Expanding Education Horizon : August 2007 Issue

The monthly publication on ICT and Education

digitalLEARNING Volume III Issue 8

August 2007 ISSN 0973-4139

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Expanding Education Horizon

Dig

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The Industry, The Pioneers and The Future NIN

Contents Volume III Issue VIII, August 2007

Overview

From Blackboard to Keyboard; Where does the Industry Drive Us Next?

Peter Ormerod, International Business Development Manager, Promethean

Cover Story

e-Learning: The Now Big Thing, Not New Big Thing Navyug Mohnot, CEO, QAI

Amit Gautam, Director, Upside Learning

The Means or 14 e-Learning: the End! Ganesh Krishnan, Founder and Chairman, TutorVista

Enuriing Quality, Transient Cost Capt. Kamaljeet singh Brar, CEO, Designmate

Research

Education in Multimedia Capsules Sunita Joshi, Director, JIL Information Technology

Selling to Teachers! No Eaisy Job Manish Amte, Marketing ManagerJournals, Foundation e-Learning, Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.

Obsolescence!

School Management: An Integrated Approach Ravi K Sinha, L Prakash Rao, Venkataswami an G, Suyog N Bapat

Project

Tele Eduation Bringing A New Revolution J S Chhabra and T K Roy

Regulars

A New Horizon in Training Market Ajay Kumar Sharma, CEO and President, New Horizons India Ltd.

and 22 Computing NComputing: No Suresh Kumar, Business Development Manager, NComputing

Shantanu Prakash, CEO, Educomp Solutions Ltd.

Through the Value 18 Growing Chain P Kishore, Managing Director, Everonn Systems

Goutam Goradia, Managing Director, Hayagriva Software

Set to Hit the One Billion Turnover by 2010

Love to Build More 12 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Would Companies Like Oursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Sonjib Mukharjee, CEO, Metalearn Services

e-Learning Can go Only One Way - UP!

Quality First Time, Every Time

Bringing a Packet Solution Ashish Dham, Managing Director, Globus Infocom Ltd.

Competition is Vital for Suppliers and Customers Alike

Sustain! And Success is Yours Amit K Gupta, CEO, S Chand Group

Mark Your Calendar

News

20 38 40 45

Corporate India Asia World

All the articles are available online at www.digitalLearning.in

digital LEARNING President M P Narayanan

Editorial

Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta

Onward to E-asy Education

Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor

Although its interesting to see every time a headline on e-Learning boom that’s just ‘round the corner’, the fact was more true some five years ago. This as an industry, has certainly made a big stride in these few years, with the industry leaders thinking innovative, and riding up the value chain all through. The boom is so big that at times it brings the comparison with the dot com bubble. But the industry is relieved that India certainly will find purpose in the competitive landscape of technology integrated education, with the global market intelligence and advisory firm IDC’s projection, ‘the eLearning market will grow from USD6.5 billion in 2002 to USD28 billion in 2008’.

Volume III, issue 8 | August 2007

Sr. Assistant Editor Rumi Mallick Sub Editor Manjushree Reddy Marketing Siddharth Verma +91-9811561645 (India) email: siddharth@csdms.in Debabrata Ray +91-9899650692 email: debabrata@elets.in Circulation Lipika Dutta (+91-9871481708) Manoj Kumar (+91-9210816901) Designed by Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Web Zia Salahuddin Editorial and Marketing Correspondence digital Learning G-4 Sector 39 NOIDA 201301, India Phone +91 120 2502181-85 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLearning.in Group Directors Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Printed by Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India digital Learning does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. digital Learning is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided. digital Learning is published in technical collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in)

Studies 2007 (www.csdms.in) Media

There is a huge need and appetite for quality education in the country. Technology has to play a role in catering to this need. The other cue for the industry players can be, the Indian government seemed to have woken up to the demands of the industry, announcing in late February the broad direction of support for India’s technology industry. Together with planned government initiatives in education, and the establishment of three more Indian Institutes of Science (IISc), four to five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and business schools like the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), the policy changes could very well address the areas of weakness in e-Learning. As we move towards convergence and integration in digital economy, the field of e-Learning is seeing a perceivable move towards use of real-time technologies. Knowledge management is the other area where learning initiatives will find scope for integration, building learning components into the work flow to integrate performance support. With the Indian technology-led education industry now perched on the point of all-out growth, it is up to those in the business of technology to take it over the tipping point. This special issue of Digital Learning has tried to capture the view points of the industry leaders, in seeking the answers on how do they subscribe to this scenario. With the providers of e-Learning witnessing phenomenal expansion of this industry and their business, let’s leave this thread with the hope that the e-Learning market and the opportunities are going to get better in the time to come! There was no denying the excitement among the delegates to the 2006 Vision conference ‘Digital Learning India’ organised by us that handed the industry its ‘report card’ along with words of suggestions and future directions, and of course, promises of incentives. And the same excitement is evident this year as well, with the ‘Digital Learning India 2007’ approaching the D-Day. Our work as researchers, educators, service providers and policy makers is conducted in the wider context of our purpose and values. Lets join the platform this year again for the debate of the issues, which still guides us, towards recognising of ICTs and the capabilities to use them critically and appropriately have themselves had an impact in the field of education.

Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Overview

From Blackboard to Keyboard Where does the Industry Drive us Next? When the winds of change blow, some build walls, others build windmills’

• What is the need to integrate ICT in our existing education system?

Technology integrated education is widely recognised as an important part of the total education and training system. Rapid innovation in information and communications technology (ICT) is transforming the way we work, the way we interact, the way we learn, and the way we live. The real challenge is how to reposition it in response to the global forces driving change in a knowledge-based economy.

• How will ICT and the industry work for Indian education System?

Any effort to integrate ICT into the education system requires the leadership of all relevant stakeholders. The market forces making the strongest presence in this current revolution of ICTs led Education, the corporate leadership must have a clear vision of why they are striving to enable the use of ICT within the various sectors of the education system and the type of society they hope to achieve by doing so. They also must have a clear vision of the mechanism that the other stakeholders intend to use to implement ICT.

• What are the challenges for the industry today? • Where do they head five years hence? • How do they plan to take forward our vision? While seeking answers to many of such questions from the industry players, Digital Learning in this issue aims at capturing the ICT and Education vision for the year 2012 to support the effective deployment and integration of ICTs in the Education system of India, by providing a platform for dialogue amongst leading industry players to ensure alignment of plans, programmes and projects. The attempt is to draw the matrix outlining intended dimension approaches to ICT and Education industry through collection of some first person accounts of the industry representatives. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Cover Story

e-Learning

The Now Big Thing Not New Big Thing

Navyug Mohnot CEO, QAI

Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

he basic fact that is driving and will drive the e-Learning market is the positive economics of the e-Learning solutions. The Indian IT industry is a 40 billion dollar industry and e-Learning is the only way to address this growing IT population. As they say “e-Learning is not the next big thing; it is the now big thing”, says Navyug Mohnot, the CEO of QAI. We are a consulting firm with a wide portfolio of learning products. Our knowledge offerings are aimed at providing a complete solution to the client. Also, our unique advantage lies in the fact that we are not just a training provider. We are not just an e-Learning factory. We are a consulting firm, rooted in making organisational improvements happen and transforming knowledge into learning that is eventually translated into behaviours. QAI is a leading global consulting organisation addressing ‘Operational Excellence’ in IT, BPO and Knowledge intensive organisations. QAI’s regional bases across the globe in the US, Singapore, China, Malaysia, UK and India helps to distribute innovatively and manage engagements across multiple locations. The company was founded in the United States 23 years ago, while QAI

of the thousands of recruits that get hired per quarter. While quoting the popular view on e-Learning, Navyug says, “We need to bring learning to people instead of bringing people to learning” and that is what EdistaLearning does. The competitive advantage of EdistaLearning is the unique synergy of QAI’s consulting and training experience and expert content from gurus like Dr. Roger Pressman. Also, companies offering e-Learning on C, C++, Oracle etc. are in plenty, but to provide domains of Software Engineering and Quality Management is unique and unparalleled.

Due to the individual nature of our offerings, we don’t face the force of competition. Our services are uniquely positioned in the market.

QAI facilitates enhanced competitiveness through multifaceted interventions leading to Business Improvement through Consulting, Training, People, Process and Operational Assessments, Benchmarking, Certification, Conferences, Resource provisioning through Quality Outsourcing and e-Learning through QAI eSchool.

An organisation such as Infosys has announced to hire 28,000 employees in this year. They would all need to be trained. This is because most companies today are troubled by the growing attrition and feel the need for constant engagement of the employee through various avenues including e-Learning. In my opinion, the IT and the BPO sectors would consume huge market share of the e-Learning industry in the near future. The underlying issue that the

Currently, blended learning is the highlight of the day. With the backing of the experience of having trained over 75,000 professionals in the instructor led mode and expert content from international gurus for our e-Learning courses, we are doing pretty well as a training provider.

Over the years, my critical learning has been that we as individuals, as an organisation and as an industry, need to have the ability to constantly and relentlessly keep learning because the world around us changes everyday. e-Learning will be an integral element in the training processes of every organisation and it will be the most powerful tool to effectively on-board, induct and train the

The e-Learning market is sitting at the cusp, waiting to explode. The timing, model and the value proposition is just right. The Indian market is warming up to the concept and very soon, e-Learning would become the answer to all the woes of all IT HR managers India was set up as the regional hub for the Asia Pacific in 1993. EdistaLearning, the core product is targeted at the core problems facing the ICT industry today :Just in time, high quality training and massive attrition. e-Learning is the order of the day, with intense requirement of on-boarding, deployment and up-skilling

e-Learning industry faces is that in conventional mindset, e-Learning does not have as much credibility as classroom training. Also, it does not hold the same amount of weight age as an instructor led programme. This can be overcome by internationally recognised certifications or by a blended learning programme.

thousands of people who get hired every quarter. Our intent is to take Software Engineering and Quality Management education to every desktop and unleash the creation of a massive workforce to meet India’s 80 billion target. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

cover story

Bringing a Packet Solution Ashish Dham Managing Director Globus Infocom Ltd.

Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

hree years back we got into the subject of e-Learning, distance education and we have been successful in making our presence in almost all parts of the country today. Globus Infocom started its journey in 1996, with the audio visual products for promoting Mitsubishi brands of multi-media projectors. Quickly added three more interesting and meaningful products, like Interactive Boards, Interactive Thinking pads, and visualisers, which found great applications specifically in the education sector. These products are required for conducting training sessions as students learn things faster and could remember them for a longer period of time. In most of the companies we find people who are promoting such solutions for distance learning or e-Learning, rely a lot on third parties for content, hardware, software solutions and applications. Whereas, we have all the facilities in-house. We are the only company, which apart from having the software infrastructure, also has a factory where we produce most of these educational products. We are the first

Smart Classroom, the flagship programme of Globus Infocom is a concept that we started about two years back, with which we presented a solution to the teaching fraternityextremely interactive and collaborative. It gives flexibility to a teacher to improvise on what she is teaching and allows her to make the curriculum in the way she would like to go about teaching. The unique selling proposition so far is our unique solution that we have been offering, where starting from the content to the hardware, and applications, everything is developed by us. This again helps us getting lot of contracts from state governments like Uttarachal, and Punjab. Army too is going in for e-Learning in a big way with training establishments in INA, NDA, etc. We have done most of these e-Learning things in these trainings institutes. These apart, we are also present in Navodaya Vidyalayas, Kendriya Vidyalayas and also present very strongly in District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs), State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), and

teachers. Most interesting for the Indian scenario is the availability of these resources at school level. Though a very promising industry we are working in, it is difficult for a vendor to evaluate what amount of budget is going through. There is no forum where these studies could be done officially. But one clear example of why could we say that the market is growing, is the fact that we have been in this industry, and the industry has been growing at the rate of 60% for the last 5 years. Globus Infocom saw a tremendous leap from INR 38 crores in 2005-2006 to INR 58 crores in 2006-2007 in terms of its business. We are in this industry; we are growing, and so we can confidently claim that the industry is also growing. At lot of forums too, where the government officials have been involved and the kind of budget that is coming in is also promising. Private schools too are coming up in a big way in implementing ICT in education. It is now a kind of marketing tool for schools, which again keeps the market flourishing.

