e-Learning: Adapting to Indian infrastructre constraints

The internet changed information distribution; vast amounts of data could now flow through the digital veins of the internet to the beating heart of India. Paper transformed to silicon hard disk files and plastic cards; zeros and ones now represented your identity and your buying power. Computers moved from the controlled environment of corporate laboratories to the comfort of personal bedrooms. News changed, the websites pumped you with information, updated every second, all the time. Stock markets allowed you to trade from home.

Finally class rooms were transformed to fit on your 15inch screen. The teacher now sits thousands of miles away from you, yet he teaches you the MBA course in your flat. Welcome to world of eLearning: the classroom that is never shut, the school that you don’t have to walk to.

Yet the under neon glare of advertising and the ‘shining’ economy, the promise of education through the IT revolution has failed to materialise. As Dr. V. Nagarajan, ex-head of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Madras, and the current head of Radius consultancy, an eLearning service providing company, says “Currently in India, the eLearning sites do not have a comprehensive approach to fulfil learning needs and style. As a result there is very little peer to peer communication and usually only one teacher is present on the site. This approach does not hold the user’s attention and thus is not effective”.

“Main broadband connections are controlled by many players who invest only in urban areas because it is more profitable. For eLearning to be effective it must be taken to rural areas” he adds. For eLearning to move away from urban areas to rural areas, three major concerns need to be addressed: India has very low PC density, the bandwidth needs to be increased and the local language must be used as medium of instruction.

To address these concerns a model called ‘adaptive learning’ is being adopted in the eLearning realm. In adaptive learning the main learning material is stored physically on CD ROMS, and a slow internet connection can be used as medium where students can ask their doubts and can give exams. Unlike eLearning where the user need to be connected to the internet all the time, in adaptive learning the user need to go online only under certain conditions. Since internet is not always required, many students can use the same machine at different times. “This model can be used in rural areas, as it does not require fast connections and the data can be physically sent” says Dr. Nagaraj.

Adaptive learning also solves language problem by using Unicode, an industry standard which allows data to be sent and manipulated in various local languages. Software like ‘Moodle’ is also being used to convert English text into Indian languages like Tamil, Malayalem, Gujrati, Hindi etc. Both these approaches help in converting the text into a form that the user can understand. Thus it removes the need to know English as a prerequisite to using the internet as a learning tool.

Thus although through adaptive learning will be able to reach more people, Dr Nagaraj does not feel that it will replace class rooms. “eLearning and adaptive learning, both can be used as a supportive tool, it can assist the teacher in making understanding of a subject more comprehensive, it cant replace the teacher. The technology can help in content generation and delivery, it can’t by itself teach.”As new players entering the realm of eLearning are realising, the IT revolution can only be effectively used only if it moves away from the confines of cities and moves to the villages, where greater knowledge dissemination is required. With adaptive learning, the IT ‘boom’ may finally reach the heart of India.The internet changed information distribution; vast amounts of data could now flow through the digital veins of the internet to the beating heart of India. Paper transformed to silicon hard disk files and plastic cards; zeros and ones now represented your identity and your buying power. Computers moved from the controlled environment of corporate laboratories to the comfort of personal bedrooms. News changed, the websites pumped you with information, updated every second, all the time. Stock markets allowed you to trade from home.

Finally class rooms were transformed to fit on your 15inch screen. The teacher now sits thousands of miles away from you, yet he teaches you the MBA course in your flat. Welcome to world of eLearning: the classroom that is never shut, the school that you don’t have to walk to.

Yet the under neon glare of advertising and the ‘shining’ economy, the promise of education through the IT revolution has failed to materialise. As Dr. V. Nagarajan, ex-head of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Madras, and the current head of Radius consultancy, an eLearning service providing company, says “Currently in India, the eLearning sites do not have a comprehensive approach to fulfil learning needs and style. As a result there is very little peer to peer communication and usually only one teacher is present on the site. This approach does not hold the user’s attention and thus is not effective”.

“Main broadband connections are controlled by many players who invest only in urban areas because it is more profitable. For eLearning to be effective it must be taken to rural areas” he adds. For eLearning to move away from urban areas to rural areas, three major concerns need to be addressed: India has very low PC density, the bandwidth needs to be increased and the local language must be used as medium of instruction.

To address these concerns a model called ‘adaptive learning’ is being adopted in the eLearning realm. In adaptive learning the main learning material is stored physically on CD ROMS, and a slow internet connection can be used as medium where students can ask their doubts and can give exams. Unlike eLearning where the user need to be connected to the internet all the time, in adaptive learning the user need to go online only under certain conditions. Since internet is not always required, many students can use the same machine at different times. “This model can be used in rural areas, as it does not require fast connections and the data can be physically sent” says Dr. Nagaraj.

Adaptive learning also solves language problem by using Unicode, an industry standard which allows data to be sent and manipulated in various local languages. Software like ‘Moodle’ is also being used to convert English text into Indian languages like Tamil, Malayalem, Gujrati, Hindi etc. Both these approaches help in converting the text into a form that the user can understand. Thus it removes the need to know English as a prerequisite to using the internet as a learning tool.

Thus although through adaptive learning will be able to reach more people, Dr Nagaraj does not feel that it will replace class rooms. “eLearning and adaptive learning, both can be used as a supportive tool, it can assist the teacher in making understanding of a subject more comprehensive, it cant replace the teacher. The technology can help in content generation and delivery, it can’t by itself teach.”As new players entering the realm of eLearning are realising, the IT revolution can only be effectively used only if it moves away from the confines of cities and moves to the villages, where greater knowledge dissemination is required. With adaptive learning, the IT ‘boom’ may finally reach the heart of India.

Link: Radius consultancy
Link: Dr.V.Nagarajan
Link: the learned man