digita learning

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 8

I issue 03 I March 2012 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75 www.digitalLearning.in

interview

Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solutions, NIIT Ltd p-54

Interview

Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH p-40

Concepts + Simulation +Tech ďƒ Labs 21st Century + Aptitude p-17 Chemistry Labs Simulating the Lab Experience! p-22

digital reality

Virtual Laboratories Perspectives from Higher Education Institutes p-32

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digitalLEARNING

volume

08

issue

03

ISSN 0973-4139

contents 08 Cover story The Push to Install Technology-rich Labs

By Elets News Network (ENN)

Higher education 40 “Regulations Need Thorough Review and Appropriate Implementation”

Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH

In Conversation 44 Online Examination The Game Changer S Murlidhar, Co-founder and CEO, MeritTrac

Services

k-12 17 Concepts + Simulation +Tech 

Labs 21st Century + Aptitude Pragya Gupta, Elets News Network (ENN)

22 Chemistry Labs

Simulating the Lab Experience!

Rachita Jha, Elets News Network (ENN)

50 CREATE@Amrita Research Agenda for Educational Technologies for Societal Benefit 62 Challenges of Implementing Technology into Schools

Veena Raizada, Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd

70 Quality Education via Digital Medium

Dheeraj Mehrotra, Deputy General Manager (DGM)

product profile 24 Labs on Demand

Higher education 32 Virtual Laboratories Perspectives from Higher Education Institutes Sheena Joseph, Elets News Network (ENN)

event report 37 Learning in the Digital Era Conclave Distance Education Through Online Platform 56 Enabling Next Gen Innovators in STEM Intel Launches Intel Future Scientist Program in India

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March / 2012

48 “CBT is not something you can do overnight” Fiona Collins, Managing Director, Pearson

VUE India

54 Private School Penetration Increases NIIT’s Revenue Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning

Solutions, NIIT Ltd

58 “We Don’t Like to Compete, Our Task is to Create Competition” N Subramanian, MD, TRS Forma

66 Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools

advertorial 20 Breaking the Language Barrier 30 Introducing 4th Generation English Language Learning Portable Language Lab 42 Edaxis LangLab: Integrated teaching of all language skills 46 ACTUniv (Academy for Computer Training (Guj.) Pvt Ltd

Corporate Diary 64 ‘Robotics’ as the fourth R Gagan Goyal, CEO, ThinkLABS

Investment File 72 Sustainable Capitalism in Education

5

BENEFITS OF LEARNING THROUGH ROBOTICS

inbox Advisory Board

Comments on ‘India Skills to set up Training Centre in Gujarat’

Prof. Asha Kanwar, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI) Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Principal Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Former Vice Chancellor, Indira GandhiI National Open University (IGNOU) Prof S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) President: Dr. M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Ravi Gupta gm Finance: Ajit Kumar dgm strategy: Raghav Mittal programme specialist: Dr. Rajeshree Dutta Kumar Partnerships & Alliances: Sheena Joseph, Shuchi Smita Editorial: Divya Chawla, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Anand Agarwal, Pragya Gupta, Shally Makin (editorial@elets.in)

Nice to see this development. Some facilitating thoughts comes to my mind and these are:1. Every student must become maths literate!

2.Should become master of 6RL elements of education 3. Should be trained in usage of open source soft-wares. 4. Elements of management skill relevant to “Local” areas. 5.Should include elements of “Professional Ethics”. Wishing you all Every Success!

Dr B S Sudhindra Comments on ‘Kennedy High School Guntur, Andhra Pradesh’ When schools provide good learning equipment, and also make it available to all students one-on-one basis, it creates an atmosphere of inquiry, inquisitiveness and exploration... leading to creative thinking, research on ideas and finally some kind of break-through in the students’ absorption... perhaps a handful of such students could turn out to be world-class innovators and scientists. This is the kind of nurturing that every school ought to provide its students. Best wishes to Kennedy High School.

Phaneendra V

Sales & Marketing: Delhi & ncr: Fahimul Haque, National Sales Manager, Mob: +91-8860651632, Jyoti Lekhi, Ragini Shrivastav, Rakesh Ranjan (sales@elets.in) Mumbai: Rachita Jha | Pune: Shankar Adaviyar Bangalore: Puneet Kathait | Hyderabad: Amit Kumar Pundhir | Ahmedabad: Sunil Kumar Circulation & Subscription: Jagwant Kumar, Mobile: +91-8130296484; Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 subscription@elets.in Design & Creatives: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore Web: Ishvinder Singh, Anil Kumar IMG: Gaurav Srivastava, Prateek Mittal IT infrastructure: Mukesh Sharma, Zuber Ahmed Events: Vicky Kalra Human resource: Sushma Juyal Legal: R P Verma Accounts: Anubhav Rana, Subhash Chandra Dimri All India Distribution by: Ibh Books & Magazines Distributors Pvt. Ltd Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLearning - G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA 201301, India, Phone: +91 120 2502181-85, Fax: +91 120 2500060 Email: info@digitalLearning.in digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

Owner, Publisher, Printer - Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media D-320, Sector 10, Noida, U.P. and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta

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digitalLEARNING

march / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

I am proud to hear this great news for shaping the talents of the kid right from start of his education with latest innovative skills. good to see and congratulate the director Mr. Srikant for taking initiative irrespective of the cost involved to groom the kid to face future world with hope, confidence and challenge also am proud to be his senior buddy of Sainik School Korukonda, the school which shaped to us to serve society to our best. Congrats madam Prinicipal and other staff for this novel state of tech in guntur. All the very best to all.

Hanumanthrao, Manager (Op) Siticable - Wire & Wireless (I) Ltd Comments on ‘CBSE to Include Practical Exams in CCE’ This is excellent efforts truly present students don’t really focus on practical exam. Moreover there are fixed experiments since last few years and students don’t learn to get research oriented. This will enhance scientific temperament and will truly encourage students to do new experiments relevant to current interest.

Also it will ensure attendance in the schools as most schools prepare students for competitive exams and practical/experiments session is compressed and completed in just 10-15 days as a formality.

Now CBSE is aligning the entire teacher community and students.

Teachers are going to gain respect and importance. My best wishes.

Anil

editorial

> The digitisation of our classrooms While on a broader level the debate on the best ways for educational institutes to invest wisely in ICT technology continues, it has quietly emerged that a vast majority of institutions in India are on way to having digital labs deployed in their classrooms. The digital labs allow for compelling multimedia lessons, and let students work at their own pace or in groups. The role of the teacher continues to be important. Students collaborate in groups, and swoop on the teacher for consultation.

The digital labs – science labs, math labs, robotic labs, language labs – that are being used in modern classrooms are different from what we used to have earlier.

They are not just standard computer based labs. The companies in the education space are now coming up with solutions that don’t require students to be sitting in front of the computer and looking blankly into the screen. The students have access to LCD screens, headsets, microphones, so that they can collaborate with other students in the class and beyond.

The teacher has access to a central station equipped with a monitor and keypad.

Through personal interventions and through the digital tools, the teacher is able to give individual attention to each one of his students. He or she can apportion time on the basis of the need of students. The weaker students no longer have to struggle at the blackboard in front of the class. This system of digital labs is especially helpful to the children with learning disabilities, as they are able to participate and succeed in mainstream classes.

However, it is also true that the digital labs business is going through a high-growth phase and hence it has some growing pains. Companies in the digital labs space are coming up with new innovations, but at times they have to go back to the drawing board to make their products more suitable for the needs of the Indian educational landscape. In the current issue of digitalLEARNING we have conducted an in depth exploration of the digital lab business in the country. Some companies have been clocking more than 100 percent year on year growth. There is an overwhelming view in the market that this kind of growth is sustainable at least for the next five years.

In the state of Maharashtra, in particular, there is lot of movement towards implementing digital labs in classrooms. To showcase the state’s prowess in the field of ICT, we have chosen Mumbai as the venue for the eMaharashtra 2012 (http:// emaharashtra.eletsonline.com/) in April. ICT is a playground for innovators, who can come from any part of the country or the world and have positive impact on the life of people in living in diverse geographical areas.

As always I look forward to having your feedback on this issue of digitalLEARNING.

DR Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in march / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

7

opinion

The Push

to Install Technologyrich Labs In educational institutes around the world, the push to install technology-rich labs is growing, so much so that many academics have started promoting technology as an appropriate tool and even a bridge between the students and their institutions. Digital labs help students in various ways, the most important of which is their ability to make students familiar with the high-tech tools that they might be using once they begin their professional life.

It is also true that students prefer to have learning environment that is in tune with their own knowledge, lifestyle and experiences. Yet, in many cases, there exists a great deal of disparity between the technologies – smartphones, notebooks, tablets, social media, etc. - that they use outside the school to those that they use inside the school. Students are twice as likely to respond to their teachers if enough technology is incorporated into the teaching process. It is clear that the shift towards using digital labs in modern classrooms is properly aligned with the needs of today’s students.

In order to garner a comprehensive view on the digital labs industry that has now started flourishing in India, digitalLEARNING interacted with a select group of companies that are engaged in developing digital labs for education purposes. The responses that we have received enable us to have a comprehensive overview of the business related and educational prospects of the digital labs industry in the country.

By Elets News Network (ENN)

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digitalLEARNING

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opinion

Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solutions & Holein-the-wall (HiWEL), NIIT Ltd., is responsible for driving the growth of NIIT’s business in government and private schools. He also looks after the Hole-in-the-wall (HiWEL) initiative, which aims to improve elementary education and life-skills of children.

Focus area for NIIT We are active across the entire education space. We have the IT Lab, which is a holistic IT education solution addressing the IT Curriculum for classes KG to XII. We also offer a state of the art math lab. We have launched a mobile science lab in association with Fourier Systems.

Price of the top selling product Our Math Lab solution comes with complete hardware, software and infrastructure support, including computers loaded with Windows XP, Antivirus software and Geometer’s Sketch pad for students and teachers. Depending on the features the price can range between `10 to `15 lakhs.

View on market size of digital lab business Education technology market in India is booming.

More and more schools are adapting these solutions and bringing new technology to students. Today we are providing services to around 2.5 lakh private schools. The K-12 market is growing at the rate of 10 percent annually.

Rate of growth in 2011? Expected rate in 2012?

The market has grown substantially in 2011 both in terms of expansion in private school market and penetration of ICT in government schools in various states. We expect similar high growth in 2012.

march / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

9

opinion

Jayaram Pillai, MD, National Instruments IndRA (India, Russia & Arabia), and Solaikutty Dhanabal, Academic Manager, National instruments, India, are active in the digital labs business in India.

Focus area for National Instruments ELVIS is a universal learning platform for students from Electronics Engineering to perform experiments throughout their curriculum. Like all other NI Products, it is based on the concept of Virtual Instrumentation where student used the power of LabVIEW software to customise the general purpose hardware. Our primary focus is to help students to learn new engineering concepts.

Is there scope for improvement in IT education in India?

Compared to OECD countries, India lags behind in implementation of IT in engineering education. Given the large number of engineering graduates India produces, there exists tremendous scope of improvement in the areas of Collaborative Learning, Remotely Reconfigurable educational platforms and Remote Labs.

Upcoming technological innovations Technological Innovations like Mobile Labs and Portable Labs have a huge potential for revolutionising engineering education in India.

Improving skills of engineers We believe that our engineers must be encouraged to move beyond simulation. They must be introduced to real-world constraints through lab experiments and Student Projects. This is the only way of improving their skills.

Sudarshan Borker, co-founder, IE Education, started his career in 2002 as a Sales Executive with a B2B offshore company in Bangalore.

Later he joined his brothers in Chennai to Cofound NextBiT Computing in 2005. He helped found IE Education in 2010 and is focused on making technology affordable in schools.

Top selling digital lab product We have deployed a number of Language Labs using the EduPC hardware and the Language application form English Edge. Our 30 Seater Learning Lab costs around `4 to `5 Lakhs, and our digital classroom solutions are priced at `15 lakhs.

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Debabrata Bagchi, CEO and founder, Sparsha Learning Technologies, is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and North-western University, Illinois. He has more than 11+ years experience in technology start-ups both in India and USA.

Focus area for Sparsha Learning Technologies Sparsha Learning Technologies works with Higher Educational Institutes to integrate course curriculum in iLearnMore suite of digital virtual labs. Teachers can use this platform to teach in a more engaged and interactive manner and as a result convert non-learners to learners.

Top selling digital lab product Our top selling Digital Lab product is in Analogue and Digital Electronics. The use of instruments like oscilloscopes and function generators in the system is helpful in making more familiar with devices and their workability in regards to circuit design and other aspects.

The system costs around $20 per student per year per virtual lab.

Digital Labs being planned for future We are already piloting Programming in C/ C++/JAVA/Python virtual labs. We are developing labs in control systems, digital image processing, databases and operating systems.

Market size of digital labs in India

Market size of digital labs business?

Growth rate for Sparsh Learning Technologies

The penetration of the digital labs market in India is quite small.

There is a huge scope for installing low cost solutions in the rural market. We look to attract investors to our organisation and expand our reach throughout India.

The size of the digital lab business in India is more than $200 million. In 2011 the growth rate for Sparsh was 40 percent. In 2012, we expect to grow at rates between 40 to 80 percent.

digitalLEARNING

march / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

opinion

Vivek Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Liqvid eLearning Services Pvt. Ltd., played a pivotal role in starting of eGurucool in 1998.

the per student per month model in which the price can range between `40 to `100 per student for a 3 year duration.

Top selling digital lab product

Market size of digital Labs business in India

English Edge is our top selling English Language Lab. It sells equally well in all the three segments of schools, colleges and vocational institutes. We are now seeing lots of interest in our portable language lab offering and customers from all three segments have signed up for these labs.

Price of the top selling product We have three pricing models. In

the per student per course model, we charge in the range of Rs. 500 to Rs. 2500 per student per course.

In the Per lab model, the price varies between `1.5 lakhs to `3.5 lakhs.

The AMC can be in the range of 10 percent of the price. Then there is in

Nirmala Sankaran, cofounder & Chief Evangelist, HeyMath!, used to serve as the vice president of Citibank’s Global Transactional Banking division before she became an entrepreneur and helped found a premier digital labs solution company.

During the next three years there is going to be huge growth in the market size. We expect 20,000 schools in India to implement language labs solutions in their classrooms.

Rate of growth in 2011?

Expected rate in 2012?

Our business is witnessing a healthy year on year growth rate of 100 percent.

Gagan Goyal, Founder and CEO, ThinkLABS Technosolutions Pvt Ltd., has a passion for robotics. In March 2010, he was named among India’s top 10 Young Entrepreneurs by Businessworld in March 2010.

Digital Labs already deployed Top selling digital labs product HeyMath! Zone is a vibrant and engaging learning environment that facilitates learning through a process of discovery and exploration. It caters to all kinds of learning and teaching styles. The price of HeyMath! Zone depends on the nature and size of implementation. The list price for setting up the HeyMath! Zone is `4.5 lacs per annum.

Rate of growth in 2011?

Expected rate in 2012?

In 2011, we had a growth rate of around 200 percent. In 2012, we expected a growth rate of at least 100 percent.

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digitalLEARNING

Are digital Labs cheaper than the traditional teaching tools?

