E-learning handbook for university staff

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) produced "e-Learning: Stride Handbook 8" (Sanjaya Mishra, 2009) as a E-learning handbook for university staff. This is a 152 page 1.7M Byte PDF document avialable free online. This is a compilation of contributed chapters by authors around the world, including Leigh Blackall, University of Canberra.

The e-learning manual is one of a series of 15, produced by IGNOU's Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE):

1. Open and Distance Education (P.K. Biswas & Ashok Gaba)
2. Effective Learning (Sanjaya Mishra)
3. Academic Counselling in Open and Distance Learning (Manjulika Srivastava)
4. Assessment and Evaluation in Distance Learning (Basanti Pradhan & P.K. Biswas)
5. Development and Revision of Self-Learning Materials (C.R.K. Murthy)
6. Editing in Distance Education (P.R. Ramanujam)
7. Media and Technology in Distance Education (Santosh Panda)
8. eLearning (Sanjaya Mishra)
9. Support Services in Distance Education (R. Satyanarayana) (Under development)
10. Planning and Management of Distance Education (Madhu Parhar)
11. Cost Analysis in Open and Distance Learning (Ashok Gaba)
12. Programme Evaluation in Open and Distance Education (Basanti Pradhan & G. Mythili)
13. Psychological Skills for Open and Distance Learning (P.K. Biswas)
14. Staff Training and Development in Open and Distance Education (Dr. Sanjaya Mishra)

e-Learning: Stride Handbook 8
Contents
Foreword 1
About the Handbook 2
PART A E-Learning: Conceptual Overviews
Chapter 1: Pedagogical Affordances of Technology by Som Naidu 4
Chapter 2: Managerial Perspectives on e-Learning by Tony Bates 14
Chapter 3: Designing Online Learning by Sanjaya Mishra 28
Chapter 4: Level of Media Interactivity by Jon Baggaley 36
Chapter 5: The Global e-Learning Framework by Badrul H. Khan 42
PART B E-Learning: Technologies and their Applications
Chapter 6: Electronic Mail by Sanjaya Mishra 52
Chapter 7: Mailing Lists by Steve McCarty 56
Chapter 8: Asynchronous Conferences, Discussion Forums by Neil Harris and Maria Sandor 60
Chapter 9: Podcasting: a learning technology by Palitha Edirisingha and Anguelina Papova 66
Chapter 10: Online Video by Kevin Burden 70
Chapter 11: Using Collaborative Video for e-Learning by Leigh Blackall 76
Chapter 12: Synchronous Conferencing by Jon Baggaley 80
Chapter 13: Webcasting by Punya Mishra and M. Laeeq Khan 84
Chapter 14: Blogs in Learning by Stephen Downes 88
Chapter 15: Wikis by Ke Zhang and Stacey DeLoose 92
Chapter 16: Social Networking by Terry Anderson 96
Chapter 17: Social Bookmarking (Delicious) in Education by Gabriela Grosseck 102
Chapter 18: Slideshows by Brian Kelly 106
Chapter 19: Virtual Worlds by Sanjaya Mishra 110
Chapter 20: Really Simple Syndication by Sanjaya Mishra 114
Chapter 21: Using Micro-blogging (Twitter) in Teaching and Learning by Andy Ramsden 118
Chapter 22: Concept Mapping in e-Learning by Alberto J. Canas, Priit Reiska and Joseph D. Novak 122
Chapter 23: Interactive Whiteboards by Rozhan M. Idrus and Raja Maznah Binti Raja Hussain 128
Chapter 24: Web Surveys and Quizzes by Sanjaya Mishra 132
Chapter 25: Learning Management Systems by Sanjaya Mishra 134
List of Contributors 140 ...

about the handbook

... The Handbook has two parts: Conceptual overviews and technology applications. Many textbooks, research papers and reference materials have already been written about e- learning, and this one could easily get lost in that wealth of information, but for the conscious approach taken by the Editor to involve international scholars to share their ideas and experiences that could provide diversity and richness of the philosophy, technology and practices surrounding e-learning. So, you have 25 Chapters written by 26 experienced and emerging experts in the field of e-learning, sharing with you tips for successful use of e-learning technologies. You can use this Handbook in a linear manner from Chapter one to the end or read a specific chapter depending on your interest and immediate need and relevance. Most chapters provide you practical tips, resources and references to further reading, and we encourage you to go beyond this Handbook. Apart from the references and links provided in each of the chapters, we would direct you to another publication, released by the University of Colorado, Denver (Lawenthal, et al, 2009). ...