We are the only company which is manufacturing Interactive boards in India and the only company that has doubled up the software in various vernacular languages. We have all the resources in-house company in India who has taken the initiative for manufacturing distance learning solutions, hardware products like interactive boards, pads, and visualisers. Globus Infocom has done a lot of value addition this way. We also have renowned academicians on our panel who have been guiding and working with us together. A new portal will be launched in another two months to take our mission forward. The focus is more on digital content, distance learning, and e-Learning. We have modules for most varied type of classes; interesting content on engineering, medical, dental streams, and have planned capsules for various kinds of polytechnic subjects. But the primary focus has always been on secondary education. 10

most of state level schools. With the ITIs remaining in focus for the last two years and centres of excellence announced to be built up in about 500 ITIs across the country, we have a lot Smart Classrooms in ITIs as well. We are the only company which is manufacturing Interactive boards in India and the only company that has doubled up the software in various vernacular languages. We have all the resources in-house. The government-led ICT projects like EDUSAT and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan have been using a lot of products of Globus Infocom. The issue which the company is trying to address is to create learning environment more exciting in terms of getting things and presenting it in a way that is more convenient for

Our efforts have been towards convergence of IT, audio visual, and education. There is also a great scope for us to improve further, because of the technology development. Our products are getting more popular; next versions are getting more re-enforced, and they are getting more affordable as well. So we look at developing solutions that cater not only to India, but also to other countries like Singapore, Dubai, and UK. The education system in India is the most rugged systems worldwide. That prompts us to have quality manpower worldwide. We are looking at picking up meaningful things, incorporating those in our offerings and take the solutions worldwide. We are working in projects in other countries like Malaysia, Korea, where we have developed solutions in their own languages that makes it one of our unique solutions. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Cover Story

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Would Love to Build More Companies Like Oursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; The Indian e-Learning market is fairly mature in the area of content. However, we are yet to see the growth in the technology area.

Sonjib Mukharjee Chief Executive Officer Metalearn Services What are your core products? What do your think you have an edge over others; what are your core strength? We have IP products in Learning Management System (LMS) and Test Engine and are developing School Management System, Knowledge Management System and Virtual Classroom products. Our core strength is our domain understanding of technology enabled learning deliveries. We have one of the best teams in the industry and have always delivered very high quality well within time. This is a process we have perfected. What are specific issues within the ICT-enabled education sector that your think your product can address? We provide end-to-end solutions to ICT enabled education. Specific issues of complex distribution architecture and highly dynamic user requirement can be very well handled by our team. What in your opinion is driving the e-Learning market in India? Right now it is the corporate sector which is driving the e-Learning market and it is continuously growing at over 30% + CAGR. In the long run however the investments in the education sector will be much high since the number of beneficiaries is extremely large. 12

What are the key challenges and road blocks that this industry faces in its paths of growth? There seems to be a lack of social or industry level framework to address important issues in a collective fashion. Lot of good work by various organisations does not even reach the mainstream due to the lack of institutional support and suitable engagement framework. What is the USP of your company or the products, and how far that has been able to position you uniquely in the market? Do you face the force of competition in any means? Our main USP is the price at which we deliver world class products. In our service model we have achieved tremendous success due to consistent high quality deliveries on time. We recognise and welcome competition since it brings up the standards of the whole industry and constantly pushes up client expectations. This actually is something that is helping us to constantly challenge ourselves. What are your views on the maturity of the e-Learning market or sectors within it in India. Have you ever tried to read the e-Learning market in India in terms of potentials, chances

for deep penetration, proving the winning status to your company, etc.? The Indian e-Learning market is fairly mature in the area of content. However, we are yet to see the growth in the technology area. The potential is constantly growing in the area of content and we right now are at the top end of the band in terms of knowledge, understanding and experience. The area of technology is still quite unexplored considering that most of our education delivery is still fighting a digital divide of sorts. This is an area where there will be tremendous opportunities that will come up. What has been your most crucial learning experience in this sector? Building value and being able to scale it up constantly is a big learning in this sector. Where do you see e-Learning in India after five years? What is there in your personal agenda for this period? In five years, Indian e-Learning will be a very mature industry and would have jump started into hi-tech areas like deliveries on mobile and IP television. I would love to build more companies like ours. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

cover story

e-Learning

The Means or the End!

Ganesh Krishnan

Founder and Chairman, TutorVista 14

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

anesh launched TutorVista in 2005 with a goal to provide all students with individualised learning programmes taught by world class experts so that children get the �� proper education needed for success. A personalised, 24-hour online tutoring and test prep service, geared toward all ages and subjects, including K-12, college test prep, college/university courses and continuing graduate courses, TutorVista employs experts based in India as well �� as throughout other areas in Europe. Ganesh while giving an overview of his products says, our core products are personalied tutoring service (www.tutorvista.co.in) and animated educational content (www.edurite.com). Our core strength lies in the area of: Technology, where we have a very robust and scalable technology led model. We can conduct personalised tutoring sessions for 100 to 100,000 students on our portal. Most of our operations are carried online, so we have a high level of automation in areas of student management, tutor management, session scheduling, conducting session, payments, reporting, etc. Scalability - We can at any point of time scale up by adding hundreds of tutors in a matter of week. Post that our processes take care of training, deployment, etc. This cookie cutter solution based upon our expertise in process oriented industry like BPO gives us the edge. Animated Education Content – We also have CD-Rom educational content, online educational content through

Our tutors are trained in instructional pedagogy which emphasis on engaging the students to maximise learning. Our services are “LIVE” services as opposed to just content dump, which many online institutes offer. There is online assessment for the student so that areas of weakness are identified and more attention is given to those areas. Apart from this, we supplement our services with education content. There are interactive animations, virtual labs and graphics which explain a concept better. There are three key developments which are driving the e-Learning market today in India. a) Technology – Lowering cost and increased penetration of PC / broadband in the country have been major drivers in e-Learning market in India. Students are quite keen to explore and availability of online / offline resources have just fuelled their pursuit. b) Competition – Most of the education system is based on rote learning. However, when it comes to deciding tests for engineering, medical, MBA, etc. the future is decided on understanding of concepts be it the IIT-JEE exam, CEE, AIEEE, AIIMS, CAT etc. So, there has been adoption of eLearning to enhance the conceptual learning to the extent that many of the preparatory institutes have started bundling concept CDs with their courses.

growth is personalised service sector in education. Through advent of new technology and high adoption of online supplemental help this sector will be a beneficiary. It connects a student in a remote hamlet to the best teacher in a city like Delhi or Bangalore. But then technology again comes as the key challenge for this sector. PC and Internet penetration is still a huge hindrance. In Korea there is a 95% PC penetration, whereas in India it would be around 5% (home segment). In US, the cost of PC would be a week’s salary at the most where as in India it is still 3 – 4 months’ of salary. These are certain issues that the industry is grappling with. Till then, it is the Brick and Mortar business way where the scale would be. A seasoned entrepreneur, Ganesh has a strong known history for starting green field ventures and helping them develop into robust, successful market leaders. ‘We are relatively new in Indian market. Our tutoring service makes studying more fun, interactive and exploratory. Our tutors are trained in instructional pedagogy, which emphasise on engaging the students to maximise learning. Our services are “LIVE” services as opposed to just content dump. The tutor engages the student in practise sessions. There is online assessment for the student so that areas of weakness are identified and more attention is given to those areas.’ Ganesh explains the USP of his products further. We supplement our services

PC and Internet penetration is still a huge hindrance. In Korea there is a 95% PC penetration whereas in India it would be around 5% (home segment). In US, the cost of PC would be a week’s salary at the most where as in India it is still 3 - 4 months’ of salary. These are certain issues that the industry is grappling with Edurite (www.edurite.com). We cover all grades and all curricula. There are certain lacunae when it comes to ICT-enabled education in India and in general worldwide. Current products and services are not bridging those areas. Our tutoring service makes reading more fun, interactive and exploratory. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

c) Convenience – It is really convenient for the students as they can sit in the vicinity of their home and take online help from the best of the teachers or they can use educational CDs to understand and reinforce their learning. And the sector which will see extensive

with education content (Edurite, www. edurite.com). There are interactive animations, virtual labs (where student can conduct experiments) and graphics which explain a concept better. In US market our proposition is quite compelling. Private tuitions in US cost $30 - $60 per hour which makes it out 15

of reach for most of the population. At $99 / month of unlimited tutoring it is a strong draw for students and parents. We have been able to effectively marry Internet, technology and global resources to provide affordable, high quality, personalised tutoring services to our students based out of US. Our teaching methodology is quite engaging, animation-based and tutorled. This has led to a high retention among students. There are other companies which have competing business models. However,

partnered with Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential programme. This is a thought leadership programme which aims to unleash the potential of furthering education, innovations in education and creating job opportunities for youth. In terms of maturity of e-Learning market in India, there can not be one route that any company can adopt. PC penetration is low in India so dumping educational content on PCs will reach only as much. Edurite did research and found that off take of

We have grown multiple times over the last 5 - 6 months as opposed to our competitors. We have in excess of 400 tutors from 25 different cities and have a robust and scalable operations portal which provides us a definitive edge over our competitors. scale is of essence in this business. We have grown multiple times over the last 5 – 6 months as opposed to our competitors. We have in excess of 400 tutors from 25 different cities and have a robust and scalable operations portal which provides us a definitive edge over our competitors. e-Learning is the most effective way to make a difference in Indian education system. The solutions have to be innovative. You need to work at grass root level with government. Most importantly, there is an urgent need to make education accessible through: a)Use and adoption of technology b)Use of teachers from other parts of the country. We need to accept it as a fact that most of the classes in rural India are not held either due to no assigned teacher or teachers who don’t come to school altogether. Marrying technology with teachers can ensure that the last lagging student is linked to the “A” grade teacher. We have to work with initiatives like Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). There has to be effective partnership with NGOs which do work with kids and work with foundations like Azim Premji Foundation. To this intent, we have 16

DVD players is more than PC in home segment. So they came up with DVD format for educational content. It is all about identifying the right way to approach the market and going with it. In India, it can never be completely PC / Online based education. These formats need to be combined with offline format of education. However, opportunity exists in making the services live, interactive and in remote classrooms. We started TutorVista with providing services to US market with $99.99 per month of unlimited tutoring. In US, it cost $40 - $60 per hour for personalised tutoring. We were pretty confident that the proposition of $99.99 / month was a clincher. The most important learning during the entire course came in the form of very practical aspects of running the show: • How to get an Indian tutor to teach US students subjects like Maths, English and Science? • Getting acceptance and student adoption of this service. For the first one, we found that teachers were quite receptive to the idea of teaching students based out of US. We introduced our 60 hour training

programme which covers aspects like American culture, interactive teaching methodology, Voice and Accent training, technology training, etc. This helped us cover the service aspect of it. We found that parents are willing to trust their kids with Indian tutors when it comes to Maths, Science or English but when it comes to something like Tennis coaching they wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. e-Learning in its current form and stage is limited to the top layer of the pyramid. There is need for this form of education to percolate to the lowest layer. I see adoption of e-Learning in different forms but definitely moving towards the bottom of the pyramid. Couple of ways in which it can really be achieved in a meaningful way are: a) Need to try different format for propagating this form of learning. There have to be innovative approaches to tackle the issue. Be it in terms of Public – Private partnership or making difference at grass root level by working with NGOs, governme nts or by private partnership in government’s Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). b) e-Learning to be the “Means rather than the End”. There can be remote classes which can be held to cater to education needs of students. c) Use of innovative technology. A case in point being Edurite’s Mobile PC solution for education. It is affordable, can be moved around from one place to another and fulfils the required needs. My personal agenda during next five years is, meaningful change to the way education is provided in India. I see lot of opportunity in various pockets where a lot needs to be done. These opportunities will make a difference to the way education is conducted in both offline as well as online media. India is the largest market when it comes to sheer student numbers with about 200 million kids in kindergarten – college age group. In US, within the next couple of years, we want to take our subscriber base to 100,000 students. It is the single largest market in terms of dollars. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Cover Story

Growing Through the Value Chain

P Kishore

Managing Director, Everonn System 18

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

ndia’s commitment to the spread of knowledge and education is the key driver of the ICT and education market in the country. This apart, Central Government allocation towards education through education cess of 2% and additional higher education cess at 1% , budget allocation of INR 3235.2 billion for the year 2007 – 08,“Government spending target” for education to go up to 6% of GDP, allocation of INR100 billion for primary education as part of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, allocation under the ICT @ Schools scheme, etc. also make to the key drivers, according to P. Kishore the Managing Director, Everonn Systems. Everonn is the front runner in setting up virtual and interactive classroom networks across India to deliver quality education that is affordable. The company employs more than 2400 professionals and has presence over 2000 Schools and Colleges. Everonn’s vision is to take education delivery to the next dimension through an innovative blend of content, pedagogy and technology and be a leading and distinctive player

Global Education bringing management education through virtual classrooms in 10 locations. The company bagged two of the top three prizes of the prestigious computer literacy excellence award for Govt. schools in Tamil Nadu. In 2004, it launched “Zebra Kross” - branded virtual classroom network in colleges with state of the art studio in Chennai. In 2005, test launch of Virtual learning happened at schools and corporates along with the ISO 9001:2000 certification. 2006 saw the strategic investment of USD3 million from Tamasek’s subsidiary ST Asset Management, India China pre IPO equity (Mauritius) Ltd. And in 2007, Everonn singed up more than 80 schools for virtual learning, awarded 216 schools IT education contract in the state of Karnataka. While the overall revenue grew by 39.17% in terms of overall growth, IT education grew by 11.66% and virtual learning grew by 48.87%. The operating margin stood at 40.96%. The current institutional education and infrastructure services of the company includes, setting up IT education infrastructure in schools and colleges,

divide, Governments have relied on Private Public Partnerships (PPP) and involved companies committed to nation building. Everonn plays a key role in fulfilling this mission by setting up of IT labs in government schools across India. In some states, labs are also used to deliver curriculum support programmes in digital format. One of the largest education systems in the world that covers 2020 lakh students, and 10 lakh schools, Government and private, shows the existing market strength of 40 thousand schools, both Government and private, and 100 Lakh students, Kishore calculates. 95% of the market is still untouched. The company signed single largest contract with Govt. of Karnataka for delivering IT education and supply of connected equipments in 216 Schools under the BOOT model. The company has tied up with educational testing service to offer testing services to the students for the TOEFL and GRE .The Company has put up 12 testing centers during the year. It has tied up with Cognizant Technology