Digital labs allow customisation of the school curriculum.

By using digital technology teachers are able to adapt the available resources for meeting the learning related needs of individual students. This ensures that digital labs are not only impactful, they are also cost effective. One of the biggest advantages of Digital Labs is that they make it easy for teachers to manage students with multiple learning abilities.

march / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Robotics Learning System (RLS) is a hands-on science learning platform, in which students are able to explore the fundamentals of Computer Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (CS-STEM) by building and programming robots.

The installation cost of the system comes out to around `4.5 lakhs over a period of three years.

Market size of robotic labs business in India It is hard for me to put a monetary figure to the market size. But there are over a lakh of premium private schools all of which pose as a target market for setting up robotics labs. So there is a huge potential.

Rate of growth in 2011? Expected rate in 2012?

We saw a 250 percent growth in revenue from robotics labs in 2011 over the preceding calendar year. We aim to achieve around 300 percent growth in 2012.

opinion

Shameema Parveen, CEO, Edutech, started her career as a management trainee and went on to become the CEO of one of the leading companies in the digital education space.

Price of Science Labs solutions It costs `1.35 lakhs to install the Science Labs in middle school. In case of high school, the cost goes up to `1.75 lakhs. In Senior School the cost is `3 lakhs.

State of the digital labs market The market is still in its infancy. We expect it to grow multi-fold in the coming years, as the market becomes more aware and better products are launched.

Top selling digital labs product Edutech Language Labs and Language Teaching Solutions can be used to teach and learn any language. Edutech’s ICT based Science Lab is a fully integrated solution, which provides students with portable hand-held devices for learning new lessons in a rather interesting way. Designed to meet the learning needs of CBSE, ICSE and IB curricula, our Science Lab is suitable for students of all age groups.

Timir Ghosh, Director North America, Edaxis, has extensive experience of leading major companies like Skyton, Electrovaya, Noble Group, AJ, BMTL, Modi Oliviti in Canada, East Africa and India. He has experience in technology, Education and KPO industry.

Top selling digital labs product Edaxis LangLab is an affordable multimedia platform for learning any language at any level, anywhere. It is a suite of software modules that can turn any computer lab or classroom with laptops into a multimedia language lab. A special hardware is not required with the system.

Are digital Labs cheaper than the traditional teaching tools?

Digital labs are certainly cheaper than traditional teaching tools. For instance, with our virtual lab for CAD/CAM, every student can write programs and test/update/modify the same by using the virtual lab. They can work on this at the time of their convenience.

Rita Raje, Commercial agent, WALDNER Laborund Schuleinrichtungen GmbH, is a specialist in educational architecture. Waldner is the leading innovator in the global digital education industry and the market leader for laboratory technology and laboratory equipment at the highest standard.

Labs deployed in India We have been installing labs in Indian Grade 5 to 12 schools since 2005. The labs are practically maintenance-free and meet stringent international safety standards.

Market size for labs business in India Price of top selling product Edaxis LangLab is most cost effective, as compared to any other language lab. For a system with 30 plus 1 terminals the company charges only about `70,000 for one time perpetual licence.

Expected growth rates in 2012 The company is aiming for a growth rate of at least 200 percent in year 2012.

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With rising number of schools in India warming up to digital methodologies for teaching, there exist a lot of potential for growth.

Top selling digital lab solution Our digital science lab allows students to perform experiments wherever they are – in the classroom, in the lab or at home. For instance, if you want to study the water quality at the beach, a lake or the tap, this mobile lab can help you collect and save real time data for further analysis in the classroom.

opinion

Srikanth B Iyer, COO, Pearson Education Services, started his career with Wipro in 1993, but he soon left to chase his own entrepreneurial dreams. Pearson Education Services was formerly known as Edurite Technologies, and Iyer is responsible for driving the company to a position of leadership in the e-education space.

Top selling digital labs product English Edge and our Digitally Grammar and comprehension product are our top sellers. English Edge is an excellent tool for building a student’s spoken English skills; it subtly teaches grammar and pronunciation.

Are digital Labs cheaper than the traditional teaching tools?

Digital tools are far more superior to traditional teaching methods. They are convenient to use, cheaper and easy to update and of course a lot more interactive. Also with digital aids students can find answers more quickly and easily.

Digital Labs planned in future The process of enhancing our digital products is a continuous one. Our in-house teams constantly work on enhancing our existing products by adding more content and them more and more interactive and user friendly.

Deepak Bhardwaj, Director, Corporate Affairs, Texas Instruments, works closely with the Government of India and various state governments, as well as the key Industry and trade associations and Universities, to evolve new ideas for trade and policy.

Focus area of Texas Instruments (TI) Texas Instruments (TI) has developed easy to use math and science lab systems. Science and math tools such as data collection probes that work with TI-Nspire CX (Student handhelds) allow students to predict experiment outcomes, quickly collect data and analyse results.

Market size of digital lab business in India The market is scattered between different kinds of lab solution providers.

Considering the radical changes in the Indian education system and the enhancements by Indian boards of education, we see this market to be growing at an extremely fast pace.

Rate of growth in 2011? Expected rate in 2012?

TI saw reasonable growth in 2011. We are a global leader in math and science labs. We expect to see a good growth in 2012 and beyond, as our technology is a “one of a kind” solution that meets the needs of classroom learning, maths and science lab activities and much else.

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k-12

Concepts + Simulation +Tech  Labs 21st Century + Aptitude digitalLEARNING has conducted a survey to map the usage of digital labs in India. Around 500 schools across India participated in the survey and shared their experience of using digital Labs

By Pragya Gupta, Elets News Network (ENN)

M

ention of the word ‘lab’ automatically pops out a picture of room or building equipped with tools for scientific research, or teaching, or for the manufacture of drugs or chemicals into minds. Checking the acidic and alkaline nature of any liquid by help of a litmus paper is one the most usual experiments that students in junior or middle level classes are often required to do. In the late seventies, eighties and even till the late nineties Litmus paper experiment, observing onion peels through a microscope used to be a popular pastime in the school laboratories.

With the advent of digital technology, the scope of the experiments that students can conduct has been enhanced to a large extent. The modern digital labs are not limited in scope to just basic apparatuses like microscope or beaker or Petri dish or subject. They subsume a blend of cutting edge technology and simulation techniques and they are capable of enhancing the scope of education in a rather transformative way.

With digital tools teaching moves beyond the stage of cram-

ming, it is more about learning through experience and observation. Today we have labs for almost every subject - Science,

MARCH / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

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k-12

Are they Cost effective?

Math Labs, English and language labs – all of which are a combination of hardware, software application and simulation. Robotics Labs are also getting quite popular.

With digital labs, students have the opportunity of visualising abstruse concepts in Maths, Science, Engineering in a virtual medium. For instance, the math lab comprises of Geometer’s sketchpad software, technology applications, videos, manipulative, measuring Instruments, tables, charts, etc. English labs have brought revolution in learning a language that has always seemed quite difficult to many Indian students. A typical Language lab comprises of software tools that help students improve their accent, vocabulary and grammar. digitalLEARNING has conducted a survey to map the usage of digital labs in India. Around 500 schools across India participated in the survey and shared their experience of using digital Labs.

Adoption: The level of Adoption among schools has been increasing. With CBSE coming up with a new mandate in favour of labs, a lot of schools are installing digital lab solutions in their classrooms. The future of the digital lab industry seems quite bright.

English is the weakest area in India, hence the adoption of English lab is much higher in school segment followed by Science and Math Lab.

Do teachers feel comfortable while teaching through this technology?

Some major players in the market are Wordsworth, Math Buddy, Liqvid, Orell, Hey Math, Exlpore learning, LAZ, Razz Kids, Gizzmos, Educomp Solutions Ltd, Apple, Adobe, Extramarks, TAB TREE, Edaxis.

Curiosity about Labs

Teachers’ Expectations from the new labs • “Something more advanced than what we are currently using” • That are really beneficial and time saving than hands on experience • Tablet based labs

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MARCH / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

k-12

Experience with vendors

Quotes from schools “Digital Lab experiments can be explained to the students in class itself.”

Prabhu Dayal, Faculty Head, Computer Science, Modern Child Public School

“It saves time, deep practice, reports, assessments.”

Deepak BV, Principal Consultant, JILIT

“Students get clarity and retain what they learn through digital experiments.”

Prantika Das, TGT Computer, The Millennium School, Noida

“It saves consumables. We can observe results of some impractical experiments.

It saves time, manpower.”

Geetanjali Grover, Informatics Coordinator, BGS International Public School

“Especially with the tablets like iPads we are able to create experiential learning for every student at their own pace with minimum resources and maximum excitement.”

G R Sivakumar, Principal, Delhi Public School, Surat

MARCH / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

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advertorial

Breaking the Language Barrier

S

anako Corporation is the global leader in developing language teaching software and language labs. They have worked closely with the customers around the world for the past 50 years to enable better speaking, comprehension and communication skills for language learners. Their solutions have been deployed at some of India’s premier institutions. Since, launching its operations in India in November 2009, EBS has been one of the early adopters of Sanako’s services.

Sanako Study 1200 Lab at EBS After an exhaustive review of Era Business School’s (EBS) requirements, Sanako recommended Sanako Study 1200. This learning system includes all the features and functions that are essential for effective and enjoyable teaching and learning, such as screen transfer features, audio and text communication tools, web browsing and programme launch capabilities, file functions, and classroom management and control features. It even facilitates group and individual learning through one-to-one communication between a teacher and a student and among students, that is peer-to-peer learning.

Key Benefits for EBS Language Agnostic Solution: A prime example of where Era Business School’s faculty found the Sanako Study 1200 solution extremely useful was in teaching Mandarin to the students; it is considered one of the most difficult languages in the world. The solution set-up allowed the teachers to decide which student would converse with whom in a group, which in turn enabled the smart students and quick learners to help the shy and lessskilled students. Furthermore, the Sanako Study 1200 solution facilitated one-to-one, peer-to-peer, one-to-many, group leaderto-student group conversations. In fact, the faculty at EBS discovered that peer-topeer training gave better results than tutorto-student training.

“Language Lab has enabled better man-

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agement of language classes. We see unlimited opportunities to enhance our language instruction offered by the system. Teachers and students are more motivated and the learning experience is richer”, says Dr Sanjiv Marwah, Director, EBS “With Sanako Study 1200, Voice Insert & Voice Graph Activity, I have managed to overcome my fear of public speaking and gain much more confidence,” Anil Sharma, Student

Sanako Lab 100 at CIIL Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is an apex government institute in India that promotes multilingualism and teaches various Indian languages to thousands of young and energetic students in India, through its regional language centers.

One of the biggest branches of CIIL is its northern wing - Northern Regional Language Center (NRLC) in Patiala. The key languages taught at NRLC, Patiala are Kashmiri, Urdu, Dogri and Punjabi.

CIIL believes in using different technical aids to help enhance language trainings and is pleased to be associated with Sanako Corporation.

Sanako Corporation has implemented Sanako Lab 100 at Northern Regional Language Center (NRLC) in Patiala. This learning system supports different facets of language learning, from listening comprehension and model imitation to discus-

sion exercises and interpretation activities.

Students operate a handy User Audio Panel that combines traditional recorder functions with additional language learning and testing features which make lesson participation easy, as well as enable students to have an active role in the learning process.

“At NRLC we are glad to be associated with Sanako Corporation.

We have been using Sanako Language software for over five years now. The Lab not only provides the students and teachers of NRLC with audio/ visual aids, but also simplifies and makes the entire process of learning the language effective and interesting”, says Dr R K Bhat, Principal, Northern Regional Language Center (NRLC), Patiala Students can simulate real life situations, such as conversations, phoning, presentations and interpretation, keeping students motivated and excited while acquiring needed language skills for personal and professional development. It allows more students to practice speaking in less time and focuses students on comprehension and fluency of speech.

With its exceptional audio quality, Sanako Lab 100 offers students the opportunity to develop their foreign language skills, as well as their listening proficiency, in an environment that is entertaining and stimulating and which promotes effective language acquisition.

Technology for Effective Language Learning.

We at Sanako have worked closely with our customers for nearly 50 years towards a single goal: to enable better speaking, comprehension and communication skills for language learners.

Sanako offers software- and hardwarebased language labs that allow teachers to choose any content they wish to use in teaching - from audio CDs and internet to teacher-created content. Sanako products are not limited to certain languages; they can be used to teach and learn virtually any language.

Sanako has helped national governments and ministries of education around the world to achieve national education goals by delivering region- and even nationwide solutions.

Sanako Corporation (India) Regus Gurgaon Metropolitan Business Centre Pvt Ltd. JMD Regent Square, 6th Floor, Room No: 602 MG Road, Gurgaon – 122022 Tel : +91-124-4711769 Fax: +91 124 471 2001 info@sanako.com www.sanako.com

K-12

Chemistry Labs

Simulating the Lab Experience!

Chemistry beyond textbooks happens to students when they enter the chemistry lab and take on the experiments live. Imagine if you could do all this and much more just sitting into your classrooms in a ‘Virtual Chemistry Lab’. Read on to find out more.

By Rachita Jha, Elets News Network (ENN)

E

very child is unique and so is the way they learning.

More often than not these learning outcomes come from experiences beyond the classrooms. Is it justified to expect all the students to learn and grasp equally by following just one classroom instruction medium. As proposed by Howard Gardner with this Theory of Multiple Intelligences, there are nine different intellectual learning orientations. Each orientation corresponds to a set of learning styles. Kinesthetic orientation learns best with experimentation and activities, linguistic by reading, musical through association with rhythms and rhymes. While we connect with them with regular classroom instructions and discussion, only a part of the class connects best with these sessions. Science subjects become part of the real word when students experience the theories and concepts hands-on in the laboratories, as in chemistry when all the reactions and equations come alive in the lab!

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Application-oriented Experimental Space Any Learning Lab provides for holistic learning approach and better understanding of theoretical concepts by providing concept simulation and assembly, interesting reading of subject topics through the comic books, animations and videos detailing the concepts etc.

It acquaints students by not just elaborating the concept but also their applications. The retention of concepts and, thus, the learning outcomes are maximized as students relate to these concepts. This also helps in developing a scientific temperament amongst the students and inculcating innovativeness in them. The same is applicable for Chemistry – a virtual lab experience with access to many elements and reagents sparks the imagination and curiosity in students pushing them to self-learn which builds the continuous learning approach among them.

K-12

A Learning Lab for 9 styles of learning Iken Learning Lab developed

by Mexus Education sparks the imagination and curiosity in students pushing them to self-learn which builds the continuous learning approach among them. The Lab enables a school to bring together several modes of instructions that relate with all of the nine styles of learning. The kit comprises of Iken zing - a series of interactive touch-read books, Iken Joy– A range of curricular concept developed to inculcate activity-based learning model, Iken Math - A worksheet designed to take students through mathematical concepts in creative and engaging fashion, Iken Pro Series – A wide range of self learning short films on global best practices, Iken Library that seamless integrates digital content repository and a Learning management System and many more learning tools for a fun-filled teaching-learning environment.

