Digital learning August 201

Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 8

I issue 08 I August 2012 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

Ashok Thakur Secretary, Deptt. of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

E Ahamed Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

Subodh Kant Sahay Minister of Tourism, Government of India

Dr Vasant Kumar Bunwaree Minister of Education, & Resources, Mauritius

A global

Dr Narendra Jadhav Member, Planning Commission

communityof education leaders

H E Prasad Kariyawasam High Commissioner for Sri Lanka to India

Prof S V Raghavan Scientific Secretary, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India

Sudha Gupta Chairperson, Presidium Schools

Prof V S Ramamurthy Director, National institute of Advanced Studies(NIAS)

Prof. SS Mantha Chairman,All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE)

Grace Pinto Managing Director, Ryan International Group of Institutions

Prof Sudhir K Jain Director, IIT, Gandhinagar

Dr Sunil Nawaratne Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Sri Lanka Sumeet Mehta Chief Executive Officer, Zee Learn Ltd Kartikay Saini Chairman, Scottish High International School

lhi 12 20 De uly , New J n - 24 die 23 MĂŠri Le

Veera Gupta Secretary, CBSE

Path-breaking innovations in education www.digitalLearning.in

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Contents

ISSN 0973-4139

volume 08 issue 08 august 2012

Beas Dev Ralhan CEO, Next Education

Vineet Mahajan Head-Display Products Panasonic India Pvt Ltd

Manish Gupta, Chancellor, JIMS

Sushil Eapen Managing Director, Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment

Amit Gupta CEO, S Chand

innovations in Education

72 Innovation in Vocational Education and Skills Training

12 Solutions for Efficient Delivery of Education

76 Public-Private Partnership in the field of Vocational Education and Skills Training

13 Innovation in Teaching- Learning Technologies 16 Multi-Media Content for K12 Education

project update

20 Training Provider to Working Professionals

85 Satellite Supported Networking of the Rural Schools: Experiences of RGPEEE

22 Test Preparation, Evaluation and Assessment Tool Providers 26 Interactive Solution Providers 28 Tablet Providers in Education 28 Technology Solutions for Higher Education Institutes 32 Innovation in Pre School and Special Needs Education 36 Innovation in Global Collaborative Learning 38 Innovation in Pedagogical Practices 42 eSchool Award 48 Innovation in Global Collaborative Learning 48 eCampus Award 52 Innovation by Private University 55 Innovation by Management Institute 56 Innovation by Engineering Institute 62 Government Sector Initiative in Education 68 Innovation in Open and Distance Learning for K-12 and Higher Education

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Write in your reactions to Education news, interviews, features and articles. You can either comment on the individual webpage of a story, or drop us a mail: editorial@elets.in

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simplifying and strengthening of knowledge

asia’s premier monthly magazine on The Enterprise of Healthcare Volume

Issue 08

August 2012

President: Dr M P Narayanan

Partner publications

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta consulting editor: Ashis Sanyal Advisory Board Prof. Asha Kanwar, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

Web Development & Information Management Team

Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Principal Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka

Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira GandhiI National Open University (IGNOU)

Associate Developer: Anil Kumar

Prof S S Mantha, Chai rman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Sr. Executive Officer - Web: Ishvinder Singh Sr. Executive Officer – Information Management: Gaurav Srivastava

Information Technology Team Dy. General Manager – IT: Mukesh Sharma Executive-IT Infrastructure: Zuber Ahmed Finance & Operations Team General Manager – Finance: Ajit Kumar

Editorial Team Group Editor: Anoop Verma

Legal Officer: Ramesh Prasad Verma

education Senior Research Analyst: Sheena Joseph Senior Correspondent: Pragya Gupta Research Assistant: Mansi Bansal

Associate Manager – HR: Sushma Juyal

Sr Manager – Events: Vicky Kalra Associate Manager – Accounts: Anubhav Rana Executive Officer – Accounts: Subhash Chandra Dimri

governance Manager – Partnerships & Alliances: Manjushree Reddy Assistant Editor: Rachita Jha Research Assistant: Sunil Kumar Health Product Manager: Divya Chawla Principal Correspondent: Dhirendra Pratap Singh Research Assistant: Shally Makin Sales & Marketing Team Manager – Marketing: Ragini Shrivastav National Sales Manager – digitalLEARNING: Fahimul Haque Associate Manager – Business Development: Amit Kumar Pundhir Assistant Manager – Business Development: Shankar Adaviyar Subscription & Circulation Team Sr.Manager – Circulation: Jagwant Kumar, Mobile: +91-8130296484 Sr Executive – Subscription: Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 Executive – Circulation: Ashok Kumar Design Team Team Lead - Graphic Design: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Sr Graphic Designer: Om Prakash Thakur Sr Web Designer: Shyam Kishore Executive Design: Meenakshi Rajput All India Distribution by Ibh Books & Magazines Distributors Pvt. Ltd Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLearning - Stellar IT Park Office No: 7A/7B,5th Floor, Annexe Building, C-25, Sector 62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600 Fax: +91-120-4812660 Email: info@digitalLearning.in

digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS). Owner, Publisher, Printer - Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media D-320, Sector 10, Noida, U.P. and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without publisher’s permission.

www.digitalLEARNING.in | www.egovonline.net | www.ehealthonline.org Write in your reactions to Education news, interviews, features and articles. You can either comment on the individual webpage of a story, or drop us a mail: editorial@elets.in

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EDITORIAL

A timeless Compendium of Best Educational Solutions At the time when I sat down to pen this editorial, the World Education Summit (WES) was still few days away, but by the time the issue reaches your hands, the Summit, scheduled for July 23-24, 2012, would already be over. It is at the WES that this issue of digitalLEARNING is to be unveiled. If you are there at the WES, you could be one of the first people to read the August 2012 issue of the magazine, which we have endeavoured to develop as a timeless edition, one that is packed with a rich, diverse mosaic of new ICT based solutions for education space. These digital solutions, developed by some of the most dedicated stakeholders in the education space, have been derived from the Award Nominations that were received for the WES event. Many of these solutions are already well known and are being used by many institutions in India and rest of the world. There are also the solutions that are not that well known, yet they show the promise of providing great impact in future. Sustained commitment to ensuring best possible education to our students is persistently leading us to explore a range of new solutions from ICT. Digital solutions that we have featured in the current issue are playing a vital role by leading to more flexibility in curriculum development and also enabling students with differing learning abilities to participate as equals in the educational experience. As ICT becomes integrated with the curriculum, it fosters an audio-visual mode of learning that improves the retentive memory of the students. However, it is also a fact that deployment of ICT based solutions is often mired by infrastructure related issues, financial constraints and also by teachers not having adequate training to make best use of technology to enhance learning outcomes. The concern has also been expressed that technology must not lead to young students being deprived of lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essential learning experiences; things like music, open-ended discussion, dramatic play, exploration of natural world, all of which would contribute immensely to all-round development of the individual. Fortunately the stakeholders in this space are conversant with all the issues that lie at the core of the digital education, and that is why we see new innovations coming up in a continuous stream. The solutions that win the prestigious World Education Summit Award will be a testament to the innovation that is happening in the education space. I would like to thank Professor S S Mantha for the invaluable support that he has rendered to digitalLEARNING magazine and also to WES. The guest editor to the three issues in run-up to the WES, he has provided invaluable guidance to the team. I would also like to thank the speakers, guests and the delegates who will be contributing to a healthy debate on ICT in education at the WES.

Dr. Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

digitalLEARNING / august 2012

guest editorial

Planning for Education in the 21st Century India is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial, cultural and learning wealth for much of its long history. Its population grew at 1.76 percent per annum during 2001–2011, down from 2.13 percent per annum in the previous decade (1991–2001). With GDP growing at 6.5 percent currently, the difference between the GDP growth and population at effectively 6.50 - 1.76 = 4.74 percent is the increase in per capita income. The inflation is pegged at 8 percent and the per capita income is growing only at 4.74 percent. This is regressive, alarming, dangerous and self defeating. The social and economic inequities that it breeds in its wake are the stuff that revolutions of the recent times have been made of. Backdrop to education: By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of administration and taxation that became a model for later Indian kingdoms and spread far and wide into other civilisations that existed at the time. The complex system of administration borne out of education reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among the urban elite. Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances holding us in good stead even today. We were the leaders for a long time then leading the world in all its endeavors of development and growth. Indeed a glorious past. Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost the plot. During the late 16th and the 17th Centuries, the East India companies competed with each other and by the last quarter of the 18th Century the English had vanquished all others and established themselves as the dominant power in India. The British administered India for about two centuries and brought about massive changes in the social, political and the economic life of the country bringing in its wake some successes and a lot more misery. This changed the education landscape as well. By the time the anti-colonial struggle became truly a mass movement and the country gained independence, we were left with rebuilding broken economies, and broken education systems that were so vital to the standing of a Nation in the comity of Nations the world over. We needed to plan for Education. Though we did make some impressive gains in the last 60 years, we are left behind by miles in the quest of education for all. But yes, we should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future since individuals of discernment deal only with the present moment. The immediate challenges We need not have delusions of our education systems on what we need to do and what we have done in the past of managing our education systems. As Sant Kabir said, “Maya Maya Sab Kahe, Maya Lakhe Na Koye, Jo Manase Na Utare, Maya Kahiye Soye” Everyone talks about delusion. No one understands what it is. The one that shrouds and clouds the mind should be identified as delusion. For real progress, we need to lead our education paradigm upfront inspired to conceive beyond the norms, into new paradigms of learning, with aspirations above what has been previously achieved for teachers, trainers and learners and transforming the same into behaviours that realise the aspirations and inspire development like Sant Kabir said, “Karata Raha So Kyo Raha, Ab Kari Kyo Pachhataye, Boye Ped Babul Ka, to Amua Kaha Se Paaye”. You were about to do this. But why you did not do. You had sown seeds of babul tree. Therefore you should not expect mangos from the tree. One great incongruity in our system has been development of an orgainsed sector of barely 10 percent when the developed world over, the figure is in the excess of 80 percent, and a total