One of the largest education systems in the world that covers 2020 lakh students, and 10 lakh schools, Government and private, shows the existing market strength of 40 thousand schools, both Government and private, and 100 Lakh students. 95% of the market is still untouched in bringing education to students anywhere, preparing them to be productive citizens of the future. This fully integrated knowledge management, education and training company, operates through two strategic business units • Institutional Education and Infrastructure Services (IEIS) • Virtual and Technology Enabled Learning Solutions (ViTELS) Everonn’s journey started with incorporating the company as a Public Limited Company in 2000. It got the contract for 332 Govt. schools in Tamil Nadu for computer education. In 2002, it partnered with Hughes Net (Direcway) Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

delivering IT education in schools and colleges. Currently it has a point of presence in 1900 schools, spread across 8 states. The Virtual and Technology Enabled Learning Solutions (ViTELS) focuses on providing specialised content through a “live and interactive remote delivery mechanism.” Virtual Education is delivered to 197 colleges, schools and retail centres. Various State Governments of India have recognised the importance of preparing youth in rural and remote locations to qualify for the opportunities of the future. To bridge the digital

Solutions (CTS) to impart institution based training to fresh recruits. The training services include live and interactive learning and training platform redefining access to education, interactive sessions with instructors and fellow students all over the country through a VSAT enabled network of classrooms, state of the art studios and lecture halls from where the expert teacher delivers classes using presentations, video, audio and digital content, turnkey solutions under the BOOT Model adopted for computer education and computer aided education to cater to the large number of Schools. 19

Corporate Diary | News Educomp to invest INR 255 cr in school venture To facilitate the setting up of 100 schools across the country, education company Educomp Solutions Ltd plans to invest INR 255 crore in the first round. While INR 55 crore will be invested by the company via equity in its subsidiaries, Educomp Infrastructure and Educomp School Management Company, the rest of the investment will be arranged through debt. The company had earlier announced setting up 100 schools in the country in the next three years. The company is so far engaged in providing digital infrastructure and content to schools, apart from offering professional development and online tutorial services.

The company is also entering into partnerships with real estate developers such as with the Delhibased DLF Ltd that gives Educomp a preference to set up schools in all the townships that the real estate firms develops. Most of the Educomp schools would be based on the Central Board of Secondary Education curriculum. However, the company would run some international boards in some of its schools.

McGraw-Hill offers interactive learning through iPod McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a premier provider of print and digital teaching and learning solutions for the post-secondary and higher-education markets, is the first major educational publisher to offer college-level content for the iQuiz game application on Apple’s iPod. 20

McGraw-Hill Higher Education’s EZ Test Online programme can create and deliver multiple-choice or true/false quiz questions using iQuiz for iPod. EZ Test Online combines high quality content with the ability to prepare and deliver tests to students in a variety of ways. To set up and deliver a quiz to students via iPod, instructors simply press the iQuiz button in EZ Test Online to export a quiz ready for use with iQuiz. Once students download the quiz into their iPod, they can use the interactive iQuiz to practice and learn the content specific for their course. Students can quickly self-assess and receive their quiz scores instantly. EZ Test Online is accessible to busy instructors virtually anywhere via the Web, and the programme eliminates the need for them to install test software.

MBD launches online tutorial service for Indian students

Publishing house MBD has launched online tutorial guidelines for schoolchildren as well as for those preparing are engineering and medical entrance examinations in India. Initially, the company has invested around INR 20 million to offer three months to two years courses for standard 10 and 12. The company has launched this service for the Central Board of Secondary Education and the AIEEE (engineering entrance) and the AIPMT (medical entrance) aspirants. The company has tied up with the Internet service provider, Sify, so that students

can study at any Sify I-Ways Internet kiosk at no extra cost. The tutorial will come at INR 150 per month per subject.

Learnsmart launches online tool for Indian students

Learnsmart India Private Limited has launched an online diagnostic and selfassessment tool for Indian students of Std III to X. Learnsmart is a joint venture initiative by Hyderabad-based service-oriented architecture (SOA) and web services integration provider BodhTree Consulting, and Unified Council, a provider of educational assessment services. Christened 24X7guru.com, the tool combines Unified Council’s education content and BodhTree’s online diagnostic and assessment engine. Students can evaluate their learning proficiency by answering questions about the subjects they study in school. The portal then scores those answers and demonstrates to students their strengths and weaknesses. Initially, 24X7guru. com will offer student’s online assessment services for CBSE-based science and mathematics. A student can take as many as 45 such tests per year by paying INR 3 to INR 5 per day, depending on the class.

m-Learning gears up in India

India-based Enable Mobile Technologies is planning to offer coaching for engineering and medical college August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Corporate Diary | News entrance exams, specific vocational training and language training through mobile phones. The company has partnered with coaching institute IMS to launch this service. The service will allow telecoms operator to enable users to prepare for MBA entrance exams. The service, ‘the Prep Guide’, is a multi application service tailor-made to suit content. User would be able to receive words for practice through SMS or access them through WAP. But for mock interviews, the delivery format will be different like a voice-based application or audiocum-video interaction-via-mobile and a dedicated portal that allows a group of six-seven members to log on and communicate in real time. The company is working on technology to facilitate group discussions and counseling via mobile phones.

Intel introduces Classmate PCs in Pakistan

Intel Pakistan Corporation has introduced the Intel-Powered Classmate PC in Pakistan, which would be used by students of classes VI to VIII in classrooms under the supervision of teachers and with the added option of parental guidance. The Classmate PC is designed to provide affordable, collaborative learning environments for students and equip them with technology. The company has selected two government schools in Islamabad and one each in

IT cos log in to train employees Faced with a global spread of workforce and their shrinking life span of technical skills, IT companies are increasingly investing in e-Learning solutions to enhance the competency levels of their employees. Companies such as Wipro, Satyam, Accenture and Agilent are increasing their expenditure on online training by about 30% every year, in what is estimated to have become a INR 1,000-crore industry today. Companies feel online training not just add value to the workplace, it’s crucial for their success. SLW is the in-house online training division of Satyam Computers offering 5,000 online courses for its employees. Satyam spent close to INR 2.5 crore on SLW last year and is planning to increase it by almost 40% to INR 3.5 crore this year. Satyam is planning to shift 70-80% of its training curriculum online, particularly at the entry level. This is because at the entry level the training imparted is more technical as against that for higher positions where a priority is given to classroom training. Others are also following a similar strategy. Accenture has tied-up with XLRI (Jamshedpur) for a two-year online Lahore and Karachi. The Classmate PC has two versions. The first one is only 7inch long with a price of USD 230-240. It will be limited to the school segment only and will not be sold in the market. The other version is a 9-inch PC priced at USD 375-400 and meant to be sold in the markets.

Edurite to provide digital content to MES MES (Muslim Educational Society), one of the largest educational society in South India, will be Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

course in human capital management. It also has a tie-up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a five month course in technical and domain skills. Other companies have also struck such partnerships. For instance, Satyam has recently struck an arrangement with Universitas 21 Global, a Singapore based e-Learning portal, for a certificate course on global leadership and with management consultancy Mckinsey for a programme on sales and consultancy. Agilent India has done the same with Globe Smart, Harvard Manager Mentor and Wharton for various short-term online management and technical programmes. Companies are also developing courses in-house. For instance, Agilent offer over 100 courses, 60% of which are developed in-house. Similarly, Wipro offers over 2,000 online titles, of which over 100 have been developed internally. About 5% of Wipro’s overall training budget goes into online training, which fulfills the learning needs of fundamentals of key business areas such as banking, insurance, telecom, manufacturing and retail. deploying “DigitALly”, an educational tool from Bangalore based Edurite Technologies, one of the leading eLearning curriculum content providers in India. “DigitALly” is a multimedia resource library from Edurite for delivery of subjects like Mathematics and Science in a collaborative way in the class rooms. This tool can be used by the teachers in the K-12 (kindergarten to class 12) to enhance the teaching with animations, videos and diagrams. “DigitALly” is capable of helping teachers to easily create custom lessons by providing rich resources that simultaneously engage students in technology and subject area curriculum. 21

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Computing and NComputing: No Obsolescence! e-Learning is bound to surge in the following years. We anticipate Contents being developed in larger volumes. The cost of delivery is the challenge to the industry. IT infrastructure needs to be addressed. We foresee a need for regional language contents as the PCs reach the rural masses. Contents that help agriculture, women empowerment, skills development are very crucial for India’s development.

Suresh Kumar

Business Development Manager NComputing What are your core products? What do your think you have an edge over others; what are your core strength? Today’s PCs essentially have the processing power of a mainframe, but most of the time this is under utilised. NComputing spent the last dozen years developing its PC sharing hardware and software. NComputing developed their own protocol ‘UXP(User eXtension Protocol) to optimise the communication between the host computer and NComputing products deploying a terminal service software.

What are specific issues within the ICT-enabled education sector that you think your product can address? Most schools do not have adequate budget for buying computers. While some schools have computers in their lab, they keep investing to upgrade their computers after 4 or 5 years. There is also a running cost on electricity bills. Computers normally use more than 250~300Watt . NComputing products can dramatically save electricity with a maximum of 5Watt consumption per terminal.

We deploy the SoC(System on Chip) architecture and our access terminals run on non-OS( Operating System). The most affordable point about NComputing products is its compatibility with Windows Desktop and Linux operating system while providing similar user experience. There is absolutely no training required for using NComputing products.

NComputing can deliver high-end computing to more users compared to traditional PCs by turning a single computer into a shared network. Each additional user shares the CPU and memory of the host computer. This enables superior savings towards outlay of hardware and software maintenance.

NComputing has quietly sold upward of 300,000 PC sharing devices to schools over the last 28 months. 22

What are the key challenges and road blocks that this industry faces in its paths of growth? e-Learning is bound to surge in the

following years. We anticipate Contents being developed in larger volumes. The cost of delivery is the challenge to the .industry. IT infrastructure needs to be addressed. Government funding and propaganda will ensure reach to the masses. We also foresee a need for regional language contents as the PCs reach the rural masses. Contents that help agriculture, women empowerment, skills development are very crucial for India’s development. What is the USP of your company or the products, and how far that has been able to position you uniquely in the market? We offer affordable computing solutions and the USP is that our terminals work on the extensive power of the host PC with Desktop O/S. They generate very little heat, save space as they can be mounted on the rear of the monitor and hassle free to maintenance. Upgrading the host PCs automatically upgrades our terminals too. We can boldly say that there is no obsolescence. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

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Quality First Time, Every Time

Amit Gautam

Director, Upside Learning 24

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

What are your core products? What do your think you have an edge over others; what are your core strength? Our core products are our Learning Suite of solutions comprising UpsideLMS, UpsideAE, and a range of other offthe-shelf solutions and our Content Development services. Our core strength – be it our learning suite or our content development services – is our undiluted focus on customer delight by providing high-quality, effective learning solutions, continuously. We train our teams to deliver quality first time, every time.

growth and the potential in the e-Learning market would attract eLearning service providers in due time, but I strongly feel that there is definitely a large gap between the demand and supply (supply is in shortfall). We have to look at it from the perspective of suppliers who can provide high-quality and in-time services. One of the key challenges faced currently is the gap between the price points for overseas work and work in India market which inadvertently puts a pressure on the service providers. An equilibrium needs to be reached in that sense.

What are specific issues within the ICT-enabled education sector that your think your product can address? The most important benefit it can provide is the fact that technology enabled education can become a reality faster and at an affordable price. With our quick to deploy solutions which are backed by world-class support teams all this is easily possible.

What is the USP of your company or the products, and how far that has been able to position you uniquely in the market? Do you face the force of competition in any means? Being a part of the competitive landscape we of course face the force of competition be it in hiring talent or acquiring customers and partners. As stated earlier our USP is our focus on working with the customers continuously. We strive to provide high-quality solutions cost-effectively (which does not mean at a low price). Being process-oriented we are able to save costs on project delays and overruns which we pass as a benefit to our customers.