Chemistry Virtual Labs There is a growing focus on practical classes especially in science subjects across schools in India. As a result we see the rise in popularity of simulations in science subjects and its effectiveness in learning outcomes that has led to the arrival of virtual platforms of learning in the education sector. Experimental work is core to the learning of chemistry, however although we get introduced to the chemistry concepts in 4th or 5th grade, the live experiments in the laboratory only happens in the 9th grade. An early exposure to these concepts in a virtual simulations environment coupled with scenario-based learning activities, and concepts tests incorporated into a variety of teaching approaches as pre-labs and in-class activities for individuals or groups can make the subject more interesting for the students and help them revisit the chemistry concepts as they move up in to higher classes.

Virtual blast!

The arrival of leaning labs has set a remarkable paradigm shift in Indian Education scenario. Assembling Science and Math concepts in the form toys help in taking students through the lesson while weighing them down with tedious theories and textbook concepts. As the attention span of kindergarten children is very less, through the interactive touch-read books, there is both audio and visual connect which retains their attention for a longer duration making it possible to read through the concepts. This also pushes up the engagement level of the class. The teacher also benefits from this platform as formative assessment system offers the schools a tool to measure the effectiveness of the session and identify the level of the basic understanding of the class. This allows teacher to us, practice remedial teaching, thus, allowing continuous assessment.

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product profile

Preview: Labs on Demand Company: Edutech India P Ltd

Company: Edaxis

Category: Robotics Lab

Category: Language Lab

Target Vertical: K-12, Higher Education

Target: K-12, Higher Education

Product Name: LEGOMindstormsfor Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Details: With LEGO MINDSTORMS Education students can build robots and use software to plan, test and modify sequences of instructions from a variety of real life robotic behaviours.

They gather and analyse data from sensors using data logging functionalities such as graph view. Robotics is an exciting way to bring science, technology, engineering and mathematics to a classroom.

Includes the programmable NXT Brick, providing on-brick programming and data logging, three interactive servo motors, ultrasonic, sound, light and two touch sensors, a rechargeable battery, connecting cables, and full-colour building instructions.

Product Name: ILingua “Ilingua” is a reference which teaches students “how to pronounce English words and phrases correctly and without accent”. Ilingua further includes Listening, Writing and Grammar parts but there is no lesson system in it. This educational method uses “BBC pronunciation” which is the standard way of speaking on BBC radio and on television. In this programme there are 5000 voices already recorded into the dictionary, and about 1500 multimedia exercises divided into six chapters.

The training is based on the comparison of your own pronunciation with the sample not only orally, but also visually, by graphic on the screen of the monitor.Bilingual version of software is also available which helps a person to learn English from Hindi or other Indian Languages.

Price: 7-8K for single user licence and 85 plus taxes for 30+1 user.

Key Learning Values: • Developing solutions, selecting, building, testing and evaluating • Brainstorm to find creative alternative solutions • Learn to communicate, share ideas and work together • Hands-on experience with sensors, motors and intelligent units

Company: Sparsh Learning Category: Robotics Lab Target Vertical: Higher Education Product Name: iLeanmore iLeanMore platform contains various advanced exploratory scenarios and real time application development, which focuses on improvements in student learning by providing

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intellectually stimulating problems that demand higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.

USP: No dependency on other hardware resources. Only windows based laptops, desktops are required.

Price: 20$ per student per year per virtual lab.

Upcoming Digital Labs: Sparsh is piloting Programming in C/C++/JAVA/Python virtual labs and also developing labs in control systems, digital image processing, databases and operating systems.

product profile

Company Name: Sanako Product Name: Sanako Study solo Sanako Study Solo is a powerful language learning software application with integratedcontent for improving language skills either independently or in the language classroom. Sanako offes selection of content modules to be used exclusively in Study Solo. This off-the-shelf modular content includes different types of exercises for studying English, and is designed to develop all four key skills of language learning: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Content for exploration of English at different levels and with different end goals will be available.In the future content will also be available for other languages. Sanako will also be offering services for larger projects where content can be customised for specific needs.

Taking Study Solo into use is easy, and provides Sanako customers with a great stand-alone option for language study. After purchase it can quickly be activated by a token availablefrom Sanako’s internet site. Content modules can also be easily downloaded from the internet and quickly in-

stalled into the application’s content library, where users can actively interact with the content and start improving their language skills immediately.

Combining interactive multimedia content and the application of Study Solo makes the language learning not only fun but also very rewarding. Sanako Study Solo has effective exercises for learning pronunciation and intonation – crucial elements when communicating in a foreign language. Most importantly today’s IT-literate students are more motivated when using multimedia tools in general and the same is true for language learning.

Company: NIIT Category: Maths Lab Target: K-12 NIIT’s Math Lab builds an appealing world full of color, touch, sound and exploration around the ‘dry’ subject of Mathematics. It comes with multiple Teaching and Learning Aids like Technology Applications, Videos, Manipulative, Measuring Instruments, Tables and Charts.

Theme based ambience complete with chairs, tables, posters, floor tiles which creates the right environment.

It helps student understanding Math concepts using concrete objects and improve confidence through learning by doing. It helps teachers to give individual attention to students, promote project based learning.

This unique digital lab is the perfect mixture of technology enabled learning and has the following unique features: • Opportunities for students to explore, reflect and interpret ideas presented through various media • Exposure to a variety of strategies and perspectives in solving problems individually and collaboratively • Facility to frame and test hypothesis, identify, describe, formulate and reformulate problems • Availability of models, Charts, Teaching Aids, Manipulative and Interactive activities to verify math facts and properties

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Specialized Software tools such as Geometer’s Sketchpad to enhance the learning of subjects like Geometry, Algebra and Trigonometry more interactively Math Lab comes with complete hardware, software and infrastructure support. It comes with computers loaded with Windows XP, Antivirus software and Geometer’s Sketch pad for students and teacher. Multimedia based Teaching Learning Material with 487 Activities, Teaching aids like Manipulative, Posters, Charts, Graphs, Measuring Instruments, Faculty Guide and Videos. Theme based ambience with chairs, tables, posters, floor tiles which creates the right environment. The price range is Rs.10-15 lacs.

•

product profile

Company: ThinkLABS Category: RoboLAB - Robotics Learning System( RLS ) Lab Type: (Language, Science, math, Robotic, etc.): Robotics Target Vertical(s): Schools, Jr Colleges Features and specifications: The hardware “i-Pitara Pro” has numerous components including 4 types of sensors, micro-controller with memory, remote-control unit and more than 70 building parts, which ensures multiple robot designs by clever and skillful crafting.

The software “CiMPLE” is the key feature of RLS. It has not only won hearts of students but it is also the first-ever brand ambassador of the NOKIA - QT Platform (CiMPLE won the recognition from among 85 competing software entries worldwide). CiMPLE is a Visual Programming Language that highlights the relevance of programming (logic and algorithm). A school student does not

need to write the actual code. He/she will just drag and drop various elements and build the program for his robot. We have provided numerous options in the software to facilitate students to discover their creative potential and build their problem solving skills. For those who want to learn more, we have provided with a source code editor option too.

• The RLS content is mapped with the existing science, math and programming curriculum in the school.

• Using i-pitara and CiMPLE, students can make numerous robots, only limited by their creativity.

• The micro-controller supports 6 sensors at a time (highest among the competitors). We therefore provide

highest number and types of sensors in our kits.

• Our product costs only 60% of the internationally available products.

• Virtual robotics, an innovation which helps students explore their artistic dimension and teaches students to animate the robots on screen has been developed in the form of ‘Virtu’ Price: Minimum investment of `4.5 Lakhs over three years.

Company: Pearson Cogmed Category: Cogmed-Working Memory Training Lab Type: Science (Cognitive Training) Target Vertical(s): School students- Pre Primary, Primary, Middle, Secondary& Senior Secondary segments

Features and specification: Cogmed is a learning solution in the ICT space because of its focus on addressing a difficulty in learning rather than enhancing the mode of learning. Working memory constraint is a major cause of difficulty in learning. Cogmed is a cognitive training program that improves attention in those with working memory constraints, using an interactive digital platform and

a highly animated user interface. Based on a foundation of extensive research and backed by validation in prestigious research institutions all over the world, Cogmed is a fusion of cutting-edge research on memory with innovative computer game design and close professional support. The digital platform enables a trained Cogmed Coach to monitor the progress of each student, and motivate her to ensure completion of the program.

Highlights: • Five weeks of engaging sessions using an animated and highly interactive game design format, for five days a week.

• Training can be taken at school as well as at home.

• Monitored by a cogmed coach and overseen by a psychologist.

• Each session adapts its difficulty level in real time to ensure the child is always training at the upper limit of her working memory capacity.

• Three versions available: Cogmed JM (Pre Primary School), Cogmed QM ( Primary & Middle School) and Cogmed RM (Secondary & Senior Secondary School).

• Successfully implemented in schools globally and available in over 35 countries.

Price: `15,500+tax, per training (one training per user)

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product profile

Company: Waterford Category: Waterford Assessments of Core Skills (WACS) Target Vertical: K-12 Features: Waterford Assessments of Core Skills (WACS), an adaptive reading assessment for pre-Kindergarten to second grade students, is designed to assess the following reading skill areas: letter names, letter sounds, initial sounds, blending, segmenting, real words, sight words, nonwords, vocabulary, and listening and reading comprehension.

The major strength of WACS is its adaptive sequencing technology. As children correctly answer questions within a content area, the questions’ difficulty level will increase up to a fourth-grade level. If a child fails to answer questions correctly within a content area, he or she will receive less difficult questions in order to identify the area in which more instruction and practice is needed. In this way, WACS can indicate the full range of a child’s capabilities rather than just providing a satisfactory or unsatisfactory assessment, thereby providing invaluable information about a child’s needs, abilities, and strengths. In addition, because the test adapts to the child’s input, a significant level of detailed information can be gleaned in one testing session, thereby reducing both testing time and the stress associated with multiple testing ses-

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sions. WACS designers have developed 4 times the number of items on a typical elementary-school–level assessment: 30% at the beginner level; 40 percent at the intermediate level; and 30 percent at the advanced level for each grade per content area.

WACS is based on nationally recognized guidelines for reading assessment and scientific research, including the guidelines presented in the National Reading Panel’s report, “Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction,” which established guidelines for educators, curriculum developers, school administrators, and assessment content designers.

advertorial

Portable Introducing 4th Generation English Language Learning

Language Lab T

he EnglishEdge Portable Language lab leverages technology to make learning interactive, interesting and engaging. It is an innovative model that provides multiple tablets ranging from 21 – 30 on a single trolley. The trolley comes equipped with a centralized charging unit and provides a wireless environment for the tablets.

The wireless connectivity provides strong real time student-teacher interaction. Internet access opens up new channels & provides access to variety of relevant online content. This content can then be used to create engaging discussion scenarios.

Salient Features: Enables less confident speakers to express uninhibitedly in front of fellow learners • All the learners in the class, including the weaker ones, can now record individually, without the fear of standing in front of fellow learners.

• The simultaneous recording feature ensures 10 times more speaking time over traditional classroom.

Allows for creation of user generated videos that can be shared for immediate and active feedback in the classroom • High quality video recording of group activities, like Role plays, group discussions & presentations.

• Lets the learners and teachers to thoroughly analyze the performance • Provide appropriate feedback on English communication, personality, confidence and body language.

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advertorial

Open (Wireless) Learning Environment which enables learners & teacher to spread out & collaborate • The trainer can move around freely in the class and project content from anywhere.

• She has full control of the learners’ content and their performance. Learners have the freedom to move around, spread out, collaborate and work together

This institute is an up and coming new college with a state of art infrastructure and is open to explore new age learning approaches and technologies. They like the overall concept of open – wireless language learning environment and video based learner activities as an effective –fresh learning approach.

Features of EnglishEdge

Curtails the investment required in expensive real estate for large physical labs • No need to invest in a physical space for classroom/lab.

• No messy network cabling and air- conditioning required.

• The trolley moves to the place of learning and converts the classroom into an interactive, activity-based learning environment.

Breaks free from dependence on unreliable electricity • The product lets you charge the tablets in a minimum power situation.

• It allows you to run a complete day’s class without any interruption, even in the absence of electricity.

“My sincere appreciation for the excellent co-operation and hard work put in by your team at EnglishEdge to develop the English eLearning module for Navjyoti-IGNOU Community College. I am glad to inform you that the module is most innovative and advanced, which is easy to understand and meets all our and students’ expectations. I am also proud to mention that the auditors of ISO 9001 certification have also acknowledged the same”. - Dr Kiran Bedi, General Secretary, Navjyoti India Foundation

Meant for learners who are familiar with English but haven’t had sufficient exposure to it. The exercises and activities are especially designed to suit their needs.

Meant for people who’ve been educated with English as a second language. The aim is to concentrate on Pronunciation, Grammar, and Listening Comprehension, thus improving Fluency.

Our First Customers Shemford School, Allahabad One of the first schools in India to adopt the 4th Generation Language Learning Lab Both, teachers and the management were equally excited about the technology. While management found great value in its portability and non-dependence on electricity, teachers were thoroughly impressed with the curriculum followed and the ability to use real time video for feedback.

JRE Group of Institutions (Educomp – Raffles JV) One of the first colleges in India to adopt the 4th Generation Language Learning Lab

Meant for people who can speak the language but still need to refine and polish their English skills. Here learners move to the next level of English Learning and are exposed to foreign accents to help them improve their communication skills.

MARCH / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

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Higher education

Virtual Laboratories

Perspectives from Higher Education Institutes Virtual laboratories today have surfaced as an economical alternative to actual lab experiments. Virtual laboratories have facilitated quality improvement, reduced the time taken for development and testing cycles and thereby have helped cut cost and promote efficiency. We take a look at the perspectives from academicians and the myriad use of Virtual Laboratories in educational institutes

By Sheena Joseph, Elets News Network (ENN)

L

aboratories form a significant aspect of engineering education today. They are a part and parcel of practical training and experience for students. Physical laboratories, or the conventional labs, however, take up a significant amount of space, make use of real engineering equipments and need constant technical support and manpower for maintenance.

Virtual laboratories, also known as virtual labs, or cyberlabs, have slowly and gradually become meaningful alternatives to physical labs. With the arrival of latest computer technologies, webbased laboratories are being utilised as a substitute to actual labs. Varied engineering and scientific disciplines are making use of virtual labs using different forms of simulation technologies at their educational institutes.

Virtual laboratories have come in as a boon to engineering institutes across India. Of late, several software packages have come into existence that permit creation of laboratory environments with access to simulations and real equipments via a remote client web interface.

Prof Badhopadhyay, Vice Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University elaborates, “There could be different types of Virtual Labs: One is the simulation software based labs. Second is where the institute is connected to a laboratory at a distant location, and third is where there is no human intervention.”

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Virtual instruments give the complete characteristics of actual instruments, which enable us to analyse the real systems with the help of computer systems Ashok Verghese Director, Hindustan Institution of Technology and Science

Varied types of laboratories may be used by educational institutes based on their need and requirements.

“Virtual Instrumentation is a breakthrough technology which puts the focus on the engineering concept rather than the equipment. It encourages students to build their own customized instruments with general purpose hardware and customizable software”, says Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director(IndRA) at National Instruments.