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guest editorial

neglect of the so called unorganised sector whose development, in reality has unheard potential for many of the ills of this country. The immediate opportunity: Hence, Skills development, both in the organised and the unorganised sector and training as an education imperative is an extremely important activity for a growing economy such as ours. Every student who goes through higher education will be well served if he or she has additional skills acquired along with his / her studies. It enhances the employability opportunities. At the same time, skills, acquired by a student who does not go through a formal education, would provide a means of self employment and also a chance for employment in the formal sector. Focused skill development, with employability as the maxim, is the need of the day. A scheme for Vocational Education where a student can learn competency based skills along with general education at various certificate levels initiated early in the school going, all the way up to a diploma or a graduate level is probably the way to go. With a Bachelor in Vocational Education now duly constituted by UGC is expected to play the catalyst to an otherwise saturated system. A student in this mode is expected to study for a Diploma or a Degree in Vocational education along with acquiring skills. The most important feature of a framework created by AICTE is that a student could also avail of multi point entry and exit between formal or vocational education and the job market. Setting up Community Colleges, either new or in the existing polytechnics also needs to be pushed aggressively so that competency based skills with basic life skills is imparted to enhance the employment potential of our youth. Private, public and government participation has been steadily increasing in the education sector. Forecasts suggest that, if current patterns of participation continue, more than 30% of today’s school leavers will experience higher education in 10 years from now. Higher education will shape individual lives, the economy and society. Such an activity must be the subject of broad and informed consideration and debate. We need to create a knowledge society. Knowledge is all pervasive eventually moving to a truly egalitarian society that provides education for all. We also need to realise that our youth coming from the kind of financial means that they have, would need to be sustained on some minimal financial incentive to pursue skills for employment and hence we need credible financial models to sustain education for youth. Let me suggest a model for our planners. Out of more than 11000 institutions that we have in the technical education space, even if we select 5000 under the community college framework as a subset of NVEQF, for the conduct of VE programs the opportunities indeed are massive. If each student is trained in competency based skills, hundred a batch, for four to five hours a day about 200 days in a year at least a million students would be trained every year with an increase of 10 points in GER. If each of these students, assumed poor, is provided Rs. 50 / day to take care of travel and food for the period of the conduct of the program, the Grant required on account of this will be Rs 1000 Cr / annum. With an annual grant that may be provided to institutes that train these students amounting to Rs. 500 Cr / annum the total Project Cost could be estimated at Rs. 1500 Cr / annum, a small sum considering the employability potential of the scheme notwithstanding the political gains that accrue. This could even become a subset of the hugely successful scheme of MNREGA with yet untapped political gains as well. Add to the above 5000 institutes that we have used for the skill based employment pitch, remaining 5000 that we have in the technical stream, 10000 ITI’s we have, 25000 colleges of University affiliated system in the arts, science and commerce streams, the possibilities seem to be stunning, overwhelming and mind boggling. We need to inspire, achieve and engage our youth, wean them away from divisive forces, build them into a formidable force to pitchfork the economy to be positioned at a superior plane and of course create a WIN-WIN for everyone so that, again like Sant Kabir said “Kala Nala Heen Jal, So Phir Paani Hoye, Jo Paani Moti Bhaya, So Phir Neer Na Hoye”, Ice becomes water in the course of time. The water that has become a pearl will never again become water. We need to convert all our youth into those pearls. Prof S S Mantha Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) digitalLEARNING / august 2012

Corporate Dairy

Aiming to be

Amongst the Top Three A fast growing, technology driven company, Next Education is planning to raise 150 crore funds through private equity. Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO, Next Education, shares his insights with Pragya Gupta on the company’s plans for becoming one of the top three education solution providers in India tion aims to bring the future of education to the schools in our country. Next Education is planning to raise `150 crores through private equity this year. Tell us about your growth plans? We plan to invest the money so raised in developing new products and to expand the company’s operations across the country. This will augment our longterm growth plans and profit margins.

Beas Dev Ralhan CEO, Next Education Tell us about the new initiatives taken by Next Education to enhance learning delivery. Technology based solutions are key to revitalising India’s education system and making its future generations competitive at global level. Education delivery, consumption and monitoring must move onto a digital platform, which might lead to seminal improvements of the teaching-learning processes and ensure better learning outcomes. The challenge that we now face is to ensure an effective and quick integration of digital technologies into our education system. Next Education is the only digital education company that provides end to end solutions in the industry. With in-house content and quality products like TeachNext, LearnNext, NextErp, NextLabs and a host of new services such as the Next Learning Centre, Next Educa-

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Tell us about the new innovative solutions that you are planning to launch? After great focus on self-learning and teacher assistance products, Next Education envisions huge potential in the interactive learning products thanks to cheaper tablets available in the country. Over the two years, NextEducation will launch a series of products on tablets, which are based on interactive nature of that medium. In the long term, we aim to be one of the top three education solutions providers in this country. What kind of role can tablets play in delivering interactive and personalised education? Most of the learnable moments for students during study time in home, school and tuitions were getting missed due to lack of an interactive learning system. We visualize tablets as the solution to that problem. As said earlier we are extremely bullish on tablet as a platform. We have big plans for using tablets over the next 2 years to deliver high quality personalised education to the children of this country.

ERP involves heavy investment. In your opinion what kind of return on investment does ERP offer to schools? On the contrary, NextERP, being SaaS based ERP solution hosted on the Cloud, does not need heavy capital investment at all. NextERP is a simple, easy to use School Administration System that helps schools to automate various critical operations like admissions, fee management, parent-teacher-student communication, managing student records, examination and results management without any upfront investment. It helps schools to integrate and automates all their processes, like connecting with parents and other stakeholders, tracking key metrics and ensuring fast decision-making. The system is designed to increase efficiency with better resource utilisation. The NextErp is economically priced at Rs 15 per student per month to ensure that schools find it easy to implement. What roadmap will you suggest for encouraging better industryacademia partnership for better outcomes? Industry needs to work closely with academia to create solutions that are accessible to consumers in the Indian education system. Digital content developers need to work closely and identify the issues, understand them and before developing a solution which will answer the current and future requirements. Next Education has been doing such research with the help of the academia to ensure effective designing of educational products.

innovations ????? in Education

Solutions

for Efficient Delivery of Education

oadblocks in way of digital classrooms across the country are disappearing. Schools and higher education institutes are now making giant shift towards using digital technology solutions for enhancing the delivery and administration of education. The last few years have seen the emergence of several niche players who are dedicated to providing innovative solutions to enhance outcomes in education. Some of the players are targeting only the higher education segment, there are those whose focus is solely on K-12, and a number of players are vying to have a presence in both the segments. The influx of large number of players might also be due to the relatively low barriers to entry that exists in this space. There exists a wide degree of difference in the quality and sophistication of the digital solutions for education that are available today. The most popular solutions are those that are blessed with an innovative and user-friendly interface, and have

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efficient troubleshooting and strong customer support mechanisms. The availability of plug-ins through which educators and administrators can enjoy the flexibility of transforming the applications to meet certain specific educational goals is also the hallmark of a “best in breed” good solution. Given the fact that there are large numbers of proprietary, open source and free technologies in the market, we felt that there was need for a special issue that could shed light on some of the most promising digital solutions in education. The goal of the coverage of educational solutions that we have conducted in this issue is not only to shed light on the aspects of education that the companies are focussing on, it is also to identify the major market segments and the nature of the competition. The educational solutions that we have focussed on are those whose implementers filed for nominations in the World Education Awards, which are distributed at the prestigious World Education Summit (WES) at Le Méridien, New Delhi, on 23-24 July, 2012.

Innovation In Teaching- Learning Technologies

Digitally Sound

D Implementing Agency Pearson Education Services Website www.digiclass.com Objective To use an ICT led technology solution to improve the teaching learning process Achievements • President’s Award for IT-Pearson’s E-Education initiative, in association with Global Telemedicine Healthcare Network Foundation (GTHNF) • Manthan Award for Best e-Content Development honours excellence in Digital Content Development across Southeast Asia

igitALly has various types of content like animations, videos, selfexplanatory diagrams, concept maps, 3D interactivity, worksheets, quizzes, e-books and past year question papers– all of which are regularly updated. It is an easy to use and attractive interface through which teachers can access the preloaded content in the classroom. Target Group: Teachers and students Challenges: Creation of content for all the major syllabi across India through the usage of internal resources was a challenge. Once the solution was installed, its usage led to the development of its own crop of challenges. The stakeholders had to be given the required training for efficient creation of the best possible educational outcomes. There were also the issues related to upkeep of hardware, this issue was resolved through the creation of regional hubs where additional spares are kept to enable faster replacements. The curriculum changes and updates that keep happening from time to time have also to be taken into account.

Coaching them Right

L-ACE offers Experiential Learning to tier II and tier III Engineering Colleges by leveraging technologies like Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Learning Management System, and Knowledge Management System. Through this platform, the company trains the students on professional skill sets that help them in being ready for the industry. PurpleLeap partners with engineering colleges and invests in setting up PL-ACE to help the partner colleges achieve brand leadership. Target Group: College Graduates (Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities/colleges) Challenges: We had to do pilot batches to demonstrate the use of technology and adjust with the existing practices. The acceptance to our programme was a challenge. We could overcome this challenge by embedding our training into college curriculum. There were issues regarding reliable Internet connection. The Internet was made bandwidth friendly and so that we had offline time-based access for assessments. Cutting edge software was required for the implementation of the programme, so we had to type up with some of the world’s top IT companies.

Conclave of

Implementing Agency PurpleLeap (A Plus Education Solutions Pvt Ltd) Website www.purpleleap.com Objective To provide best of learning experience to students in Tier Two and Tier three cities who do not have access to industry oriented training Achievements • Trained over 30,000 students, • Reach to the remotest towns which includes towns with less than 10lak population

15 - 16 November 2012 hyderabad international convention centre Hyderabad

Leaders in ICT

for Governance, education and health ORGANISERS

partner publications

www.eINDIA.net.in digitalLEARNING / august 2012

Innovation In Teaching- Learning Technologies

ICT for Education Enabling Smart Education Implementing Agency JP Sá Couto, S A Website www.mymagalhaes. com Objective To deliver purposebuilt solutions for education through ICT products and projects that foster human development Achievements • In four years, more than 3 million MGseries netbooks were distributed worldwide and now, 6 million children have access to an educational netbook • Also, 10 thousand schools, spread over more than 60 countries are already working within our educational projects

PSC developed a dedicated line of equipment – mgseries for serving the students and teachers. The products are characterised by their adaptability, quality, reliability and robustness, The projects they develop include hardware and software solutions, specialised educational content, connectivity systems, teachers’ training and support services. Target Group: K-12 students Challenges: The customisation of project management services is one of the most challenging parts of our work. In each local or national education programme, we need to appoint a specialised project team, including, a global manager, a local/national manager and other internal resources. Our work requires background studies for localised actions that are adapted to each nation’s educational, cultural, social and financial context. Our portfolio of services to support the implementation and development of projects range from logistics and equipment distribution to software development. Also, implementation of technology programmes in schools demands the engagement of teachers as a starting point for the engagement of students.

ducomp Smartclass is a digital solution classroom. It uses mapped to curriculum 2D-3D digital content across all school subjects. The solution has four interlocked components: 1) ContentEducomp smartclass Class transformation System (CTS) 2) Technology – Digital Teaching System (DTS). 3) Academic Support 4) Affordability. For mass adoption model, Educomp offers smartclass at affordable monthly installments to schools. Target Group: All key stakeholders in education Challenges: Initially the concept of smartclasses was new, so we had to run a TV and outdoor campaign for two years, for winning the stakeholders to our side. Teachers needed to be trained in managing hardware, and there was the need of structured lesson plans around the digital content. Due to unavailability of high speed net connectivity, schools could not be connected to Educomp directly. DVDs were sent and all digital content was housed in a server in the knowledge centre in a Smartclass enabled school, to which classrooms were connected.