What in your opinion is driving the e-Learning market in India? Which sector in the market will see extensive growth in the next few years? e-Learning market in India is at an early stage but growing steadily both in terms of size and the maturity. There is a variety of factors driving the e-Learning market in India. Some early adopters of e-Learning are now using it for a sizeable chunk of the entire training including product and process training, for new adopters it is an imperative method to reduce training costs and eventually use it as an integral part of

Our repeat business is an indication that the positioning is working very well. Additionally our customers and our prospective customers clearly see us as a complete e-Learning solutions company offering a complete range of solutions as against other e-Learning companies

for deep penetration, proving the winning status to your company, etc.? e-Learning market in India, as I mentioned earlier also, is picking up pace but is still at the initial stage of the maturity curve. India market, due to its sheer size, has a huge potential and has been growing steadily too currently. We are and would continue to be an active player in this market and would like to offer all our services to the market in due course. We are currently going aggressive on our UpsideLMS and our Learning suite and have received a very good response from the market. What has been your most crucial learning experience in this sector? My past eight years in this industry have all been a learning experience and it continues. But one thing which clearly stands out is that there is a dire need to understand customer’s actual (sometimes un-stated and sometimes unforeseen) needs very clearly. e-Learning is an initiative which encompasses a variety of teams including HR, Training and IT and as a service provider we and other stakeholders need to clearly understand what is it that they would get from us (as a vendor). Most of times there is also a need to educate customers on best practices, other experiences which we should not shy away from. Where do you see e-Learning in India after five years? What is there in your personal agenda for this period? e-Learning would become an integral part of the training function of all

There is definitely a large gap between the demand and supply. We have to look at it from the perspective of suppliers who can provide high-quality and in-time services. One of the key challenges faced currently is the gap between the price points for overseas work and work in India market which inadvertently puts a pressure on the service providers. An equilibrium needs to be reached in that sense. all the training functions. Since overall the market is at an early stage – all the sectors have the potential to grow extensively in the coming years. What are the key challenges and road blocks that this industry faces in its paths of growth? Though I am sure that the current Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

which either offer content development services only or LMS related services only. What are your views on the maturity of the e-Learning market or sectors within it in India. Have you ever tried to read the e-Learning market in India in terms of potentials, chances

growing organisations and would also acquire a more strategic nature in the overall business planning. My personal agenda is to position Upside Learning strongly in India market so that it becomes the most preferred e-Learning solutions provider organisation in India. As we strongly believe in better learning, improved performance. 25

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Set to Hit the One Billion Turnover by 2010

Shantanu Prakash CEO Educomp Solutions 26

Educompâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long time focus has been on the K12 curriculum design and teacher education space in developing applications and products. The endeavor has been to leverage of information technology and Internet to deliver new -age learning in K12 Domain. Educomp is a leader in several of the market segments it operates in. It has created and owns the largest content library for K-12 in India. It is the largest professional development company, a leading ICT solution company, and the pioneering education process outsourcing company in India. The company participates in large-scale education infrastructure projects to bridge the digital divide and research newer ways to reach out to learners and educators. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Educomp today works with over 6000 schools across India, US and Singapore. In recognition of its innovations and product offerings, Educomp was conferred the “CNBCICICI Bank Emerging India Award” as the ‘Company of the year 2005’ in the ICE and ITeS category. The Company also has the honor of being the first company in India to have been rated SME1 by CRISIL, as a recognition for its outstanding creditworthiness. It was ranked 346 in the BT 500 list of the most valuable private companies in India in November 2006, ranked 319 by ET 500 March 2007 issue. Educomp was chosen as the “FUTURE TITAN”, one of the 10 hottest companies in India by Outlook Business Magazine in November 2006. Educomp is a publicly traded company on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. It was also rated the best performing IPO of the year 2006 across all sectors in India. We have a large repository of ready to use digital content for K12. Our content development team across Delhi and Bangalore is 250 people strong. The content is thus being consistently augmented. Smart_class (www.smartclass.educomp.com/): This is a multimedia tool with a basket of options for each topic. Smart_class

Fine Motor Development, Gross Motor Development, Personal Awareness, and Socio-emotional Development.

to train more than 3,00,000 teachers in India in the application of technology in Education.

Learning Hour (www.learninghour.com/) from ThreeBrix e-services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Educomp Solutions Limited, is one of the most popular online tutoring portals in the country. It is also regularly used by thousands of school students in the Middle East. Learning Hour is an online, educationalassistance portal, offering a complete suite of assistance services to students across the world. The main services offered are academic assistance to school students for CBSE and GCSE curriculum, test preparation for IIT-JEE, PMT, etc., and application assistance.

Learning Leadership System empowers the students to excel in a competitive world, by means of, a holistic envelope of relevant 21st century life skills. Learning Leadership System is an integrated learning delivery framework for the entire school ecosystem. Every classroom is digitally empowered with computers, plasma screens and individual smart assessment systems for each child. The schools have the path-breaking Smart_Class technological infrastructure of multimedia curriculum to meet day to day learning needs. The core curriculum consists of developmentally appropriate programme of study in form of specially developed innovative books covering activities, formative assessment sheets and project work. Each level of the child ranging from the cognitive, affective and psychomotor perspectives is addressed in detail. Every lesson has the best teaching methodology interwoven into the lesson. Lesson is accompanied with creative Lesson plans with fun and challenging activities.

Mathguru (www.mathguru.com/) is an innovative math-help program for school students studying in classes VI through XII. The programme offers multimedia instruction with voice, diagrams, hand-drawn real time like step by step solution for every question in Math curriculum. The repository of solutions at MathGuru contains all problems from the NCERT Math books. Very soon, problems pertaining to other curricula will also be incorporated. ICT in education implements large scale Public-Private-Partnership projects, working closely with State and Central

Educomp has partnered to train more than 250,000 teachers in India in the application of technology in Education. We aim at providing the teachers with

India currently has approximately one million schools of which 50,000 are privately owned and operated. There is an estimated need for 400,000 additional schools to meet the needs of children that are not currently enrolled in schools. Premium school segment in India is growing at an estimated rate of 30% per year. It is expected that the public school system will open up for premium services such as Smart Class. offers coverage for all subjects. This is the largest content library in India with a Curriculum that extends from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. ‘Roots to Wings’ has been developed to help educators meet the challenge of providing qualitative care in pre/kindergarten age group. Lessons plans along with worksheets, teaching aids and formative evaluation sheets are made for every period and cover core six skill areas of Language Development, Cognitive Development, Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

Government agencies, Ministries of IT, HRD, and Governments of other countries. These programmes also involve across-the-board education infrastructure implementation, teacher training and content development. Content has already been developed in Bodo, Assamese, Bengali, Thai, Malay, Gujarati, Hindi, Oriya, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Urdu. Educomp runs exclusive centres for teacher training. These training programmes are currently being conducted in over 20 locations in India. Educomp has already partnered

the competence to build in each child ‘A Lifelong Learner.’ Educomp is today India’s number one K-12 education company and has, over the years, been at the forefront of various pioneering initiatives in the ICT-enabled education space. Notable among them are the “teacher-led” content system called Smart_Class that dramatically improved learning effectiveness in classrooms; development of India’s largest K12 content library with over 12,000 modules of rich 27

3D content that is aligned to Indian as well as various international learning standards, India’s first structured pre-school learning system: Roots 2 Wings, Online learning initiatives like Mathguru.com and pioneering Education Process Outsourcing in India through the Learning Hour platform which has emerged as a benchmark for many similar initiatives. Providing training to teachers to in use of ICT forms the backbone of our products. We are Leaders in training teachers for both technology skills and pedagogy skills. Educomp has partnered to train more than 250,000 teachers in India in the application of technology in Education. We aim at providing the teachers with the competence to build in each child ‘A Lifelong Learner.’ The USP of Educomp Solutions is its focus on research and development. Results and innovation have been to Educomp’s success mantra. Educomp is revolutionising the education sector through programmes like SmartClass for e-Learning and instant digital assessment right inside the classroom, School Solutions for whole school development, Mathguru for any time tutoring experience, Learning Hour for e-Tutoring, Roots to Wings for pre-kindergarten, and ICT solutions for education infrastructure in government sector. Educomp’s belief in the learning process thus forms a 360° perspective. Educomp is India’s largest technologydriven innovative education company in India. With an employee base of over 1400 people, Educomp currently serves over 3.6 million learners and educators across 39 locations in India, the USA, and Singapore. The need for quality is the driving force and technology is the differentiator in the e-Learning market in India. Education sector is now more demanding and aware of technology integration. There is now a demand for quality and innovation. Student centred content will see extensive growth in the next few years. The key challenges are to provide 28

relevant regional language content that addresses essential teaching and learning requirements. It is tempting to try to give an all in one solution and thus add another tome to the overflowing couture of the information glut. Content makers need to understand the thin line between relevant content and surround information. Funding the perennial delinquent continues to gnaw its tentacles barring growth. Another key challenge is for content providers to move beyond Math and Science. More often than not funds are allocated to hardware to enable IT penetration without adequate finances for content software. This is more like gifting a locked treasure trove of computers, where the key to the treasure; the content software is missing. e-Learning is a growing market located on tip of the iceberg in its growth curve. Awareness is slowly building up. People have just begun investing. India currently has approximately one million schools of which 50,000 are privately owned and operated. Furthermore there is an estimated need for 400,000 additional schools to meet the needs of children that are not currently enrolled in schools. Premium school segment in India is growing at an estimated rate of 30% per year. It is also expected that the public school system (govt. owned and operated) will open up for premium services such as Smart Class. This will significantly increase the estimated market size for our offerings. Educomp has no direct competition for its unique offering that is a blend of hardware, software and services. The Indian economy has been growing at near double digit rates for the past several years and as a result significantly more money is available for education. Due to the high priority placed in India, on education, the spending on education has risen faster than the overall growth rate in both the public and private sector. There has also been a dramatic increase in capital flow to the for-profit education sector leading to a school construction

boom. The private schools enjoy significant pricing power as a result of shortage of schools as well as increasing incomes of parents. This pricing power allows schools to pass along the cost of ICT initiatives. Educomp’s strategic advantage is its close understanding of the Indian school market and its understanding of business models that work for both the public and the private schools. The company has a direct sales model that has been vetted out and now has an established track record. Educomp is focused on hitting a one billion turnover by 2010. Technology solutions have to be unique to Indian context. Identify core needs and provide intuitive solutions to address the problem. For instance mathguru.com addresses a subliminal phobia of math that many students grope with. Desperate parents prescribe expensive private coaching where a tutor explains difficult concepts and questions. With Mathguru solution this end requirement is addressed in form of canned explanations from a tutor covering every question in the text book. The solution is provided online, thus giving a simple, effective and economical solution to a pain area. Mathguru utilises core strength of ICT to the best possible extent. In five years from now the focus will be on 1:1 learning. More and more students will have their own computers for selfpaced learning. Content will become more student-centric. Eventually perhaps a laptop may become an essential tool for learning even in the school and contain e-Books, homework assignments, and presentations et al. Convergence may be complete and content will be seamlessly portable. We see ourselves as an education transformation company. We see a place for our products and services in every classroom in the world. As the world makes the shift to a knowledge economy, as the Internet creates a level playing field for the digital have-nots of the world, we see a boundary-less world where education and learning will be drivers of economic empowerment. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Cover Story

Education in Multimedia Capsules In Conversation with

Sunita Joshi, Director, JIL Information Technology Corporate sector is the biggest user of e-Learning currently and is expected to see extensive growth which will be followed by the education sector, says Sunita Joshi, Director, JIL Information Technology.

teaching where good visualisation could help improve the teacher’s explanation of a concept, which the teacher can incorporate in his/her explanation. These identified topics are then converted into multimedia capsules.

And the key drivers of the e-Learning market in India are: �� A desire to raise the level of education, literacy and economic development in the country, it’s �� ability to bridge distances, Customised self paced learning, as a mean of motivating employees, raising productivity and meeting business goals in the corporate sector.

The solution is based on the assumption that while a teacher especially at school level can never be replaced by technology, the quality of teaching can and should certainly benefit from the advantages that technology can provide, especially since the quality of teaching is a combination of the quality of the teacher and the quality of the teaching tools that are provided to the teacher.