From: "e-Learning: Stride Handbook 8", Mishra, S., Ed., IGNOU, New Delhi, ISBN: 978-81-266-4451-3, 2009.

National Knowledge Network for India

Greetings from the last day of the World Computer Congress 2010 in Brisbane. Professor SV Raghavan just gave a keynote address on "National Knowledge Network of India: An Instrument of Social Change". Professor Raghavan explained that while the world has a view of India as a high technology nation, that technology is concentrated in relatively few urban areas. Most of India is in villages in rural areas. There is a stronger regional government, than in countries such as Australia. At question time Professor Raghavan mentioned he had discussed with the now Australian Prime Minister a project of a 10 Gbit connection between India and Australia being worked on by QUT. Professor Raghavan envisions this communications link being used for joint teaching of university student between India and Australian institutions, as well as for research collaboration (Australia and India signed an agreement on education in April). Given that the ongoing existence of the current Australian government depends on justifying the National Broadband Network, it will be interesting to see if the Minister for Broadband takes up this idea of broadband for education as an export industry to Asia, in his closing speech to the Congress at 4:45pm today.

Professor Raghavan suggests the way spread the benefits of economic growth in India is through education. He argues that pedagogy is not a technology problem and must be handled in an integrated manner, where technology can help. While much is said about "cloud computing" and other online services, Professor Raghavan pointed out that from a commercial finance point of view it is still vice telephony which provides much of the revenue. Therefore it will not necessarily be commercial forces alone which will deliver the online services to provide education and other economic enablers. One example given was the use of broadband networks was e-health for rural India.

I saw this when I visited in 2005, Living in an Indian Village in Goa for Three Weeks. The scale of the task of providing education is daunting. Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) . Visited us at the ANU in Canberra last year and detailed how the educated millions of people.

My Indian ANU students are educating me on some of these issues as I teach them Green ICT and I will be discussing how the Internet can be used to help with education in India, in my talk at the congress at 12 noon on "Teaching Sustainable ICT Competencies with Tablet Computers".

The text of Professor Raghavan's address day has not yet been published. But he recently gave the Convocation Address to the M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies on a similar theme:

... In the next several minutes, I would like to concentrate on describing to you India / our country / that is on the threshold of major change. You should be happy that you are graduating at a time when phenomenal and unprecedented changes are taking place. India today presents only opportunities and challenges / and not problems and difficulties. India is creating a great ambience for its children. ...

Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India is unique in many ways. Our office looks at issues that concern the country holistically. ... the Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet, which I have the opportunity to be closely associated with and manage as an integral part of my work, gives the holistic appeal to the process. Initiatives such as Core Advisory Group on Automotive Research (CAR), Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG), Core Advisory Group on Machine Tools Research, Core advisory Group on Nanotechnology Initiatives, Core Advisory Group on Synchrotron Facilities Establishment, and Core Advisory Group on Solar Energy are a few examples of unique initiatives from our office.

... NKN is a game changer for India. National Knowledge Network (NKN) is multi gigabits per second network that covers India. It is a high bandwidth and low latency network, with a powerful CORE (at 40 Gbps), Distribution (at multiple 2.5/10 Gbps), and edges that connect institutions at 1 Gbps. All institutes of higher education and research (such as IITs, IIMs, NITs, Universities, and so on) and all national laboratories (CSIR, ICMR, ICAR, DBT, DST, DAE, DoS, DRDO, MoES Etc.) are part of NKN.