Implementing Agency Educomp Solutions Limited Website www.educomp.com/ Products/Smartclass. aspx Objective To apply innovative solutions to solve critical problems relating to quality of education and access to education for all Achievements • Students learn and enjoy difficult and abstract curriculum concepts • It improves their overall academic performance

Learn Easy

E Implementing Agency EZ Vidya Pvt Ltd Website www.ezvidya.com

Z Vidya’s Chrysalis TechMate is an open-source on-line and off-line teaching content platform, which has been available since April 2011. TechMate’s interface uses standard browsers like Firefox and it can facilitate teacher and student logins via the cloud or the school server. Once logged in, teachers can access a complete digital version of their printed Chrysalis curriculum materials (interactive e-books), with matching audio-visuals, teacher guides, suggested web links, and assessment questions for each lesson. Students, parents and school heads can access all of the student content, take assessments, and view their progress and performance. Target Group: 4300 Teachers, about 2,50,000 students, and parents from 400 plus Chrysalis (client)-EZ Vidya partnered schools. Challenges: In the beginning many teachers were reluctant to use the technology, so we had to bring about regular changes in design to simplify the interface. The market is fraught with many pre-existing perceptions about content libraries, so we had to work really hard to popularise our system. Our philosophy is that the teacher should be a facilitator and not a television programmer.

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Objective To give teachers something useful to do with technology daily and run on existing school equipment without additional software Achievements • EZ Vidya created Chrysalis is known to develop and monitor teacher technology skills • Better learning outcomes for students

Innovation In Teaching- Learning Technologies

Think to Learn

R Implementing Agency ThinkLABS Technosolutions Pvt Ltd Website www.thinklabs.in Objective To Promote handson Science and Technology education for school students Achievements • Rapid rate of acceptance from Indian schools. Present in over 160 schools in less than three years • Wide acceptance across 23 states, 54 cities and 150+ schools

obotics Learning System (RLS) is envisioned as a 21st century learning tool that enforces STEM and Computer Programming concepts in school students at an early age. RLS is Thinklabs Robotics Education platform, and it is implemented in the schools through setting up of a Robotics Lab (RoboLab). Robotics is a multi dimensional study platform, which involves various streams of education. By building and programming robots, students explore fundamentals of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and computer programming.. Target Group: School students from Std 4 onwards Challenges: ThinkLABS has surmounted the challenge of scaling up through an effective system of empowering schools through a comprehensive Teachers Training Program. In less than three years, the programme has been accepted by more than 160 schools, as this is a world class product available at an affordable price for the Indian market. Intuitive visual programming software had to be indigenously developed to help students in logical thinking through drag and drop flowchart based programming approach against conventional programming method.

Education for the Downtrodden

he inspiration behind the programme was to cater to the weaker section of the society like SC/ ST/OBC, minorities and other downtrodden classes. The ultimate goal is to empowering them with modern education. Mahendra’s Institute for Banking endeavours to assist the students in all types of preparation. It provides the candidates with knowledge and skills required to achieve their goals. We provide the finer details and knowledge of the banking sector and its changing needs. Target Group: One day competitive examination aspirants and their parents Challenges: At initial stages, the programme faced financial crunch, but eventually it was able to find the right kind of backing. It was also difficult to control pan India branches, but our dedicated team members have made it happen. The operations teams have played a seminal role in engineering the expansion of the branches. The dispatch team looks after the distribution of tests and study material. The pan India test results get displayed through the efforts of our IT team.

Learning Gets Extra

Implementing Agency Extramarks Education Pvt Ltd Website www.extramarks. comtions for Higher Education Institutes

Website www.mahendras.org Objective To provide quality professionals in banking and other government organisations Achievements • Pre-examination training of 19 nationalised banks for C/ST/minority • Above 1 lakh selections in various government organisations • Replica of SBI clerical exams in the form of SBI preparatory exams

Multimedia Content For K-12

xtramarks is working with 1300 plus schools and 4500 plus classes across India. The company is assisting them in integrating world-class technologies in education. Smart Learn Class (SLC) programme can make a regular classroom into a technology-enabled classroom by equipping it with the requisite hardware and learning software devised by education experts for class Kg to XII. Target Group: Students and teachers Challenges: It was a challenge to create awareness amongst the teachers, students and parents. Our team worked with all the stakeholders, we participated in PTAs, were in various workshops, we attended society meets, conducted intensive seminars to spread awareness on digital learning. Making teachers were not quite comfortable with adapting the programme in their everyday teaching process was a challenge. Regular training programmes for teachers had to be conducted.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Implementing Agency Mahendra Educational Pvt Ltd

Objective • To empower the students and teachers to step in with the latest technology • Help teachers to turn into learning leaders Achievements The content is available in many different languages

Multimedia Content For K-12

Digital Teaching Aids

I Implementing Agency Mexus Education Pvt Ltd Website www. mexuseducation.com Objective Analyse various data sets to streamline information and determine performance of the company Achievements • Around 650 schools across India have adopted Iken School Eco-System • There has been significant improvement in school’s performance

ken School Eco-system is a project conceived by Mexus Education to offer schools digital teaching aids that will enhance the prospects for student engagement while also helping teachers to provide personalised attention to each and every student. Digital aids promote engagement and bring about clarity in understanding concepts through tools like mind-maps, animations, real-time movies, presentations, worksheets and case studies. Target Group: Educational Institutions catering to the K-12 segment Challenges: The developmental challenges that we faced include the likes of R&D costs, building of relevant platforms, and also the creation of content as per the requirements of the board and publisher. A comprehensive training programme for teachers had to be evolved so that the teachers became comfortable with our content. The objective was to make teachers confident enough to use the solution in their classrooms. The needs regarding localised content had also to be kept in mind. Talk shows had to be hosted at regional levels.

Effective Teaching Solutions

eachNext is a premium product from Next Education. While technology is at the heart of Next Education, its prime focus is to create superior content and offer the best possible learning and teaching experience. The system encompasses more than 20,000 learning modules that account for more than 1,000 hours of classroom teaching in the K-12 segment. Target Group: Schools and colleges Challenges: The most major challenges that we faced were infrastructure related. At times classrooms lack basic facilities like proper electric fittings. One needs to recruit a large team of Technical Service Engineers to handle the workload of installations and implementations. Teacher training was a challenge due to logistical issues of schools, with respect to exams, weekends etc. Therefore, a flexible teacher training programme was built to address training in small batches. We also had to develop a complete CCE framework using research that was completely in house.

e-Learning to Understand Better

Implementing Agency Sify Software Ltd, Youno Education Website www.sifysoftware. com

ugmented reality systems superimpose graphics for every perspective and adjust to every movement of the user’s head and eyes. Sify e-learning has been working for last two years, with its Chinese partner ‘Youno,’ for delivering augmented reality solutions to schools in China. This ‘Contextual & Exploratory Learning’ solution helps students to understand difficult concepts of Physics, Geography, Chemistry and Biology. Target Group: 8th Grade School Students of China Challenges: Affordability of tablets to all students was an issue; this was overcome by the installation of kiosks across the school, where every student can use tablets freely. Learning curve of students in terms of performing activities was initially steep, and this was resolved by adding appropriate instructions at every step in each activity. Initially there was a challenge of individual installation of the application on various kiosks separately, so we went for a web-based approach where the application was installed on the intranet server of the school.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Implementing Agency Next Education India Pvt Ltd Website www.nexteducation.in Objective To implement the best teaching solutions in schools Achievements • Bagged the “Best Digital Multimedia Content – K-12 Segment” award at the India eLearning Summit 2011 • Designed mapped content for CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE and 23 state boards in eight different languages • 4000+ schools have already adopted this solution

Objective The students’ knowledge retention and assimilation is much higher compared to only text book images and classroom teaching Achievements Effective ‘knowledge assimilation,’ which was initially identified as one of key knowledge gaps for the students, was resolved with the deployment of the AR solution

Training Provider to Working Professionals

Dealing with Large Attrition Rate Implementing Agency B S Abdur Rahman University Website www.bsauniv.ac.in Objective To train faculty members in the teaching methodologies who join afresh Achievements • Contribution to teaching and learning (20 programmes organised with three major interventions to teaching and learning successful) • Contribution to community development for training self help group women

here is a large amount of attrition rate in technical institutions. New members join throughout the year. The developments in technology and skills are continuously happening. New subjects are introduced and curriculum and syllabi get updated in a continuous fashion to cope up with the requirements of the industry and society. In such situations even the existing faculty members in Engineering and Technology have to be updated and trained for new subjects and skills. This necessitates the need for a separate Academy for Faculty Training to train the teachers in a continuous manner. Target Group: All teachers in India Challenges: Meeting the diversified needs of the teachers was a big challenge. So we developed a strategy of having a mixture different types of programmes, there was the high impact short duration programme, and another programme that will take some time to be implemented. A large pool of experts from around the world had to be brought in. That took lot of time. The vision plan had to be implemented step by step.

For Working Professionals

IIT Imperia is an initiative of NIIT Ltd to provide quality management education and customised learning solutions to the working professionals, and to companies with scattered work force, through strategic academic alliances with the top Indian B-schools and organisations. The initiative has synchronous learning technology at its core. More programmes can be launched to cover more functional areas and thereby addressing diversified needs of the students. Customised programmes can always be updated regularly as per the industry demands. Target Group: Working Professionals Challenges: Initially it was hard to convince the target group that the high standards that are generally associated with business schools would be maintained at our centre. Managing the inputs derived from diverse geographical locations and catering to customized requests is by itself a challenge. It is also not a simple task to bridge the gap between the exact demands of a corporate house with what is being offered by the Business School.

Implementing Agency NIIT Imperia Website www.niitimperia.com Objective To overcome challenges of mobility and time, and facilitating access to world-class management training Achievements • Trained more than 7000 working professionals • Introduced short duration programmes on contemporary topics like Digital Marketing, DTC, GST, IFRS, XBRL

Hands on Training

Implementing Agency TechDefence – A unit of Advanced TechDefence Private Limited

ackTrack provides hands on training to students and IT professionals on Cyber security. It also provides a certification and an opportunity to undertake a career in the field of IT security. HackTrack programme is designed to discuss the vulnerabilities that exist in cyber forensics. It has explored various fields and provided training for dealing with issues in diverse areas of cyber space. Target Group: Students, IT Professionals, Network Administrators, Law & Enforcement Professionals, Technology Evangelist Challenges: The biggest challenge is due to the lack of awareness among the common people regarding Cyber Security. One has to consistently deal with the feeling of negativity that exists on the subject of hacking. So one has to work with people and try to change their mindsets. It is also not quite easy to get associated with prestigious universities and institutions across India. We have to make the administration aware of the career and research related opportunities those are there in this field.