Laboratories with Distance Access Network Virtual Laboratory (NetVL) provides remote access to engineering equipments through the use of the internet. An internet browser with Java and internet connection is enough to enable this access. These devices can either be

real or virtual. Information and Communication Technologies are being increasingly used to enable access to laboratory experiments by students in remote and distant locations. Distance is no longer a barrier and students can learn laboratory experiments even through virtual labs.

However, the advantages of Virtual Labs, according to experts, are not uniform. Distant virtual laboratories may have certain shortcomings. This includes instances where students may not necessarily be available for experiments at one particular time period. Distant virtual laboratories also require the presence of a trained technical manpower at the laboratory in order to ensure proper functioning. Experiments will also be dependent on the number of real devices that may be available at a time. Only one user would be able to access the

Higher education

IP University will soon be upgrading to Virtual Laboratories as a part of NMEICT programme Prof Badhopadhyay Vice Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

Virtual laboratories remove the maintenance costs that form a part of having high cost equipments Prof Pankaj Jalote Director, IIIT- Delhi device. In some cases, the overall expenditure of the virtual system including those on devices, webcams, software and technical staff may turn out to be costly for several institutes.

The use of virtual laboratories may be justified in areas where the learners are in remote locations and the cost of building laboratories may be too high.

Simulated Virtual Laboratories The major hitch with actual laboratories and that with distance virtual laboratories is that during the pro-

cess of experimentation, there may be instances where equipments may break or get destroyed. Repair and maintenance of damaged devices are typically costly and would require the presence of qualified personnel.

Substituting actual equipments with simulators would help surmount this problem. In this, the equipments which are available with the students are fully simulated by computers. There are two ways of creating simulated virtual laboratories: The first way is to develop a simulator in general purpose language and other method is to use general purpose simulation software.

However, the simulator must be able to completely replicate the effects of the real device. It has been observed that simulated laboratories are very useful and effective for pretraining students. “Virtual instruments give the complete characteristics of the actual instruments which enable us to analyse the real systems with the help of computer systems,” says Ashok Verghese, Director, Hindustan Institution of Technology and Science.

“Virtual laboratories are no doubt cost effective in the learning process.

All engineering institutes may not be able to afford high cost equipments.

But I still feel that students must also have hands on experience. Virtual labs may be helpful in removing initial inhibitions but one should also perform experiments by hand”, says Prof Bandhopadhyay. “I personally feel that students ought to go near the experi-

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Higher education

CASE STUDY

National Institute of Technology, Karnataka SOLVE: The Virtual Lab @ NITK Surathkal Funded by National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, (NMEICT), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, The Center for System Design at NITK aims to enhance the learning experience of students through experiential learning of science, engineering and technology in a virtual learning environment at preferred location, time and pace.

The center will set up state of art virtual experimentation facilities (simulation) in selected areas of engineering & science which can be used both through remote access and on site experimental work

The centre has made Science and Engineering education more experiential by having virtual laboratory experiments of almost all the basic concepts learnt at various levels. The virtual lab experiments (remote triggered) are carried out with remote computer access to laboratory instruments and equipments. This allows the students at any location to conduct actual experiments at anytime with the help of information and communication technology (ICT).

Virtual Lab experiments on science and math’s education can help the school students and pre-university students to have better appreciation of the

With the massive requirement of engineers in the coming years, engineering institutes can very well use Virtual Laboratories to provide laboratory experience to students.

Prof Prem Vrat Vice Chancellor, ITM University, Gurgaon

ments and they have to see it to believe it”, he adds. Virtual labs contribute in terms of providing confidence to students and removes initial anxieties and stress.

Virtual Labs under NMEICT Programme ‘Virtual Labs’, which have gained mileage under the National Mission on Education through ICT, is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which brings together ten national institutes to collaborate for research and education.

The main purpose of the national mis-

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sion on ICT has been to offer good quality personalised and interactive academic modules through the internet, intranet and through satellite communication to diverse number of learners present in different higher education institutions at an ‘anytime, anywhere’ mode. The service so provided is free of cost. Prof Badhopadhyay while providing a brief on the laboratories present at the University, elucidates that state of the art laboratories in Applied Science, Chemical Technology, IT, Computer Science or even for Soft Sciences, like Management Education are present at the

basic concepts and attract them set higher educational goals.

“Highlighting the partnerships of NITK, Dr Dr. K V Gangadharan, Coordinator of SOLVE @ NITK S states, “An MOU has been signed with NITK Surathkal with M/s. National Instruments, Bangalore (NI) in the area of Centre for Graphical System Design. Centre is also pursuing many industries and R&D labs to have active collaborations and MOUs.” Source: www.solve.nitk.ac.in

University. All these laboratories are technology enabled. “IP University will soon be upgrading to Virtual Laboratories as a part of NMEICT programme”, he adds.

An innovative intervention in the field of technology, Virtual Labs provide for access to real virtual laboratories to all educational institutions. Virtual labs are a combination of innovative engineering and objective conceptualization methods to provide interactive learning outcomes.

A Cost Effective Option The cost to set-up a Virtual Laboratory is relatively very low as compared to real laboratories. Unlike real laboratories, replacements that occur on account of malfunction, damage etc. are not required for Virtual Laboratories. “Real time projects have to be done at real values. As we experiment, there will be some other external factors which also affect the experiment. Simulation laboratories will help us see the expected output and at the same time eliminate the costs involved in real time difficulties”, says Dr Verghese “Virtual laboratories does remove the maintenance costs that are a part of

Higher education

Virtual Instrumentation is a breakthrough technology which puts the focus on the engineering concept rather than the equipment

having high cost equipments�, adds Prof Pankaj Jalote, Director, IIIT- Delhi.

Prof Prem Vrat, Vice Chancellor, ITM University, Gurgaon seconds the opinion that Virtual Laboratories resolve the issue of having to spend high investment on equipments. “Engineering education is very capital intensive, and with the massive requirements of engineers in the coming years, engineering institutes can very well use Virtual Laboratories to provide laboratory experience to students.�

Jayaram Pillai Managing Director(IndRA), National Instruments

What Educational Institutes Have to Say digitalLEARNING did a sample survey of 25 higher education institutes to find out the extent of technological integration and perspective on the usage of Virtual Laboratories in educational institutes. The survey reveals a positive approach towards integration of ICTs in education and tilts towards the advantages of labs in educational institutes.

Flexibility, convenience, and cost effectiveness have been the major reasons for the acceptance of virtual labs as an alternative to actual physical labs.

Academicians and experts are of the opinion that experiments can be done without actually going into the lab. Virtual experiments bring out better results. Simulations and other vir-

<< Does the institute have Virtual Instrument (VI) and Object Oriented Programming modules for different courses and research areas?

<< Has the institute introduced virtual instrumentation (VI) for simulation and analysis?

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<< Do you think virtual instruments provide an advantage in the engineering process?

tual lab work is the best way to practice for many of those experiments which otherwise would not be possible in labs.

Pedagogical discourses currently reveal the fact that virtual form of communication and processes of educational information is potent instrument to bring transition in the formal interaction.

However, it can be effectively said that Virtual Laboratories, with all their advantages, are yet to be completely integrated into the technical education system. The concept is highly appreciated and accepted, although a complete transformation to virtual experiments is generally not encouraged. The coming years will witness larger number of institutes adopting virtual instruments.

<< Do you think developing a virtual control system laboratory simulation module is more cost effective than spending heavy investments for laboratory infrastructure?

event report

Learning in the Digital Era Conclave

Distance Education

Through Online Platform

T

he next wave in distance education –Learning in the Digital Era Conclave’ series of summit was held in Mumbai and Delhi by LearningMate in partnership with Fortress and Digital Learning Magazine to explore and engage with education community on their views and suggestions on using digital platform to connect the teaching and learning community. The seminar was aimed at higher education in states that included a mix of private universities, vocational training companies and large education bodies – both government and semi-government.The summit was held in partnership with Fortress Financials a leading educational technology company and Digital Learning Magazine in Mumbai and New Delhi.

e-Readiness in Higher Education As educational institutes try and scale up infrastructure to reach out to more students, the challenge to scale the teaching and learning process remains largely unaddressed. As a comparative, to the market, SamudraSen, CEO, LearningMate said, “What happened in the USA a decade ago in terms of creating robust education technology systems and services to manage the same, is just about beginning here. While many are keen to adopt scalable technology, the lack of quality service providers is rare and there is no precedent in the market. The second issue is not just getting the right technology in place, but supporting it with the right content that is pedagogically sound for a fulfilling distance learning experience”. The last piece is the

support services in terms of training the instructors on how to manage and conduct distance education programs using technology. “Thus these three pillars – technology, content and services demand a solutions approach and there in no one size fits all. I am sure very soon the answers to this will be found and like Blackboard, and others, we will soon see a player in India emerge with similar strengths and of significant scale that can service the market” he adds.

LearningMate in 2010 engaged one of the leading consultancy firm to analyse, LMS based e-learning, its current usage, willingness to adopt, and preferences in various streams of higher education in India. The observations showed willingness towards adoption of LMS based eLearning in Engineering, Computer Science / IT and MBA institutes is significantly higher in comparison to other domains. The key participants in the deliberation included Dr. SavitriJhamb, Director – Institute of Distance Learning IDL; Dr D Y PatilVidhyapeeth, Pune; DrSunil Shukla, Chief Faculty, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gandhinagar Gujarat at the Mumbai conclave. Speakers at the Delhi Seminar included Dr H S Sai, GM (IS), MananRachnaVidhyanatariksha Pvt. Ltd., G C Sharma, Head Financial Education, National Stock Exchange on India Limited, AnshulPathak, Managing Director, Town Schools, SumitTayal, Director, Helix Investments

Get your degree online!

The effectiveness and popularity of online learning is only growing with numbers of students and new class of working professionals looking for anytime anywhere and self-paced learning modules. According to the study done by LearningMate 80 percent of institutes in Tier I locations, showed preference to have their own content as they considered their inhouse faculty members are competent to provide the required content for these courses. Majority of institutes in Tier II and Tier III locations prefer to have external content which enhances the quality of learning through exposure to high quality content. It was observed by participants that currently there is a huge gap of accessibility between quality instructors in the institutes and an online platform can be a useful medium for hosting content, student-faculty interactions and collaborative learning. The voice for a technology focused future was unanimously voted as a welcome change in the distance learning community.

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ORGANISERS

23 - 24 July 2012, Le Méridien, New Delhi

Conclave of Global Leaders in Education Send your abstracts for Call for Papers visit www.worldeducationsummit.net

Programme chair Prof. SS Mantha

Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

leaders gracing the World education summit 2011

Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Former President of India

Shri Kapil Sibal Hon’ble Minster of Human Resource Development and Communications and IT Government of India

World Education Conference

Dr N Jadhav Member, Planning Commission, Government of India

Loynpo Thakur Singh Powdyel Hon’ble Minister of Education Thimphu, Bhutan

Dr Taseer Al Nuaimi Hon’ble Minister of Education, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Conference would be a unique platform for sharing of knowledge, challenges, ideas and best practices amongst the various stakeholders in the domain of Education. Bureaucrats, technocrats, academicians, industry personnel and civil society members along with Education experts, senior leaders and management teams of various schools, foreign education representatives, practitioners, business leaders and stake holders would all benefit through thought provoking sessions, workshops, one on one interactions etc.

previous Speakers Vibha Puri Das Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

Dr Veera Gupta Secretary, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)

Prof V S Ramamurthy Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies

Amit Khare Joint Secretary Bureau of BP & CR Education Policy UNESCO, INC & ICC Department of Higher Education, Government of India

World Education Expo The World Education Exhibition Platform, an integral part of the World Education Summit 2012, will be held alongside the conference between 23-24 July 2012 The two day Exhibition will attract more than 1000 companies, government bodies and educational institutes. The Exhibition, running in parallel with the Conference would provide a showcase of technology and training solutions, put the spotlight on education intuitions of excellence and highlight best practices in teaching, learning and training.

The Exhibition would also highlight progress in the development of Information and Communications technologies for education and showcase best practices of educational institutes.

World Education Awards The WES Awards platform puts the spotlight on those educational institutes that have demonstrated excellence in teaching, learning and training outreach. The Awards procedure engages eminent educationists from across the globe in the jury process to analyse those educational initiatives which have left an indelible impact in the learning methods, and thereby provide global recognition to creative ideas and innovations.

For Programme Enquiry Contact: Sheena Joseph, Mobile: +91-8860651644 sheena@elets.in For Exhibition and Sponsorship Contact: Fahim-ul-haq, Mobile: +91-9873277808 fahim@elets.in Winners of World Education Awards 2011

www.worldeducationsummit.net

Higher Education

“Regulations

Need Thorough Review and Appropriate Implementation” Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), established in 1988 under the aegis of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, has been providing highly conducive academic environment, interaction with industry-academia professors, exposure to the international universities and companies, and a ready profile of strong alumni base spread through out the world.

Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH, tells us more about the latest happenings at the institute and his views on the higher education scenario in India.

By Sheena Joseph, Elets News Service (ENN) BIMTECH has recently signed an MoU with O P Jindal Global University (OPJGU), Sonipat to build academic capacity. Could you elaborate on the same?

Jindal Global University and BIMTECH have very special expertise in their domain and that is what has made this partnership happen. This alliance will address the need for joint research, management development programmes, case development, joint international conferences and students’ academic activities. Management and Public Policy are the areas

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of prime attention in the partnerships. The strength is drawn from the strong faculty profile, good international linkages and network of institutions in academia and industry.

In terms of regulation of the higher education sector, what are the key challenges and opportunities in India?

Almost all national and international reports are indicating that we are one of the biggest beneficiaries of the demographic

Higher Education

Regulatory bodies will only be effective to the extent of efficient performance that they provide and also to the extent of pro active steps they take to promote higher education in India advantage. A large number of the Indian population will be in the age group of 15-24, which means that we have a strong youth population. Provision of access and quality education is imperative in this context. I would draw your attention to some of the reports which came out in the last the few years, such as Meritrac and Nasscom, which highlight employability among students graduating from higher education institutes. The data is depressing as quality of education is deteriorating, with less than 30 percent of the graduates being employable. This is a matter of great worry for the nation. The system of education that is being followed today needs to change and we have to make it more industry relevant. Some of it can also be attributed to the ill regulations and over control by regulators. Regulations need a thorough review and appropriate implementation in the current environment in order to promote education for all.

The Union Cabinet has cleared the establishment of National Commission for Higher Education and Research. What are your views on the process of subsuming various regulatory bodies for a common regulatory body?

The Indian education system is a complex scheme. It is following the path which USA was following in the early 1900s.

I think we should learn from the best practices of other countries as well as those being implemented within the country. No regulatory system is good or bad in itself. A common regulatory framework will be good if the activities are carried forward effectively. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what happened in USA in 1920s and 1930s.

Today, we have not done anything except having followed the system. We also need to start following the best practices in regulation of other countries. These practices ensure appropriate governance with minimal intervention and accreditation for recognition of quality and support. Institutions will automatically come forward to improve quality if they want to sustain, but these accreditation institutions are usually private and not government. Therefore, regulatory bodies will only be effective to the extent of efficient performance that they provide and also to the extent of pro active steps they take to promote higher education in India.

In terms of Foreign Collaborations, BIMTECH has several National and International partner institutions. What are the future plans for BIMTECH furthering these collaborations?

