226 32994 2376

Enrolled 71814 7334 20820 1659

Vacant 32784 1892 12174 717

3 2017-18 Colleges 212 129 304 42

Seats 97961 9943 32710 2736

Enrolled 68594 Under 27714 2012

Vacant 29367 Progress 4996 724

Source: Culled from TSCHE, Perspective Plan of Technical Education, 2018, p.6

arose recently after the Telangana StateCouncil of Higher Education (TSCHE)announced a programme to start bridgecourses in technical education. Surveysdone earlier too shows that not even 10per cent of the engineers and professionalgraduates are getting into jobs aftergraduation. There are several structuraland curricular challenges which call forradical reforms. In this regard, the TSCHEhas identified 14 thrust areas under valueaddition. These includes: Life Sciences,IT hardware, food processing & nutritionproducts, leather value products, mineral& wood based industries; i.e. mining, bulkdrug, Aerospace, Textiles, Dairy, Shoes,Poultry, etc. The study attempted to elicitopinions from the current students andalso those who completed a course.Many of those who completed opinedthat very few pursue a passion to realizedreams. And many others said that asthey are not having skill sets they areforced to continue in jobs unrelated totechnical qualification they possess. Thefact that some of the engineeringgraduates opted out of engineeringstream and are pursuing new programmeslike education (B. Ed.), and applying forpolice constable jobs, clerical or otherunskilled jobs in public and privatesectors shows how there is the need foraptitude studies.

A sample of 200 was planned for a pilotproject on gaps in current technicaleducation and employment. We got aresponse of 140, in which half of them arestudents from technical & managementcolleges and the rest are unemployedgraduates found around coaching centersthat existed in the twin cities of TelanganaState. The data was collected through anunstructured interview guide restrictinginteraction to limited questions includingbackground of the respondents. In which,for about 58 per cent of the unemployedgraduates that are in coaching centers forspecial courses, 20 per cent of them arepreparing for government service and 20per cent of them are doing both. The

4

Prof. I. Ramabrahmam teaches in the Department of Political Science in University ofHyderabad. He published extensively in the area of Educational Policies, Governance& Public Policy. He is the national coordinator for MOOCS & ePG-pathsala in PublicAdministration. Served as Registrar of UoH; Director Academic Staff College, UGC;Head, Department of Political Science, UoH. Besides, he guided number of MPhils’ &PhD’s. He was visiting Professor in Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and visitingfellow in Uppsala University, Sweden. He can be reached atramabrahmami[at]gmail[dot]com

study revealed very interesting factsregarding trends in the IT sector asfollows:

Of the sample, 68.2 per cent of thestudents told that they don’t haveconfidence of getting a job aftergraduation and 32.8 per cent said they aresure to find a job. Some opined that notfinding placements, lack of updatedcurriculum of courses and lack of skillorientation to global demand are thereasons for low confidence.

There are no significant gender variationsin response pattern. About 81 per cent ofthe graduates stated that they don’t

possess skills expected by companies. Onthe other hand, 77 per cent said companiesare looking for candidates with minimumexperience but also with minimum skillrequired for a job. It only shows the gapbetween the world of work and education.A number of coaching centers brimmingwith youth having high aspirations toacquire some skill in communication etc.

From the above, one can see opinions onbridge courses; about 38 per cent showedinterest in Offline bridge courses as it isthe easiest method of learning,understanding; face-to-face teaching with

100 per cent; about 40.7 per cent of themexpressed desire for Online method as thebest way to get the diplomas. For

employees, it is an opportunity toenhance skills in new fields of technologyand saves the time. For students, it notonly saves an academic year, but alsofacilitates applying for jobs withadditional skills, eliminates compulsoryattendance, and improves the competenceof the students. It needs to be stated thatthe students on rolls and those who leftcolleges are of the opinion that along withthe regular courses, job oriented coursescan also be offered. One can see the

preferences of students to possessrequired qualifications - either by face-to-face or Online. Nearly 60 per cent intendto pursue their interest online as some ofthem said skill domain ensures

professional participation and jobinterests can be pursued with passionbesides saving time and every other

resource. Various courses listed bythe management call for planningfrom the first year of the degreecourse. Progressively the onlinecourses can be introduced fromthe fifth semester onwards. Thephase of rapid expansion ofopportunities in education serveda useful purpose.

To conclude one can say that theaspiration of students to pursue theircareer is marked by stiff competition andalso expectations that prospectiveemployees have to possess qualities andqualification over and above theirdegrees. Educational institutions are inthe process of meeting the newchallenges in various ways. Inter-Governmental organisations likeCommonwealth of Learning (COL) and itsregional centre CommonwealthEducational Media Centre for Asia

(CECMA) arestrategizing theirintervention througha number of onlineprogrammes. Forinstance: AgMOOCin collaboration withBHU, Introduction toPhysics, the IITKanpur is playing asignificant role inmaking education

accessible and free of cost. The UoHcollaboration with CEMCA is offering acourse in lifeskillls for those who arelooking for such opportunities. Let ushope new year brings new smiles on ouryoungsters’ faces!

Table 2: On Prospect s of Employment

Respondents Yes No Total If No Why? Total

No Did not Curriculum is Can’t sayPlacementshave skills not relevant

Present 23 43 70 12 15 10 6 43Students 32.8% 68.2% 100% 27.9% 34.8% 23.2% 13.9% 100%

Table 3: Method of Delivery

Respondents Offline If off-line, why? Online If online, why? Both Total

Easy Interaction In- Minimum Accessibleto do with accessible stress for to allpracticals teachers Intrnet the college

helps goingstudents

All 53 12 36 5 57 21 36 30 14037.9% 22.6% 68.0% 9.4% 40.7% 36.8% 63.2% 21.4%100%

5

Spotlight On

Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET)National Council of Educational Research andTraining

By Prof. Amarendra Prasad Behera

Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) has become, within avery short time, one of the basic buildingblocks of modern society. Many countriesnow regard understanding of ICT andmastering the basic skills as part of thecore of education, alongside reading,writing and numeracy. The Digital IndiaCampaign (2015) strives to transformIndia into a digitally empowered societyand knowledge economy by focusing onthe three vision areas:

i. Digital Infrastructure as Core Utilityto Every Citizen,

ii. e-Governance and Services onDemand, and

iii. Digital literacy and empowerment ofcitizens.

The three cardinal principles of the draftNew National Education Policy (2016) viz.,

access, equity and quality could beserved well by harnessing the hugepotential of ICT. Any-time and any-wheremode of delivering quality educationusing ICT is one such implication oftechnology in education. The Govt. ofIndia undertakes various activities towiden educational opportunities topromote equity and improvequality of educationalprocesses at all levels.

Central Institute of EducationalTechnology (CIET), aconstituent unit of NationalCouncil of Educational Researchand Training (NCERT), cameinto existence in the year 1984with the merger of Centre forEducational Technology andDepartment of Teaching Aids.CIET is a premier national

institute of educational technology. Itsmajor aim is to promote utilization ofeducational technologies viz. Radio, TV,films, satellite communications and cybermedia either separately or incombinations. The institute undertakesactivities to widen educationalopportunities, promote equity andimprove quality of educational processesat school level. The broad areas ofactivities of CIET are as follows:

• To design and produce mediasoftware.

• To optimize the utilization ofEDUSAT communicationstechnologies and terrestrialtransmission.

• To undertake research andevaluation studies on variousaspects of EducationalTechnology.

• Documentation of mediaprogrammes both in broadcast andnon-broadcast mode.

• To advise and coordinate academicand technical programmes of thefive State Institutes of EducationalTechnology (SIETs) set up by theMHRD-GoI.

• To provide consultancy to variousorganizations and individuals inthe development, utilization andevaluation of educationaltechnologies.