Website www.techdefence. com

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To provide hands on training on Ethical Hacking Achievements • Provided training and certification to more than 25000 professionals • Covered more than 250 educational institutions • Have constantly maintained the retention ratio of 95 percent among all clients

Test Preparation, Evaluation and Assessment Tool Providers

Assessment Centre Implementing Agency Core Education and Technologies Website www.coreecs.com Objective To provide various modes to assess the understanding at both the student and class level in the form of hybrid administration of formative assessments Achievements Usage of AC resulted in a significant raise in number of teachers participating in analysis of student achievements • 3.5 millions students are being benefited from AC

ssessment Centre (AC) is formative assessment programme offered by Core Education and Technologies Ltd. It is used to design, administer, and report the results from school, district, or state lavel formative assessments. AC provides premier formative assessment solution that boasts of features like customisable and scalable architecture, comprehensive item bank, assessment creation to surface deficiencies in academic performance. The heart of Assessment Centre is its online platform. Drawing from question bank of over 250,000 educators. It can easily create tests that are highly effective. Teaching gets administred online via paper/scanning protocols or clicker technologies, and the data is received through a variety of insightful reporting machanism. Target Group: School administrators, Teachers, Students and Parents Challenges: Training users across all the schools was a voluminous task. CORE adapted the online tutorial methodology to provide training and support.

Web Based Assessment

earnSmart India Pvt Ltd has developed an application called 24x7guru.com, which is based on the fundamental believe that once a student understands the concepts, he is less likely to forget the ideas, whereas rote learning can lead to knowledge that fades out of the mind quickly. Its web-based assessment applications enable a student to take tests as per the course curriculum. Target Group: Students from class three to ten Challenges: The key challenge was in trying to change the thinking pattern of assessments, as far as the traditional three hour exams are concerned. This challenge was overcome through the conduction of seminars and presentations. Another issue being faced was the issue of Internet connectivity in rural and semi-urban schools. This challenge has been overcome through the installation of servers in schools. Then there is the issue of electric supply, which only the major power players can address. But we have tried to take care of this problem to a large extent through the introduction of Green Labs.

Implementing Agency LearnSmart India Pvt Ltd Website www.24x7guru.com Objective To train young minds to have strong academic foundation in the formative years itself making youth intellectually stronger and stress free Achievements • Extending the assessment platform to 3.2 million homes through Tata Sky • Making teachers more accountable as performance of all teachers can be traced based

Tackling Entrance

Implementing Agency Aptech Assessment and Testing Solutions

ptech is the solution provider that offers solutions like design and development of Question bank and Question Paper, Online Applications capture and Processing, and Online and Offline Fee collection and Processing. The solution also includes preparation of Examination Venue in 61 cities and 68 exam centres across India for Conducting Online test, Preparing Merit List and Score card. Target Group: Graduates, Applicants to AICTE, approved Indian MBA Institutes Challenges: The problems we faced were mainly related to the lead time for project execution. There were also issues related to training and deployment of resources. The seamless integration of modules was a challenging task by itself. Controlling the costs of the operation was also a challenge.

Website www.aptechworldwide.com

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective This test was initiated by AICTE with the intension of starting a common and single test for MBA aspiring candidates in the country Achievements • Managed 70000 registrations • Managed 42000 test takers • Glitch-free seamless execution • Integrated project management

Interactive Test Preparation, Solution Evaluation Providers and Assessment Tool Providers

Test Buddy

L Implementing Agency Lodhari Technologies Pvt Ltd Website www.mytestbuddy. com Objective To comprehend educational needs of any student seeking admissions in post graduation course or a school child preparing for his examinations Achievements • Mytestbuddy.com has managed to get 13000+ registered members within a span of eight months

odhari technologies have created a fun learning environment for students. Mytestbuddy’s Collaborative Learning Platform is web-based, engaging and effective methodology of studying, wherein a student provides inputs to which his peers and professors can respond. This leads to engagement in a healthy learning interactive place. Mytestbuddy helps prepare students for standardised tests, including the SAT, AIPGME, GMAT, GRE, CAT, AIEEE AND IIT- JEE. Mytestbuddy plans to provide comprehensive curriculum for preparation of these examinations and tutorials in future. Target Group: Students appearing for competitive exams such as GMAT, SAT, CSAT, CAT, AIEEE, IIT JEE, AIPGME , AIIMS , GCET and AIPMT Challenges: While introducing mytestbuddy.com in schools for AIEEE and AIPMT, the team found it difficult to convince teachers about the benefits of the solution. The teachers needed to be convinced that the website will serve as a portal where teachers can login and see how their students are progressing.

Assessing online

ARAS Assessment Management System is a platform that delivers test assessments online to authors, in test centres, on standalone computers or mobile devices. It is being used in different educational segments like K-12, higher education, test preparation, elearning for formative, diagnostics and high stake exams. It helps businesses reduce the time that it takes to hire quality candidates with the help of pre-recruitment tests. It also helps in test preparation for companies to discover weakness areas of students with the help of diagnostic tests and generate personalised learning paths. It helps teachers deliver formative and diagnostics tests after each class to improve their instruction. Target Group: K-12 schools, Higher Education Institutions, Corporates/Enterprises, Govt bodies, Educational & Test Publishers. Challenges: Initially the cost of the system was high, as the company was following an annual license model. With the help of cloud computing, they were able to bring down the costs to meet the demands of smaller customers.

Implementing Agency Excelsoft Technologies Pvt Ltd Website www.testingassessments. excelindia.com Objective To help teachers deliver formative and diagnostics tests after each class to to improve student learning outcomes Achievements • Conducted 500,000 online exams for SMU • Helped universities in reducing the time in conducting exams, remove fraud and breach of exam papers

Interactive Solution Providers

Learning from School to Home

T Implementing Aency NIIT Limited Website www.niitnguru.com

oday’s children are Digital Learners and understand the native language of technology very easily. They are surrounded by the simulating world of the Internet, mobiles, apps and social networking. Today schools understand that traditional methods of imparting education can no longer engage children nor can it provide a true understanding of the concepts. The NIIT Nguru School 2 Home Solution connects the home and school, teacher, student and parent and the entire learning eco-system in a very meaningful, radical and revolutionary manner. Target Group: School going Children, Teachers, School Administrators, Parents. Challenges: We didn’t face too many challenges, since the programme was built with full understanding of the infrastructure available in the country. We had taken into account the issues related to internet bandwidth, accessibility to technology and technology adeptness of the teachers. Some teachers were really averse to using new technology. In their case we started a well designed training programme, during which these teachers were introduced to the digital solutions. Eventually a majority of the teachers were able to understand that technology can play a seminal role in classrooms.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To erase inflexibility in the current technological offerings and insufficiency of the available resources Achievements • Better student engagement • Shift from rote based system of teaching and learning • Enables the class to go beyond textbooks

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Interactive Solution Providers

Interactive content

F Implementing Agency Paradigm Creatives Website www. paradigmcreatives. com Objective To make it extremely simple to deploy interactive content on all major platforms with zero coding involved Achievements • www.fabula.io • Fabula App in the Android App store • www.fabula.io/ analytics • Prototyping Tie Up with two Fortune 500 companies

abula is an authoring tool that allows individuals, artists, story tellers and publishers to create highly interactive multimedia content. The best thing about the content is that it is operating system and device independent on smartphones and tablet computers. Fabula provides users with a simple and intuitive interface to create rich documents, stories and books that are fundamentally interactive in nature. Target Group: Publishers, Universities, Freelancers, Creative Individuals Challenges: One challenge was to create an app that would function seamlessly across the Android platform. We also needed to ensure that it should display similar efficiency across all the mobile platforms. It was a real challenge to develop a scalable phased architecture.

Virtual Classroom

izIQ is an online learning and teaching platform that enables educators and students to meet online in real time via its Virtual Classroom. The WizIQ Virtual Classroom provides tools that enhance learning through real time interaction. In the virtual classroom, teachers can use all kinds of tools to engage with their students. There can be live audio with multiple attendees and video conferencing with six attendees. It is a breeze to share documents, PDFs, excel sheets, audio files, video files and record class as it happens. Target Group: K-12 School, College, University, Academy, Educational Organisation, Training Company, Tutoring Company, Corporations.

Implementing Agency authorGEN Technologies Limited Website www.authorgen.com Objective • To make teaching and learning easier for everyone • To give learners access to content on mainstream topics, but also on esoteric topics Achievements • More than two million registered users are using WizIQ across the globe • WizIQ is being used by more than 1800 Educational Institutes

Onsite Satellite Learning

Implementing Agency Hughes Communication India Ltd Website www. hugheseducation. com

ughes Global Education is an interactive onsite satellite based education and training service initiated by Hughes, for corporate and working professionals/ students. It has live, interactive, real-time, two way video, voice and data classes, and spread across 155 classrooms in 75 cities. Hughes Global Education platform has redefined the next generation of education with real-time Interactive Onsite Learning (IOL). At the heart of Hughes service there lies the powerful system that allows large numbers of geographically dispersed participants to have a highly interactive, ‘one-to-one’ exchange with the faculty. The platform offers interactivity similar to a live classroom session, where a student sitting in any part of the country, at any given point in time, can interact freely with the professor and raise questions. The interaction is as spontaneous and natural as in a regular classroom. There is extensive use of two-wayvideo, voice and data. The pedagogy is highly interactive. Target Group: Working Professionals

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To offer products and services, primarily using satellite technology Achievements • More than 24000 students have undergone various courses on our platform over the last 11 years • More than 100 different programmes have been conducted over our platform • Currently 11 studios are operational

Tablets in education

Independent Learning

Implementing Agency Classteacher Learning Systems Website www.classteacher.com Objective • To make independent learning environment • To change the way teaching is done in schools Achievements • Permits students to revise concepts covered in school at their own pace. • It provides individual and personalised learning. • Provides better performance and relieves pressure

lassteacher offers solutions for personalised and interactive learning for students. The solutions are developed with guidance from teachers. The device a tablet running the version 4.0 of Android. It comes preloaded with the products of the company. iPerform, which is a tool for learning-on-thego, has all the topics covered in the school so that the same can be revised anytime, anywhere by the student. Teachers can use it to teach, share notes and keep a tab on the students by remotely monitoring their Classpad screen. Target Group: K-12 Challenges: The idea of one device solving multiple problems in the school as well home-learning is a daunting task. Also when the company implemented its first project, many teachers were reluctant to support us as many were sceptical of the ease of use of the device. Configuring the Wi-Fi settings and connecting it to a wireless LAN was a difficult task for most teachers, but by imparting proper training and providing detailed user manuals, all the doubts of teachers got cleared.