BIMTECH has been identified as one of the top 5 business

schools in Indian. The institute has a highly globalized presence. We are working closely with our international partners in terms of student exchange, faculty exchange, research partnership, emerging market programme, joint conferences and capacity building programmes. The creation of research groups and publications is one of the biggest agenda that we are following, and this will help us in knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination.

BIMTECH undertakes its teaching and research activities under various academic centres .

How important is research activities in higher education?

Research is the only realization in higher education. Research forms a major part of the professorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work requirement, as it is also reflected in the classroom interactions. Our focus is to produce knowledge and disseminate it through different publications. We are engaging students so that they are well aware of research activities. However, this training does not automatically restrict their job opportunities to research work per se.

The student engagement is indeed adding to their achievements as they are winning national and international recognitions over their enhanced abilities, which offers them better employment. The research and publication wing of the institute regularly contributes to the academic and industry research undertakings, and faculties share these research and knowledge so generated to inspire and create new ideas.

Does BIMTECH offer Online MBA Programmes to students?

BIMTECH does not offer online education as of now. The present structure is not prioritizing online education as one of the offerings of BIMTECH. It may be considered after the launch of our executive education programme.

Do you think Industry Academia Partnership is important to provide employable skills for students?

There has been much noise on industry academia partnership in India. However, it has not matured much in India. The mutual respect has not been workout between industry and academia and they are still largely in the blame game mode. It is to be realized that business schools are churning out graduates who are absorbed by the industry, and if this dustry academia partnership does not happen, then the industry will have to bear a huge cost in training people to achieve the required quality. This has been realized by very few companies and it becomes a concern when there is a decline in quality.

BIMTECH has always focused on a very good industry academia interface and we ensure that all students are effectively placed after they receive their degree. Many of our faculty members are industry veterans, thereby providing good industry experience and knowledge sharing to students.

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advertorial

Edaxis LangLab: Integrated teaching of all language skills The Edaxis LangLab is designed in such a way that it fosters a more effective level of understanding between the teacher and the student

A

n innovative and pedagogically superior suite of software modules for learning any language at any level, Edaxis LangLab is full of useful features, and it is easy to use. Basically it is a learn-anywhere blended learning platform through which students can acquire aural, oral, reading and writing skills. Students can also benefit by gaining cultural knowledge through active use of lessons designed by their teachers.

Edaxis LangLab makes it possible for teachers to use the existing multimedia or text resources to create new educational resources tailor made to fit the needs of their students.

Most suited for students The suite is designed in such a way that it becomes eminently easy for students to use audio, video, websites, images, PowerPoint, documents and other texts for gaining mastery on different languages. The lessons are easily retrievable from menus. The students can work individually and at their own pace. They can listen, record responses, replay

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and practice. They can read instructions, texts and questions. Questions can be answered by clicking on radio buttons and checkboxes, or by typing in text boxes. Collaboration is fostered, as students are required to work in pairs or groups. Students can save lessons on Hard disk, USB pen or DVD.

What can teachers do?

Edaxis LangLab is a cross platform solution capable of running on PC and Mac systems. As the solution is capable of being used remotely, it increases the instruction time that a teacher is able to offer.

Efficient usage of data management tools have been made to enable teachers to use the module for assessment and asynchronous feedback, select the lesson of interest, choose a student from a pull-down menu, and click to go from item to item to review the student’s work, retrieved automatically. Basically the teacher is able to avoid the time wasting rigmarole of searching for a student’s recording.

It is also possible for a teacher to conduct his evaluation by going to an item and then choosing each student in turn from the menu through which a student’s work can be retrieved automatically. The Edaxis LangLab is much superior to most traditional language laboratories, which use common recorders or other kind of hardware devices. The tutor can use the Teach-On Demand function to record or start master track, in real time, open multimedia files for students and broadcast it to them (just choosing to broadcast only the audio signal). Teacher can modify the educational documents in real time during the lesson or prepare exercises in advance.

The Exaxis LangLab offers numerous ways of being used in conjunction with an inexpensive classroom-control system.

By doing this it becomes possible for the teacher to engage students in additional instructional activities and send to students materials that are not already linked to LangLab lessons. This kind of system has the effect of bringing ease to the initial effort of lesson creation.

In Conversation

S Murlidhar, Co-founder and CEO, MeritTrac Services in conversation with Dr Ravi Gupta and Pragya Gupta talks about the emergence of online examination and assessment systems in India and how MeritTrac addresses the educationistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conundrums of choosing the right

Online Examination The

Game

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In Conversation

Please elaborate on the market scenario for assessments. How has the market evolved?

When we started MeritTrac in the year 2000, we were the pioneers in the assessment related solutions space. There was no professional and scientifically organised private company. There were government bodies like UPSC. So thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really where we made a mark. We started with the corporate segment. The market then was all about telling people that we are offering assessment tools. Frankly speaking, there was really no market; we have built the market through the first 6- 7 years in the corporate segment.

How has been the process of re-shaping the market? What is your vision for the next five years?

The next 5 years, there is going to be lot of online exams and outsourcing in the traditional multiple choice modes. In last 6 to 8 months, we have seen 15 tenders have come out in the government space for online examinations. In fact, the state and the central governments have been coming out with the tenders slowly one by one. They have their own plans and they are just going ahead.

The biggest problem for large online examinations being held today is impersonation. We have introduced a biometric authentication product which is a mobile device; it can go around in the classroom like a regular Attendance Sheet. It is like finger based and completely non-intrusive system of identification. Quality in the assessment and evaluation is going to improve over a period of time. So we are hugely excited by the kind of products we can bring in. This is a big challenge and also an opportunity. In this January, we are going to conduct 10 Lakh examinations in 180 towns online, which is a world record.

How is the whole assessment industry is involved at this stage?

Today there are 9 to 10 players (Indian and foreign) who are at the bidding for the really large orders. This is an extremely positive trend as it will lead to further developments in the market. Conducting a good quality examination is all about the process, the software and the infrastructure. An online

examination is like a running demonstration of technology, but the technology has to be adequately interplayed with the people. I always tell my clients that that they should not look at this as a mere technology project, it is a very social product.

What about the subjective examinations?

Today we have technologies that lead to automation of the evaluation process, which is being deployed in many large universities abroad. But this technology does not automate the evaluation itself.

For example, in case of CBSE Exams, the entire evaluation process is manual. The answers are being carted from locations to locations. So what we bring to the table is a system of digitising the answer scripts and scanning them. There is a technology and

tion of the clients about the value of an outsourcing one aspect of the education process is a bigger challenge. Today you can reach out to more and more people and tell them that this is the right thing to do and these are the benefits, but it is not necessary that people will buy your outsourcing logic. IT also it took time. The point is that if my ideas get communicated to the right person or the right team in a convincing manner, then that will give impetus to reform.

Are government guidelines required?

More than guidelines, I think a set of industry standards are required. For example we are the members of a body called Association of Test Publishers (ATP), which is engaged in publishing guidelines for the test

Up, close & personal birth 4 Aug 1969

Hobbies Reading, Indian History

education MBA (IIM Lucknow)

Passion Entrepreneurship

ACHIEVEMENT Successful new age entrepreneur who has used his professional training and corporate experience to create a unique business venture in the area of assessments which in 2000 was an unknown area of business

software for this. The software interface provides all the tools required by the correction of the paper by an evaluator.

How do you see the level of engagement of private universities and that of the government universities?

I see that the private universities are more active, but that does not mean that the government universities are lagging behind. There is a very little difference in my opinion between what the government universities and the private universities are doing. Lot of examination reform are happening in government universities these days.

So as more and more companies talk to them and people in the media write about it, changes in the evaluation process are bound to happen everywhere.

What are the challenges you face in the implementation of this technology? Is budget an issue?

No, budget is not an issue. I think educa-

SUCCESS MANTRA God is in the detail Vision Transform education with innovative assessments

publishers. Some kind of work on this front has also happened in India, some guidelines are adopted and pre published. So by this, the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest is safeguarded.

Today we are doing 4 to 5 million exams a year; we anticipate that in 5 years time, we will be doing about 50 million.

Companies from outside India have brought unfair competition to the Indian firms. So do we see the same thing here?

Assessment is an area of high integrity.

Per say, to be an assessment company you have to be highly secure. You also need to have reputation for high ethical standards.

Worldwide, there are a lot of standards and regulations around the assessments. In US tests and assessments are legally challenged very frequently unlike in India. If I am a large company, somebody can say that the test is not for a journalist at all, your test is wrong. It applies to companies also.

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advertorial

ACTUniv (Academy for Computer Training (Guj.) Pvt Ltd About the Company: ACTUniv is an education and training enterprise with a core focus on technology, creating innovative pedagogies, developing tools, training and learning resource on several skills for the academia and public. “Making technology work effectively in skill development has always been ACTUniv’s sweet spot,” says Jasvinder Singh, CEO of ACTUniv.

“We are passionate of technology and skill training, bringing us industry recognitions, national and international, and acknowledgement by several organizations including some state Governments.”

Singh founded M/s Academy for Computer Training in 1989 with the vision to provide quality Computer Education, with a non-conventional approach to skill development that struck the right chord in students, executives and corporate organisations. The Company has grown to be a knowledge resource enterprise known as the ACTUniv Group. Under his able leadership ACTUniv enjoyed the top position in Gujarat as a technology training provider, content developer and consultant.

ACTUniv was instrumental in bringing a change to the K-12 segment by introducing technology in the classroom. Digital English Language Lab was his next pursuit.

The belief that technology can be effectively used to develop skills is evident with Words Worth products based on the ALTE/ CEFR framework. The products have found seamless integration with school, college and university curriculum besides vocational and higher learning organisations. Words Worth has a large number of implementation in schools across India besides colleges and institutions for higher learning as well as mass training projects.

Words Worth is all set to reach every home with its Virtual language lab.

Digital Labs deployed in institutes Words Worth English Language Labs uses the blended learning methodology

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cises, Assessment tools, exercise maker, task manager, training material, etc.

Price of top selling product The price of the respective products are based on client requirements.

Labs Deployed a. English Language Labs deployed in more that 1500 schools b. More than 300 Higher Education institute have English Language Labs c. More than 600 Vocational Education Institutes have English Language Labs Jasvinder Singh Founder & CEO, ACTUniv Group with Digital content for the Teacher as well as the student. This is accompanied with extensive support material including trainer manuals, flash cards and courseware besides on-site Training of the trainer.

Top selling Digital Lab Product Words Worth Junior for schools and Words Worth Senior for colleges have been popular since their release. Over 1500 institutions across India are using the software. The English Language Lab features digital content using the best of technology elements.

Words Worth’s bouquet of next generation learning products includes The English Studio, Groots and Words Worth Virtual. The products are designed for multiuser environment with integrated collaborative functions. Besides the learning elements, the products provide supervisory control and reporting, and the subsequent advisory functions make the products unique. Assessment is an added feature for self evaluation.

The products support platforms including Windows and Linux - thick and thin environments, Android and the iOS mobile platform. Proactive online support is made available to all installations.

Digital English Language Lab software includes Trainer content, Student exer-

Market size of the Digital Labs business in India The market size is huge and even the tip of the iceberg is unexplored.

Are digital Labs cheaper than the traditional teaching tools?

Yes! in the long run it is the total cost of ownership that matters, flexibility and scalability are important factors.

What is the future of digital education?

Technology will pave the way for replacing the print media and uniform learning across levels. This is a paradigm shift from conventional teaching and learning methods.

Vision statement for future We are the future!

Contact: ACTUniv (Academy for Computer Training (Guj.) Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Jasvinder Singh Founder & CEO of ACTUniv Group 2nd floor, Silicon towers, Near Law garden, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad – 380009, Gujarat, India Email: jasvinders@actuniv.com Tel: +91.79.26468536, 26468538 Fax: +91.79.25464495 Web: www.wordsworthelt.com

In Conversation

“CBT is not something you can do overnight” Fiona Collins, Managing Director, Pearson VUE India, in conversation with Pragya Gupta describes the role that Pearson is playing in Computer Based Testing market in India. Excerpts:

Can you throw some light on the Computer Based Testing (CBT) market in India?

The CBT market in India is quite large.

Many universities and organizations are planning to move towards CBT. They need to come up with the appropriate strategy for making that happen. A large group is already into CBT. MCI, DGCA, CBSE and many other players are planning a move towards CBT.

Tell us about the challenges that you are facing.

There are challenges and opportunities in equal measure. We lack the infrastructure to cater to India’s huge population.

In their move to CBT, many organisations are taking one step at a time.

What are the budget related challenges?

If you look at CBT, it might seem more expensive than paper and pencil initially. But in the long run the system pays for itself through improved security. A more flexible system can be evolved through CBT allowing for longer testing windows, more locations and candidate convenience.

How do you convince those people to adopt CBT? There are number of ways by which people can be convinced to adopt CBT. The high profile programmes that are already in the market can be showcased and promoted. For instance, there is GMAT, which is quite popular in India.

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We can also look at the NMIMS. They have embraced CBT and introduced many innovations into admissions testing, such as allowing people to come back and retake the test, if they want to.

What is Pearson’s strategy in this context?

We have multiple strategies at play in India. Basically we develop our strategies after meeting with the university and taking account of their needs. Thanks to leadership at government level, the number of admissions tests are consolidating, which will hopefully mean less pressure on pupils and parents alike. On the corporate side, we have to talk to the potential customers who value the type of services we offer. So we have national reach through more than 300 test centres. We use the latest technology in maintaining security, and in test design, test measurement and credential management. We have a process of tracking somebody from the moment he leaves the school throughout his/ her professional development.

Please share the names of the players who are going to adopt CBT? CBT takes time to plan. It is not something you can do overnight. It has a complex set of components that need to come together; it needs a lot of communication with the stakeholders. However, on the whole I will say that the response is extremely positive. Hopefully we will see a rapid rise in the number of entities going in for CBT.

What is your market size in India?

It is a hard question to answer because market size can be calculated in many different ways. If you calculate market size on the basis of the students that you are servicing, then we have a huge market size. If you count admission tests alone, then tens of a millions of students are taking tests each year. If you count all the private universities, and the tests they do internally, then we are looking at figures running into hundreds of millions. If you start thinking about the banking sector recruitment, the figure once again is enormous.

What is Pearson’s focus area?

We have a diversified focus. We are very keen to help in the admission process.

We intend to improve the quality through a system of better security and identity management, and help universities deliver tests over extended periods of time to give students mor So that’s one area focus. The other areas of the focus will be the corporate world. We think that some of the programmes could start having a global scale. As companies outgrow in India, they will start thinking about developing test centres around the world.

Please give us your view on how the market is maturing, and Pearson’s vision for the same.

The most mature market in the world is the US. India is also not far behind USA. About 10 years ago, vast majority of pro-

In Conversation

grammes in US were paper and pencil based. The only organisation that used CBT were those from the IT sector. All the other major admission tests were paper and pencil. In India, we face challenges due to the sheer size of the country; a vast number of people need to be tested.

Some infrastructure related challenges also need to be overcome. Despite that, CBT allows us to bring innovation, convenience and improved security to the testing process.