6

Transmission

The Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment (MHRD) - Govt. of Indiahas developed a learning plan forutilization of satellite communicationtechnologies for transmission ofeducational e-contents through 32National Channels i.e. SWAYAMPRABHA DTH-TV. CIET-NCERT is thenational coordinator for one DTH TVchannel i.e., Kishore Manch (#32) and hasstarted feeding a 24x7 educational TVchannel w.e.f. 15 August, 2016. Everydayfour hour fresh slot is telecast andrepeated six times in 24 hours to providelearning opportunities for thestakeholders. The transmission quality ofthe programmes is monitored by CIET andemails are used to collect regular feedbackand suggestions.

National Repository of OpenEducational Resources(NROER)

The National Repository of OpenEducational Resources (NROER) is aninitiative of MHRD-GoI and CIET, NCERTto bring together all digital resourcesacross all stages of school education andteacher education. Public can access

NROER at http:/nroer.gov.in.Currently, NROERhas educationalresources ofvarious categories

including audios, videos, documents,interactive objects, images, etc. All theresources are released under CreativeCommons CC-By-SA license. A steadyflow of audio, video and interactiveresources has been established from avariety of agencies; State Institute ofEducational Technology (SIET) fromKerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar have

shared their collections regularly. Besides,organisations like CCRT, Vigyan Prasar,Directorate of Adult Education, GandhiSmriti and Darshan Samiti, GandhiHeritage Portal, GIET-Gujrat, SIERT-Rajasthan, Amaze Infotainment Pvt. Ltd.and individuals like Arvind Gupta andVidya Online have contributed a largenumber of e-Resources as partners toNROER. Core teams have been set up ineach State and UT and Key resourcepersons are oriented to NROER activitiesthrough various training programmes.NROER is designed for both online (http://nroer.gov.in/welcome) and offlineversions.

7

e-Pathshala

e-Pathshala is a joint initiative of MHRD,GoI and NCERT. It is developed forshowcasing and disseminating alleducational e-resources including

textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and avariety of digital resources. The platformaddresses the dual challenge of reachingout to a diverse clientele and bridging thedigital divide (geographical, socio-culturaland linguistic) offering comparablequality of e-contents and ensures itsaccess free at anytime and anywhere. Thee-Pathshala website can be accessedthrough the URLs: www.epathshala.nic.inand www.epathshala.gov.in. The e-Pathshala Mobile App can bedownloaded from respective stores(Android, iOS,Windows). CIET-NCERThas been providing continuous supportto the states and UTs of India to digitiseits textbooks, educational resources, andcreate a mobile App to disseminate thesee-books to all stakeholders. CIET-NCERThas also engaged to build capacity ofteacher and teacher educators ondigitisation of textbooks and variousaspects of e-Pathshala. The states ofAndhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana,Karnataka, Telangana and Uttar Pradeshhave started text book digitisation with

support from CIET-NCERT and havecontributed 118 e-books on e-Pathshala.

Branding of e-Pathshala has also beendone, a subsidiary app called “PINDICS”has been developed for self-performance

assessment by the teachers. The app hasa rating of 4.8 out of 5 on Google PlayStore. In all 1242 users have downloaded theapp from Google Play Store. e-Pathshalahas been listed/available on the UMANGApp of Govt. of India.

Curricula for ICT in Education

ICT in Education course for students andteachers aims at realising the goals of theNational Curriculum Framework (2005),National Policy on ICT in School

Education (2012) and Digital IndiaCampaign (2015). The curricula suggestsa diploma course for teachers (3Inductions and 20 Refreshers) in ICT inEducation. Game-based interventions isproposed for classes 1 to 5. Three yearcourse on ICT in Education is offered forstudents of classes 6 to 8. Elevenvocational courses based on ICT areidentified for students of classes 9 to 12.ICT is integrated across the curricularsubjects of classes 1 to 12. These coursescan be accessed at http://ictcurriculum.gov.in/. Students’curriculum was piloted in 588 NavodayaVidyalayas for one year. MRPs/ KRPs ofthirty states were oriented on ICTcurriculum for students and teachers andtheir roll out in respective states. Aresource team of 450 MRPs/ KRPs havebeen created. Now, the work to roll outICT curriculum in eight states is inprogress. As part of this initiative,planning meeting with six states i.e.,Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha,Telangana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu &Kashmir and Tamil Nadu has beencompleted. A course portal on MOODLEplatform (http://www.ictcurriculum.gov.in/home, http://ncert.org.in/ict/) has beencreated and can be accessed for furtherdetails. Karnataka State core team (54members) were trained on the courseplatform for implementing refreshercourses on ICTs in Education online.Karnataka State has trained 3000 scienceand maths teachers on Induction – 1course in Phase I. 5000 language and

social science teachersare being trained inPhase II. Onlinerefreshers courses willbe started shortly.Core mentor team ofpre-university/colleges of Karnatakahas been oriented forimplementing ICTcurriculum at Pre-University level.Orientation for 130

8

mentors of Karnataka on online mentoringcompleted. Cyber safety and securitytopics are integrated in the ICT inEducation curriculum for teachers andstudents.

e-Contents for All Levels ofSchool Education

CIET-NCERT develop e-contents thatcovers the entire syllabus of NCERT forall subjects at all stages of schooleducation. It caters to students, teachers,teacher educators, parents and all thestakeholders of school education andteacher education. These e-contentsinclude images, audios, videos, animation,digital books, digital maps etc. fordissemination through various modes.

MOOCs on SWAYAM

SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learningfor Young Aspiring Minds) is aprogramme initiated by Government ofIndia and designed to achieve the threecardinal principles of Education Policyviz., access, equity and quality. SWAYAMseeks to bridge the digital divide forstudents who have hitherto remained

untouched by the digital revolution andhave not been able to join the mainstreamof the knowledge economy. NCERT hasstarted development of course modulesfor Massive Open and Online Courses(MOOCs) for school education system in12 subject areas (accountancy, businessstudies, biology, chemistry, economics,history, geography, mathematics, physics,political science, psychology andsociology) for classes IX-XII. Twelvecourses have been uploaded on SWAYAMplatform (https://swayam.gov.in/). So far,14584 students are enrolled in the elevencourses.

CIET-NCERT has been assigned the taskof developing e-resources for Master ofEducation (M.Ed.) course jointly withAllahabad University. The developedmodules are available for access throughweb portals of INFLIBNET, Vidya-Mitra,e-Acharya and SWAYAM. One course(Educational Administration, Managementand Leadership in School Education) isuploaded on SWAYAM. So far 2050learners are enrolled in the course.Besides, an online course on actionresearch for teachers is being conductedin regular intervals in the MOODLEplatform (http://ictcurriculum.gov.in/

course/index.php?categoryid=125). PostGraduate Diploma in Guidance andCounselling for in-service teachers is alsooffered through the same course portal.

e-PGPathshala

e-PGPathshala is a project of Ministry ofHuman Resource Development (MHRD),under its National Mission on Educationthrough ICT (NME-ICT). The modules forM.Ed and M.A Education are beingdeveloped jointly by University ofAllahabad and CIET-NCERT. Sixteenpapers, from M.Ed curriculum prescribedby NCTE, have been taken up for moduledevelopment. These modules will beavailable on INFLIBNET (http//epgp.inflibnet.ac.in) and SWAYAM (http//swayam.gov.in).

Research and Development

ICT-based research and development isone of the mandate of CIET. Major focusareas of research are policies and itsrelevance, need assessment for ICTintervention, utility of ICT facilities/resources and its effectiveness, impact ofICT intervention in classroom,

effectiveness ofimplementationprocesses, casestudies of goodpractices andevaluation ofGovernment schemes/programmes.Development ofresearch guidelinesfor implementingschemes andprogrammes, researchtools, mediaevaluation tools andguidelines of usingthe developed toolsare some of theoutputs of thedevelopment workcarried out by CIET.