Learning is Fun

yEduTab is an educational tablet packaged with curriculum mapped digital content, educational applications, games, educational videos, and ebooks. The tablet brings fun to the learning process. Home learning becomes a self paced, enjoyable experience. It is aimed at fulfilling the self learning needs of students by providing detailed understanding of the concepts, revision, doubt clarification, self assessment, and avenues for broadening understanding of real world applications. For students aiming for higher education, MyeduTab intends to facilitate communication skills and professional skills. Target Group: Students, Youngsters, Teachers, Parents Challenges: One big challenge is mapping the exact needs of the customers. The needs of the teachers, parents and the students are different, and hence lots of innovations are required in the tablet space. Making tablets ready for education is also a difficult task, as the educational needs keep changing at a fast pace. The issue of lack of Internet connectivity is also a challenge.

Implementing Agency HCL Learning Website www.hcllearning.com Objective • To increase learning accessibility • To offer personalised learning anytime, anywhere and at own pace Achievements • Conceptualised and launched educational ecosystem on a tab • Helping schools adopt tablets as learning enablers and value enhancers • Visually rich 2D-3D content which runs on tablets without the need for internet

Technology Solutions for Higher Education Institutes

Free Linux Software

onluence is the latest Operating System built on Linux. It is an OS specially crafted for developers of any field and comes with pre installed development software like C++, Java and Python. Like every Linux based OS, Conluence is also open source and can be downloaded free of cost. Conluence is still in the beta phase and the developers are working for further development.

Implementing Agency SLVG Inc.

Target Group: Businesses, Programmers, Developers and the like Challenges: Due to unforeseen circumstances the business had to be shut down, and the work eventually started from scratch once again. This lead to loss of time and lot of effort got wasted. We had to virtually redo everything again.

Website www.conluence.in

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective Conluence is a project which aims at making free software available to the people Achievements • Licensed software • Popular with users • Capable of fostering social inclusion

Technology Solutions for Higher Education Institutes

Pharmacology Software

E Implementing Agency Reed Elsevier India Pvt Ltd Website www.elsevier.co.in Objective To provide a credible alternative to animal experiments and ensuring cost effective homogenous learning experience Achievements • Worldwide 500+ registered demo users • Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India conducted a teachers training programme using this software

xPharmPro is a computer assisted learning package containing five programmes, which simulate animal experiments in Pharmacology. These programmes can be used to demonstrate drugs on different animal systems. The package is user friendly, highly interactive and full of animated sequences, which make simulation appear realistic. Target group: Medical, pharmacy and dental undergraduate students who are doing a course in Pharmacology Challenges: Regulatory bodies like MCI, PCI suggests the use of alternatives to animal experimentation, but these organisations are yet to make the use of such virtual solutions mandatory in the institutions. Lack of high-tech infrastructure in medical and pharmacy colleges is also a cause for concern. Some educators are not that inclined to using high technology. At times, the institutions are unwilling to pay for the new initiatives.

Learning Solution Under One Roof

arksman facilitates learning management system that is available on the cloud. It provides complete set of turnkey solutions, starting from custom e-Learning development services, interactive simulation and gaming based content development, to higher education, corporate bodies. government agencies and individuals. Marksman’s learning management system and Collaborative Learning Platform can be used in any institution and organisation. The system has inbuilt Web 2.0 features and is embedded with all the major components of Web 2.0. Target group: Higher Educational Institutions, Vocational Institutions, Corporate and Government Challenges: The major challenge that we face is related to the fact that institutions are not ready to adopt new technology. The training of faculty is another major challenge. The faculty needs to be trained in the best ways of using the solutions for furthering learning outcomes in classrooms.

Smart ERP Makers

Implementing Agency Apex eLearning Technologies Ltd Website www.ecampus. net.in

CAMPUS was conceptualised to fulfil the acute need of educating individuals who are constrained for time. The solution provides students the chance of overcoming issues such as travel cost, work schedules, etc. eCAMPUS – Web based Distance Education ERP is a tool that has the power of Communication, Organisation, Management and Training. Target Group: Higher educational institutes Challenges: The initial challenge we faced was that the software engineers didn’t know how the Distance Learning System works. So the academicians in our team had to guide the software engineers in developing the system for comprehensive distance education. At first Distance Learning Institutions were intimidated by the usage of technology, but they have now become used to eCampus. The users of the system have to be continuously trained in using the system. The list of other challenges include issues that have to do with things like Internet, maintaining server and minimum downtime.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Implementing Agency Marksman Technologies Pvt Ltd Website www.marks.org.in Objective To provide single window for all technology implementation in Higher Educational Institutions Achievements • Recognised globally • Free Courses for the Placement, • Custom Open Courseware courses repository

Objective To make distance learning programs faster, better and less expensive Achievements • More than 15 Institutions and 1, 23,000 students are using eCAMPUS Software, a 160 percent growth over the last year • Embedded YouTube Videos to make learning more interactive • Paperless instant communication by Email and SMS

Technology Solutions for Higher Education Institutes

An Online Learning Solution

L Implementing Agency Winzest Edutech Private Ltd Website www.learningware.in Objective To provide a solution that helps enhance the teaching-learning process in higher education Achievements • One of India’s largest repositories of interactive digital content for engineering education • A highly scalable, robust and affordable cloud-based platform

earningware provides higher education segment in the country with solutions for continuing to grow while enhancing the quality of education. This cloud-based solution is designed to be highly scalable, robust and affordable, and it works with the idea of enhancing outcomes. Learningware comes with innovative content driven digital aids for the teacher in the classroom. Target Group: Higher education institutions Challenges: The major challenge that we faced had to do with the building of a common teaching-learning platform for addressing the needs of students, faculty and administrators in a higher education institution. The second challenge was related to the building of an ecosystem where the best academics could contribute intellectually and in a standardised way. This was addressed through our structured and flexible process design where academics can conveniently and effectively add value to the courseware.

ERP Solutions for Institutes

he software covers the entire range of tasks that any institution is supposed to perform. From administration of students, to staff and inventory management, it takes care of everything. It also takes care of the fund flow based on fees collection, salary management and other outflows. The academic activities, assessment and printing of report cards and the promotion or the transfer of students can also be handled with the system. Target Group: Schools- k-12, higher education colleges and universities. Challenges: The challenges that we initially faced were mostly related to the human factors. Some people are not that eager to start using new technology. The lack of infrastructure is also a major issue. Initially Internet was not that common, but things have now improved considerably. The high expectations of some clients are also difficult to fulfil, but we try our best to handle such situations.

Implementing Agency Entab Infotech Pvt Ltd Website www.entab.in Objective To help authorities build better institutions that can cater to the educational needs of society Achievements • Successful implementation of campus management ERP in about 600 institutions • CBSE secondary examination marks gathering from 12500 schools spread across the world • Efficient generation of report cards

Innovation in pre School and Special need education

Igniting Curiosity

S Implementing Agency Shri Ram New Horizons Ltd

hri Ram Global Preschool accepts the uniqueness in that must be there in every child. The Preschool aims to teach the children “how to think” instead of “what to think”. The school encourages self-discovery through exploratory learning. Education is facilitated through creation of an environment that is not only child-safe but also child-stimulating. A blend of the Montessori, as well the play way method, constantly supports it with audio visual aids. Art, music, dance, alternate methods of self-expression are an integral part of our curriculum. The school aims to ignite the fire of curiosity in each child, thus initiating them on the path of life-long learning.

Website www.shriramglobal preschool.org

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective • To ensure that each student is endowed with the qualities and traits that are hallmark of every Shri Ram Global Student Achievements • Every child returns home with a smile on his face after having spent three hours learning, sharing, turntaking and achieving targets • State of the art learning centres provide our learners with a dynamic and nurturing environment

Innovation in pre School and Special need education

Apps for Differently Abled

S Implementing Agency WebTeam Corporation Website www.webteamcorp.com Objective To lend helping hand to children with ADHD, Autism Achievements Received recommendations from the Governor Chris Christie and the Mayor of Franklin Township Levine

hanesh COLORS Programme is an innovative way of delivering extended evidence-based intervention using Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). This intervention programme is designed for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Webteam Corporation has just started running programmes in four schools in NY/ NJ area using technology to deliver an effective and affordable autism treatment and intervention that parents/caregivers/schools/organisations can access through handheld devices like iPad. Target Group: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their parents. Challenge: To use cutting edge

technology for providing assistance to children and their gurdians was a real challenge. However, in the month of April these apps have enjoyed 20,000 downloads. There have been 50,000 downloads in this year so far.

Learning for Dyslexic Students

alorx Prerna caters specifically to the needs of Dyslexic students and students having Learning Difficulties (LD) due to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD). It is a co-educational English medium school following the CBSE curriculum and running classes from grade 2-10. It functions on the campus of Delhi Public School, Ahmedabad. The project was started on 3rd September 2001, under the aegis of Delhi Public School, Ahmedabad, with three students and four teachers. Target Group: Students between 7 – 18 years of age, having Dyslexia or associated difficulties like ADHD, ADD etc., parents and teachers dealing with such students. Challenge: To develop these chil-

dren into well-balanced personalities with sound values of love, kindness, caring, and devotion was difficult for us. Also to build a centre of excellence to provide customised services for student’s learning needs was a concern.

Learning with Pride

A Implementing Agency Mother’s Pride Website www. mothersprideonline.com

child’s growth is the most rapid when he/she is between 2 and 4 years of age. The programme aims to provide opportunities to children to exhibit their curiosity, creativity, self-direction and persistence in learning situations. Children get many opportunities to interact with their peers. The school has 36 branches, including three outstation branches. Target Group: Children between the age of 2-4 years and their parents. Challenges: Initially it was difficult to manage all the expectations of the parents, as for them child’s learning gets generally associated with the reading-writing skills that the child can pick up. There is shortage of fully trained teachers. At times it is difficult to convince parents about the importance of pre-school education. Development of a child friendly and safe environment is also not an easy task. However, with the chairperson, Sudha Gupta’s conviction, the school sailed through these challenges and has been awarded with many prestigious awards.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Implementing Agency Calorx Education and Research Foundation Website www.prerna.calorx.org Objective To provide education that will help Dyslexia students overcome their learning difficulties Achievements • Received grant from International Research and Exchange Bureau for resource development • Achieved 100 percent pass results in CBSE exams

Objective To provide a child with a really stimulating environment for learning Achievements • We have been able to lay a sound foundation for more than 200,000 children in the past 15 years. • Has won many prestigious awards like Cannes Gold for Love Blossoms Here brochure, India Education Awards 2012

Innovation in Global Collaborative Learning in k-12

Addresing Climate Change

T Implementing Agency Ryan International Group of Institutions Website www.ryaninternational. org Objective To provide opportunity to students to search for real solutions to real problems Achievements • Independent Research by students • Unique online platform developed for interaction • Research across the continents • Use of multimedia in the collaboration process

he Project was about one of the key issues facing mankind. It involved students from three continents collaborating and studying issues relating to this and debating them. Students of Grade XI from three countries, India, USA and Germany, came together for this momentous initiative, which involved studying climate change and its practical impact. The key idea was to sensitise students to look at global problems from diverse perspectives. Target Group: Students of Grade XI (Ages 16 to 18 years) Challenges: Scheduling video calls between speakers located in different time zones is a big challenge. The students had to be put on a rotation methodology to make sure that all teams were doing equivalent number of late nights. Visa issues led to its own set of challenges. The team had to navigate through the process to make sure it did not become a constraint. As part of the focus was on field study, it meant that the children had to work for quite a few additional hours.