JILIT is a part of the infrastructure conglomerate Jaypee Group, and has access to the rich domain knowledge of the group in Education (by way of 12 educational institutions catering to 16,000 students across all levels of education spectrum from primary education to university level). This, along with our multimedia expertise and highly professional and dedicated manpower backed by high end state-ofart technology, is our core strength. The key products of JILIT are Bhartiyavidya – India’s first digital classroom teaching aid and campus connect – a unique institutional resource planning solution for universities and colleges. Unlike most other Multimedia content available on CDs, Internet or broadcast, where the target is the learner, our solution is a teacher’s tool. So whereas, other solutions attack the teachers’ presence, we empower the teachers’ to be effective. Our subject experts work by stretching their creative imagination to identify those areas in Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

One of the biggest problems with e-Learning in India is the lack of course content, especially outside the mainstream focus areas of IT education, English-language content, and tutoriallike courses. Other stumbling blocks are: A conservative mindset, connectivity and IT infrastructure in remote area especially in education sector and the high investments required for creation of high quality content. We have pioneered a unique teaching solution which offers high quality curriculum specific content which incorporates academic and technological innovations on a perpetual basis. As it happens with any successful product, there are players who want to replicate the success. Though we are a niche player, our competitors have created what we can call as “perceived competition”. In the university management space we believe that we are the only dominant player providing

a comprehensive end to end campus automation solution. e-Learning market is still in a nascent stage in India accounting for approximately USD 15O million out of the global market size of approximately USD 35 billion. There is a significant upside potential in India considering the 10% plus growth rate, which the country is like to sustain over a foreseeable future. There will be substantial requirements in the fields of industry and education – the key drivers for any country’s economic development. The most crucial experience obviously has been our own pioneering endeavor “Bhartiyavidya”. This gave us hands on opportunity to conceive, design, deploy and continuously upgrade a solution which in its own way blazed a trail. It also gave an opportunity to interact with the concerned stakeholders, so critical for perennial evolution. One needs to have a long term vision and producing a world class content by superimposing creativity over knowledge with technology is a challenge. Our personal agenda is to be a key player in the coming e- Learning revolution in the country, adding value with the experience and expertise we bring to the table. It’s not going to be only about the market share or the bottom line, it’s also about a vision to serve the country in a revolution which will act as an enabler to a “Proud Super economic power – India”. Finally, we see e-Learning becoming a key tool in improving quality education and a means for training and development across industries. 29

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Selling to Teachers! No Easy Job concerned .We have six offices all over India with resident representatives in three major cities which gives us a wider reach.

Manish Amte

Marketing Manager-Journals Foundation e-Learning Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd

Delivery of journal content via the Internet has led to new markets opening up across the world. These include libraries operating together as consortia, and institutions in the developing world becoming able to access journals for the first time. Cambridge is active in all these markets and works with many organisations to bring journals to research institutions across the globe. Foundation e-Learning is a fully owned company of Cambridge University Press India and our core products are Cambridge-Hitachi curriculum software and StarBoard-Hitachi’s Interactive whiteboards. These products come from Cambridge University Press and Hitachi Software which speak for themselves as far the content and technology is 30

On the issues in ICT Education, high quality content, interactive learning, long distance education and training are the support that our products can extend. Because information overload and paucity of quality teachers/ trainers are some of major concerns in the e- Education sector today. Our USP(s) are the brand equity of Cambridge University Press and Hitachi Software, our after sales service and training to end users. All e-Learning products need constant training and support and our customers have placed repetitive orders on us despite the competition offering

lower rates. What then drives the e-Learning market in India? In my opinion, the major driving factors are, infrastructure improvement, lowering of entry costs, technology awareness and adaptation, and globalisation of education.

And the major road blocks in the path of growing e-Learning market in the country are the mindset within the teaching community, high import duties, different curriculum across the country and in fact, all the factors mentioned above - infrastructure improvement, lowering of entry costs, and technology awareness and adaptation. There is lot to be achieved in these areas, particularly in the semi-urban and rural areas. Manish has a different view while reading and evaluating the market potentials and the company’s chances of penetrating into it. He says, the overall market is in the transition state now with lot of awareness and training is required. Institutions have implemented technological solutions but the usage is not befitting the investment. The potential is huge but the changing the mindset of decision makers is one of the most difficult tasks. We are more ‘selective’ in ‘choosing’ our clients as we always strive to give them our best services and support. We stand out in the market for this reason only. What has been the most crucial learning experience for Manish in this sector? As an individual, I have learnt that selling a product to a school teacher is not the easiest of the jobs! There is an enormous potential in this sector and every day is a new learning day for me. But e-Learning will be a norm in India after five years. We plan to be a market leader in a niche area of providing digital classroom solutions to schools. We have some of the best contents in the world and wish to disseminate this content on a very user friendly media (web and mobile) with a simple and interactive retrieval search engine at very affordable prices. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Cover Story

A New Horizon in Training Market

Ajay Kumar Sharma CEO and President New Horizons India Ltd. 32

The year ended March 2007 has been excellent for IT training industry as a whole and for New Horizons India (NHI) in general. The company achieved 100% growth in its revenue and all initiatives of the company have started to bear fruit in this year. During this year the IT training industry grew in our estimate from a level of INR1000 crores by 30% to INR1300 crores of which 90% is contributed by retail and approximately 10% by corporate. New Horizons India who has approx. 1.5% share of the Indian IT training market, is predominantly a corporate training company worldwide. On a global level, most of Fortune-100 companies are clients of New Horizons and therefore, very naturally in India too 70% of revenue comes to NHI from institutional and corporate segments. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

e now have a very large portfolio of highly satisfied corporate clients as our customers. With a large variety of courses on offering (numbering 1200 in all), state-of-theart facilities, world class content and triple certified faculty, New Horizons is ideally suited to fulfill corporate needs of customized training. New Horizons is present in all modes of learning delivery which includes class-room training, client site training, computer based training, e-Learning, etc. New Horizons, USA starting its operations in 1982, is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest IT Training Company with network wide revenues of USD 363 million, employee strength of 5000, 290 centers consisting of over 2000 class rooms spread across 56 countries. It entered India in 2000 as a joint venture between New Horizons World Wide Inc., USA and Shriram Group of India. The company is on an expansion spree and has recently opened 30 centers across the country. The company strengthened its product line by diversifying its offering to include career programmes, soft skills, business skills and the unique program of English learning. New Horizons has emerged as the fastest growing IT training and education brand in India in the last 12 months. Our customer segments now, apart from a very strong customer list, also includes central government organizations, PSUs, institutions, colleges schools, etc.

by the company for professional student segments such as MCSE, MCSD, RHCE, CCNA, CCNP etc have developed a waiting time for admission in New Horizons. Since the philosophy of the company is to concentrate on skill transfer and provide high value to learners, the company runs limited batches and is highly successful. The company also addresses a large retail segment namely the career segment, where non-IT professionals are admitted and turned into highly skilled ready-to-deliver professionals. The company launched New Horizons certified networking courses New Horizons Certified Network Engineer (NHCNE) and New Horizons Certified Web Specialist (NHCWS) both carrying one year duration to meet and fill job opportunities in these segments. Both the programmes have been very well received as the learners are being offered not only a great learning experience of concepts, but also hands on live exercises and projects backed by a nation wide placement facility where some of the most reputed companies come for campus interviews and recruit students of New Horizons. In the career segment, networking is the most popular area at the moment and that has been our most popular course. However, going forward, the company wishes to launch more career programs such as New Horizons Certified Database Administrator (NHCDBA)

crores. However, this market is likely to show exceptional growth in times to come. Huge population of working professionals who have the hunger for higher learning and for acquiring and updating skills who need flexibility of time and pace to learning will drive the growth of e-Learning in India. High end IT certifications programmes as well as management programmes are likely to seek maximum growth in e-Learning space in next few years. On pan-India basis, Internet speed and bandwidth may be a hindrance to faster spread of e-Learning. However, it is expected that infrastructure related problems will soon be a thing of the past and quality education will be deemed direct-to-home for working class professionals. New Horizon has global presence in both kinds of e-Learning solutions namely Online Anytime and Online Live where a live instructor is available

e-Learning market, due to its advantages on flexibility and cost is likely to grow much faster in India as compared to USA and the demand could easily touch 1000 crore in next five years. Keeping in view the reality of Indian market, New Horizons India realised that while the institutional and corporate training market will in times to come grow much faster than retail segment, yet in order to achieve leadership position over a period of time in the Indian market, the company will have to be highly successful in the retail segment. The software vendor highend certifications courses offered Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

and New Horizons Certified Software Engineer (NHCSW), which will be a two year programme. In years to come the company expects the Indian IT training market to triple from the current levels and next five to seven years are expected to be good for countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy as well as IT training industry. e-Learning market in India is very small estimated to be approx 100

online. The range of e-Learning is very vast and we expect substantial revenues from this mode of delivery in next three years. In our opinion, e-Learning market, due to its advantages on flexibility and cost is likely to grow much faster in India as compared to USA and the demand could easily touch 1000 crores in next 5 years. 33

Cover Story

Sustain! And Success is Yours study tool, teacher centric teaching aid, and unique instruction design producing a well balanced blend of text, animations, interactivities, assessment, and voice over to deliver effective learning. The core strength lies our fully trained Academic and Multimedia Team, pedagogical and didactic approach, and in understanding of the market â&#x20AC;&#x201C; institutional and government.

Amit K Gupta

What are specific issues within the ICT-enabled CEO, S. Chand Group education sector that you think your product can address? e-Learning is going to be a market much beyond anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectation. a) Student centric aid It will see emergence of a few strong learning b) Teacher centric brands which will hold about 30% of teaching aid the market share. c) sound instruction design What are your core products? What d) compliments both learning and do your think you have an edge over teaching others, what are your core strength? e) Ease of use in both offline and online Our core product can best be described environments as standard curriculum based Learning Objects for Sciences and Mathematics What in your opinion is driving the from Class 9 to 12 in English, Hindi e-Learning market in India? Which and presently under development in sector in the e-Learning market will Urdu. These Learning Objects are see extensive growth in the next few compliant with international standards years? like SCORM, customisable, come The e-Learning market in the country with comprehensive coverage of is presently being driven by short term wide curriculums, student centric self professional programmes, corporate 34

learning and need for continuous learning and upgradation of knowledge. Distance education and satellite training centres are also using e-Learning tools. As far as sectoral growth in next few years is concerned, K-12 Education, individual and corporate training will see huge growth. What are the key challenges and road blocks that this industry faces in its path of growth? Availability of trained professionals to make the content, psychological barrier among users toward the efficiency and usefulness of these products, investments to produce high quality multimedia components, lack of quality standards, piracy and copyright issues, and duplication and unstructured development are some of the roadblocks in this arena. What is the USP of your company or the products, and how far that has been able to position you uniquely in the market? Do you face the force of competition in any means? We are an education company venturing into technology unlike our competitors (technology companies exploring education). Time and tested content are our USP. A complete learning unit focusing on curriculum, and not the only attractive, out of context animations has enabled us to make a cost-effective product in a very short span. The market presently is in a confused state as the products offered in the market so far fail to address holistic need. The poorly managed content being sold at ridiculous prices has made consumer apprehensive and also ignorant of quality requirements. This August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

has made the user reluctant to try new concepts and products. What are your views on the maturity of the eLearning market in India? Have you ever tried to read the eLearning market in India in terms of potentials, chances for deep penetration, proving the winning status to your company, etc.? e-Learning market in India will mature by next decade. The e-Learning market in India would offer a huge potential as the Government both at State and Central level has taken meaningful initiatives by adding infrastructure, launching programmes like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sarv Shiksha Abhiyanâ&#x20AC;? and involving industry in vocational and professional education. The emphasis now is to map up the curriculum with continuous upgradation to next level imparting relevant skills and knowledge. For the first time in India, the education policy makers have identified obsolescence in educational content and delivery. Considering the numbers and population, the progress is gradual but this would definitely drive a need for

Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

technology based learning. With impact of globalisation and growth both in services and manufacturing sector, there would also be a need for uniformity in skills and education certifications. This would be the key driving factor for a huge potential and deeper penetration. The early adaptors would be private institutions followed up by the Government. For a company like us with seven decades of print media leadership in academic textbooks with all India presence and with in-house development of prestigious e-Class content and with smart collaborations with world leaders such as Riverdeep Interactive Learning and Ingenatic Gmbh, we see a tremendous opportunity not only for us but for all quality players. What has been your most crucial learning experience in this sector? Having international experience and exposure to e-Learning, my most crucial experience is that it is going to be a market much beyond anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectation. The world wide web is the biggest driver of change involving all

aspects of personal, social, economic, geographic and political life of individuals and nations. Everyday there are new entrants to this community and there are new additions to technology. The information is the key driver to growth in this century. In such an environment, the patience, ability to sustain, continuous upgradation and quick response would be the main parameters for success. Where do you see e-Learning in India after five years? What is there in your personal agenda for this period? e-Learning will see emergence of a few strong brands which will hold about 30% of the market share. These brands will be those which start investing today in this sector and create a focussed and sound marketing plan targeting individuals, institutes, and governments. Our personal mission is to complement and fill the gaps in conventional education content and delivery and make scalable and replicable modules and products which are adaptable and flexible.