9

Programme Production

Professionals, who are guided andadvised by subject experts, facultymembers and practicing teachers, make

CIET’s educational programmes. Scriptdesign is an essential stem towards mediaprogramme production. The audio, videoand multimedia programmes produced arelargely based on the script designed in-house with some designed by outsidescript writers on assignment basis.

All India Childr en’s EducationalAudio Video Festival and ICTMela

The CIET-NCERT organises All IndiaChildren’s Educational Audio VideoFestival and ICT Mela every year. Entriesreceived on educational audio, video andnew media/ICT are received, screened anddiscussed during the festival by expertsincluding Producers/Directors,Academics, Camera personnel, Technicalpersons etc. The ICT Mela is organised toshowcase and disseminate best practices(OER, Mobile app, e-contents, 3DPrinting, e-books, Augmented Reality, lowcost teaching-learning technology

solutions etc.), and visitors across thecountry participate in the same. Bestentries in all three categories are awardedwith trophy and cash prize.

Prof. Amarendra Prasad Behera is a Joint Director at Central Institute of EducationalTechnology (CIET), NCERT, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi. He can be reached at:amar_b2000[at]yahoo[dot]com and behera[dot]ciet[at]gmail[dot]com

In addition to all the above activities as apart of implementation of the GEQAFdeveloped by UNESCO, the NCERT, NewDelhi organised a five day “InternationalICT Forum on Adopting an ICTperspective to Education and Learning”from 31 October to 4 November, 2016 atNew Delhi. In all 184 participants fromStates/UTs, national and Internationalagencies attended this programmeorganised in collaboration with UNESCOand Google. The participants andresource persons from 14 countriesparticipated and deliberatied on variouscomponents on ICT in Education andLearning and shared best practices onOER, Mobile applications, ICT pedagogyIntegration etc.

Collaborations with the countries likeBhutan, South Korea, Sri Lanka,Mauritius are also happening in terms oftechnology interchange for proliferatingdigital citizenship in today’s globalisedscenario.

10

Regional Round Up

International Conference on‘Developmental Interventions and OpenLearning for Empowering and TransformingSociety’

Venue: NEDFi Convention Centre, Guwahati

Dates: December 16-17, 2017.

Organised by: Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University,Guwahati

Introduction and Objectives

Krishna Kanta Handiqui State OpenUniversity organised an InternationalConference on ‘DevelopmentalInterventions and Open Learning forEmpowering and Transforming Society’in NEDFi Convention Centre, Guwahation December 16-17, 2017. The guidingobjective of the Conference was todevelop concrete ideas on the role andstatus of developmental interventionsand open learning in addressing relevantsocial challenges. The other twoobjectives of the International conferencewere as follows.

i. To explore best practices andinnovation on open learning anddevelopmental interventions inimproving access to quality of life.

ii. To explore the issues faced by thedevelopmental service providersacross social sectors and openlearning institutions in impartingstated benefits to the societies.

Theme and Sub Themes

The International conference on thetheme ‘Developmental Interventions andOpen Learning for Empowering and

Transforming Society’ was structuredaround the following Sub Themes

i. Theoretical framework of openlearning and developmentalinterventions

ii. Issues concerning open learningand administering developmentalprocesses.

iii. Redressing socio economicinequalities through openlearning and developmentalinterventions.

iv. Open education resources andMOOCs: extending its benefits.

v. Sector specific contribution ofopen learning towards inclusivegrowth.

vi. ICT/ITES: role in developmentalinterventions

vii. Case studies of developmentalorganisations and open learninginstitutions.

Papers selected for theConference

A total of 114 abstracts were receivedfrom various institutions from differentstates of India and abroad as well. Blindreview process was conducted toevaluate the submissions. Finally 62 FullPapers were selected for presentation outof which 44 Full Papers have beenpublished in the edited volume. Theselected papers are contributed byauthors from India and Bangladesh.

The Session Plan

The Inaugural Session of the Conferencewas graced by Prof. Anbahan Ariadurai,Vice Chancellor, Open University of SriLanka and Prof. V. S. Prasad, FormerDirector, National Assessment andAccreditation Council (NAAC), andFormer Vice Chancellor Dr. B. R.Ambedkar Open University as Guests ofHonour. The Session was followed byKeynote Address by Prof. Asha Kanwar,

11

President and CEO, Commonwealth ofLearning, Vancouver, Canada. There werefour plenary sessions in the Conferencein addition to twelve concurrent technicalsessions. The Valedictory Session wasgraced by Dr. B. K. Bhadri, AssistantEducational Adviser of the Ministry ofHRD, Govt. of India, New Delhi.TheConference was very well attended by anumber of distinguished invitees andhonourable VCs of Open Universities inaddition to the registered participants,paper presenters and academic/non-academics staff of KKHSOU.

The Plenary sessions

The plenary sessions during the two-dayconference were as follows.

i. CEMCA Panel Discussion (QualityHigher Education Opportunitiesthrough OER)

a. OERs Practices in teaching andlearning at higher education

b. Addressing present challengesto the creation and utilisation ofOERs in higher education

ii. Panel Discussion by Asian MOOCsSteering Committee on Innovationand Technology Interventions inODL in South and Southeast Asia

iii. Open learning for empowering andtransforming society

iv. Managerial issues in administeringODL

The Resource Persons

The Plenary Sessions were graced by thefollowing among others. They also helpedin conducting the technical sessions byrendering the services as Chairpersonsand Discussants.

1. Prof. K. Seetharama Rao, ViceChancellor, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar OpenUniversity, Hyderabad, India

2. Prof. M. A. Mannan, Vice Chancellor,Bangladesh Open University, Gazipur,Bangladesh

3. Dr. Pankaj L. Jani, Vice Chancellor, Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar OpenUniversity, Gujarat, India

4. Prof .Manjulika Srivastava, IGNOU

5. Prof. V. S. Prasad, Former Director,National Assessment andAccreditation Council (NAAC), andFormer Vice Chancellor Dr. B. R.Ambedkar OpenUniversity

6. Prof. Nageswar Rao,Vice Chancellor,Uttarakhand OpenUniversity

7. Prof. AnbahanAriadurai, ViceChancellor, OpenUniversity of SriLanka

8. Prof. Subha S. Sarkar,VC, NSOU

9. Prof. Ravindra R. Kanhare, ViceChancellor, MPBOU,

10. Dr. Dang Hai Dang,Vice Dean ofHanoi Open University, Vietnam

11. Prof. Kandarpa Das, Asian MOOCsSteering Committee

12. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi,Programme Officer, CEMCA

13. Dr. Dibyajyoti Mahanta, Dean StudyCentre, KKHSOU

14. Prof. N. N, Sarma, Professor,KKHSOU

Outcomes

It was widely held in the Conference thatthe Open and Distance Learning (ODL)mode needs to be empowered. It was alsoheld that the ODL institutions also needto transform themselves before assuminga role of transforming society. Thekeynote address of Prof. Asha Kanwarwas very enriching for the audience as ittalked about a promising role of openlearning in achieving the developmentalobjectives. In this regard, she citedseveral case examples from across theworld. The participants got anopportunity to know about the emergingtrends in the area of open educationalresources and MOOCs as well. TheConference helped in publication ofresearch findings and developing arepository for the KKHSOU and generalpublic as well.