A typical institution conducts about 150 classes every hour from 8 AM to 2 PM everyday. India has 15 IITs, 35 NITs, 6480 universities and about 500 national laboratories. Each IIT generates 150 classes that can be shared by all universities and affiliated colleges, thereby benefitting an extremely large number of students. Paucity of teachers will be a thing of the past.

NKN is a great integrator. Let me explain how. The educational institutions and national laboratories together have close to 15,000 PhDs in various subjects. Their collective wisdom is now available and it is reachable.

Every Indian, irrespective of the geographical location, can benefit by accessing this vast intellectual resource. We expect that new pedagogy, new relationships, and new research ideas will emerge, as a result of this seamless connectivity between institutions and individuals. This is what I meant by threshold of change. Very expensive laboratory equipment will be shared. It is difficult for me to explain the change 3 it is to be felt by every one of you, as we go along.

... Remember, India has several languages, dialects, and cultures. Generation and sharing of learning material has to be automated. ... NKN can take your lessons national to all students all over the country. ... NKN will take your methods of healing to heal billions of lives in India and worldwide. You like to do technology, NKN will put you in touch with the right kind of people and get you access at the global stage to market your technology ...

An educated nation is a creative nation. Produces Intellectual Property for the country. NKN acts as an enabler in this process. ... NKN in simple terms. ...
1. Annihilation of Distance.
2. Simultaneous Observation of Events

... Health Referral System ... A patient requiring critical attention and an expert opinion can be remotely seen, examined, diagnosed, and treated. What NKN provides is Clear Visibility of whatever medical records are generated at the remote end X-Rays 2D and 3D, MRIs, CT Scans, PETs and so on. The volume and clarity requires very high bandwidth and very low latency. As time is of
essence in life saving referral situations, local handling with remote expert
guidance will be ideal. ...

From Convocation Address to the M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies , Professor Raghavan, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, 21 May 2010 (links added).

Indian education agreement with Australia to boost e-learning?

The Australian Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has signed a Joint Ministerial Statement on education with the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal. The agreement covers schools, vocational education and training (VET) and higher education, technical and professional education. Australia will help provide with Indian teacher training and exchange for teaching, research and curriculum development. Work is also under way in the vocational education sector.

The obvious implication is Australian university and TAFE setting up in India. What might be more interesting is cooperative arrangements for e-learning online between India and Australia. Current educational practices in Australia are not efficient enough for the scale of the Indian market, being the equivalent of the "horse and buggy" era before the invention of the car production line. As an example of what is needed, last October, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) announced 3G mobile education for its 2.5 million of students.

ANU is hosting a forum for educators Monday and I will be talking about how I have done online vocational postgraduate education (with much of the class being Indian IT and engineering students).

The India-Australia agreement covers:

1. qualification and quality frameworks
2. skills demand and emerging needs areas
3. credit transfer arrangements
4. supporting the Bureau for Vocational Education and Training Collaboration (BVET) and similar
5. education, training and research
6. exchange of officials and educators for professional development
7. developing and monitoring standards and regulations for education agents
8. An India-Australia Education Council

Available are:

1. Australia Consolidates Educational Links with India, Media release, The Joint Ministerial Statement, Hon Julia Gillard MP, issued 8 April 2010 (pre-dated 9 April, 2010)
2. Joint Ministerial Statement, Between the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations of the Government of Australia and the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India, 8 April 2010 (56Kbytes PDF)

Australian Government logo	Indian Government logo
THE HON JULIA GILLARD MP DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER Minister for Education Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Minister for Social Inclusion	THE HON KAPIL SIBAL Minister of Human Resource Development

JOINT MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

Between the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations of the Government of Australia and the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India

8 April 2010

We, the Education Ministers of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Republic of India, reaffirm our commitment to continue to expand collaboration in education, training and research between Australia and India.

We acknowledge our ongoing bilateral cooperation in education and training through the Education Exchange Program Between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Republic of India on Cooperation in the Fields of Education and Training, signed on 23‚ October 2003. This Joint Ministerial Statement supplements this Exchange Program.

We reaffirm our agreement at our meeting in New Delhi in August 2009 to meet annually.