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Competition is Vital for Suppliers and Customers Alike Online learning and e-Content will see substantial growth, as will the introduction or pedagogically proven technologies such as Promethean ActivBoards, which bring enormous benefits to the effectiveness of whole class, collaborative teaching and learning. In Conversation with

Peter Ormerod

International Business Development Manager, Promethean What are your core products? What do your think you have an edge over others; what are your core strength? ALMOE Digital Solutions are the distributors for Promethean Interactive Whiteboards in India. Being a part of ALMOE Group Dubai a pioneer in the Audio Visual world, we also represent a wide range of Audio Visual products from major brands of the world such as SONY, EPSON, SAMSUNG, HITACHI, etc. to name a few. What are specific issues within the ICT-enabled education sector that your think your product can address? Promethean Interactive Whiteboards are the most preferred electronic whiteboards in the world. Unlike many other brands, Promethean’s primary focus is on the Educational Sector. With its intuitive interface, huge collection of educational resources and rigid structure, Promethean ActivBoards are the best choice of both teachers and students alike. What in your opinion is driving the e-Learning market in India? Which sector in the market will see extensive growth in the next few years? The education market in India is diverse and vast, driven by the demand for high quality, effective learning opportunities. 36

Online learning and e-Content will see substantial growth, as will the introduction or pedagogically proven technologies such as Promethean ActivBoards, which bring enormous benefits to the of whole class, collaborative teaching and learning. What are the key challenges and road blocks that this industry faces in its paths of growth? It’s often not a question of road blocks; sometimes educationalists have a bewildering choice of routes and are unsure of the best solution – especially where new technologies and “revolutionary” (which for some means ‘unproven’) are involved. ActiveBoards are particularly attractive because they allow proven, traditional whole class learning to be delivered in a dynamic and engaging way. Educationists can see that this represents not just a huge step forward, but it’s in a direction that they are comfortable with and can readily understand and integrate into their existing environments and lesson plans. What is the USP of your company or the products, and how far that has been able to position you uniquely in the market? Do you face the force of competition in any means? Competition is vital for suppliers

and customers alike, as a key agent of change and positive development. Promethean have a number of key USPs in the education market, especially as we have focussed all our efforts into meeting the needs of teachers and students. These include award winning software, an extensive library of resource materials and unrivalled teacher training and support. However, it is the sheer usability and effectiveness of our ActivBoards which really sets Promethean apart. What are your views on the maturity of the e-Learning market or sectors within it in India. Have you ever tried to read the e-Learning market in India in terms of potentials, chances for deep penetration, proving the winning status to your company, etc.? e-Learning, though being used by a few in India, at present it is in its infancy. The potentials are enormous and we believe it is now the right time to invest in creating awareness in the sector. Where do you see e-Learning in India after five years? What is there in your personal agenda for this period? It would be a time where, people will effectively make use of their skills by further studies and doing research with the help of e-Learning. August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Cover Story

e-Learning Can Go Only One Way - UP! now create and share content themselves, they need not remain dependent on third party content providers for all types of of content.

Goutam Goradia Managing Director, Hayagriva Software

We will continue to pursue our roadmap to bring better products that benefit individual users, and consequently make education almost ‘free’. In so far as sharing one another’s content is concerned Hayagriva Software is soon bringing to market a unique community portal – www.yoknowledge.com, where knowledge can be shared between community members in a very structured and organised format via xml files. Hayagriva has also created several unique webified database software solutions that will collaborate with the portal, and that will let users author their own content that may relate to their needs and interests. Because users can Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

Currently, if an ‘individual’ pc user wishes to author content that relates to his/her needs, there are no specialised solutions available that will allow the user to author such content in an organised and structured format. At best users can use word processors and spreadsheets or such applications that act only as ‘repositories’ of content. However, if content like Q&A on any subject, language learning, etc can be created using specialised database applications, then the content can be processed, and consequently, it can be made better use of. With the introduction of www. yoknowledge.com users will be able to share content with each other, in most cases for free.

Gautam sees a huge demand for e-Learning at all levels of education. In his view, once people are able to share content with each other through the medium of a community, the impact can be huge. Expensive solutions that are complex and inflexible are the only solutions that are available in the market. Currently, the scenario is that there is a content provider, and the student has no option other than using this content. Students, or for that matter, even teachers have no

means to create their own content using cost effective solutions. So, what is the USP of Hayagriva and its products, and how far it has been able to position uniquely in the market? Does it face the force of competition in any means? Gautam is more confident in saying, no company so far has introduced the kind of products that we wish to bring to market. ‘So, virtually, we have no competition. Also, we have applied for several patents.’ There is a lot of scope for the e-Learning market to grow in India. We are of the opinion that our offer of the individual (be it student/teacher/parent) being able to demonstrate his creativity by creating and sharing content will open up new vistas for the teaching and learning community. Imagine that there is a teacher in one city in India who puts up Q&A on www.yoknowledge.com that are downloaded in another city of the country. Suddenly, the student/teacher have a greater choice for content that is well organised. What has been Gautam’s most crucial learning experience in this sector? ‘The power of user generated content, and especially when this content is created in database applications, the benefits are dramatic.’ e-Learning can go only one way -UP! We will continue to pursue our roadmap to bring better products that benefit individual users, and consequently make education almost free. In so far as sharing one another’s content is concerned. 37

News

help realise its dream: XWiki, authors of the software platform to help create the Wiki structure, and the Chennaibased Congruent Solutions, a respected name in e-Learning solutions to help with the engineering aspects, quality assurance and content conversion. This is a portal where hundreds of lay users and teachers will be uploading material.

INDIA HRD Ministry launches online admission project

The Indian Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has launched online Admission 2007 Project (Ni-On) of National Institute of Open Learning for Indian students. The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has initiated online admissions under its NIOS Online (Ni-On) project from this year onwards. This unique facility will facilitate the learners in directly accessing NIOS. Under Ni-On Project, NIOS has tailor-made ‘3’ Streams of online admissions for meeting the requirements of different groups of its potential learners. In Stream 1, all the learners can access NIOS directly Online through its website (www. nos.org) for the purpose of seeking admission. Stream-2 has been designed to save one-year of all those who have been unsuccessful in CBSE/ ICSE/ Other recognized State Education Boards. These learners can seek online admissions in the Stream ‘2’ and also appear in the Public Examinations of October-November 2007, whose results will be declared by December 2007 itself. Stream-3 of online admissions also caters to the learners covered by Stream ‘2’ but allows them an additional advantage of appearing in On Demand Examination (ODE) at Secondary-level only based on his or her state of academic preparation. Last two Streams have been designed to provide “Safety Net” to all such unsuccessful learners of the formal school system.

Tele-conferencing training for teachers in Goa

The Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) has initiated the first teleconferencing training programmes for school teachers in collaboration with the (National Council of Education Research and Training) NCERT. 38

The tele-conferencing programme will be worked out for the GBSHSE in co-ordination between the Goa University which has the equipment and the Educational Satellite System of the NCERT, New Delhi. This facility will provide an opportunity for teachers in Goa to interact with resource persons from the NCERT. The facility is proposed to cater to teachers of Std II, IV, VII, X and XII covering all subjects. The State is one of the many others, identified for the programme from July 9 to August 21, 2007.

Curriki’s India connection

Conceived as an online repository of tools and aids that will make learning possible for any one, anywhere in the world, Curriki (www.curriki.org) has been up and running for a few months now.

Hundreds of volunteers, teachers, students and subject experts have donated their time and talent to enrich the portal and quickly transform it into a formidable educational resource. Admittedly, the initial offerings are skewed somewhat towards the U.S. K-12 (Kindergarten to Standard XII) system, but users in other places including India are learning about the site and localising it. When The Global Education and Learning Community, the body that became Curriki, first took on the task, it associated two specialist agencies to

Indian Bank launches e-Learning initiative

The Indian bank has launched an e-Learning initiative for its employees in association with US based e-Learning solution provider, KESDEE. Indian Bank is hosting KESDEE’s 41 user friendly course libraries, which covers Risk Management, Asset and Liabilities management, anti-money launderies and an exclusive “Branch Management” module. The programme aims to enhance the capabilities of the employees of the bank on a continuous basis. The programme would help the employees to gain expertise in their area of operation as well as other areas of interest, resulting in better and more efficient customer service.

eCollege of India

Renaissance Learning Systems (India) has announced the launch of its sister concern, a B2C eLearning portal eCollege of India. ‘eCollege of India’ is a venture by a team of young educationists and international consortium of content providers. The objective of ‘eCollege of India’ is to deliver very cost ef fective web-based e-Learning solution along with blended learning support through a SME network. At the current offering of 150 interactive courses for a subscription fee of INR 500 only. ‘eCollege of India’ hopes to soon introduce online degree and diploma courses for Indian students and is currently in talks with a few UK and US based universities. Also on the anvil are in-house certificate programmes. The firm is also working on a video based communication platform for enhanced learning experience. . July 2007 | www.digitalLearninG.in

cover story

Enduring Quality, Transient Cost The next few years will see an intensive growth of use of ICT for education in the rural sector. We have a vision, and are working out a model with Government agencies that is economically viable, so that every village school in India can have a bilingual version of Eureka.

Capt Kamaljeet Singh Brar CEO Designmate What are your core products? What gives you an edge over others? Designmate’s focus is on teaching and learning tools for Science and Mathematics. There are a lot of producers for other subjects; but Designmate is practically alone in these two subjects, particularly for senior classes. What are the specific issues within the sector of ICT and Education that you think your product can address? Implementation of ‘Eureka’ in the rural sector can help tackle some issues: Bilingual- Science and Maths are not easy for rural children as they are English centric. Use of bilingual facility will increase the percentage of rural children in India’s institutes of higher learning plus these children will also pick up English faster. Shortage and absence of teachersOn an average million teachers abstain every working day. Even if there is no teacher, some instruction can be enabled, with our software ‘Eureka’. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

Help cover up infrastructural deficiencies- Science and Maths are capital intensive in need of laboratories and equipment. Eureka has the next best virtual labs as a solution to physical infrastructure till it can be built up.

What are the key challenges and road blocks that this industry faces in its paths of growth? The industry is unable to deploy what it produces due to crippling power shortages and lack of infrastructure on the ground.

What in your opinion is driving the e-Learning market in India? Which Sector in the e Learning market will see extensive growth in the next few years? Education is a very traditional field and inroads difficult to make. But teachers in India have by and large realised that ICT can actually help them teach better and they are now looking around for ways to innovate. This awareness, slightly delayed, is now gaining momentum and is now driving the e-Learning market. My Company has not done any ad blitz, yet gradually, by word of mouth we have added numbers and today have established the largest number of ‘smart schools’ in the world! The next few years will see an intensive growth of use of ICT for education in the rural sector.

What has been your most crucial learning experience in this sector? Costs are soon forgotten, but quality stays forever. That even in a price sensitive market as India, the customer is willing to spend money on good quality products. Where do you see e-Learning in India after five years? What is your personal agenda for this period? India is like an elephant – a slow starter. In five years, e-Learning practices will be in wide usage. We have a vision, and are working out a model with Government agencies that is economically viable so that every village school in India can have a bilingual version of Eureka. In five years we will reach a level of quality that others will find difficult to catch up to. 39

News asia Malaysia Education Ministry allocates RM15mil for ICT studies The Higher Education Ministry of Malaysia will allocate RM15mil to train 4,000 students in information and communication technology (ICT) in 2007.

The Ministry has set up the first industry-based professional certification programme, 3P in partnership with Prestariang Systems Sdn Bhd. It offers a wide range of IT professional certifications with multinationals like Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Macromedia. The ministry presented certificates to the 15 top students out of the 1,000 trained in 2006 under the programme. They are from UiTM, Universiti Malaya, International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and Universiti Sains Malaysia.

World Bank supports Indonesia’s teacher improvement programme

The World Bank Board has recently approved USD 86 million in support of the Government’s plan to improve the skills and performance of teachers, widely recognised as a key challenge to improving education standards in Indonesian schools.

Project (BERMUTU), at a broader level, supports the Government’s December 2005 Teacher Law which aims to improve the qualifications and classroom performance of Indonesia’s 2.7 million teachers, who make up at least 70 per cent of the country’s civil service. The programme is expected to address critical challenges in Indonesia’s education system, reflected most sharply in recent studies which show Indonesian students score less in scholastic tests like maths and reading. The programme will support reforms for university-based teacher education, build capacity of the national accreditation board, provide incentives to universities to train teachers through distance learning and scholarship programs. Teacher absenteeism is another reason students do not learn.

New Zealand to continue collaboration in education with Malaysia

The New Zealand Government is keen to continue its collaboration with Malaysia in education with focus on development of ICTs in schools. The government will continue to support and develop Malaysia through education. The National secondary school is among five primary and secondary schools selected for the eLearning programme under the KPerak e-Learning Cluster, which is developed by KPerak Inc Corporation, Innovation New Zealand Education (INZed), the Education Ministry and Perak state government. The New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has signed MoU Perak state government on mutual beneficial and partnership initiatives focusing on the biotechnology sector.

IT Growth Rate Peaks in PRC and India

The latest research published by Government Insights - an IDC company - expects that governments and government organisations within the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan (APEJ), will continue to spend steadily on IT services and products with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9% from 2007-2011. This IT growth is largely driven by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India, which together account for more than half of the total. The study provides latest forecasts for the IT spending in the public sector including government, education, and healthcare - from 2007 to 2011 - and provides IT spending across geographies, broad IT segments, and specific IT categories. The overall IT expenditure by broad segments will continue to be largely driven by hardware, although a slight decline is expected in this expenditure from 57.5% in 2007 to 54% in 2011. Expenditure on services is expected to increase steadily with a similar trend for software expenditure during this period.

The Better Education through Reformed Management and Universal Teacher Upgrading 40

IT investment in the APEJ Government sector will remain strong, and is expected to account for USD19.5 billion of the total public sector IT expenditure by 2011. It will still be the largest of the 3 public sector segments with a CAGR of 8.5%.