12

In the context of economic growth andstrategies for rapid economic growthhaving a population skilled in varioustrades and professions is seen as key. Insituations where skilling need not alwayslead to employment, skilling was seen asrelevant to create entrepreneurs whowould themselves be engaged inproductive economic and livelihoodactivity and gradually ‘skilling’ and ‘skilldevelopment’ took on other meanings. Inthis context an area where newopenings for self-employment,entrepreneurship could becreated was in green skilling inareas such as sustainable use ofnatural resources, energy, water,and biomass. In this regardInternational InterdisciplinaryConference on KnowledgePartnerships to advance UNSDGs was organised at Mysuruon November 16-18, 2017 by St.Philomena’s College incollaboration with AsiaCooperation Dialogue (ACD)University Network; SIAMUniversity, Thailand;Chulalongkorn University GlobalNetwork (CGN), Thailand; TransDisciplinary University; XavierBoard of Higher Education inIndia and The SustainabilityPlatform (TSP).

The objectives of the workshop was tobring experiences and expertise fromorganizations that have been involved inskilling and education. It is in such acontext, CEMCA was approached toshare learning and experiences to assist indeveloping skill development programmesfor youth especially rural and peri-urbanyouth.

CEMCA conducted a day long workshopin this conference titled “Skilling for UN

International Interdisciplinary Conference onKnowledge Partnerships for the SDGs

SDGs” which was a parallel session in theconference. More than 650 participantsparticipated in the conference along withthe CEMCA workshop.

On 16th Nov 2017, there was a CurtainRaiser to the conference which wasattended by Prof. Lawrence Surendra,Director, The Sustainability Platform; Mr.Anil Hebbar, Director, TSP; Dr. RavikantJoshi, Team Leader, NULM, GoI; Dr. BalaPisupata, Chairman - Conservation

Governance, TDV, Bangalore; Dr. PornchaiMongkhonvanit, Chairman, ACDUniversity Network, President SIAMUniversity, Thailand; Rev. Msgr. LeslieMoras, Director, Xavier’s Board for HigherEducation, Dr. K Ganapathy, President,Apollo Telemedicine NetworkingFoundation of India. This was followedby cultural performance depictingEnvironmental Conservation.

On 17th Nov, 2017, the keynote speaker forthe morning session was Dr. Ravikant

Joshi, Team Leader, NULM who talkedabout Sustainable Cities and how theycan be designed. He urged participants tothink beyond Smart Cities and focus onthe sustainability aspect. This wasfollowed by a presentation by Ms.Jahanara Akhtar who connected the Taxsystem of India to the SDGs andexplained the importance of InternationalTaxation laws and the role of Corporatesin driving SDGs. Dr. Manju Reddyconnected healthy living to SDGs whileMs. Sanjogita Mishra, Programme Officer,CEMCA emphasized on the need to breakaway from government scheme linkedskilling to “Skilling for SDGs”.

The parallel sessionscommenced in the afternoonsession of 17th Nov, 2017, whereSkilling for SDGs was anchoredby PO, CEMCA. There werepresentations by Don BoscoTech, Organization forDevelopment of People, Labournet, SELCO and Robotics forInclusivity which continuedover the first two sessions on18th Nov, 2017. St. Philomena’sCollege also runs two B.Voc.Courses: one on HealthCare Job Roles and the otheron Media and Entertainment.There was a separate sessionwith the Principal ofCommunity College and incharge of B.Voc. - Fr. Pinto.Sanjogita Mishra made apresentation to them about

NSQF and how to design curriculum in amodular way to allow multiple entry andexit during the 3 years’ course of B.Voc. Inthe valedictory function duringthe afternoon of 18th Nov 2017,recommendations were made to improvegovernment policies and curriculumdesign that emerged for various parallelsessions. These recommendations will befollowed up by TSP and the intendedpartnerships will be made in the next 2-3months.

13

CEMCA News

Finalisation of Online Course Contents ofCUHP

The Expert Review workshop on OpenEducational Content Development wasorganised by Central University ofHimachal Pradesh (CUHP) incollaboration with CEMCA, New Delhi.The main objective of the reviewworkshop was to check the quality,accuracy, authenticity and validity of theOpen Educational Content developed by

25 faculty members of CUHP. The reviewworkshop was organised from 03-04October, 2017 at Seminar Hall, TAB,Shahpur. Dr. Indira Koneru facilitated theworkshop and supported participants indeveloping, delivering and facilitating theopen courses. In his welcome address, Dr.Manoj Saxena, Project Director and Dean,School of Education recalled the activities

taken up during the first CEMCA-CUHPcapacity building workshop held duringApril, 2017. He hoped that offering OpenCourses would improve the outreach andvisibility of both the Faculty Membersand the University. He requested theFacilitator to address the issuesencountered by their technical supportteam in hosting the CUHP Moodle.

In his inaugural address, Prof. H. R.Sharma, Pro Vice Chancellor appreciatedthe CEMCA-CUHP initiative in framingthe institutional OER policy and itsimplementation in the university. Headvised the participants to develop opencontent and open courses in the interestof the students and keep improving thequality based on the feedback of studentsand other stakeholders. During the twodays of the workshop, different sessionswere arranged and all the sessions wereled by Dr. Indira Koneru. The technicalteam of the university also acted asscaffolder for the faculty members alongwith the resource person for finalisationof the OER content. Sixteen facultymembers attended the review meeting andmost of them have uploaded OERresources prepared by them.The meetingconcluded on 4th October, 2017 withparticipants sharing their experiences ofdeveloping open courses.Valedictoryaddress was given by Professor KuldeepChand Agnihotri, Vice Chancellor, CUHP.

Video ContentDevelopment andOnline Facilitation ofTeachersNetaji Subhas Open University (NSOU),Kolkata implemented COL-CEMCAHigher Education Integrated Model asmajor project titled “Increase Access andImprove Institutional Capacity forSustainable Development throughVocational Education and Training” forthe university. The three-day Workshop

14

on Video content Development andOnline Facilitation of Teachers wasorganized from October 30 to November01, 2017 by CEMCA and NSOU as aprelude to the project. The subject expertsof different disciplines were invited toattend the three day workshop who willbe involved in the development of e-content. Twenty eight participantsattended the programme.

Dr. Anirban Ghosh, Project Director andAssociate Professor, NSOU in hiswelcome address, mentioned that theimportant activities of the project aredevelopment of A/V lectures, conductingoutreach programmes, job fairs,developing interactive webportal forstudent support etc.

Dr. Manas R. Panigrahi, ProgrammeOfficer-Education, CEMCA elaborated onCOL-CEMCA Higher EducationIntegrated Model in the context of theNSOU project. Dr. C. K. Ghosh, FormerDirector, National Centre for Innovationsin Distance Education, IGNOU deliveredhis lecture as the Chief Guest in theinaugural session. He shared some of hisviews regarding the use of ICT ineducation and training and highlightedthe importance of experiential learning. Dr.Ghosh also stressed upon using ICTextensively for the benefit of the studentsespecially in vocational training.

Dr. Nisha Singh, Dy. Director, InterUniversity Consortium for TechnologyEnabled Flexible Education and

Development (IUC-TEFED), IGNOU actedas the Resource Person for the workshop.The three-day workshop covered varioustopics viz. Understanding of e-Learning,E-Content, Instructional Design, e-content scripting, Concept Mapping,Multimedia components, Formats ofAudio and Video Programmes, Quality ofmultimedia content,Planning andrecording Audio-Video programmes, eXe-eContent Developing Tool, OnlineAssessment, etc.. All the sessionsinvolved hands-on training in which theparticipants did their work on their ownwith the help of the resource persons.The trained higher education teachers willbe engaged to develop the videocontents to provide continuous academicsupport to students for better learningoutcome.