Up, close & personal birth March 1971

Passion People, and educating people

education BA in International Marketing and Languages, Dublin, Ireland

Success mantra Focus on the good and fair around you at all times, and develop it

Vision Take all the learning from global CBT programs in the last 17 years and adapt them for the Indian context, so that we establish of best of breed computer-enabled testing.

Hobbies Cooking, exploring my surroundings and literature

Please elaborate on the role that biometric has to play in examination.

A photograph is not a biometric, because it is not uniquely identifiable. A fingerprint is a biometric. It is completely unique and it is built in the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body and you cannot change it, except for chopping your hand, or chopping your finger. A digital signature is not a biometric. At Pearson VUE, we use the image of veins in the palm of your hand for biometric identification purposes. However, you have to take into account all kinds of legal and security issues while using biometrics. Most administrations have no objection to photographs or signature being taken, but biometrics raise privacy related concerns. The use of biometric is important in the test centres particularly, because we need to process such large numbers of people, many of whom might be sharing the same name. We still donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a singular identity card system and the identity cards issued by different states look somewhat different. It is only through biometric tools that we can securely manage the identity of students being tested.

How do you see CBT markets by 2015?

In our view, by 2015 more than 50 percent of the admission tests in the country will be computer based. We are already witnessing a significant move towards event based testing rather than single day sitting. By 2015, most organisations will have to seriously think about finding ways of balancing their candidateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s convenience with the necessary security measures.

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CREATE@Amrita

Research Agenda for Educational Technologies for Societal Benefit The Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education (CREATE) (www.amrita.edu/create) is the educational technology initiative pioneered by Amrita University with primary focus on providing effective, affordable educational technologies to improve the quality of both school and higher education

By Prof. Raghu Raman

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k-12

T

he need to make science education more practice oriented has been a topic of discussion for sometime now amongst the educators the world over. In India, CBSE had initiated mathematics and science labs to make teaching and learning at school stage activitybased and experimentation oriented.

But usage of Science Labs are limited in today’s schools due to the lack of equipment, insufficient time at lab and dangerous substances or breakable equipments. Enabling all schools in the country to run practical experiments in physical space is too expensive. There is also a limitation of availability of good lab teachers.

The Online Labs and Virtual Labs

initiative, using 2D, 3D interactive animations and simulations are designed to support effective learning in such a scenario. An interactive simulation research initiative that is dramatically changing the way school students perform science practical experiments is Project Online Labs or OLabs. This project is jointly developed by C-DAC Mumbai and CREATE under a research grant from the Department of Information Technology. Even when labs and equipments are available, large size of the classroom usually means that only one or two students or just the teacher actually does the experiments.

A multi-disciplinary team involving subject teachers have developed around thirty experiments. Over 170 teachers have been trained in the use of Olabs and 450 students are using the system. A survey found that 76% students agreed that OLabs improved their understanding of the concepts. 91% of the teachers felt the lab environment was well-simulated and found the animations and quizzes effective.

“OLabs provide high quality simulations, animations, videos and tests to enable students to learn conceptual, procedural and manipulative skills. Best of all, OLabs are free for schools” says Prof. Prema Nedungadi, Principal Investigator for OLabs.

The team at OLabs is actively working with world class educational technology initiatives like Phet Project from University of Colorado started by Nobel Laureate, Dr Carl Weiman, Intel Future Scientist to scale the reach of our work, said Prof Nedungadi. Interestingly, initial pilot testing of OLabs on MHRD’s Aakash tablet has been successful and this could dramatically increase the reach of OLabs.

Prof. Candace Thille from Carnegie Mellon University who leads the Measuring Learning consortium under this program adds, “CREATE is the only research initia¬tive from India to be included in the nine-country worldwide Measuring Learning con-

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“OLabs provide high quality simulations, animations, videos and tests to enable students to learn conceptual, procedural and manipulative skills.

Best of all, OLabs are free for schools” sortium, something which will help educators quantify how much of what was being taught is grasped by students.”

Similar effort in the higher education space is the Virtual Labs VALUE initiative (amrita.vlabs.co.in) (Virtual and Accessible Technologies Universalizing Education), funded by National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD. Amrita University and eleven other institutions from across India have been diligently working over the last two years to bring Indian students the most realistic and comprehensive virtual labs possible. Of the nine launched disciplines, Amrita has contributed over one hundred and twenty five experiments to the Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Chemical Sciences disciplines.

Amrita is also developing a Collaborative and Accessibility Platform (CAP) to allow faculty nationwide to rapidly develop and deploy Virtual Labs. 12 part-

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ner institutes including IIT’s have used CAP to build over 825 experiments with over 4500 registered users from over 134 countries using them. CAP fully supports secure access along with scheduling support to expensive equipment used in experiments. There are “Giving students an opportunity to experiment and apply the knowledge to real day problems is what the project expects to accomplish from Virtual labs,” says Prof. Krishnashree Achuthan, Principal Investigator for VALUE project.

In developing nations like India, employability of otherwise technically competent engineering undergraduates is at risk due to their lack of command in English communication skills.

The primary need of these students is communicative fluency contextualized to the professional occupation they will be seeking, rather than linguistic accuracy which stresses on grammatical forms and memorization.

In our English Language Learning Lab, interactive multimedia involving real life visuals are used to convey the purpose of new words and sentences. Activities such as role play and tools like pronunciation tutors, assisted by local language translation scaffolds are provided when the stu-

dent requires more support. The unique feature of the approach is that the content studied by the student relates directly to his professional field of interest and area of immediate need. The program includes research from Language immersion, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) technologies to provide students with individualised instruction and feedback.

With listening comprehension as the focus, all four language skills—listening, reading, speaking, and writing-- are developed and retained quickly. Over 700 engineering students of Amrita University have started using this program.

Interestingly CREATE is the only research center of its kind in India that has a dedicated Simulation Lab for STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and has over 18 research publications in this area. With research initiatives like simulation for medical science students and sustainability simulations, Amrita has very ambitious plans – to build a Center for Excellence in use of Simulation to blend technology and education.

Author Prof Raghu Raman Head Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education (CREATE @ Amrita), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

In Conversation

Private

School Penetration Increases

NIITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Revenue

Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solutions, NIIT Ltd shares his views on the significant developments in the Indian education technology market

By Pragya Gupta, Elets News Service (ENN)

How do you look back at the year 2011 in terms of market growth and profitability?

The market has grown substantially in 2011, both in terms of expansion in private school market and penetration of ICT in government schools in various states. NIIT has extended Nguru range of solutions to 19 states in the country. Nguru is touching 88 cities and covering more than 17,000 government and private schools. It has touched more than 10 million lives in 2011. We have started focussing on IP based Nguru solutions to improve the profitability in our school business. At the policy level, there has been a renewed focus on ICT projects with the MHRD funded revised ICT scheme giving more focus on education delivery.

However, other schemes like RMSA and RTE have yet not been implemented.

What, according to you, are the top technology trends in education?

The next big focus area will be bringing Internet connectivity to schools and into the classroom. With the advent of this connectivity, children and parents will be seamlessly connected to the schools and teachers. The learning ecosystem of the

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In Conversation

school will effectively expand from the classroom to the home and beyond that into the neighbourhood and into the larger academic ecosystem of colleges and universities worldwide. Technologies like cloud help stakeholders in education system - teachers, parents, students and school management – to remain connected inside and outside the school environment.

Up, close & personal

Please share the new technologies that schools are adopting.

Achievement Hemant has a vast experience of 25 years in heading profit center in B2B, B2C and B2G domains in industry verticals such as Telecom and Networking, Education, IT & Software applications and Automobiles.

Education technology market in India is booming with new solutions and technology aids. More and more schools are adapting these solutions and bringing new technology to students. Some new products that are being used in schools these days include the following: Multi Touch Gesture Based Interactive white boards: This system allows multiple learners to collaborate and get creative. It allows teachers to make class interactive.

Surface Computing: This system is being used by schools for collaborative projects.

Visualizers or Document camera: These tools can be connected with overhead projector, which can further display images of objects placed beneath the camera lens. These can be used in live classrooms or LABS. They can rotate at 180 degree. We tested and already cleared one from Globus.

Personal response systems: Wireless remotes are small portable chargeable devices that can be used for taking responses from learners. They are especially useful for holding class quizzes.

Laptop carts: These systems are used to provide wireless laptop facility to students in classrooms Convergence with Mobile Technology: Netbook/eBooks/Tablets/iPods/iPod touch are being used to display educational content and create multimedia content. As per Gartner study, by 2014, the installed base of devices based on lightweight mobile operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows 8 will exceed the total installed base of all PC-based systems.

birth 21st October 1962, New Delhi education B.Tech from B.I.T.S. Pilani, PG Diploma in Management Hobbies Reading, Travel , Music, Indoor Sports

Passion Hemant is passionate about delivering sustained growth in revenues & profitability in dynamic market situations Success mantra 1. Strategy building & perfect execution.

2. Being customer centric Vision “To be a first choice of customers”

in rural areas where private suppliers are unlikely to venture.

• Training and hiring of more teachers and rationalising their deployment so that supply matches demand.

• Investment in curriculum revision, progressive pedagogy, technology and examination reforms, to make schooling more relevant • Provide financial and in-kind assistance for poor and disadvantaged students, to offset direct and indirect costs of schooling and overcome household reluctance to send children (especially girls) to school.

• Public information campaigns to change attitudes about the benefits of schooling and delayed marriages.

What were the most significant developments, in terms of policy changes and technology, in 2011?

Broadly speaking, there hasn’t been any

K-12 market is growing at the rate 14 percent annually and is expected to touch USD 34 billion in 2012 Tell us more about Nguru.

NIIT’s Nguru system is a holistic solution to meet the needs of all the stakeholders in school education - students, teachers, parents and government. In the coming year we are looking at adding more products in the bouquet of Nguru range of solutions.

If you were to give a wish-list to the government for policies, PPP or any other support, what will it be?

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has provided a new impetus to our education system.

Sharp increase is expected in the demand for secondary education in coming decade. The government should focus on rapid execution of such educational projects. Better payments should be made to the system integrators. The policy level initiatives that we would like to see include the following: • PPP in school construction especially

major significant change in government policy. The focus is still on ICT scheme which is funded by MHRD in most of the states. We expect RMSA to take off this year in the states. SSA continues its mission quite successfully for making primary education available to all.

What are your company’s ambitions in 2012?

We will continue with our focus on the expansion of private school business and penetration of IP based business in various government schools in the states.

We are also planning to bring latest technology and new solutions to add to our Nguru range of solutions. K-12 market is growing at the rate 14 percent annually and is expected to touch USD 34 billion in 2012. In the private sector new schools are getting added at the rate of 10 percent annually with 15 percent increase in fee every year.

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event report

Enabling Next Gen Innovators in STEM

Intel Launches Intel Future Scientist Program in India

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ntel added another feather in its cap by nationally launching the Intel Future Scientist Program on 29th February 2012.

The aim of the program is to promote and nurture the spirit of inquiry among students.

An invited audience of over 100 representatives including key policy makers, civil societies, public and private sector organizations from across the country attended the launch event. The launch event was presided by K Kasturirangan, Honorable Member Planning Commission and Member National Innovation Council. The daysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; proceedings began with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by the chief guest Dr Kasturirangan, Dr. Manoharan, Chair Professor of Raman Chair for Mathematics and Science Education, IGNOU, Dr. B P Singh from Department of Science and Technology, Dharam Veer, State Election Commissioner, Haryana and president of SPSTI and Dr. Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India.

Ashutosh Chadha, Director Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia initiated the discussion on Ecosystem Preparedness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. He stressed on inculcating 21st century skills to develop innovation and identifying the key issues that

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help build a knowledge economy. Gagan Gupta, Subject Expert from NCERT shared the vision of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and how it envisages inquiry based approach to inculcate scientific temperament among students.

He emphasized that the curriculum should be made visible, relevant and connects to real world problems.

Prof Manoharan, Raman Chair for Mathematics and Science Education, IGNOU, emphasized on scientific learning without stress so as to promote creativity. He emphasized on the contribution made by Raman chair on inculcating scientific temper among children. Dr B P Singh, Scientist/Head from Department of Science and Technology emphasized on contextualizing learning in both formal, non-formal education and also shared that formal education must be sensitive enough to be a part of the system.

Dharam Veer, State Election Commissioner, Haryana and president of SPSTI opined that a good foundation of Maths and Science is crucial in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world. This would help in instilling the scientific temper among the students and ICT needs to be part of the education system.

An Audio Visual to elaborate the objectives of the program

event report

captured the audience’s attention which was followed by a brief overview of the Intel Future Scientist Program. The overview highlighted the goals, objectives and the outcomes of the program.

Intel India President, Praveen Vishakantaiah shared Intel’s vision to connect and enrich every person on the earth by building trust, promoting scientific capability and nurturing the path to success. He emphasized on the continued progress of nurturing pipeline of scientific communities. He elaborated on the global workforce requirement and stressed that the inquiry based learning was the need of the hour which led to the Intel Future Scientist Program.

Dr Kasturirangan during the formal release of the Intel Future Scientist Curriculum said, ‘Intel Future Scientific program has made the demonstrating approach on how to shape the next generation’. He applauded the initiation of the program as a sustained way to promote asset as its own heritage to improve the quality of society which can imbibe the culture of inquiry and innovation. While emphasizing on innovation, he felt that the rural urban divide is no longer an intellectual space. He asked to identify the core problem and bring affordability in the system so that it can bring easy interface with mechanisms, demonstrations and initiation of linkages.

“Intel Future Scientific program has made the demonstrating approach on how to shape the next generation.”

Dr K Kasturirangan, Honorable Member Planning Commission and Member National Innovation Council

He also said that initiatives to support educational programs have increased from .98% to 2.5% of the GDP. Even the Prime Minister’s office has set mechanisms to work with corporate sectors, support the public-private partnership and provide support to promote research which can bring about transformation and paradigm change.

The launch of the Future Scientist program was followed by an intensive Round Table Discussion on Sustaining the Innovative Streak in Young Geniuses.

There is an urgent need to sustain the brightest innovators and researchers to nurture home-grown talent. The students who have won laurels internationally do not get due recognition when they return back to India and tend to lose out on the opportunities in pursuing their interests. The round table was intended to discuss how to nurture these talents further!

The discussions started with setting the stage for deliberations on how the students who have received global recognition can be given due credit in their home ground. The questions that were brought to the fore for the invited experts

to discuss were• What are the recommendations that can be put forward to ensure that innovation by the students who have proved their mettle in International Science Fairs like ISEF get recognized in the formal system?

• Why some Universities those have special ECA / Sports quota for admission does not include innovation as criteria. What can be done to change this scenario?

• Can we have preferential criteria for admission to reputed colleges/ universities for the students who have proved themselves on a research based international platform?

• How can we build the pipeline of this talent and create more young innovators?