August 2007 | www.digitalLearninG.in

Research

School Management : An Integrated Approach Ravi K. Sinha, L. Prakasa Rao, Venkataswamy G., Suyog N. Bapat [(rksinha, lanka, venkataswamy, syuog)@cdacbangalore.in], Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, E-City, Bangalore, India The quality of learning that students experience at schools is of strategic importance for both their future and of the nation. To promote literacy, various schemes have been proposed by the Government of India such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Mid-day meals, etc. Effective implementation of these schemes require concrete data periodically, based upon certain parameters, that enables authorities to assess the efficacy of the scheme in a transparent manner. Data management in schools is done primarily on paper. Monitoring of resource utilisation in schools is difficult as it is paper-based and has many bureaucratic hurdles. With growing number of students, data management is becoming laborious and error prone for both school as well as government authorities. It is arduous to gather, analyse and disseminate such vast amount of information through manual processes. An ICT based solution will drastically improve school administrative operations(management of students, teachers, funds, operations scheduling etc.) by reducing latency in data management and makes the operations less error prone. The article proposes a model that will provide a common platform for school management, which also support interfaces in regional languages. This has profound implications for stakeholders at higher levels as they wish to manage schools using a common interface.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;E

ducation is the most important element for growth and prosperity of a nation. India is in the process of transforming itself into a developed nation by 2020. Yet we have 350 million people who need literacy and many more who have to acquire employable skills to suit the emerging modern India and globe. Children who belong to weaker sections of society are undernourished and only a small percentage of them manage to complete eight years of satisfactory education. We need to think specially for them. â&#x20AC;? - Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam The strength and vitality of a nation emanates from its literate populace. Literacy begins from home and takes Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

formal shape in schools. The schooling and elementary education are thus, the edifice on which the pillar of a healthy society are built and a nation of character stands.

India has large number of govt. schools across the country. A proper management and integration of these schools is a must to realize uniform benefits in a systematic manner. The management should follow a streamlined process that includes data collection, monitoring and performance evaluation. The process should be transparent and information should be visible to all decision makers and stakeholders at various levels. Continual monitoring is required for capturing data reliably and correct analysis.

In different regions of the country, there exist various methods of school information management. These are largely paper based and work in a non-integrated way. This gives rise to opportunities for miscommunication, data tampering, time delays; in general it reduces the total effectiveness of the process. ICT solutions are one way of making the process transparent and integrated, giving global data visibility and effective decision-making.

4. 5. 6.

Administrative Hierarchy

School administration consists of number of components. They are

Human resource management (Headmaster, Teaching Staff, Ministerial staff and menial staff, etc.) Material equipment (Building, Furniture, Laboratory, Library), etc. Preparation of curriculum, timetable, organisation of cocurricular activities, etc. Minimal student and staff health records Auxiliary services like Mid Day Meals, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, school uniforms and text-books Evaluation of student achievement i.e., conducting tests and examinations, issues of progress reports and financing, preparation of budget, co-operation from the departmental authorities Providing necessary statistical data to superiors on demand

Some issues with respect to the present flow of data are identified below 1. Most of the data collection is manual 2. Teachers have to concentrate more on register work as compared to academic activities 3. Chances of data manipulation at various levels before it reaches the destination 4. Data collection is expensive 5. It takes considerable amount of time

Current System

The school system in India is composed of primary, upper primary and high schools. A collection of schools forms a cluster, clusters form a block, blocks are under a district, districts form a state and states form the country. Such hierarchy is useful in decentralizing the management of schools. Operational information of a school flows from lower levels to higher levels. In the process the information can be analysed before being presented to higher level for appropriate decision-making. Schools are the fundamental units of operation within this education system. Data is generated through operational activities in a school. This data needs to be managed and school operational activities need to be monitored. The 42

School Management & Integration Model August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

6. 7. 8. 9.

for data to reach the destination Problems in collection and distribution due to different datacapture formats Lack of accountability at all levels Fund and aid allocation and its usage is not transparent Maintenance of huge amounts of data and its analysis is very difficult. This may affect the decision making process

School management and integration model

The model for management of school information and integration of schools

Data Model

to furnish data as defined by the data model to the upper level. Such a system allows a level to manage its local data effectively & efficiently, yet maintain required relationship with higher levels.

This model is itself multi-layered. A layer is defined for each policy making body.

Software Support

This model uses a classification based on school types. Each school type has its own operational requirements. These requirements can be modeled as a set of attributes and a administration hierarchy.

This model defines the hierarchy needed for data entry and data management. Data providers at various levels provide data stamped with their signature. The data will be validated and again stamped

Two level Hierarchical Data Model

across the country follows a layered approach. Each layer is dependent upon the layer below it. The lowermost layer defines a model which captures data to be managed and the uppermost layer provides interaction with the system. It has the following three layers 1. Data Model â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Defines the complete set of information to be managed defined by the applicable policies 2. Data Centers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Defines the data storage requirements and locations 3. Software Support â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Provides required interfaces for interaction with the system. It also enables integration of schools by providing common interfaces for data recording, retrieval and analysis Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

by the signature of auditing authority as it moves from one level to another. This verified data will be made available to all stakeholders. This model also defines the security attributes for managing the data and provides support for feedback from various levels. The feedback and the actions taken upon are again visible to all the stakeholders ensuring transparency in the process.

Data centers

The data related to managed attributes from the data model is stored at data centers. A data center can be located anywhere in the administration hierarchy where infrastructure is available. A level can manage its own data locally and this local data is not accessible to higher levels. But a lower level is required

The data model defines attributes for which values are stored in data centers. In current times, when the volume of information is large, paper based processes are ineffectual. Software support is essential for speedy data recording, on-demand data retrieval, data analysis and report generation. The software should provide following facilities. 1.Data collection interfaces 1. These interfaces are used to record data into the system related to school operations. They should be usable across wide array of devices such as PCs, PDAs and kiosks, maximising the reach to a large section of the country. 2. Data analysis tools 3. These tools help decision makers at various levels in taking timely and effective decision that is based both on empirical data and current trends. These tools should provide facilities for identifying patterns, trends and relationships. 4. Reporting Tools 5. Reports are required by administrative authorities from time-to-time and they can be generated in different formats (tabular, graphs, charts, multiple document formats, etc.) based on specified parameters. Also software should support the following characteristics: 1. Support for diverse technologies In a country, as large as India, there are many prejudices and tastes that differ from region-to-region. They use different technologies for data management. All these different usages must be combined under one umbrella such that they can interact with each other in standard manner. 2. Localised user interfaces India is a country with many official 43

regional languages. User interfaces must be localised for wide and uniform adoption of the system. Extensibility With the passage of time, the attributes to be managed may change. The system must be extensible to accommodate such changes in a seamless manner without affecting the existing database.

Usage Scenario

The first step is the definition of data model. Existing classification of school types i.e., primary, upper primary and high school will be used in this data model. School policies are determined at two levels. National policies for education such as fund allocation are made by national authorities. Further state bodies make various regulatory policies for schools under it. National authorities require minimal information about every school in the country for tracking progress, fund utilisation, compliance with schemes, etc. The required information can be categorised into profile and operational information. Profile information of a school consists of its identification information, location, primary contact, etc. Operational information consists of admissions, drop-outs, compliance with center defined educational schemes, etc. Each state has its own educational policies in addition to those defined by the center. Additional data needs to be managed at the state-level giving information about all the school operations under it. For e.g., a state might decide to maintain information about history, library facility, play grounds, number of toilets, laboratories, etc. as part of school profile. A state has requirement to manage operational information about schools as determined by state policies. These information include staff and student attendance, class schedules, exam records, fund management, etc.

located at these nodes as there will be inadequate infrastructure and skilled human resources. Data centers can be located in each district, but this would give rise to multiple points at which, management of data extensions resulting due to new or updated policies, becomes difficult. Also data backups at so many locations is a point of concern. As schools follow policies made by state, the common data center can be hosted at state level. This does not have issues identified at district level above. The required software will be installed at a state-level facility. This arrangement handles the issues of software maintenance which would be otherwise difficult if hosted at multitude of places. The server-side software will be Web Service based. Web Services is a technology for developing distributed systems that provides interoperability using web-based standards. This is achieved through the means of standardised interfaces. These interfaces are used by clients to interact with web services. If different states support server-side web services having the same standardised interface across the country, it provides a common platform for uniform data recording format, data retrieval operations and data analysis. The other main advantage is that a given existing application can be exposed as a Web Service allowing different states to use different technologies for data management as per the available expertise and requirement and still be able to integrate with each other. Data regarding school operations is recorded using interfaces provided by this software application. Whenever

data is recorded in the system, it is time-stamped and also carries data providerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature. This will ensure accountability at all levels for all operations. Further a data record, once entered into the system, cannot be modified by anyone. If required, erroneous data record can be corrected and a new version of the existing record will be added along with the reasons for the manipulation. This effectively maintains the complete log of any instance of an operational activity. The complete history of any data record is visible to anyone ensuring transparency in the operations. Data records have a life cycle in this system. They are introduced in the system by a data provider. Next these records pass through an audit process and the results are recorded which are again stamped with signature of auditing authority. Once a data record successfully passes through the audit, then only it becomes available for analysis. Data analysis which is based on verified data records results in accurate decision making. A streamlined process is required to achieve global data access, transparency and efficient operations. The model proposed above inherently provides these characteristics at all levels to all stakeholders within the education system. Usage of technologies such as Web Services for implementing this model can help realise the goals and reap the fruits in the shortest span of time. This model provides accurate data gathering and hence enables concerned authorities to take correct decisions. Transparency of the system reduces chances of malpractices and also conforms to the Right To Information act.

The authors at present work with C-DAC, Electronics City, Bangalore, India and are engaged currently in developing an ICT based education & training tool,Vartalaap.

Schools, clusters and blocks are located largely in rural areas. Hence, it is impractical to have data centers 44

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

News world UNESCO announces winners of 2007 Literacy Prize

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has recently announced five winners–from China, the United States, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania – of 2007’s Literacy Prizes. The UNESCO honours are awarded yearly to recognise particularly effective efforts made in the fight against illiteracy, one of UNESCO’s priorities, and raise awareness of the work of thousands worldwide promoting the cause of literacy for all. The theme for this 2007’s Prize was “Literacy and Health,” especially literacy pertaining to general health care, nutrition, family and reproductive health and health-related community development. A literacy centre – the Community Education Administration Centre – in Longsheng Ethnic Minority Autonomous County in a remote, rural and mountainous region of China with a high illiteracy rate among women, received the UNES CO International Reading Association Literacy Prize. Two organizations received the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prizes, which were established in 1989 by the Government of the Republic of Korea. One honouree is the Tanzanian non-governmental organisation (NGO) the Children’s Book Project, which works to develop a solid reading culture. Through production of books in Kiswahili and the training of teachers, writers, publishers and illustrators, it promotes a reading culture among young people and adults. In 2005, the Government of China established the UNESCO 45

Confucius Prize for Literacy, and this year’s two recipients are from the US and Nigeria.

Standford University launches m-Learning project in Africa Standford University has launched a project International Outreach Programme (IOP) changing the way universities think about distance learning. The University has launched the project, the Dunia Moja Project “one world” in Swahili in collaboration with its three partners universities in Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa. The mobile learning project enables scientists and students to access environmental-science course materials and interact with each other using high-tech mobile phones. Both Ericsson and Sony Ericsson are collaborated with Stanford to provide mobile smart phones equipped with video cameras, audio recorders, and Internet capability, as well as technical and other support for the pilot version of the course. Students at Makerere University, Mweka College of African Wildlife Management, University of the Western Cape, and Stanford University use the phones to access the course website, send text messages, and post media to mobile blogs.

Strategy to enhance ICT sector in Jordan

Public and private sector leaders of the ICT industry in Jordan launched a four-year strategy to help revive the sector and enhance its competitiveness. The National ICT Strategy, the outcome of joint efforts by the Information Technology Association of Jordan (int@j), the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), seeks to increase the number of people who use the Internet up to 50 per cent from the current 11 per cent. It also eyes

increased employment in the sector to reach 35,000 jobs from 16,000 jobs. In addition, it aims to double the current $1.5 billion revenues by the year 2011. The plan seeks to enhance education, boost investment climate and upskill human resources.

AR Lifelong Learning project The Lifelong Learning and Training project in Argentina aims at supporting the Government of Argentina to consolidate, strengthen, and increase the coverage of a lifelong learning and competency-based training system for disadvantaged adults 18 years or older with the objectives for those who participate of: (i) enhancing employability and (ii) strengthening career ladder opportunities.