Design, Develop andOffer Online Coursesusing OERsKeeping this new technologicaldevelopment in view, the teachers shouldbe prepared to meet the challenges of thefuture. In this connection, CommonwealthEducational Media Centre for Asia(CEMCA), New Delhi in collaborationwith Uttarakhand Open University,Haldwani (UOU) organized a three dayworkshop from 21-23 November, 2017 onhow to create/develop online coursesusing OERs and offer through MoodleLMS. The training objectives of this threeday workshop were: To Orient theTeachers towards Open EducationalResources, Explain and Describe theInstructional Design for Online Courses,Highlight some of the tools used to createonline courses, understand the LearningManagement System, Publish theResources for an Online Course, Createan Online Course using Moodle. Thetraining-workshop was attended by 20participants and the first session on OERwas attended by 38 faculty members dueto their interest in OERs. The participants

were fourdifferentinstitutions viz.UttarakhandOpen University-Haldwani, BirlaInstitute ofApplied Science-Bhimtal, AmrapaliInstitute ofManagement &ComputerApplications-Haldwani andUttarakhandScience Education and Research Center-Dehradun.

The workshop comprised of elevenintensive and hands-on sessions whichincludes face-to-face delivery and onlineengagement. The workshop page fortraining on University’s Moodle platformwas created at moodle.uou.ac.in. Theparticipants were divided into groups andthey jointly developed eleven need basedcourses for the learners to offer throughonline. The workshop concluded with thefollowing outputs: Participants had a clearunderstanding of OERs and CreativeCommon Licenses; They had a hands-on

experience of developing an online courseusing OERs; They became aware ofvarious e-learning platforms; They learntto develop concept map using cmap tool;They practiced Moodle LearningManagement System; They learnt to useHotPatato tool for creating variousinteractive activities for checking theprogress of the learner; They developedan online course and added variousresources like videos, assignments, quizs,etc. to the course. Uttarakhand OpenUniversity will offer all the developedcourses through its online platform inblended approach.

15

Design and delivery of the LifeSkills MOOCA large number of young and aspiring minds are completingdegree courses and are in need of acquiring life skills. In order toempower them with specific life skills, CommonwealthEducational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi intendsto evolve a need-based and result-oriented Online Course to

facilitate Engineers and Engineering students acquire expectedskills in a highly competitive world. This Online Course isexpected to fill a critical gap. In this regard, a two-day workshopwas organised on 27-28 November, 2017 at Indian Institute ofTechnology Kanpur (IITK) for the Life Skills MOOC providers.Experts from IIT Kanpur, Commonwealth of Learning and

Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia discussedstrategy for courses to be delivered on mooKIT platform. Day onestarted with the welcome speech by Dr. Manas R. Panigrahi,CEMCA-COL, New Delhi. Dr. T. V. Prabhakar, Head, CTDE, IIT-Kanpur and leader of mooKIT project spoke on the Overview ofprocesses in a MOOC. Dr. V. Balaji, COL, spoke on theDiversification in MOOCs and a global overview of progress andconcerns. Prof. H. C. Verma, IITK and Dr. B. Jirli, BHU shared their

personal experiences in delivering and managingMOOCs. In the second half of the workshop the inviteesassembled in the studio of Media Lab and recorded trialintroductory video which was followed by the feedbackon the videos by the experts. On the second day of theworkshop Prof. Ramabrahmam and Dr. Panigrahipresented an Overview of proposed MOOC on LifeSkills. It was followed by a Hands-on session - Trailswith mooKIT, where faculty members experienced theprocedure for uploading videos, adding resources,handling the Forums and Hangout and designingassignments. Shorter trials of the Hands-on session withthe student interfaces gave the faculty an appreciationof what the student sees in a typical course offered viamooKIT. At the end of the session the recordedintroductory videos were reviewed. Finally, membersreviewed – the time schedule for the course, the weekly

sequences of modules, online hosting of the course, course accessfrom mobile phones, assessment techniques – all resulting intocomplete discussion on course delivery. Approximately 19participants attended the workshop. The workshop concluded withthe time line on offering a new course on Life Skills MOOC forEngineers starting from May 2018.

Career Guidance and CareerCounselling (CGCC) for SchoolStudentsOn December 11-12, 2017 career counsellors fromCommonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA)conducted Career Guidance and Career Counselling (CGCC)workshop for the girls in the 9th and 11th standards of SKVDhakka (School Id 1309025). This programme was delivered aspart of the DISHA project, supported by IKEA Foundation andimplemented by UNDP, which entails orienting girl childtowards financial independence through employment andentrepreneurship. The power packed sessions were delivered toabout 230 students through Anupriya Khare, Meeta Sharma,Nitesh Gupta and Samir Bhaattacharjee under the guidance ofProgramme Officer Sanjogita Mishra using an innovative kit forCGCC developed using job roles identified by National Skill

Development Corporation (NSDC). This kit also gave the learnersan opportunity to introspect and reflect upon their core strengthswhich can be translated to economic empowerment. All thesessions were conducted using Activity Based Learning and

16

e-CourseDevelopment UsingOER for QualityLearningUniversity of Hyderabad (UoH), Indiaimplemented COL-CEMCA HigherEducation Integrated Model as majorproject titled “IncreaseAccess and ImproveInstitutional Capacityfor SustainableDevelopment throughVocational Educationand Training” for theuniversity. The e-Learning Centre,University of Hyderabad(UoH) andCommonwealthEducational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA), NewDelhi have jointlyconducted CapacityBuilding Workshop on“e-Course Developmentusing OER for QualityLearning” during 06-09 December, 2017for UoH faculty. The workshop wasintended to enable teachers of theUniversity of Hyderabad to understandthe meaning, designing and developmentof e-Content. It focused on the standardsof e-Content, learning objects, re-usabilityof e-Content, integrating contents intoonline platform and authoring tools.

A total of 40 Professors activelyparticipated in the workshop fromdifferent faculties of the university alongwith eLearning staff. With the help of thisworkshop 30 Professors will develop

engaged the students intensively. The Principal Dr. Shalini andCoordinator Mrs. Kumkum Aggarwal were key to arranging theworkshop such that the benefits of the workshop could bemaximized. CEMCA will be adopting at least 10 governmentschools in Delhi and working closely with students of 9th, 10th, 11th

and 12th standards with a special focus on girl child for over ayear. They will make the learners aware of various jobopportunities available in Skills & Vocations across variousindustry sectors and help them to develop their personality andskills to find employment or self-employment.

Graduate level courses that will be offeredthrough blended mode in next academicsession.

Speaking on the Inaugural function of theworkshop Prof. B. P. Sanjay, Pro ViceChancellor emphasized the need topromote Online Education in view of therecent initiatives of Govt. of India in thisregard. He also launched University ofHyderabad MOODLE platform. Prof. J.

Prabhakar Rao, Director, e-LearningCentre elaborated on activities of theCentre and the goals of the workshop.

The training approach of the workshopwas hands-on practice and also learning-by-doing. The day-I of the workshopfocused on changing course format andlayout, start date, topics, CC by SAlicensing, URL, multimedia content, createa course introductory video usingScreencast-O-Matic etc. The day-II of theworkshop dealt with OER relatedconcepts, CC licenses, finding OER,Reusing and Repurposing OER etc. Thebook on “Development and

Implementation of OERs for ForeignLanguages in Indian Context” which wasedited by Prof. J. Prabhakar Rao and Mr.Ranjeev Ranjan was released on that day.The day-III and IV of the workshopfocused on creating question bank,grading assignment, providing feedback,learning forms, standard forms, choiceMOODLE, set up tab editing lettergrades, post workshop test on MOODLEand OER etc.

Prof. Mohan B. Menon,Former Director & Chief,UNESCO EducationProgramme for PallestineRefugees, Amman, Jordanand Deputy ViceChancellor, WawasanOpen University,Malaysia; Dr. ManasRanjan Panigrahi,Programme Officer,Education, CEMCA and Dr.Indira Koneru, FacultyMember, e-LearningDepartment, ICFAI werethe resource persons forthe workshop.