Through this Joint Ministerial Statement, we mutually consent to expand the existing exchange program agreement to include greater cooperation across all education sectors - schools, vocational education and training (VET) and higher education including technical and professional education through:

1. Sharing expertise in qualification and quality frameworks and standards for education, research and training;
2. Providing mutual assistance in fields of agreed benefit, with a particular focus on skills demand and emerging needs areas;
3. Working together to evolve credit transfer arrangements between Australia and India;
4. Actively initiating and supporting formal working groups, such as the Bureau for Vocational Education and Training Collaboration (BVETC), to improve understanding of our respective education and training systems and to discuss and periodically review progress on mutually agreed activities;
5. Strengthening lines of communication for exchange of information on new policy initiatives and opportunities for development of education, training and research activities of both countries;
6. Supporting the exchange of government officials and educationists for continuous professional development;
7. Agreeing to establish a Memorandum of Cooperation to progress common interests in developing and monitoring standards and regulations applicable to the operations and activities of education agents and the movement and wellbeing of Indian students to Australia;
8. Enabling the participation of a third party on joint activities upon mutual agreement;
9. Mutual agreement on funding arrangements to cover expenses for cooperation activities, subject to availability of funds; and
10. Exploration of the possible agreement to set-up an India-Australia Education Council as a bi-national body with representation from academia, policy makers and industry to interact on issues related to education and to further collaboration between both sides.

This Joint Ministerial Statement supplements the Education Exchange Program between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Republic of India on Cooperation in the Fields of Education and Training and should be read in conjunction with it.

Context

India and Australia are at an exciting time in their relationship. As envisaged in the Joint Statement of both Prime Ministers in 2009, India and Australia are building a broad knowledge partnership, including developing collaborative projects in education. The higher education institutions (universities and vocational training institutions) in both nations have an important role to play in such partnership including cooperation in science and technology. We recognize that education is central to sustained, inclusive and equitable growth.

People-to-people contacts are at the heart of the bilateral relationship. Students studying in both countries play an important role in building bridges of friendship and understanding and are a significant resource for future development of the relationship. Both countries attach high priority to the safety and wellbeing of students as they play an important part in the knowledge partnership envisaged between the two countries.

Schools

India and Australia are both embarking on significant education reforms focussed on developing curriculum to meet the needs of 21^st century learners in a rapidly globalising world.

Implementing significant reforms requires capacity building of school leaders including the exploration of relevant research and exchanging best practices. Both sides recognise the importance of Australia-India Principals/Teachers Exchange Program organised through the Asia Education Foundation (AEF) with support from Australian Education International (AEI) India. The program focuses on school leadership, school management and innovation, curriculum and assessment. Australia and India agree to examine expanding the existing program to provide more scholarships and a greater degree of exchange of principals, teachers and administrators dealing with school education.

Melbourne City Council, with the assistance of AEF and AEI India, will support eight scholarships for School Principals from Delhi (government and non-government schools) to visit Melbourne schools for two weeks in 2010 to further their professional development and links between Australia and India.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), India and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in programs and initiatives which will apply international best practices in educational research and assessment to support educational development.

Vocational Education and Training

India and Australia recognise the valuable contribution that vocational education and training plays in improving skills to enhance employability, increase productivity, strengthen national competitiveness and support sustainable development to adapt to climate change.

The Australia - India VET Mission (31 January - 5 February 2010) was the first high level delegation of Indian government officials and industry representatives focusing on vocational education and training to visit Australia. The mission achieved its aim to increase understanding about vocational education and training in both countries and to assist in long-term engagement in vocational education and training.

Both countries are keen to build on the success of the mission and achieve progress in the identified areas of cooperation and opportunities for collaboration. The Bureau of Vocational Education and Training Collaboration (BVETC), established out of the Australia-India Joint Working Group in October 2009, will direct and facilitate continuing collaboration in vocational education and training between the two countries, including the following activities:

1. Government to government

   Both Governments will work towards supporting quality vocational education and training systems in India and Australia. Australia will collaborate with India in the systemic development of National Quality Assurance arrangements. These may include developing a national qualifications framework and training quality standards.