The project has several components whose primary focus is to expand and strengthen competency-based training and certification. This will achieved by establishing in 30 economic sectors, competency-based training and certification systems, through development, validation and registration of occupational norms; training and certification of evaluators; and ensuring the functioning o f qualified third-party assessment centers and certification organizations; aligning the supply of training with the competency-based approach and strengthen professional training institutes; and training, assessing and certifying workers. Another component supported by the project is to develop the workforce skills of disadvantaged workers, this contains the following key elements: making qualifications more transparent and portable through the processes of setting standards by employers and workers, and evaluating and certifying competencies; moving non-formal training to a modular, competency-based, standardsdriven system in order to link better training offered and market demand; promoting quality, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness among trainers, trainees and workers through testing, certification and accreditation; and offer “second chances” so that youth and adults can recover from bad starts in learning. July 2007 | www.digitalLearninG.in

Project

Tele-Education Bringing A New Revolution J S Chhabra, Executive Director (Technical), T K Roy, General Manager (TE), Telecommunications Consultants India Limited

Tele-education with all its regular innovation is creating new environment for training, learning and interactive discussions. It is opening path for transforming the way we live, act, think, learn and communicate. Barrier due to distance is vanishing to provide various lectures/courses in far-flung areas for the benefit and development of people across the region, country, continents, etc.

n the present day scenario, teleeducation is important for the under-developed and developing countries as it has the potential to expose the student for the multifarious learning experiences and opportunities that challenge and maximise learning potential. Unlike the traditional learning system, here the learner has to take the responsibility of learning effectively and has to prepare himself for better interaction with the teacher during the session. It also enables students/learners to grow in a holistic way, interacting with successful professional, thus

inspiring and boosting enthusiasm of the students. The ultimate aim of tele-education system is to transform the student community from reactive to interactive and from interactive to proactive and make them ignited. It serves as an excellent medium to develop capacity building for the region where education through electronic means can promote the well-being and development of the people. In this context it will be relevant to narrate what Govt. of India is going to do for capacity building in Africa

by way of imparting education to at least 10, 000 African students through tele-education over Pan-African e-Network. The President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, during the inaugural session of the Pan-African Parliament held at Johannesburg on 16th September 2004, proposed in his talk a project to connect all the 53 nations of the African Union by a Satellite and Fiber Optic Network that would provide effective communication and connectivity among the Nations. The proposed network would primarily provide tele-education, tele-medicine, Internet, videoconferencing and VOIP services and also support e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. As a follow up of the initiative of the President, the Ministry of External Affairs of the Govt. of India proceeded with setting up of a network called PanAfrican e-Network, which shall mainly provide tele-education and tele-medicine to 53 African Nations. The forerunner to the Pan-African e-Network is the Ethiopia pilot project on tele-education and tele-medicine, that has already been commissioned in the last quarter of 2006. TCIL as the implementing agency has established a fiber-optic based network to transmit interactive sessions for the PG/UG courses from IGNOU in New Delhi, India to tele-education centres set up in

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Addis Ababa and Haramaya Universities in Ethiopia. While 40 students are already taking MBA Course since March 20, 2007, more students have expressed interest to enroll for this course as it can offer professional degrees without leaving their country. Encouraged by the experience of the pilot project funded by the Govt. of India, Ethiopia is planning to open 20 more tele-education centres in the near future.

•

53 VVIP nodes for providing Video-conferencing and VOIP connectivity to Heads of States in Africa.

The broad architecture of the PanAfrican e-Network has been designed as follows: The project involves connecting the following facilities/elements in a network across the 53 African Nations and thereafter maintaining it for 5 years

The network design provides for transmission of he live, interactive lecture content from a selected university to pass through a Data centre in TCIL HQ and will be transmitted over an IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) for onward delivery to a satellite hub earth station in Africa. From the hub station, the content will be up-linked to an international satellite like Eutelset/Intelset and then down-linked to various VSATs, one in each country, for the purpose of teleeducation. In this fashion, the teacher

to provide tele-education, tele-medicine and Heads of States connectivity: • Data Centre at TCIL Bhawan, New Delhi in India • Satellite Hub earth station at Senegal • Seven University to provide teleeducation courses from India • Five leading regional universities of Africa • Five regional super specialty hospitals of Africa • Two Super Specialty Hospitals to provide expert medical services and CME from India. • Three Learning Centres in Africa, one in each country • 53 Patient-end Hospitals in Africa, one in each country

at India end shall be able to deliver his live lecture to the registered students sitting in model classrooms equipped with multimedia facility in African nations. In case a student is unable to attend a class, he would be able to asynchronously access the lecture contents stored in the database, through Internet. All the academic processes right from enrolment/registration of students with a particular university up to his certification for a degree or diploma in the prescribed course of study shall be through a portal; in this way the education delivery mechanism will completely dispense with the conventional methods of teacherstudent interactions and administrative, academic processes.

Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 8 August 2007

The tele-education set up in the university uses studio comprising camera, audio-video mixer, editing system, computer hardware and application software for capturing, storing and transmission of the content/ lectures for a learning session. It is to create the virtual remote classrooms in a multi-studio and multi-class environment with seamless two-way interaction between the teachers and students through collaborative tools. The system provides seamless, one-toone, one-to-many connectivity through heterogeneous network platform in an IP-based multi-casting mode of delivery. Normally, the interactive tele-education delivery system software is designed to have the following components: i) Portal Management System – provides access to the Learning Management System (LMS) for integrated access to all asynchronous (offline access) components through login. This enables the administrators, experts, faculty and students to access news & events, photo gallery, announcements, flash news, feedback and directory. ii) Studio Management System – This enables an administrator to schedule and control the management of (multiple studio management) studios located in various university from where lectures would be delivered by the teacher. The registered teachers/ experts can be fixed with the available studio timeslots and the selected lecture topics. iii) Content Management System – It facilitates the deployment of syllabus and the online course content over the web through dynamic workflow for verification, validation and approval for final deployment of the course contents. iv) Digital library – It provides the facility to upload, store, index, categorise and view the electronic books, journals, manuscripts in some standard formats. v) Knowledge management system (KMS) – This is to capture the live lecture events and interaction between teacher and student 47

for review learning purpose at studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own convenience and pace. This will provide the recorded lecture events through web and simulates the live virtual classroom. The architecture of the tele-education system in Pan-African e-Network project is based on the widely accepted network protocols for the interconnectivity and Client-Server model. The whole system is designed and developed using Java platform and its components with object-oriented, modular design and implementation that includes server side applications, multimedia delivery, request handling services, and client side applications for remote end learning with real time interaction. The infrastructure in this context uses one Application server, one Database server, one Control server, one Agent server and one workstation for the TeleEducation applications. These servers are capable of running on Windows and Linux Operating system. The Application server, Database server and workstation for live streaming purpose (total of three servers) are connected to the Storage devices for storing audio, video and data. The application server has various modules such as content management, portal management, knowledge

management, user profile management etc. The database server maintains the user profiles and account information. The control server has the userauthentication module and interacts with the database (in database clientserver mode) to obtain account profile information. The agent server has the capability to receive the external requests from clients, queue them based on predefined logic. The content itself is provided through the agent server; which extracts the data from the storage through the content management module from the application server.

Spread of tele-education

The success of the tele-education project in Ethiopia has generated demand for the solution to other places and countries also. A small variation of the solution as applicable in different situation and requirements can be designed for implementation. The system can be customised to have scalability and offer features as required or that can be added later over a period of time.

The uniqueness of the solution is that it offers a cost-effective and quicker system that can be implemented in widely diversified geographical regions. Other variation of solution using videoconferencing unit are also being used for training and teaching at various locations. The potential of tele-education as a viable solution to cut cost on training has been realised by corporate bodies. Training through tele-education system can improve the productivity and efficiency of a company. The travel time and cost can be reduced if training is imparted through tele-education system. Many companies/organisations having sites at remote places can arrange training and workshops or technical discussions with the employees. In this way, with proper design of the architecture and the content for learning and training, tele-education can bridge the knowledge gap that exists across the society, company, country and continents at large.

J. S. Chhabra (jschhabra@tcil-india.com) is working as Executive Director (Technical) in TCIL. He is handling the implementation of Pan-African e-Network project for providing tele-education and tele-medicine services to 53 African nations from India. Prior to joining TCIL, he worked in DoT/MTNL/BSNL for over 27 years, in various capacities, for installation, operation and management of large-sized telecom networks. T. K. Roy is working as General Manager for IT projects in TCIL.With his past experience of executing Telecom and IT projects in the country, he has been able to mark his presence in the implementation of Telecom and IT applications. His keenness to work for challenging assignments has made him an achiever.

Your Say Warm greetings from Paris! I have wanted to write to you for some time to congratulate you on your excellent publication, digital LEARNING. I look forward to receiving every issue since there are many high-quality articles featured and I thus get a wealth of information about major trends and challenges in e-learning across the globe. This is very important for my daily work here in UNESCOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Division for the Promotion of Basic Education. My area of expertise is the use of ICTs/e-Learning in pre-university education. Mariana Patru Project Officer UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa for the Use of ICTs in Education Division for the Promotion of Basic Education Education Sector, UNESCO m.patru@unesco.org 48

August 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in

Mark Your Calendar august

november

International Conference on Management of Technological Changes - MTC 25 - 26 August, 2007 Alexandroupolis, Greece

13th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning 7 - 9 November, 2007 Orlando, Florida, United States http://www.aln.ucf.edu

http://www.cetex.tuiasi.ro/mtc2007

Teaching and Learning in the Changing World of Higher Education 30 - 31 August, 2007 National University of Ireland, Ireland

International Conference on Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2007) 15 - 16 November, 2007 Putrajaya, Malaysia, Malaysia http://ictl.intimal.edu.my

www.aishe.org/events/2006-2007/conf2007/call.html

september 2nd AeA EduAction Thematic Workshop 8 - 16 September, 2007 Hyderabad, India http://www.aea-india.org/events.htm

iPED Conference 2007: Researching Academic Futures 10 - 11 September, 2007 Coventry, England, United Kingdom

Teaching in Public - The Future of HE 21 - 23 November, 2007 Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom

Government of India announces Computer Literacy Excellence Awards 2007

The Department of Information Technology ( DIT ), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Government of India, has announced an Award Scheme for Excellence in Computer Literacy and Information Technology in Schools at State and National Level to create IT awareness among schools and to encourage Computer Literacy among students in early stage of schooling.

Eligibility

All recognised schools in India , Government or Private, teaching computers and Information Technology in their schools are eligible to compete for the award. The applications are to be made by the participating schools in prescribed proforma and submitted to the Secretary IT / Commissioner IT in their respective States / UTs by the last date. However, winners of computer literacy excellence awards in last 3 years are not eligible to participate in this years competition.

http://c-sap.bham.ac.uk

ICODL 2007 - 4th International Conference on Open and Distance Learning 23 - 25 November, 2007 Athens, Attiki Greece http://artemis.eap.gr/icodl2007/

Award scheme

State Awards to be given to one school each under Private and Government-aided Schools as well as Government/Municipal Schools/ Kendriya and Navodaya Vidyalayas in each State/UT who will be given a trophy and cash Award of INR1.50 lakh. National Awards to top 3 schools in each of the above two categories, whose cash prize ranges from INR 3 lakh to 7 lakh.

http://www.corporate.coventry.ac.uk/cms/jsp/polopoly. jsp?d=3182&a=18618

december

Case Study: The Implementation of a Student Success Course at One Community College 27 September, 2007 Online

Regional Conference on Quality in Higher Education 10 - 11 December, 2007 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

All India Winner Award to one best school from amongst all the State/UT/National Award winners from the combined list who will be given shield and cash award of INR10 lakh.

http://www.innovativeeducators.org

http://qamu.um.edu.my/conf2007/

The Awards will be formally presented to the award winning schools at an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Award Presentation Functionâ&#x20AC;? organised by the Department of Information Technology.

october 2nd Athens International Conference on University Assessment: Assessing Quality 12 -14 October, 2007 Athens, Greece http://quality.hau.gr/

Institutional Research and Accountability in Higher Education 17 - 19 October, 2007 Reno, NV, United States http://www.rmair.org/page.asp?page=1246 Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 5 May 2007

11th UNESCO-APEID International Conference: Reinventing Higher Education: Toward Participatory and Sustainable Development 12 - 14 December, 2007 Bangkok, Thailand http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=6257

School Education, Pluralism and Marginality: Comparative Perspectives 14 - 16 December, 2007 India International Centre New Delhi, India http://deshkalindia.com

The downloadable proforma for the compretition is available at http://www.mit.gov. in/download/proforma_2007.pdf Last Date for submission of proforma by schools is 31 August, 2007. Forwarding of names of winning schools to DIT by State/UT Govt. is 30 th September, 2007 More details at: www.mit.gov.in

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digital Learning invites authors We invite editorial contributions from our readers in the field of Digital Learning. While no guarantee is made or implied, we will make every effort to incorporate all views and experiences in the relevant issues so as to better serve the ICT and Education community at large. Note that contributions may be edited for space and/or clarity. Unconsolidated manuscripts and artwork will not be returned. Please be sure to read and follow the Editorial Guidelines available at http://www.digitallearning.in/editorial.asp All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Digital Learning G-4, Sector-39, Noida, India Tel +91-120-2502180 to 85 50 Fax +91-120-2500060

May 2007 | www.digitalLearning.in