Speaking on the valedictory functionProf. Apparao Podile, Vice Chancellor ofthe University of Hyderabad appreciatedthe Initiative of the Centre and mentionedbriefly about the plans of the UoH onOnline learning. He also distributed thecertificates to the participants. Prof. J.Prabhakar Rao, Director, e-LearningCentre explained the future activities ofthe Centre. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahimentioned the objectives of the COL-CEMCA-UoH project and summed up theoutcomes of the workshop. Theworkshop was concluded with vote ofthanks by Prof. Vasuki Belavadi, DeputyDirector, e-Learning Centre.

17

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur iswell known for its excellence in educationand research and has been offeringMOOCs since 2012. mooKIT, a MOOCManagement System has been builtground up at the Computer ScienceDepartment at IIT Kanpur with best-of-breed features and state-of-arttechnology.

So far, mooKIT has been used to offer 19MOOCs with more than 200000 registeredstudents. mooKIT is used at IIT Kanpurfor offering courses in the blended mode(Flipped Classes). Commonwealth ofLearning, Vancouver has adoptedmooKIT for delivering MOOCs acrossCommonwealth Countries(www.mooc4dev.org). Under this banner,several universities across the world haveused mooKIT for offering their courses.This includes the University of TheSouth Pacific (USP), National OpenUniversity of Nigeria (NOUN), AthabascaUniversity, Canada and the Institute ofTourism Studies, Malta. agMOOCsConsortium, India uses mooKIT to offerMOOCs in Agriculture Sector. NationalInstitute of Agricultural ExtensionManagement, India (MANAGE) usesmooKIT to offer their PGDAEM, a oneyear program in Agriculture Extension.

The mooKIT Team and the agMOOCsTeam at IIT Kanpur with their experienceof managing and delivering MOOCs haveprepared a list of do’s and don’ts for thepreparation and delivery of videolectures.

For PowerPoint Presentations:

• Use black characters on a whitebackground and for variation dark

Tips for Recording a Video Lecture

By Dr. Neeta Singh; Ms. Revathy KT and Ms. Sugatha Chaturvedi

Smart Tips

blue characters are also preferred.

• Keep font type and size uniformthroughout the PPT.

• Don’t use too much content on aslide, around 5 lines is ideal.

• For content coherence, present onlyone conceptual entity on each slide.For example, have only the definitionon a slide, unless the definition isbeing changed/modified.

• Use fewer words while explaining apoint - for example instead of “weare interested in ...” just say“interested in”.

For recording a video lecture thefollowing points should be kept inmind:

• Gaze should be fixed at the cameralens most of the time and especiallyin the opening and closing sentencesof a lecture.

• Control body movements - lesser thebetter.

• Maintain even weight on both legs,otherwise one shoulder appearslower.

• Make sufficient use of the tablet penin the podium (if available) tounderline or tick mark words/concepts for focus and emphasis.

• Each lecture should have anintroduction and a closing sentence -

decide on these sentences beforeyou start recording.

• While recording, word/sentencescan be repeated for correction, extrawords and sentences can be removedduring editing.

• Use same shirt and hair do for the re-recording of any previously recordedlecture or a portion of it.

• Watch out for “disfluencies” —sounds like mmm, ahh etc.

• Video lecture duration can rangefrom 6 to 14 minutes, depending onthe topic.

• Introductory video for the courseshould not be long - maximum 5mtsbut ideal is 3mts. It should include -instructor’s introduction, briefinformation about course content,exams/quizzes/assignment in thecourse, grading policy and otherexpectations from the students.

• Greeting at the beginning of thevideo lecture - it can be hello,welcome etc. Good morning, goodevening and good afternoon shouldnot be used, as viewer could bewatching the video at any time of aday.

• About dress code:

♦ Suitable for the course andculture/season of the place wherecourse is being offered.

♦ Generally formal and plain.

♦ Striped clothes should beavoided because stripes formmoving patterns.

♦ One extra set of dress should bekept for re-recording at shortnotice.

♦ Clothes or accessories shouldnot have any logo or charactersfor publicity.

Dr. Singh, Ms. Revathy, and Ms. Sugatha associated with R2, Media Labs at IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, India. Dr. Singh can be reachedatneeta[dot]iitk[at]gmail[dot]com

18

Technology Tracking

Managing References with ReferenceManagement Software

By Ms. Barnali Roy Choudhury

“No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point”

Jean-Paul Sartre

What Is Reference ManagementSoftware?

Reference management software (RMS),citation management software or personalbibliographic management software is asoftware package to store, manage andutilize bibliographic citations foracademicians in general and author/content contributor and scholars inparticular.

Why Reference ManagementSoftware

• To organise/store the metadata ofcollected online articles through theuse of RMS;

• To create a bibliographic databasein a local system with globalaccessibility i.e. Synchronization oflocal reference databases with globalserver;

• To integrate reference databasesavailable inside RMS with wordprocessing software;

• To integrate reference databasesavailable inside RMS; and

• To explore the process of sharing andcollaboration of bibliographic data.

There are a good number of referencemanagement software in preparatory andopen domain. JabRef, Endnote, BibTex,

CiteULike, Zotero, Mendeley, etc. aremost popular among Open domain againsta pre-defined set of criteria like usability,flexibility and ease of accessibility. Thiswork try and to focus on “how to use” ofmost comprehensive open sourceReference Management Software likeMendeley http://mendeley.com/

For centralizedprocessing anddecentralized access thissoftware has two flavorsto install. 1. Webimporter for globalaccessibility andprocessing; 2. Desktopversion for localizedservice. You have toperform followingactions to start with Mendeley.

After installation of Mendeley Desktopversion we have to install first Webimporter to import article to Mendeleyand then install MS word Plug-in forword integration. By installing webimporter you will be able to save articlealong with its available metadata toMendeley directly by clicking on theMendeley icon which is embedded withyour browser after installation. Followingis for Chrome as an example.

Now you are able to save metadata alongwith pdf version (if available) of the articlein Mendeley.

19

Now it is visible in the web library ofMendeley account as follows

And will be visible on the desktopversion after synchronization fromdesktop version of Mendeley like that

Now we are ready to use these articles asreferences/citations for our scholarlycommunication in such a way. Mendeleyis efficient to handle intext citation andbibliography in any citation style likeMLA, PA, IEEE and many more. Even ithas flexibility to create new stylemanually. Following snaps may show howwe may use references with the help ofMendeley in MS word or open office.

MS Word Integration: Referencing Style

Mendeley has the provision to chooseany type of standard citation style forwide usability.

Same kinds of actions may be applicablefor another Open source RMS Zotero.

MS Word Integration: Intext Citation

MS Word Integration: Add Bibliography

Reference:

http://mendeley.com/

http://zotero.org/

Ms. Barnali Roy Choudhury is an Assistant Professor in Library Information Science,Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata. She can be reached atbarnaliroychoudhury[at]wbnsou[dot]ac[dot]in

20

Science for Women’s Health andNutrition (SFWHN) is a projectof the National Council ofScience and Technology

Communication (NCSTC), Department ofScience and Technology (DST),Government of India, implemented byCEMCA, New Delhi. The project aims toreach out to the women of themarginalized sections of the society (inpoorly literate as well as literarychallenged sections), both in the urbanand rural sectors across the country, toincrease their awareness and knowledgeabout health issues and locally possiblesolutions through the means ofcommunity radio. Through participatoryprogrammes specially designed withspecific issues in focus and using thecommunity in participatory forms of radio-programming, this project tried to studyhow best women can be encouraged totake benefits of science and scientificknowledge in daily life. The uniquenessand the success of the project lie in thefact that the broadcast of radio programsis made to the audience in their ownmother tongue and dialect. The content ofthe programmes, rooted in their ownculture and environment, try to influencebehavioral change in their daily lives witha fairly good success.