   The Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) and the National Council of Educational, Research and Training (NCERT) and the Central Staff Training and Research Institute (CSTARI) will collaborate on vocational training and research. Both sides will engage in joint activities to work towards developing a sound and evidence based system for providing information, data and policy inputs for policy makers in India and Australia in the areas of vocational education and training.

2. Industry to industry - Industry Skills Councils

   Both sides are planning to better engage industry in their vocational education and training systems.

   In the short term, Australian industry skills councils are keen to build mutually beneficial relationships with Indian industry as follows:

   • Business Forums in India, with support from the Government of India, will link with Service Skills Australia, in the retail sector, to customise qualifications and competencies to meet the needs of the Indian industry.
   • Service Skills Australia seeks to partner with Indian industry and government in the hospitality and tourism sectors,
   • The Construction and Property Industry Skills Council will continue to link with the Confederation of Indian Industry and/or the National Academy of Construction, Hyderabad to further their already established relationship. The aim is to promote cooperation in areas such as setting up quality processes and staff training in the Indian building and construction industry.

   The experience gained in these collaborations will form the basis for long term partnership between the Australian Government, Australian industry skills councils and the Indian Government and Indian industry to develop sector skills councils in India.

3. Institution to institution

   Australian institutions are keen to work with comparable institutions in India to complement existing expertise, support innovation and implement projects. The training of teachers, organisational governance, recognition of prior learning and engaging youth through innovative models of training delivery are examples of areas of mutual focus. The intention is also to better integrate learning between vocational training sectors and higher education institutions.

   The Bureau of Vocational Education and Training Collaboration (BVETC) will continue to bring together Australian and Indian institutes and identify suitable partner institutes for further development of collaboration at the institutional level.

Higher Education

The Governments of Australia and India recognise that the relationship between our higher education systems is a mature and productive one and is based on a long standing history of cooperation and exchange to the benefit of both countries.

We are pleased to be able to announce a range of collaborative activities to help build on this strong foundation and note that beyond those activities announced today, new institution to institution links will continue to develop and grow. We aim to ensure that our students, academics and institutions continue to reap the benefits of cultural and knowledge exchange and collaboration. Cooperation in quality assurance, dialogue between sector representatives, research collaboration and institutional partnerships will all help to progress this aim.

The Governments of Australia and India will work with UGC and other relevant bodies, including the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and Universities Australia (UA), in developing methods for facilitating mutual recognition of qualifications and credit transfer arrangements between Australia and India.

To encourage academic exchange, both sides agree to hold joint seminars on mutually agreed themes to be inaugurated in India in 2010 and coordinated by DEEWR and the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The UGC will provide necessary financial support on a reciprocal and sharing basis for the agreed schemes and programs for collaboration between India and Australia.

We agree to facilitate the organisation of an Australia-India Inter-University Convention of Vice-Chancellors and Academia to interact on issues of mutual concern among academics.

We are also pleased to note the commitment by Universities Australia to co-sponsor a national education forum in New Delhi in late 2010 with its partner organisation, the Association of Indian Universities and interested others to discuss a number of topics including regulation and governance, transnational education issues and collaborative research.‚

Australia and India also agree to continue to expand cultural and academic ties through the Australia India Institute (AII) and the Australia India Council (AIC) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India.

Australia's Group of Eight (Go8) universities have opened a dialogue with Indian Institutes of Technology about establishing a staff exchange program between the two groups of leading higher education institutions.

The Go8-IIT staff exchange program will underpin longer-term relationships, such as in research collaboration. It will also improve understanding between Australian and Indian universities and increase the level of student, staff and research exchange between our two countries.

In addition, we agree to facilitate the initiation of a Joint Faculty Development Program through regular exchange of faculty for mutual learning in areas of teaching, research and curriculum development.

Both sides acknowledge and support the increasing partnerships between our education institutions in research, such as:

• activities under the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) - a joint undertaking of both governments which the Prime Ministers of Australia and India agreed in November 2009 to extend and expand with an Australian contribution of A$50 million (Rs‚ 200‚ crore) over the next five years, matched by the Government of India; and
• Australia and India agree to explore suitable partnerships with one or more of India's proposed 14 Innovation Universities and the proposed Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development to be set up in Delhi.