Students Exchange

EMS NPS International School got the opportunity to explore NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Centre, the nation’s gateway for exploring, discovering and understanding our universe. 37 students of GEMS NPS International School went for a three days of Astronaut Training Experience at NASA in USA. Target Group: Grade IX – XII (Age Group 14 – 18) Challenges: It was a challenge to monitor the students during the tour. We had to keep strict vigilance. Time management was also a challenge. With proper plan we could somehow manage to fulfil all the tasks within the the tight schedule. Some of the activities, which were part of Astronaut training, were refused by the girls, as they were scared. So we had to give them proper motivation and encouragement in order to help them overcome their fears. The cold climate also created problems, as the children were not used to such weather.

Implementing Agency GEMS NPS International School Website www. gemsnpsinternational schoolguwahati.com Objective To help students to expand their horizons. Achievements • Students attended the Astronaut Training Experience • The students were inspired to choose Astronomy as their career • Students learnt the virtue of keeping their surroundings neat and clean

Barter Education

S Implementing Agency The Orchid School Website www. theorchidschool.org

ince April 2008, there has been an annual exchange of four faculty members from either side. These interactions have proved to be an effective platform for exchange of pedagogical practices. They result in better networking, imbibing of new styles, building of connections and also providing deeper insights into different cultures. In order to formalise this relationship, Orchid signed a MOU with Donner Gymnassiet, Gotland, in the year 2007. In 2010 the exchange programme was extended to the student community. Target Group: Students and School staff Challenges: The main challenge was related to the issue of fostering an alignment between the academic programmes in both the institutions. We invite them during September, so as to coincide with Ganesh festival and our in house retreats. We go to their institution during our summer break, so that we do not compromise on our working days. Funding needed to sustain the exchange programme was also a cause of concern. As this was an open system, everyone was eligible to apply. So if the number of applicants, was higher than required, we went for a lottery system for choosing a candidates.

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Objective To break stereotypes, cross borders and sensitisation Achievements • Recognition from the Swedish embassy • Institutions in Sweden like Richard Steffan Gymnasiet, Gotland and Cyber Gymnasiet, Stockholm, are approaching for collaboration

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Innovation in Global Collaborative Learning in k-12

Learning Exchanger

T Implementing Agency Delhi Public School, Panipat Website www. dpspanipatcity.in

he International Student Cultural Exchange Programme was started by the school in 2005, with the prime objective of giving an opportunity to its students to experience other cultures and engage in dialogue and communication with the people of different cultures. This programme focuses at establishing a system that makes efforts to advance matters of common interest, such as sharing views on education and environmental problems, history, kind of food, art, dance forms and music to enhance the quality of human life. Target Group: Students in the age of 8 to 18 years Challenges: Ensuring the safety and security of the students was a cause of concern. Senior officials of the management team in DPS Panipat City personally make a visit to the foreign land to ensure proper safety and security of the children. Only after ensuring safety and effective arrangements, student exchange programme is organised for that specific location.

Objective Giving an opportunity to the students to foster their leadership and social skills Achievements • Language acquisition is achieved through practical immersion • Students are able to develop global networks and friendships

Innovation in Pedagogical Practices

Finding Out Reasons

Implementing Agency ASN Sr Sec School Website www.asnschool.org Objective To increase the awareness among students about the environmental issues. Achievements • It worked out as a practical way of bringing the students close to the nature • The whole school was involved in this project, thus the students learned to work as a team.

ith the intention of sensitising the people of Delhi on the atrocious state of River Yamuna, the school organised a six day event. Seeing the plight of Yamuna River, which has been declared as a ‘dead river’ by WHO, ASN Sr Sec School (ASN) resolved to come up with many more awareness programmes. Such projects are necessary to senstise students and society to know about the importance of clean reasons behind the degradation of the river environment. Target Group: The Youth of TodaySchool children Challenges: There were several financial constraints in organising this on a mega scale. We overcame this problem by involving NGOs and Corporate houses who provided financial assistance. Getting pure water from Yamunotri in the Himalayas was a big challenge. After that we had to book IG Stadium for12000 odd spectators. So there were several logistical issues involved. Inviting the various judges for 70 different competitions was also a difficult exercise.

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Ladders for Learning

he I Cube Learning Ladder is an unique teaching-learning methodology that has been adopted in Shanti Asiatic School, Ahmedabad, for creating a joyful school environment that will generate happy, righteous and quality individuals, equipped to make right choices in life and grow up to be responsible citizens of the world. The I Cube Learning Ladder is woven in the strong belief in the theory of ‘Think Global but Act Local.’ It is dedicated to bringing about a global vision in the students. Target Group: Students of Class I to X Challenges: The first key challenge we face was in development of the methodology. We had to train the trainer so that he could impart further training to the students.

Implementing Agency Shanti Asiatic School, Ahmedabad Website www.shantiasiatic.org Objective • To make a child inquisitive about a subject • To ensure that the curiosity developed is sustained • To build a healthy inquiry based learning approach Achievements • Message of awareness was broadcasted across the region

Innovation in Pedagogical Practices

The Cafe

Implementing Agency Mahatma Gandhi International School Website www.mgis.in Objective • To bring fundamental learning for survival (food) in the mainstream education of K-12 schooling • To integrate innovative and experiential pedagogy to teach subject Achievements • Students voluntarily opted for a healthy diet due to heightened awareness • Students understood important principles of hygiene and safety

he Cafe Project is a pedagogical initative undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad. The focus of this project is running the community kitchen in schools. It offers several opportunities for learning traditional subjects like cooking. Under this Cafe project, one is able to address several subject competencies through a meaningful and fun filled approach. Target Group: K-10 Students Challenges: The students and the teachers have to be careful with the tools being used in the café. They have to have full knowledge of the working of the tools and the systems. Fire related hazards are also an issue. Another key challenge we faced was related to infrastructure, which had to be developed in such a way that the entire class could be accommodated in the kitchen premises. Time management is also a cause for concern. The project had to be designed in such a way that the younger children could be given extra training in safely cutting and chopping vegetables.

Reinventing Partnerships

he IBM Reinventing Education (RE) programme is driven with the motivation of enhancing the quality of schooling. The project works in partnership with the local governments in various countries. Launched in 1994, this programme is now available in 25 cities throughout the United States, as well as in Australia, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, China, India, etc. It is a holistic model for teachers’ professional development and child centric learning aligned to national goals. Target Group: Secondary school teachers, students and school heads in select government schools Challenges: The major challenge that the company faced in the initial stages was due to the lack of ICT integration in teaching learning process. Also in government schools there is hardly any opportunity for teachers to take up continuous skill development. We overcame these challenges by taking various steps to reinvent the education programme.

Imparting Shiksha

Implementing Agency Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd Website www.microsoft.com

roject Shiksha, a part of Microsoft’s PiL programme, aims to incorporate innovative methods to provide new avenues of social and economic empowerment for the underserved communities. With the help of ICT based education, teachers are able to integrate IT tools in their classroom teaching and thereby bring efficiency to the process of teaching. Till date, this project has trained over 6,94,426 government school teachers who in turn have impacted over 32 million students by making ICT a part of their teaching. Target Group: Government school teachers Challenges: A major challenge came from the fact that teachers were not that eager to pick up new skills. Some of them argued that they were due for retirement in a few months or a year or two and did not foresee the necessity of picking up new skills so late in their professional lives. Lack of infrastructure for the running of the programme was also an issue. Even when a computer lab came into being, the school administration could not guarantee or arrange uninterrupted electricity supply.

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Implementing Agency IBM India Pvt Ltd Website www.ibm.com Objective • To improve the quality of teaching and learning in the secondary school sector Achievements • Teaching moved from teacher-centred to child-centred active learning • Drop-outs rejoined in school after seeing their friends ‘enjoying’ the learning experience

Objective • Bringing innovation in the teachinglearning process in a classroom • Empowering the teachers with ICT skills • Digital inclusion Achievements • The reach of the Project Shiksha is across 12 states in India • Microsoft has trained over 6, 77, 000 government school teachers till date, who in turn have impacted over 32 million students

Innovation in Pedagogical Practices

Active Teaching

Implementing Agency RUMI Education Pvt Ltd Website www. rumieducation.com Objective • To support the school with a single system that includes books, teacher manuals, methodology, teacher training, monitoring delivery, and assessments Achievements • Successfully adopted across multiple states • Trained over 800 teachers

umi Pre-Primary (PP) Curriculum with Active Teaching is a complete end-to-end pedagogical system that ensures optimal learning outcome. This system meets the needs of the school’s pre-primary section. The system works through the involvement of teachers and students. It operates across the classrooms, schools and geographies in a standardised, scalable, monitor-able model. The exercise gets conducted within the academic framework of the school. Target Group: Schools at every level. Challenges: Parents compare their child with others in their friend/family circle and are concerned if their child has not learned as many alphabets or numbers. The product therefore had to meet the expectations of parents who are very discerning, when it comes to the educational needs of their own children. At parent teacher meetings, parents were sensitised of the fact that basic skills like gross motor, fine motor, kinaesthetic, reasoning etc. are important for all round development of the child. We also faced challenges due to different educational background of the parents.

MoU Between Students and School

he entire idea was conceptualised with a simple proposal. The students of the school wanted a month long celebration on the occasion of children’s day. The Principal agreed on a simple condition that there should be improvement in academics and behavioural aspects of the students. The idea behind the project was to empower all stakeholders and enhance a range of leadership skills. A think tank team was formed to plan the event. Target Group: Management, Parents, Students, Faculty, Support Staff and Community at large Challenges: It was a mammoth task to successfully manage the initiative. Initially when the collaborative framework was read in the assembly, few students refused to sign as one of the clauses was to improve the academic performance by 5 percent. The members of the student council, shadow council and the faculty with the counsellor counselled the students. The House Captain also helped the new students improve their performance.