The project was originally conceived,devised and executed by Dr. R. Sreedher,in 2005. Dr. Sreedher, then DirectorEMMRC, Anna University, Chennai,thought SFWHN as a sustainable,

funding program for community radioaddressing issues of health, hygiene,sanitation, environment, and povertyeradication. Later when he joined as theDirector of the CEMCA in 2007, heenvisioned the project as a pan-IndianCommunity Radio project across severalcommunity radio stations giving theproject greater thrust and fillip and itsmission a wider reach and impetus. Theproject is running into several phases forover ten years involving more educationalinstitutions and also involving the NGOsector all across the country. The NCSTC,DST approved the approach and thisproject became a flagship programmeduring the 12th Five Year Plan.

The First Phase executed by CEMCA wasfrom 2007-09, in thirteen community radiostations, followed by Phase II during2009-2011 where an additional componenton awareness about Planet Earth andEnvironmental concerns was also added,in eight community radio stations acrossthe country. Depending on the projectinitiation date, the phases runconcurrently. During Phase III in 2011,eighteen CRS were short listed forconsideration and the project wasinitiated in eight stations. During theFourth Phase in 2015, it was successfullyimplemented in fifteen CRS. The presentPhase V was sanctioned for fourteenstations. DST, in 2016-17, made theprocess more democratic and invited allCR stations who had not availed any DSTgrant to submit expression of interest. A

one-day orientation programme wasorganized by CEMCA on 16 March, 2016at New Delhi. The Department of Science& Technology after due diligence, invitedpotential CR stations for a face-to-faceinterview with the Programme AdvisoryCommittee (PAC) in June 2016 in Chennai.

NGOs, Educational Institutions and KrishiVigyan Kendras, granted license by theMinistry of Information and Broadcastingto set up Community Radio Stations(CRS), were selected by NCSTC, DST,with CEMCA being the knowledge andimplementing partner for awarding theProject.

CEMCA with its expertise in research,community participation and capacitybuilding, was selected as the nodalorganization and was asked to submit acomprehensive proposal to NCSTC forimplementing and monitoring the project.CEMCA’s role in the project is extensive.CEMCA designed and implemented theprogramme in three components:

First Component:

The first component consisted of abaseline study conducted under thesupervision of a CEMCA appointedexpert with the help of CR staff as well aswomen from the communities. Throughthis study, a profile of the community wasmapped, current practices and knowledgebase vis-à-vis a range of issues/subjectsin the community documented andassessment made of the needs andshortcomings among the women in thecommunities. This feed-forward studyaimed to gain an insight into the socio-economic and demographic profile of thecommunity, media practices with specialreferences to radio, and women’s andchildren’s health concerns and issues.The baseline study was also designed tomotivate community members tounderstand and interact with theircommunity and develop awareness withinthe community. A well designed

Science for Women’sHealth and Nutrition

By Dr. R. Sreedher; R. Thyagarajan and Ishita Pradhan

Project Shows

21

questionnaire was prepared for collectionof data. CEMCA got the questionnairemodified with the help of the thenchairman of PAC of NCSTC, DST andother subject experts. The data wascollected by the local women who weretrained by CEMCA at the local CR station.The data was entered through online real-time cloud computing involving localyouth and women. Media 4 CommunityFoundation, an NGO, had been entrustedto take care of the cyber requirements anddata safety. The experts were in a positionto get the analysis in real-time and hencecorrective measures could be taken duringthe collection of data by the enumerators.The data was further analyzed andinterpreted by CEMCA’s baseline studyexpert, who presented the results to theDST approved local Advisory Committeemembers. The committee in turnsuggested the type of programmes to bemade and broadcast by the CR station.

Second Component:

In the second component, workshopswere conducted for a capacity buildingexercise for the production teams, fordesigning and producing the communityparticipatory radio programmes with thecentral theme of Science for Women. Theproduction teams work the advice of localadvisory committee and produceprogrammes with community participatoryapproach. The programmes were thenbroadcast from the CR Stations daily.

Third Component:

CEMCA engaged a third media expertfrom the area to create 10 modelprogrammes using the topics suggestedby the advisory committee and the topicsidentified by the Capacity Buildingexperts. The third component of ContentCreation, happened concurrently withCapacity Building.

CEMCA, as mandated by the DST, carriedout the baseline survey on health and

nutrition needs of women located in thelistening zone of fourteen CR stations.

Outcomes of the project:

Data from 14,760 women across fourteencommunity radio stations over the lengthand breadth of the country was collectedfor this study. The survey has brought tothe fore the following persistent andcommon areas of concern which affectwomen the most in the country:

• The data reveals that about 26.08% oftotal surveyed women are illiterate andhave significantly low awareness levelabout commonly known health issuessuch as Anemia (57.61%), Diarrhea(58.16%), Tetanus (53.31%), WormInfestation (56.29%) and HIV/AIDS(52.63%). Availability of private tapsor wells for potable water to fulfil dailyneeds is limited to many households,as only 52.38% of households haveaccess to private taps/wells.

• Alarmingly, 76.29% women admittedthat they do not take enough restduring and after their pregnancy, andapproximately 56% women did nottake iron tablets. As large as 70%women do not consume sufficientnutrients required to balance theirbody after pregnancy such as fruitsand green vegetables.

• Myths and superstitious beliefs alsoplay an adverse role in the health ofwomen, especially during pregnancy.Women are advised by their elders notto consume papaya, or step out of thehouse during eclipse, which as pertheir belief have a bad effect on thehealth of the pregnant women and thechild. On an average 50% women fromthe surveyed regions believe orengage in superstitious practiceswhich have no scientific basis.

• It has also been seen that on anaverage about 22% women do nothave access to toilets and practice

open defecation. In some places thefigures are as high as 80%.

• A consciousness needs to begenerated among women to haveinstitutional deliveries facilitated byDoctors/nurses. About 22% womenstill give birth at their homes or otherplaces facilitated by ANMs and Daisrather than at designated institutionsor hospitals. Some regions haveexhibited women, numbers as high as51%, having deliveries at home andnot in hospitals.

• Though, on an average, about86.77% women have providedvaccinations to their children, still itis essential to create awarenessamong a sizeable number (nearly13%) of mothers about necessity ofvaccinations. Also, approximately86% women have reported to breastfeed their children. It is neverthelessimperative to promote the importanceof breast feeding for a longer periodof time after birth.

• Based on these observations, theradio stations may initiateprogrammes focusing primarily onawareness about common healthissues such as Anemia, Diarrhea,Tetanus, Worm Infestation and HIV/AIDS, care during pregnancy, post-partum care and importance of toilets.

• It was also noticed during capacitybuilding and content creation phase,women tend to listen and pay heed tothose messages on radio which arepresented to them in the form of folksongs/stories or through traditionallore instead of bland and urbanelydesigned talks and discussions withthe experts. The stations must useinnovative programming formats,involving local communities forbetter results.

22

Redefining Open and Distance Learning

By Prof. Manjulika Srivastava

Case Study

The introduction of digital technology ineducation, has led to the emergence ofOnline Education that is the delivery ofeducational content via Internet, intranet/extranet (LAN/WAN) and smart mobiletechnologies. In fact Online Education isthought of as an extension, if not a naturalprogression, of Distance Education, as itrepresents the use of technology topromote learning anytime andanywhere. Hence some regard OnlineEducation as a sub-set of DistanceEducation (Rekkedal and Qvist- Eriksen,2003; Keegan, 2003), whereas some are ofthe opinion that to equate it with DistanceEducation is to ignore the historicalinfluence of Computer Based Learning(CBL) and the unique characteristics ofthe web and other modern ICTs asfacilitators of online learning(Suilleabhain, 2003). According to thelatter, in Online Education like DistanceEducation, the learner and teachers are

often separated in time and/or space,which provide the strongest and mostobvious case for viewing OnlineLearning as a sub-set of DistanceLearning. But, this is not always thecase, learnerand teachermay engage inOnlineLearning in thesame face-to-face space sayin a computerlab workingtogether on acomputer-basedsimulation.Then thethesis thatOnlineLearningequalsDistanceLearningseems lesssatisfactory(Suilleabhain,2003).