The key recommendations that were put forward by the group are as follows: • NCERT should support such fairs and help in reaching out to the rural segment • State Universities should take a step forward to support the students and help in research projects • Prominent colleges / universities can explore the option of providing admission • Problems to be placed before the governing bodies to find a solution to the problem • Collaboration with scientific academies and research hubs should be initiated for further research and patent • Industries who have powerful education wings need to provide support and take ahead the initiative to ensure pipeline of talent • Dept of S&T need to find a solution by bringing it to the notice of the cabinet and ministry and provide recommendations to institutions for admission • Increase stipend and fellowship to attract more students towards research • Provide opportunities for students to undertake real time projects spearheaded by both government & private sector • Policies and schemes should be relooked to nurture innovation and creativity; Build synergy with the government initiatives and existing programs Eminent educationists from leading institutions - IIT’s, DU, IISER, prominent personalities from the industry - CII, representatives from Government Bodies – MOCIT, DST, NCERT, IGNOU, KVS, NVS, Scientists from MSSR, Homi Babha, SRC, Birla Science Museums, NISCAIR, representatives from Multilaterals – IUSSTF, Foundations - SPSTI, AMRITA, AGASTYA , and educators from prominent schools took an active part in the forum and contributed in making it come alive with some pertinent views and suggestions.

The highlights of the deliberations were summed up by Dr Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India. He said, ‘the valuable suggestion put forward by the focused group could set the ball rolling and this in itself is a great step in bringing about a change in the thinking process of how the students can be given due recognition and how do we bring in more students into the fold of innovation’.

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In Conversation

“We Don’t Like to Compete, Our Task is to Create Competition” Please throw some light on TRS Forma operations in India?

N Subramanian is a successful entrepreneur and an expert in high volume data processing and data capture services. He is a person with very innovative ideas; he takes pride in pioneering lots of new concepts in examination testing at various universities in India. In conversation with N Subramaniam, MD, TRS Forma, with Pragya Gupta, he talks about e-Assessment, e-valuation and education technology market in India

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TRS is a professionally managed company, one that has access to lot of modern tools for catering to the data capturing and imaging related needs of various government and private institutions.

TRS specialises in providing integrated solutions in the field of document and data capturing by using OMR and ICR techniques. Besides technological support, TRS takes pride in being exclusive distributor for the sophisticated range of OMR scanners of DRS plc. , United Kingdom, and Sekonic of Japan. TRS is also a reseller for ABBYY Software of Russia and Archival and Retrieval software from Edocs.

TRS has one of the largest OMR bureaus in India, consisting of six high-end scanners each capable of scanning around 7200 sheets per hour. Scanning of these OMR sheets is a one step process and information gets accessed quickly, accurately and securely.

How do you see education technology market shaping up in India?

Technology in education is always an advantage and is accepted by the end users with full appreciation. Education technology market is definitely shaping very well in India and in one or two years it will change the complete outlook of the education in India.

What is the role of e-Assesment and e-Valuation in education?

How do you see the adoption among school and higher education segment? e-Assessment and e-Valuation definitely bring a big change in the quality of testing and evaluation which is very much required in today’s situation. Schools and higher education segment are looking for such technology solutions to improve their quality and also to achieve that without much trouble. So we are finding that the acceptance level is increasing day by day for such solutions.

What is the market size of e-Assessment and e-valuation? How useful and safe is the technology?

The approximate market size for e-Assessment and e-Valuation is 500 crores. e-Assesment as you know has brought in high class change in the quality of examination and selection process. We have so many complications in the selection process.

The volume swells every year. e-Assessment is a must for any examination or recruit-

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In Conversation

ment process. Even though Government of India is working towards reducing the number of competitive exams, the process will take few years. With so many competitive exams being conducted the students also find it difficult to prepare for all these exams. e-Assessment can also be a good tool for giving students the confidence for facing such exams.

Schools as such are yet to make use of the e-Assessment in a bigger level.

Currently with the availability of mobile devices like the tablet PCs, the students can be given a short test after every class to get a feed back on the level of understanding in that class. Based on the analysis extra classes can be arranged to make the students understand the particular chapter properly.

How do you see the acceptance of e-Valuation by Indian education system? e-Valuation is something which is being looked upon by the education boards and university. The necessity arises from the fact that getting the required number of proper valuators for each subject is difficult. When the shortage is there then each evaluator is asked to look at more booklets within the short time. This leads to lowering of quality. In e-Valuation the answer sheets are fully digitised, so an immediate archival can be done. It is made easy for evaluators to access the image copy of the answer booklet through the net or intranet. All facilities like key points for each answer and maximum marks for each question are controlled from the software. Hence errors are avoided to a great extent.

There will not be any case for re-totalling. In case of request for revaluation, the complete image copy of the answer booklet can be given to the student; this has also become a mandatory under RTI rules. If the same booklet has to be re-valued that can be arranged immediately by posting that answer booklet again for the valuation. Good control on the valuation front can be brought in by administration module where the activities can be statistically viewed both individually and overall. This will help the exam controllers to take remedial action

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of e z i s t arke on can be m e t a im ati x u l o r a p V has p t e a n d e e n h m a T â&#x20AC;&#x153; ess ent s s m ity l s A a s u e e q s . s s n i e e-A 500 cror ge n a h c ssâ&#x20AC;? e s d s c n a o l r u c p o r a tion high c n e i l t e s h broug ination and of exam at the right time if any valuator is not doing the right job or is not meeting the targets of valuation. So delay in results can be avoided. Also once the valuation is over the result preparation will be instantaneous. Slowly universities are getting on to pilot projects and upon successful implementation, full acceptance will come. Currently there are some practical difficulties of providing the required infrastructure and it will take some time to overcome the same.

Please share with us the details of latest products or solutions you are planning to launch in the Indian market.

Launch of automatic dummy numbering system for the subjective exams is a mile stone for TRS. This has been accepted by some of the leading universities like Bangalore University and Kanpur University. In Tamil Nadu, universities like Periyar University, Baratiar University, Allagappa Univeristy have implemented the system successfully. Our e-Valuation system has by now been fully tested and is now fully ready to be launched. We are the only company in India to have e-Valuation software developed indigenously.

Another product that is being launched is our comprehensive Question bank software which can handle objective and subjective inputs for an organisation of any size. It is finding a good response and we are in the process of implementing it in 3 to 4 universities before April. We are also coming up with a security product for the certificates and mark statements. Even though more than a dozen security features are printed in every certificate, forgeries keep happening. Our product is so secured that duplicating or

tampering is impossible. The process of verification in case of our product is also very simple.

Tell us about your OMR, ICR and examination solutions?

The requirement of OMR or ICR solution comes due to the high volume of process. These are introduced to replace the manual data entry and to speed up the process. Of course, with all that speed the output will be more accurate than the manual methods. Because of the speed the results are out within the shortest time and so the selection process is fast.

Quality of testing has improved a lot and the selections have been very fair. Some coaching centres, where OMR has been introduced, are conducting almost one test daily. These tests are mainly based on the previous day class, and they help the students in getting better understanding of their lessons.

Please share with us your future plans for the Indian market.

Most of TRS products and solutions are those that are in great demand in the country. TRS solutions are definitely required in every university and education board all over India. We plan to establish our presence entire country, and offer our services in a more professional manner. Currently we have our branches in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Allahabad. We are in the process of opening new offices in Pune, Kolkatta and Jaipur. TRS may be the only company of this size to have a permanent R&D division where solutions for the current and future requirement are being prepared.

We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like to compete; our task is to create competition.

k-12

Challenges of Implementing Technology into Schools Implementing technology in schools in not a smooth road. It has various speed breakers which hamper the speed of adoption of technology. Techno phobia is one of them

By Veena Raizada

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he 21st century continues to change at a rate faster than we can imagine. The immersive media has created learning communities that communicate and collaborate across the globe. The world has become highly interconnected and complex. What remains to be checked is, “Are we ready for the change?” The answer seems to be big “No”

Misconceptions about technology Lack of awareness in minds of stakeholders has created lot of misconceptions about technology and its crucial need in the present times. Implementing technology for effective teaching learning means more than teaching basic computer skills and software programs in a separate computer class.

For investors it remains additional equipment that might increase the proficiency of the school system. Everyone involved in the management of education system needs to acknowledge that technology is and can be a comprehensive tool to effective school management.

Parents still can not foresee the productiveness of new trends in the education whether with technology or without it. For them, successful education still remains a report card with 90% + in almost every subject. And for this attitude, to some extent our education system is also responsible.

Teaching community probably is facing the main challenge. Good teachers, in particular see it as threat to their importance or may be even their recognition as a good teacher. It is also perceived as an additional work load to change their pedagogy that incorporates technology into curriculum.

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Challenges of implementing technology can be broadly classified into: • Misconceptions • Understanding the need for implementing technology • Affordability • Techno phobia • Impact Students are facing even a bigger challenge than the parents and teachers. For them the vast expansive knowledge platform that World Wide Web has offered needs synchronisation with their specific needs.

Digital gaming, virtual world of connectivity to the universe, simulation, virtual manipulative, my space, facebook etc. The unlimited power of digital era seems to be sweeping the GenNext. Technology is an integral part of the lives of Ikids of the new millennium. Educators therefore, will have to find ways of harnessing this power to create a better tomorrow for today’s students. Technology enabled education will prepare our youth for competitive traits and competency attitude.

Financial implications are probably the biggest barrier for any school to adopt technology especially when it is a large setup. Even if the school is willing to do it, to ensure that optimal provisions are made to make technology enabled education become a meaningful support for teachers and students needs sufficient budget allocation from the school funds.

It is very important for investors to appreciate that for a significant impact of technology on learning, regular usage by both the teachers and learners is es-

sential. Adequate technology support systems to all are essential.

Techno phobia though existent among all stake holders, is more a mental barrier than a technical hurdle. Skepticism, fear of incompatibility and may be lack of motivation or even incentives are root cause of huge inertial force to accepting technology as part of our classroom life. Everywhere else we seem to be going with the flow. Then why technology in education is a phobia?

Technology based education is still accepted as supplementary and not primary source of child’s learning process.

Outcome of technology based teaching learning is yet to be validated by many research studies. Apprehensions therefore, are obvious for its easy adoption.

There is no technology that can turn underperformers to over achievers or help low performing systems to high result performance oriented organisations.

Educators may be aware of the need for improvement in their set ups but the potential role of technology may need clarity. Meticulous planning is, therefore vital for any technology initiative to yield expected outcome. Without proper insight into what, why, when and how of technology implementation, technology investment are liable to become expensive ventures ending up as failures.

Author Veena Raizada, Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd

Corporate Diary

‘Robotics’ as the fourth R Gagan Goyal, CEO, ThinkLABS - a quintessential robotics enthusiast who decided to make his passion his profession and bring the world of robotics right into the classrooms of students in conversation with Rachita Jha (ENN). Excerpts Tell us more about the genesis of Robotics Lab? Robotics is an exciting field of study and fascinates and engages people of all ages-truly a multi-disciplinary subject and brings in more interactivity and fun-based learning in STEM education. It is an ecstatic moment to see young students be it either school or college working in teams and building robots with so much fun and collaboration. It’s amazing to see how robots excite and scintillate their minds. My journey and the genesis of ‘robotics lab’ began during my years as a student at IIT Bombay, and participated in many robotics college competitions and gained a liking and fun in the same. The activity also made be learn the concepts better due to hands-on learning. The subject of robotics is multidisciplinary and one gets a chance to apply the concepts in engineering. So there was disconnect that got bridged by my robots creation. The international level competitions exposed to common presence of robotics in these locations. Robotics emerged as an education tool and a motivational tool and many consider ‘Robotics’ as the fourth R in education after reading, writing and athematic.

Compared to your experience in other countries, how do you see the role of robotics labs in India?

My experience in the US and UK education market revealed that robotics is compulsory and it is very common and important pillar in experiential learning and hands-on learning, especially for science learning. However, in India we were not

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exposed to robotics for science learning in school education. So I decided to introduce robo labs in India. These labs of making robots not make science learning fun but also give better knowledge in learning skills, life skills, thinking skills, teamwork, and leadership skills. The demand for 21st century skills is coming in face of students that are not based on ability of rote learning instead, the future workplace will require students who can adapt to the situation will excel with problem-solving skills. We all learn better by doing, this has to start from the beginning - to think, create, solve and apply the knowledge that has been gained in the classrooms at school-level itself. The overall benefits of our pedagogy approach helps students gain visual grasp of maths and science concepts and it teaches though the mode of discovery i.e cause-and-effect learning.

Students enhance their problem solving skills, innovation and creativity aptitude and strengthen logical and analytical thinking skills.

How have you designed the robotics labs for school students? Tell us more of the various components of the kit?

We have devised a Robotics Learning Systems (RLS), which is a world-class programme specially created for students of class 4 onwards that is designed in a simple way for schools to embrace science and technology through handson-learning. The pedagogy applied to the learning system helps train students in six of eight intelligences proposed

by the theory of multiple intelligences, thus making it a holistic learning experience. The kit includes hardware building blocks, software licenses, curriculum content and the most important component is teacher training. Our hardware is called i-Pitara PRO which is an ergonomically designed modular, re-programmable kit with more than 100 components like sensors, microprocessor unit, gears, motors, tools etc.

Our approach is to ensure that the kit offers innumerable options for creativity, designing and critical thinking. Our software is called CIMPLETM and is based on intuitive visual programming software. The drag and drop, flowchartbased programming approach helps in building the logical thinking of students when they are involved in the robotics labs. To ensure that the labs are in sync with what is taught to them in the classroom, we have designed the courseware in our R&D centre at SINE, IIT Mumbai that helps the concepts that are taught in the robotics labs integrate easily with

Corporate Diary

Usually due to constraints of time and space, many schools are unable to pursue lab activity in their timetable. What is your suggestion to schools on adoption of robo labs on this?

We are fully aware of these constraints that are common to all schools across the country, the mission to complete the syllabus usually does not give any space for such workshops and labs. So, we suggest the best way out for schools is to upgrade their existing computer labs to robotics labs. Robotics should be included as a subject and the reallife impact will come if it becomes part of the curriculum. We suggest at least two periods in a month. The time has come for computer labs to transform as a centre for holistic learningof other subjects as most of the computers and related applications are on self-learning by the students. So we will see the arrival of language labs, math labs and of course robotics labs as learning modules.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Currently we assess that the robotic lab market in Indian education sector is close to 1000 crore, and the space for robotics labs is an unexplored market. So the potential can actually be much more.â&#x20AC;? the existing school curriculum. The heart of the kit remains with the teacher training component, as unless the teacher is involved, motivated and aware of the learning concepts embedded in the robotics labs, the students will never reap the true benefits of the same.

Tell us more on the robotics labs designed for higher education students?

The needs of higher education engineering students are very different and are more career-focused, so we have designed a course in embedded systems to make them robotic engineers.

Distinguished faculty and alumni of IIT Mumbai have designed the courseware aimed at universities, colleges, institutes covering various skill sets required for a successful career in Embedded systems. We invest in setting up of a centre of excellence for Embedded System with state-of-art laboratory carrying out education and research activities.

Monitoring the skill gap in a structured manner, followed by placement and internship opportunities for certified students are offered. The intensive handon learning projects have helped many students realize their dreams in embedded systems.

Having entered a market untapped by any, tell us your views on how the education market evolved for robotics labs in India? What is your market assessment for robotic labs in India?