We are pleased to note that the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) will undertake joint research workshops, seminars and exchange of personnel for mutual learning and benefit on quality assurance in higher education. This builds on the strong relationship between AUQA and NAAC, as expressed through successive Memoranda of Cooperation.

Signed in Melbourne on 8 April 2010 in two original copies

...

From: Joint Ministerial Statement, Between the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations of the Government of Australia and the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India, 8 April 2010 (56Kbytes PDF)

The Hon Julia Gillard MP

Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

Minister for Social Inclusion

Deputy Prime Minister

9 April, 2010

Media release

Australia Consolidates Educational Links with India

Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, and India’s Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, today signed a Joint Ministerial Statement to build on the cooperative ties between the two nations in the education sector.

The Joint Ministerial Statement confirms Australia and India’s commitment to expand the current education exchange program to achieve greater cooperation between the two countries’ schools, higher education, vocational education and training sectors.

The aim of the Ministerial Statement is to strengthen what is already a solid partnership with the Indian Government and open up more avenues to share expertise in the education arena.

Today’s meeting was the result of a commitment made in New Delhi last August to start an annual dialogue between the two Ministers.

Leading education providers and businesses both in Australia and India will also participate in the discussions, providing an opportunity for all levels of the industry to consider ideas and share expertise.

The Ministers also agreed to investigate the establishment of an India-Australia Education Council to improve collaboration on education-related issues.

The Council would consist of academics, policy-makers and industry representatives and will be tasked to explore new partnership opportunities in key fields such as skills demand and education resources.

Ms Gillard took today’s meeting as an opportunity to officially congratulate Minister Sibal and his Government on their Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 which came into affect in India on April 1.

The Act makes education a fundamental right for all Indian children between the ages of six and 14.

One of the key challenges Minister Sibal and his Government now face is the recruitment of up to 800,000 new teachers to fulfil the aims of the act.

The Australian Government today confirmed our commitment to help provide assistance to Indian institutions with teacher training initiatives. Australian providers are also looking forward to the opportunity for increase involvement once the Indian Government had passed their Foreign Education Institutional Bill.

Building on the 135 institutional partnerships already in place between the two countries, there was agreement today to initiate a Joint Faculty Development program. This will allow for regular exchanges in mutual areas of teaching, research and curriculum development.

Australian representatives from the VET industry are also working with their Indian counterparts on the establishment of an Australia/ India Bureau designed to assist with the development of the Indian VET system.

The Joint Ministerial Statement is available at http://aei.gov.au/AEI/GovernmentActivities/GovernmentRelations/BilateralRelationships/default.htm.

The Statement supplements the Education Exchange Program between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Republic of India on Cooperation in the Fields of Education and Training, which is available at http://aei.gov.au/AEI/GovernmentActivities/GovernmentRelations/BilateralRelationships/India_mou_2_pdf.pdf. ...

From: Australia Consolidates Educational Links with India, Media release, The Joint Ministerial Statement, Hon Julia Gillard MP, issued 8 April 2010 (pre-dated 9 April, 2010)

Indian university to deliver via 3G to millions of students

Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) have announced an MoU with Ericson 3G mobile education delivery. Students of IGNOU will get 3G Mobile access for about Rs 25 (52 US Cents) more than a normal course cost. SMS is already used for course management. 3G will provide web pages, assignments and video clips. This will also be used for students with hearing and speech impairments.

The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 identified cost as a factor holding back the use of 3G Internet applications for education. But it is not clear if the low charge mentioned by IGNOU covers all the communication costs.

The students will most likely use a laptop (or netbook) with a 3G modem in it, rather than a smart phone for education. This might be used with devices similar to the Lanyu LY-EB01 $US98 netbook.

I met Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) when she visited ANU earlier in the year. What was impressive was the scale of IGNOU's operations.