Implementing Agency Salwan Public School Website www.salwangurgaon. com Objective • To enhance knowledge sharing • To instil the sense of camaraderie and collective responsibility Achievements • Self Discipline generated by peer monitoring especially by the Shadow Council • The list of defaulters in the discipline register drastically reduced. • Workshops on communication skills helped in developing inter-personal skills

Towards Spiritual Intelligence

Implementing Agency DLF Public School Website www.dlfps.com

he School follows the Vipassana Meditation regime- one of India’s most ancient non-sectarian and scientific techniques of meditation. It is a significant part of the school curriculum. The students practice ‘AANPANA Sati’, the meditation of in-and-out breathing following the Vipassana meditation regime twice every day, in the morning and in the afternoon. Each classroom is equipped with a Speaker. Thus, the entire School follows ‘Guided Meditation’. ‘Yoga and Meditation’ an important part of the School curriculum. Target Group: Students of Class III to Class XII Challenges: One of the major challenges had to do with management of the logistics. Each classroom had to be equipped with speakers to aid guided meditation. We had to foster association with Vipassana Sadhana Sansthan to carry out a long term effective programme. Initially it was a challenge to get the teachers to meditate with the students. The teachers were quite resistant to even attending the Vippassana Meditation Camps. They had to be cajoled into attending the camps. Also it is a difficult task to make all the students attend the Yoga sessions.

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Objective Inspiring children to adopt the three important precepts of life - Morality, Mastery over the mind, and Wisdom Achievements • Students have been winning the Yoga World Cup for India for the five consecutive Years • Many case stories of children who have benefitted immensely from this programme

Innovation in Pedagogical Practices

Developing Research Skill Implementing Agency Mount Abu Public School Website www.mountabuschool. com Objective • To develop thirst for gaining new knowledge • To develop research skill among the children and the teachers Achievements • Children became extrovert and developed efficiency • Developed critical thinking among the students • Developed creativity and proficiency • Improved ranks in English, Science and Maths Olympiads

he success of teaching is determined principally by evidence of improvement of some kind in the students being taught. This project is based on the assumption that educational evaluation is a professional responsibility of the academic staff. It arises from a commitment to understanding the effects of teaching on the students. The most important point is that not all teaching innovation requires special funding. Some of the most useful innovations are simple, cost-neutral changes in style, structure and parameters. Target Group: School Children , teachers and parents across the globe Challenges: The crunch of resources was a major problem. Some students lacked enthusiasm. So there was lack of complete participation from students. At times, we faced problems related to punctuality and regularity. The concentration level of students also left much to be desired.

Social Media in Education

lobal economic and social trends over the past few decades have had profound implications on educational reform and the use of technology in schools. The pervasiveness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have changed the way people live and made it necessary for educational systems across India to reinvent teaching and learning to prepare students with 21st century skills. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Vijayanagram (JNVs) embarked upon the ICT journey to facilitate the integration of effective, existing, and emerging technologies in order to enhance learning opportunities for all students. Target Group: School Leaders, Teachers and Students Challenges: Making teachers and students familiar with the tools is by itself a challenge. Lot of training is needed to be provided during the initial days. The infrastructure had to be prepared. During Online Classroom Session unless everyone has fast Internet, things slow down if everyone turns on their webcam at once.

Cloud Computing in School

R Implementing Agency R N Podar School Website www.rnpodarschool. com

N Podar School has successfully implemented Cloud Computing in both administrative as well as academic areas. They use free online resources (Google Apps in Education) and Social Media (Facebook) very effectively and efficiently. They used cloud-based solutions information available through any browser, on an anytime, anywhere basis. With education system becoming more decentralised. Accountability has become a central issue in administration of schools. The online system leads to creation of transparent education culture. Target Group: Management, staff, students, parents, school board Challenges: Initially we faced challenges related to infrastructure. The Internet connectivity was poor. Ultimately the Internet connectivity was improved by making school WiFi enabled. As the staff did not have adequate technological skills, we had to organise workshops and tutorials. Change was brought about to the traditional mindsets through motivational sessions. We also organised camps for orientation of parents. Eventually the parents came on board.

Implementing Agency Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Vijayanagram Website N/A Objective Provide increased opportunities for individuals to master basic and advanced technical, academic, and job-related skills Achievements • Virtual Room – Learncentral allowed students to attend a class from even outside the school like a real classroom • m-Learning tool for especially visually and physically challenged

eSchools

Objective • Effective intraschool and inter-school communication and collaboration • Efficient and effective use of resources Achievements • Real-time collaboration • Efficient school processes and greater productivity

digitalLEARNING / august 2012

eSchools

Seeing is Believing

Implementing Agency

Maheshwari Public School Website www.mpsjaipur.com Objective

To keep pace with the techno savvy change in environment Achievements

• It helps students to visualise and understand the topics vividly • It helps in developing scientific aptitude amongst the students

his is an instance of digital learning project being implemented in schools. The school is currently using digital learning in 60 classrooms and benefiting 3500 students from level 3 to 12. The project was started following the idea of ‘seeing is believing’ to increase the retention power and for easy registering of the topic taught. The objective of this project is to keep pace with the techno savvy change in environment in the school education system and also to provide better learning atmosphere to the students. Target group: Schools / Institutes catering to 3-12 segment Challenges: It was a big challenge to have technical programme for teaching adopted by all the teachers from different backgrounds and age groups. Many teachers are simply not inclined to move away from traditional modes of teaching. There was a huge financial outlay involved and it needed lot of planning for us to execute the project.

Sreshtha to e-Sreshtha

o keep pace with the modern world, the school modified its teaching strategies and the initiative to promote e-learning was taken. Smartboards are installed in all the classrooms, in place of the traditional blackboards and these help by providing extensive knowledge of education through various slides, wherein the content is designed and prepared by the teachers. This transition is not only focussed on education alone, it has also developed connections with the parents. Target group: Students, Teachers and Administrative staff Challenges: The major challenge was result of the fact that quite a few teachers were not tech savvy. They had to be given training so that they can become capable of preparing their own digital content. During the initial implementation, internet speed turned out to be a challenge, but this has issue has been solved by taking the leased line and broadband connections. There were several financial issues also, and these were managed by using funds from diverse resources.

Implementing Agency DAV Public School Website www.davcsp.org Objective • To prepare the students for a global market • Students design certificates, movies in flash, games etc Achievements • Results have improved • Due to online database, school is efficiently carrying out its functioning with less paper work

Propelling Education

Implementing Agency Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School, ISC Website www.lilavatibaipodar school.com

ay back in 2006-07, Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School decided to collaborate with Starboard ICT, UK, and today the technology has become a tool for learning and teaching. The classrooms are fitted with ICT touch screens and whiteboards, projectors and there is Internet connectivity. Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School is Wi-Fi enabled and the new classrooms follow a networked culture. Target Group: All our stakeholders from Std. 1 to Std. 12 Challenges: The challenge in 2006 was related to the acceptance of the new technology by the community of teachers. Regular weekend training programmes were held to ensure that all teachers became comfortable with the technology because a computer HUB was developed to create the right environment for teachers. A computer lab section was devloped for all students to come and enhance their computing skills.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To expand educational opportunities by making education available anywhere, anytime and to everyone Achievements • With WiFi the schools have the computer based testing (CBT) and on demand test (OTE) • Easy to use tools have empowered the staff

eSchools

Child Centric Education

Implementing Agency The Ab’s Rowland School Website www.rowlandschool.in

oday’s child centred education system is very demanding, competitive and challenging. Maintaining an effective monitoring system is very important to provide quality education. This monitering system for quality control in education is highly effective. The reporting can be easily and effectively conducted by the sincere co-operation of the Staff, and by the minimum usage of time and resources. CCE training helps in better evaluation of a student. There is stress upon the aspects like linguistic, logistic and naturalist. Target Group: Students Challenges: The challenges we faced were basically linked to the non-cooperation of the staff. It was resolved by taking them into the school. Some parents also were not cooperative, so we had to conduct home visits for counselling sessions. The senior students also had to be counselled to make them more cooperative towards the entire exercise.

Objective Presence is more important than being present. First be a learner, then a teacher Achievements • Better result • High performance • Change in learning attitude • Accepting holistic education

digitalLEARNING / august 2012

Special Feature

Moving Towards an Innovative Curriculum Design

Bringing knowledge into classrooms Understanding concepts and guiding principles are the basis for a healthy curriculum. When students understand what they learn, their achievement goes up By Viral Parekh, Program Director, The American Institute of Enrichment

eflecting on the current state of school education in India, the concerns in education now are not for the teachers who seek to help students find authenticity, meaning, and utility in what they teach. Instead, it is for all the pressures that cause teachers to believe they can’t afford the luxury of curricula with those attributes. Tests and assessments based on curricula often lead to repetition of facts and practice of skills, and as these are often devoid of context and meaning, they lead to lack of motivation for the young to explore more on the taught content.

Syllabus versus knowledge Needless to say that school teachers cannot disregard the mandates for student proficiency with ‘the basics’ taught in schools. A list of standards, which provide teachers with guidance on innovative and engaging delivery models, can bring a fresh beginning to the role of teachers. As teachers, we may be provided with ingredients/syllabus for curriculum - but they are not curriculum. We have to work towards innovative methods of creating a defensible curriculum. Through our indepth research and many model schools adopting our teaching techniques – our faculty has developed ways to use the

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ingredients to invite students to the table of learning, in ways that contribute to strong minds, and in ways that commend learning as deeply fulfilling. All students deserve and need to derive meaning and power from what they learn, despite the common myth that only a small group of students should work with higher order, meaning-rich curriculum. Understanding concepts and guiding principles are the basis for a defensible curriculum. When students understand what they learn, student achievement rises, as do the students’ prospects for a productive and satisfying life in a world much more multidimensional than an answer sheet. The world is changing dramatically. Global economics, politics, and social interactions and issues, along with advancing technologies, require more of citizens than surface knowledge and skills. Traditional curriculum designs focus on teaching topics and facts and make an assumption that students will understand the key concepts and principles of the discipline. Our innovative curriculum design demands teachers to consciously guide students to a deep understanding of the concepts and principles that structure a discipline. This is a paradigm shift from traditional instruction models we commonly see today.

The American Institute of Enrichment serves as a partner in leadership, organisation design, and system effectiveness. We work in collaboration with schools to develop change and improvement strategies that are custom tailored for each school. No two schools ever receive the same service from AIE. Majority of the times we engage in longterm partnerships with our school that include both on-site and online support and assistance. The AIE helps determine the school’s current reality and defines the preferred future. AIE faculty members chart a course that is customised specifically for the school’s objectives. Along the way working closely with school leadership teams to ensure implementation and measuring change. In the process, the AIE often conducts teacher training, induction and mentoring, assessment design and parent/student seminars. Our goals are not new to education; instead we help schools to break-away from old curriculum design paradigms to new engaging and exciting ways o teaching. The teachers find it enlightening and inspiring seeing their children engaged and motivated by the clarity of the instructional models we have incorporated. As we take on the leadership role in facilitating changes we remind schools that the change process is a journey - not an end point.