We are a five-year old company and we started with engineering students and for us school education in a new avenue for us. And there is lots of effort that went behind our launch of our products for the school segment as we had to design our platform that was very elementary and student-friendly-so those took a lot of time from us. Schools are not alien to the various modes of experiential and activity-based learning for students, and this is evident from our involvement in just 38 schools last year to 108 schools this year. Acceptance from the education community has been very forthcoming, and we are seeing the demand coming from Nasik and other tier-3 cities much more.Currently we assess that the robotic lab market in Indian education sector is close to 1000 crore market, and the space for robotics labs is an unexplored market so the potential can actually be much more.

march / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

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event report

Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools

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ocational Education and Training (VET) is recognized as an important aspect of the nation’s educational initiatives. In order of the VE to play its part effectively in the changing global environment, there is an urgent need to redefine the critical elements of imparting VET to make them relevant, flexible, and sustainable to suit the contemporary needs of the learner and industry. In this backdrop, the NIOS, UNESCO and COL planned a three day International Conference on “Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools” from 17-19 February 2012 at IDSA, New Delhi. The Conference deliberated Smt Anshu Vaish, Secretary, School Education, GoI lighting the lamp. (Right) Dr S S Jena, Chairman, NIOS upon the impending challenges and tional Education Institutes, Educational planners and adminisissues in the academic courses at secondary education level trators and international experts in vocational, secondary and and tried to develop a framework and recommendations to esopen learning participated in this conference. tablish linkages of skills training through vocational education at secondary school level with emphasis on knowledge base THEMES through academic subjects.

The various sessions of the Conference centred on the subThe objectives of the conference were to: themes of: 1. Explore the modalities for increasing the access to sus• Vocational skills and training to empower citizens; tainable and learner centric quality school education • Designing the curriculum and quality framework to equipped with vocational skills; strengthen the impact of vocational courses, 2. Develop strategic plan to strengthen the environment and • Use of technology in providing education; image of VET; and • Developing framework for the Recognition of Prior Learn3. Establish linkages on the quality assurance system for the ing; and VET to promote the quality and equity among learners at • Development of Assessment and Certification Frameall levels. work.

Organizers received 90 abstracts from the national and PARTICIPANTS international experts, out of which 45 were shortlisted and Experts from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Germany, Napresented in different parallel sessions. mibia, New Zealand, Malawi, Tranzania and Zamibia. Representatives from Academic Institutions, Trade and Industry AsINAUGURAL sociations, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and The Conference was inaugurated by Ms Anshu Vaish, SecIndustry (FICCI), Conference of Indian Industries (CII), Voca-

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Trusted, Reliable & Comprehensive Testing

The international standard of excellence in achievement testing for over 80 years is now available in India - Stanford 10 The Stanford Achievement Test Series,Tenth Edition (India) measures student progress towards high academic standards.

A range of user-friendly score reports, designed with the input of administrators and teachers across the country, supports teaching, learning, and accountability requirements.

School Administrators obtain critical data to document and monitor the progress of all children.

Teachers receive specific information to support instructional planning for individual students and the class as well as to improve their teaching.

Parents better understand their childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s achievement level and get direction for home involvement.

Features of Stanford 10: India norms available from schools across India l Comprehensive assessment of achievement from students tested on English, Mathematics and Science l Wide age range covered through eight test levels, from classes 3 to 10 l Detailed reports result in accurate measurement of a studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progress and growth l Full-colour testing materials & Easy-to-navigate test documents l

For further information on the Stanford 10, please contact: Krishnendu Dutta Landline: 0120 4190100 (Extension 181), Mobile: 09810669678, Email: krishnendu.dutta@pearsoned.co.in www.stanford10india.com

event report

retary, School Education, MHRD, Government of India. There was a special address by Shigeru Aoyagi, Director, and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, Maldives, India and Srilanka.

There were five thematic sessions, two panel discussions besides the parallel sessions on all the three days.

The first theme for the plenary session on 17th February was on the “Use of Technology in Providing Education”. The speaker on the theme was Prof. Sugata Mitra, MIT Media Lab, USA. Prof. Mitra shared his experience with the experiments that he had done with the use of IT and search engines in educating children.

He presented the “Hole in the wall” experiment and emphasized on the need for self organized learning environment. He also showed the interesting results of various experiments which were conducted in several contries where he showed that there is a uniform learning curve when the children learn without any assistance. Children, when given free access to computers, pick up basic computer literacy skills by with minimal intervention by adults. This has been called Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) by Dr. Sugata Mitra and is basis for the Hole-in-the-Wall Learning Stations.

The second theme was on Vocational Skills and Training to empower citizens. The two speakers Sharda Prasad, Joint Secretary & Director General (DGET), Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India and Mr. G. Vaz, International Development Consultant.

Mr. Prasad presented an overview of the strategies being adopted to bring about necessary changes in vocational training imparted in ITIs. Vaz highlighted the need to change the mindset and perception of the public towards VET and discussed the importance of knowledge, skills, and innovations which are essential for a country to succeed.

Third theme was shared on second day “Designing the Curriculum and Quality Framework to Strengthen the Impact of Vocational Education at school Level.

Dilip Chenoy and Basab Banerjee from (National Skills Development Council) NSDC presented the role that the organization is playing in development and implementation of National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF). Chenoy emphasized that multi-skilling should be done to enhance the employability or rural youth. They also

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highlighted the role of the Industry in mapping of skills and curriculum development.

Belinda Smith, Consultant, TVET, Australia highlighted the need to adopt ways of integrating vocational skills by using ICT and simulated learning environment. The fourth theme was on Developing Framework for the Recognition of Prior Learning, which addressed the issues of identification of informal knowledge and skills and attaching importance to it. In this session there were two very distinguished speakers Ms. Liz Bowen from Competency International Ltd., New Zealand and Ms Madhu Singh From UNESCO Institute of Lifelong learning (UIL) Germany. Ms Liz began with a motivating presentation and mentioned that lack of formal qualification does not mean that someone is not competent. Ms Madhu Singh from UIL dwelt upon the need for policy and guidelines for the RPL and different approaches to governance of PRL. The session was followed by a panel discussion on Vocational Education in Secondary Schools and its implications for NVEQF. Dr Alka Bhargava, from MHRD, Dr Swati Majumdar, Director, Symbioses Institute of open learning , Pune, Inder Gahlaut, President, Saksham Bharat, Darshika Sanghani from Wadhwani foundation were the panelist and Dr Kuldeep Agarwal director academics NIOS was the moderator.

The fifth and the last theme of the conference was on the Assessment and certification framework. The theme addressed the issues pertaining to development of framework in an integrated situation for both academic and vocational subjects, credit transfer and assessing skills by educational institutions in partnership with industries. The two speakers for this sessions were Ms Maria Peters from Australia and Shailender Sigdel Regional Advisor Statistics UNESCO. The topic for the Peter’s presentation was “Working in the partnership to engage young people in VET”. She gave the overview of the Australian education context and the VET policy framework. Sidgel provided details on TVET and its assessment strategies and tools designed by UIS, such as the Literacy Assessment, Product on TVET. His presentation covered the aspects of TVET, its purpose, assessment and types of assessment.

VALEDICTORY SESSION The Chief Guest of the Valedictory session was Dr. (Smt.) D. Purandeshwari, Hon’ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India and Sh. Jagmohan Singh Raju, JS (AE) and DG, NLMA, Government of India was the guest of honour on the occasion. The welcome address and consolidation of three days International Conference was given by Dr. Sitansu S. Jena, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling. Dr. Mamta Srivastava, Deputy Director, (Vocational Education) NIOS and conference secretary presented report of the conference. Dr. K.P. Wasnik, Director, (Vocational Education) NIOS presented Vote of Thanks.

k-12

Quality Education via Digital Medium ‘www’ is regarded as the second name for the Internet. However, for childern today, it is actually ‘Whatever, Whenever and Wherever’

By Dr Dheeraj Mehrotra

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ducation is the pathway to excellence. But this excellence can only be achieved when we have quality infrastructure. Many experts in the education space have now started regarding the Internet as the core infrastructure for education. When you tell a child to write an essay, he/she is might download the content and present it before you in no time. Some parents have started thinking that the Internet is a menace, as it is making their children lazy by giving them easy access to course material. But the truth is that the Internet has a large role to play in the process of education. It is not a menace, if properly used, it can be a boon.

The tilt from Web 1.0 to 2.0 and now to 3.0 offers new opportunities to our students. It is up to the teachers to guide their students through the maze of the digital world. Teachers need to develop a balanced approach in developing new policies and practices that can guide the students in regards to usage of the Internet. Conservations and discussions on the best ways of taking advantage of the Internet has to be conducted between the teachers, administrators, and parents.

It is not necessary to have rules that are too rigid. All stakeholders should have a chance to contribute to the decision-making process. There is no doubt that a computer empowered with vibrant software can be an exciting tool for learning.

It should come as no surprise that we are having e-Classrooms in every school. But the true potential of the eClassrooms can only be achieved once the teachers and the school administration are able to develop an affinity for

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In my view, a quality educator must be deeply networked with all his students. He needs to have the following: a. A website. b. At least 200 links on the Internet. Many of the links can be in “About the Teacher” sections. c. He/she must share websites with the children. d. He/she must expand the scope of learning through 24/7 availability. e. Be a Facilitator by walk not only by the talk. f. Activate self and open to learning rather than teaching. g. Respect the knowledge of students that students already possess. h. He/she must be capable of criticizing privately and praising publicly. i. He/she must have blogs j. He must share YouTube videos of his own

the digital systems. In today’s environment, it is imperative for a teacher to be a trainer, learner and an all rounder. He should be well conversed with the modalities of the cyber space. It is advisable for teachers to have presence in social networks, blogs, etc.

The modern kid is SMART - Systematic, Meticulous, Active, Realistic and Tactful. He will be involved with the learning process in the classroom only when he is being taught something that he did not know earlier. A teacher has to be aware of the 21st century learn-

ing requirements. The teacher should not be teaching what the kids already know through parents/friends or through interactions on the social networks. If he tries to teach what is already well known, then he might have to hear this kind of words in the classroom, “Sir/ Madam, It is already in the book. Please tell us something new”. Do we have a reply to such questions from kids?

Someone has rightly commented, “Good teaching is also about style.”

Should good teaching be entertaining?

You bet it should!

Author Dheeraj Mehrotra Deputy General Manager (DGM) (K12 Education), Scand Harcourt (India) Pvt Ltd

Investment File

Sustainable Capitalism in Education

By Anoop Verma, Elets News Network (ENN)

The investments, even those with so-called profit motive, being made in the education space can be seen as echoing Aesop’s classic fable.

After all, the money that goes into education also serves the purpose of protecting the future flow of golden eggs by taking better care of the goose that lays them. This is what the concept of “Sustainable capitalism,” is all about.

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he investor forgoes current consumption in order to invest for future returns, not only for himself, but also for the society in general. Theoretically, this is a capitalist virtue. “Short-termism” or what someone might call investment myopia is not a possibility in the education space.

Investments made in education usually have a high gestation period; it takes significant about of time before the investment start yielding returns.

The investment angles Investors are typical moving away from the beaten path while picking up stakes in new or established companies in the education space. In February this year, Dubai-based Varkey Group has increased its stake y to 38.12 percent in Everonn Education. The Varkey Group has also appointed Rakesh Sharma and Dino Varkey as directors on the board.

In a filing with BSE, Everonn said, “Varkey Group has been allotted 2,618,120 shares of Everonn Education through preferential allotment at a price of Rs 528 per share, aggregating to 12 per cent of the post preferential

Investment File

issuance equity capital.” The investment community is of the opinion that the education companies have good long term potential. This why competition seems to be heating up for education companies in India.

Few months back we had the news of Infotel Broadband, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, acquiring 38.5 percent stake in Extramarks Education, a company focused on school education and digital learning, for an undisclosed amount. The statement from RIL declared that the investment in Extramarks had been made through an affiliate company Reliance Strategic Investments.

RIL’s investments in Extramarks are in no way altruistic. The investment has been made with the strategic aim of creating content related value for Infotel, which is the only company in India to have bandwidth for high-speed wireless broadband service across the country. In the mid-2010 auction, Infotel had won spectrum for an approximate cost of 13,000 crores.

But let us see this investment from the point of view of what it might achieve for our educational system. Quality educational content and services will become available to students and teachers through high speed 4G networks. The Extramarks investment might spur similar investments by other telecom service providers leading to a tariff war in the data services industry for education. The ultimate beneficiary of such a tariff war will not be the private companies; it will be the community of students and teachers are going to be the big gainers.

The time of start-ups!

The investments in the education space are flowing in large and small amounts. Few weeks back a technology start-up Carveniche, which has been founded by Infosys engineers Avneet Makkar and Saraswathy A, secured angel funding from Mumbai Angels. Carveniche is in the business of providing content based products and services to schools in the country.

It is leveraging cloud technology for delivery of content. We are also having rumours of Mumbai Angels investing in few other start-ups in education.

The company called Edusys was launched in 2004 and it already boasts of a customer base of more than 3,500 companies globally. It supports students in 150 countries and offers courses and tests that span a vast spectrum of

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conventional and emerging domains of learning and work.

The company’s offices are located in USA, UK, Singapore and Australia besides Bangalore and Bhubaneshwar.

In February, Edusys raised $7.5 million (approximately Rs 38 crore) from Sequoia Capital. With this round of funding, Edusys aims to expand its business by introducing new products and strengthening its core team and technology platform. The founder and CEO of the company, Tridibesh Satpathy, says, “The certification market is a $48 billion global industry and we see tremendous opportunity for growth.” According to sources, company is planning to double its workforce next year.

Even websites that are remotely linked to the field of education are catching the eye of the investment community. The Delhi based boutique investment firm, VAS Capital has made an investment in AM Edumedia Pvt Ltd, which runs, which is a website devoted to helping students pick the right engineering colleges among thousands. The IndiaCollegeSearch.com was launched only in April 2010, and as of now the company records more than 50,000 searches per month on the site.

CL Educate, which was formerly known as Career Launcher, has acquired G.K. Publications, which is a publishing house that specialises in career and academic test preparation and skill building resources.

The tablet syndrome New technological trends like tablets are also becoming a vehicle for investments to flow into the education sector. The government of India has launched the ambitious scheme to empower students with handheld devices like Aakash tablet PC. Perhaps the tablet that finally comes into the hands of our students will be more advanced than the initial version of Aakash.

The Union Minister for Human Resource and Development, Kapil Sibal has stated that an improved version of the Aakash tablet is being planned. The tender from government could be of around 50 lakh Tablet PCs for students. The tender is expected to be out in two months of time. This kind of large order for Table PCs, will certainly lead to large investments flowing into the educational devices space. Many major companies will start eying for a slice of the market. That is already happening as RIL is rumoured to have teamed up with a major Chinese device maker to procure low cost tablets in the 4G space.

On an international level the launch of Apple’s iBooks has received lot of attention. The product is aimed at reinventing the textbook. Instead of a bagful of books, students will be using tablets powered with Apple’s iBooks system. The platform embraces interactive textbooks. Students can pinch to zoom on DNA strands, watch videos on mysterious of outer space and they can experience learning in an interactive fashion. The words are still there. iBooks simply serves the purpose of making learning a bit more exciting.

Apple is yet to reveal the exact investments that the company intends to make in the iBooks section. But it is going to be substantial. As Apple has teamed up with publishing partners Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, and McGraw Hill, there is scope lot of interesting investment ideas to emerge.