Social inclusion by cooperative e-learning

Greetings from the Australian Collaborative Education Network forum on social inclusion and cooperative education at University of Sydney. I am speaking from my ICT point of view on how to do that with social networking and mobile accessible web design. I have some reinforcement with Doug O'Hara from the ACS Foundation in the audience.

One point which came out is that the Australian Minister for Social Inclusion is also the Deputy PM, Minister for Education and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. This should make it easier to apply social inclusion principles in the education and workplace.

One of the other panellists is an Indian ICT graduate who related his experience in first staying in an Australian country town. This was a mirror image to my experience in staying in an Indian village, he was worried by the spare population, whereas it was the crowd which unsettled me.

Australian institutions can learn from others. As an example Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU), visited some weeks ago and talked about the problems of scale in her institution.

Another issues which came up was defining graduate attributes. This is an area I am working up a research proposal for in the business end of computing (information studies). My solutions for this may not be popular with elite universities, as it would involve building on the work which professional bodies have done in defining what skills practitioners need and the work the vocation education sector has done in carefully describing their courses. This may involve some loss of autonomy by the universities. Anyone interested in being involved, please let me know.

Distance education for millions of unviersity students

Greetings from the famous room N101 at the Australian National University in Canberra, where Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) is speaking on "Standards and distance education". The talk is being recorded and I will provide a link here, when available. The Professor is visiting Australia and will speak to federal government agencies later in the day and at University of Canberra, later in the week. The visit is funded by the Australia-India Council, University of Canberra and Flinders University and the purpose is for knowledge exchange around ICT in education. I will post some comments here as the talk goes along.

Initial distance education in India was printed material by post. Integrated multimedia is being added, with TV and radio. It needs to be kept in mind that infrastructure is needed, including libraries and A/V facilities, computers, and Internet.

India has a Distance Education Council to oversee provision of courses. This sets standards for materials, registration processes, support services for learners, ICT infrastructure and assessment. Before creating a course, the institution has to do need assessment to show there is a requirement for a course and who the target group are.

The Indian Distance Education Guidelines are available online:

1. Norms and Standards for Management Programmes
2. Norms and Standards for IT Education
3. DEC-GUIDELINES, for regulating the Establishment and Operation of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Institutions in India
4. Norms for ODL
5. Norms for Online Programmes

The India PM has set up a National Knowledge Commission as a high-level advisory body. There will be an advisory group on Pedological Content and a Technical Advisory Group.

India uses its own satellites for broadcasting educational material. More interactive and feedback techniques as resources permit. Few Indian students have Internet access at home, so some methods being used are cyber cafes. Mobile phone SMS is being used for student support and 3G smart phone support will be offered when these phones are more widely available.

ps: For my own experiences of Indian cyber cafes and wireless networking, see: Living in an Indian Village in Goa for Three Weeks

pps: Unfortunately the battery went flat in my MP3 recorder, so only the first 10 minutes of the talk were recorded: Uma Kanjilal ANU 2009 05 11 (MP3 4.48Mbytes)

Research-intensive distance education

Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) is visiting Australia and will speak at the ANU in Canberra on "Standards and distance education", 11 May 2009:

The Australian National University

Education Innovation Event

Standards and distance education: are graduates of a distance education university ever going to be as good as graduates of a research-intensive face-to-face institution?

Professor Uma Kanjilal
Director of the School of Social Sciences
Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU)

Monday, 11 May, 10.30-11.30am

The Australian National University, Room N101, Computer Science and Information Technology Building 108, North Road, Canberra (how to get there)

RSVP Deborah Veness

Speaker

Professor Uma Kanjilal is the Director of the School of Social Sciences at the Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU). The Indira Gandhi Open University provides education services to 1.8 million students in India and 32 other countries and uses ICT and satellite technology to support its teaching programs.

The university is part of a consortium involved in a number of strategic initiatives related to ICT in education including:

• eGyanKosh: a digital repository of learning resources (www.egyankosh.ac.in)
  

• Sakshat: a one stop education portal
  (www.sakshat.ac.in)

The visit is funded by the Australia-India Council, University of Canberra and Flinders University and the purpose is for knowledge exchange around ICT in education.