Thus, OnlineLearninghappens whenlearners use networked computers/smart mobile technologies to accessmultimedia resources, engage indialogue with their teachers and peersand exchange information as part oftheir learning endeavour acrossclassrooms, homes, workplaces, evencontinents from anywhere, anytime.

And when teachers use it within the fourwalls of a classroom to supplementclassroom teaching the walls becomepermeable. This is known as BlendedLearning. Because of the mandatoryintegration with traditional classroominstruction, Blended Learning cannot beconsidered as a form of DistanceEducation. Besides, being present in thetraditional “face to face” walledclassroom, learners can now be scatteredover a wide geographical area and still beconnected as a group synchronously (inreal time) (as in a classroom) which isknown as Virtual Classroom basedLearning.

Many ODL providers have begun to useOnline Learning to augment, and in somecases replace, print, broadcast and tapedinstructional materials for their DEprograms with the objective to improvethe quality of instruction cost effectivelyby saving on production, distribution andtravel costs. Online Education

Digital Learning

23

is normally published quarterly by

Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA).

CEMCA, a Regional Office of theCommonwealth of Learning (COL)Vancouver, Canada, is an international

agency.

CEMCA’s mission is to promote the

meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of

ICTs to serve the educational and training

needs of Commonwealth member states of

Asia.

visit us at:7/8, Sarv Priya Vihar

New Delhi - 110 016, India

please call us at:

0091 11 2653 71460091 11 2653 71480091 11 2651 6681

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

http://www.cemca.org.ine-mail: admin[at]cemca[dot]org[dot]in

Editor-in-Chief

Shahid Rasool, PhD

EditorsManas Ranjan Panigrahi, PhD

Sanjogita Mishra

LayoutSabyasachi Panja

Printed and Published byR. Thyagarajan

For and on behalf of CEMCA

Printed atAnil Offset & Packaging

New Delhi

You are welcome to reproduce or translate

any material in this newsletter. Please credit

us appropriately and send a copy of the

reproduced material for our information.

The views expressed in the articles are those

of the authors and not necessarily that of the

publisher. Products mentioned in the

newsletter are only for information and do

not mean endorsement by CEMCA or COL.

Prof. Manjulika Srivastava is a Professor of Distance Education at Indira GandhiNational Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. She can be reached atmanjulika[at]ignou[dot]ac[dot]in

programmes offered to distance learners isknown by different names, as Internetbased learning/ Web based learning/Online Learning/ Virtual learning. Furtherin Distance Education, if Online Learningis adopted in conjunction with othertraditional technologies such as print,radio, television etc it is known asTechnology Enhanced/ Enabled Learning(TEL) or Mixed- mode learning. Whenlearners use portable devices like smartphones, i-phones, i-pads, and otherhandheld portable gadgets, embeddedwith Bluetooth and 3G/4G, they canaccess multimedia resources and interactwith anyone, anywhere at any time. Thisform of learning is referred to as M-learning or Mobile Learning.

Thus, it is obvious that Online Learningshares certain characteristics with, andinherits the principles and procedures ofboth Open and Distance Education andComputer Based Learning. All representsome form of Digital Learning and, theabove mentioned nomenclatures haveemerged individually to emphasize aparticular delivery method. Accordingly,each conflates under the broad domain ofDigital Learning. Since all come under theumbrella of ODL, it would be appropriateto drop the ‘Distance’ from ODL as thereis no distance anymore, and hereafterrefer to it as Open and Digital Learning –as the technology being utilized is digitaltechnology and the term is also apt forthe Digital Age.

Recently, the Vice Chancellor of the OpenUniversity UK, Peter Horrocks announcedthat the Open University would beradically overhauling itself through “aroot and branch review” of every aspectof the university’s operations, into a‘digital first institution’: transforming itfrom the “University of the Air” to

“University of the Cloud” (Weals, 2017).

The Open University UK, is reviewing allits operations with the objective ofmaking them digital by design. Theinstructional system will be constructedaround the digital, rather than printmedium. Learners will have the flexibilityto study on screen, tablet or mobile. Thefocus of the University’s new design willbe on providing personalized high-qualitylearning experience. The proposed digitalmode of education will give the learnersgreater flexibility in the pace of theirstudy. The Open University is alsoplanning to develop strong links with theemployers and introduce degreeapprenticeships to make the learnersindustry ready (Middleditch, 2017).

References

Middleditch, K. (2017), Open Universityannounces radical reinvention, UniversityNews, June 13, available at: http://ounews.co/around-ou/university-news/ou-reinvention/ (accessed 2 August 2017).

Open University Japan (2017), The OpenUniversity of Japan- Home Page, availableat: http://www.ouj.ac.jp/eng/about/(accessed 10August 2017).

Rekkedal, T. & Qvist-Eriksen, S. (2003),Internet Based E-learning, Pedagogy andSupport Systems, available at: http://learning.ericsson.net/socrates/doc/norway.doc\ (accessed 24 February 2017).

Súilleabháin, G.O. (2003), Principles, Structureand Framework of e-Learning, availableat: http://learning.ericsson.net/socrates/doc/cork.doc\ (accessed 24 February 2017).

Weals, S. (2017), Open University jobs at risk100m ‘root and branch’ overhaul, TheGuardian, available at: https//www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/13/open-university-jobs-at-risk-in-100m-root-and-branch-overhaul/CMP=share_btn_wa(accessed 28 June2017).

24

Forthcoming Events

8th National Science FilmFestival of India (NSFFI)commemorating the goldenjubilee of media andcommunication education inIndia’ s North East.

Organised by: Vigyan Prasar, Departmentof Science & Technology, Govt. of Indiaand the Department of Communicationand Journalism, Gauhati University, India

Venue: Gauhati University, Gauhati,Assam, India

Date: February 20-24, 2018

For More Information:

http://vigyanprasar.gov.in/science-communication-programs/science-through-films/

ICDE 2018: 20th InternationalConference on DistanceEducation

Venue: Park Inn by Radisson BerlinAlexanderplatz, 7, D –10178,Berlin, Germany

Date: May 21 - 22, 2018

For more information:

https://www.waset.org/conference/2018/05/berlin/ICDE

Fourth International Conferenceon Education and DistanceLearning(ICEDL 2018)Organised by The GlobalAcademic Research Institute.

Theme: Flexible Education for All

Venue: Galle Face Hotel, Colombo,Sri Lanka

Date: May 17-18, 2018

For more information:

http://educationanddistancelearningconference.globalacademicresearchinstitute.com/

ICTLHE 2018 : 20thInternational Conference onTeaching and Learning in HigherEducation

Date: June 25 - 26, 2018

Venue: Holiday Inn Paris Montparnasse,Avenue Du Maine, 79-81, Paris,75014 France

For more information:

https://waset.org/conference/2018/06/paris/ICTLHE

The 34th annual DistanceTeaching & Learning Conferencesponsored by the University ofWisconsin–Madison andorganized by Distance EducationProfessional Development,Division of Continuing Studies.

Date: August 7-9, 2018

Venue:Madison, WI

For more information:

https://dtlconference.wisc.edu/

6th Asia Pacific Conference onAdvanced Research (APCAR-2018)

Theme: The conference will cover everytopic from the areas of Business,Education, Social Sciences andICT.

Date: March 2-4, 2018

Venue: Rydges on Swanston,Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

For more information:

http://apiar.org.au/?conference=6th-asia-pacific-conference-on-advanced-research-apcar-2018-melbourne-australia