Innovation in Global Collaborative Learning in higher education

Equipping with Global Economy

Implementing Agency Open University of Malaysia Website www.w diergaardt12. phpnet.us Objective Master of Instructional Design Technology programme (MIDT) offered by the OUM aims to produce well trained graduates

n online programme offered by the Open University of Malaysia, MIDT comprises of 40 credit hours in total and it includes 14 courses. A large group of students get recruited every year. The main challenge is to prepare diverse students for the real world by equipping them with skills and knowledge, so that they are able to compete in a changing global economy. Target Group: All lifelong learners Challenges: We initially faced challenges related to curriculum design. There were also problems due to lack of coordination. The design of the learning management system was faulty. We also needed to provide training to the teaching and support staff on a regular basis.

Achievements Successful adoption of MIDT theory by students in countries like Bangladesh, India, Trinidad and Tobago, Cameron and Nokhutula

Networking Career through ICT

etworking Academy provides online courses, interactive tools, and hands-on learning experience to help individuals prepare for ICT and networking careers in virtually every type of industry. Networking Academy provides individuals with industry-recognised certifications and entry-level information and communication technology (ICT) careers in virtually every type of industry. Target Group: College-level students with or without prior technical knowledge; special focus on women, underserved sections and people with special needs Challenges: The biggest challenge that we faced has to do with broadband connectivity issues with some educational institutions. There were also the issues related to engagement with respect to lab equipment, infrastructure and faculty training. The integration of courses with the regular curricula posed its own set of challenges.

Implementing Agency Cisco Networking Academy Website www.aisect.org Objective To help schools get the most out of their networking equipment Achievements Over 450 technical colleges and universities impacted across India and more than 60,000 students exposed to Cisco Networking Academy Skills Based courses since the programmeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inception in year 2000

eCampus

ICT for the Betterment of Education

S Implementing Agency Suresh Gyan Vihar University Website www.gyanvihar.org

uresh Gyan Vihar University has wide range of programmes for admissions to engineering, management, pharmacy, biosciences and hotel management at UG, PG and doctorate level. The campus is fully Wi-Fi enabled and comprises of aesthetically designed buildings that are networked by optic fibre links. The institution has established excellent infrastructure, modern workshops and labs, seminar halls, auditoriums and well stocked libraries, in addition to sports and games fields. Target Group: Government, NGO, Student, Parents, Faculties, Stakeholders Challenges: Lack of real awareness about the benefits of ICT is leading to lot of challenges. Those holding top positions are often of traditonal mindsets are unwilling to implement new technologies. Therefore the pace of implementation of new solutions slows down. Another challenge that we faced is related to integration of ICT into private and public enterprises. This kind of integration is a new area and lot of experimentation is required before we can be sure that we are treading the right path. Managing the operational risks, and the cost escalations is also a problem.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective Objective To streamline examination and administration related activities in a university for smooth functioning without producing delays. Achievements It serves better overall control and monitoring.

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ASU Prospectus & Application Forms are downloadable from the ASU website & can also be obtained from ASU Campus, ASU City Office & all Apeejay institutions. For further admission queries, students can also visit our counsellors between 9.00 am and 7.00 pm on all days (including Sundays) at: • ASU Campus: Sohna-Palwal Road, Sohna (South of South Delhi)-122103, Delhi NCR • ASU City Office: Plot No. 23, Sector - 32, Institutional Area, Gurgaon-122001 • Apeejay Schools, Shaikh Sarai - Phase 1, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110017

The ASU campus facilities/labs/workshops/studios would be open to students/parents till 7 pm on all days (including Sundays). E-mail: admissions@asu.apeejay.edu � Mob.: 9717222856, 8527735552

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Serving the e-Learning Need

Implementing Agency Met’s ERP Department Website www.met.edu Objective • Provide avenues for better education to students. Achievements • Multiple Institute setup under a single umbrella organisation. • Seamless connection of students with the academic and non academic staff. • From admission process to curriculum, students have an efficient experience

s a part of the Management Programmes offered by MET, the division is working for the establishment of an e-enabled campus. The idea is to provide excellent education to students who enrol in the programme. The education gets conducted in a more environment friendly manner. Target Group: Management staff and students Challenges: The major challenge lies in gathering the exact requirement of users from different domains on different modules. To resolve this issue the organisation had prepared a questionnaire and distributed it to collect information. Integration of online Admission Management System with the PeopleSoft Campus Management System was the next major challenge, because both systems were developed on different platforms. To resolve this issue we had to match the data format of both the systems and convert it into CSV format, so that the other system could fetch the data from centralised location on a timely basis.

Quality Education through ICT

he e-Mentor Project allows high quality educational materials to be developed, managed, adapted, and impact-tested efficiently, in order to scale-up for wide dissemination of such solutions. The information architecture for this will be a dynamic, multi-lingual, multimedia content management database and related style sheets through which ‘camera-ready’ end-products will be available to partners and clients for physical distribution. The general public can also access the products electronically. This net-centric instructional system will permit education and training to be pervasive and precisely tailored to the needs of educator and learners considering psychological and technical factors. Target Group: Students with different cognitive traits, intelligence, intellectual level and backgrounds

Implementing Agency C-DAC, ACTS Website www.acts.cdac.in Objective To facilitate empowerment of both learners and teachers, while producing personalised learning experiences

e-Campus Gets Better

ll the activities at the Campus of Accurate Institute of Management and Technology are efficiently managed through use of diverse kinds of modern technologies. The institute has designed programmes, which equip professors with skills to integrate technology into the curriculum and customise their classroom lessons. A ceiling mounted projector, along with an interactive device and with a CPU equipped with digital content and audio-visual resources, are installed in all the classrooms. The students have a vibrant educational experiance. Implementing Agency Accurate Institute of Management and Technology Website www.accurate.in

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To enable students to keep pace with the modern technology Achievements • Awarded Best Placement amongst Management Institutes in Delhi/NCR by Times Research in May 2010 • Ranked amongst Top 15 in Placements among the Private B- Schools of India by Outlook in 2010

SINHGAD TECHNICAL EDUCATION SOCIETY S. No. 19/15, Erandwane, Smt. Khilare Marg, Off. Karve Road, Pune - 411004 Tel. : 020 - 25431001 Telefax : 020-25459751, E-mail:stes@sinhgad.edu, Web: www.sinhgad.edu

www.sinhgad.edu Pune based premier Educational Institutes which are part of Sinhgad Technical Education Society, Pune have proven record of delivering quality Management education for over a decade. Our Management students have achieved and consistently maintained the track record of being in the merit list, including gold Medalist in University of Pune for MBA / MCA programmes.

Sinhgad Institute of Management, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

S.No. 44/1, Vadgaon (Bk.), Pune - 41. Tel.:020-24100209,Telefax:020 - 2435 6592 MBA - Master of Business Administration* (MB 01) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 01) * MBA Programme accreditated by NBA Director : MBA : Dr. S. D. Awale [9970404123] Dean : Dr. S. U. Kale [9881476715] Director : MCA : Dr. V. D. Nandvadekar [9881142852]

Sinhgad Institute of Business Administration & Research, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Kondhwa (Bk.), Saswad Road, Opp. Yeolewadi, Pune - 411048 Tel. : 020-2693 3635, Telefax : 020-2693 3633 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 03) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 03) Director : MBA : Prof. Avadhoot Pol [9552510917] Director : MCA : Dr. Arpita Gopal [9922958457]

Sinhgad Institute of Management & Computer Application, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Narhe (Ambegaon), Off Westernly bypass, Pune - 411041 Tel. : 020-2469 9830 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 02) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 02) Director - Dr. Apoorva A. Palkar [9850509454] Dean - Dr. Shivaji D. Mundhe [9822242322]

Sinhgad Institute of Business Administration & Computer Application, Lonavala, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Kusgaon (Bk.), Lonavala, Dist. Pune Tel. : 02114-304 308, Telefax : 02114 - 270203 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 04/ MB 05) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 04/ MC 05) Director : MBA : Dr. Parag Kalkar [9881000922] Director : MCA : Dr. R. G. Pawar [9881476714]

SKN Sinhgad School of Business Management, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Ambegaon (Bk), Pune - 411041 Telefax. 020 - 24354036 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 07) Director : Dr. Rajeshree Shinde [9850044460/8975769599]

Sinhgad Business School, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Erandavane, Off Karve Road, Near Kalinga Hotel, Pune - 411004. Telefax. 020 - 25434314 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 06) Director : Prof. Mrs. Madhuvanti Sathe [9657725091]

Sinhgad School of Business Studies, Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Narhe (Ambegaon), Off Westernly bypass, Pune - 411041 Tel. 020-66831822 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 08) Director : Prof. Prachi Pargaonkar [9923735006]

Smt. Kashbai Navale College of Engineering, Pune (MBA Dept.) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

S.No. 44/1, Vadgaon (Bk.), Off Sinhgad Road, Pune - 41. Telefax : 020 - 24354938 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 09) Principal : Dr. A. V. Deshpande [9881000780]

Sinhgad Academy Of Engineering, Pune (MBA Dept.) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Kondhwa(Bk.), Kondhwa-Saswad Road, Pune-48 Phone No- 020-26934441 Fax No.- 020-26934297 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 11) Principal - Dr. A. G. Kharat [9422026712]

Sinhgad Institute of Technology and Science, Pune (MBA Dept.) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

Narhe (Ambegaon), Off Westernly bypass, Pune - 411041 Tel : 66831703 / 66831704 / 66831706 Fax no:- 020 6683710 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 10) Principal - Dr. S. N. Mali [8007022300]

NBN Sinhgad Technical Institutes Campus, Pune

NBN Singhad School of Management Studies (MBA) NBN Sinhgad School of Computer Studies (MCA) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

S. No. 10/1, Ambegaon (Bk.), Off. Sinhgad Road, Pune - 41 Phone: 020-24355042/46 (Office) 020-24100000 Ext: 885 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 12) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 06) Principal : Dr. Shriram D. Markande [8308816104] Savitribai Phule Shikshan Prasarak Mandal’s

Sinhgad Institute of Business Management, Kamlapur (Solapur)

Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune (MBA Dept.) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune)

S.No. 44/1, Vadgaon (Bk.), Off Sinhgad Road, Pune - 41. Tele : 020 - 24354705 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 13) Principal : Dr. S. D. Lokhande [9822335468]

Sinhgad Institute of Technology, Pune (MBA / MCA Dept.) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune) Gat No 309/310, Kusgaon(Bk.), Off. Mumbai-Pune Express way, Lonavala, Tal. Maval, Dist. Pune, PIN 410401 Tel.: (02114) 304355, Fax : (02114) 278304 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 14) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 07)

Principal - Dr. M. S. Gaikwad [9604182030]

RMD Sinhgad Technical Institutes Campus, Pune RMD Singhad School of Management Studies (MBA) RMD Sinhgad School of Computer Studies (MCA)

(Approved by AICTE & affiliated to Solapur University)

At Post - Kamlapur, Taluka - Sangola, Dist - Solapur - 413 307 Phone : 02187 - 222 901 Fax : 02187 - 222 902 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 18) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 09) Director : MBA : Dr. V. S. Mangnale [9881476717] Director : MCA : Dr. Raju Sonavane [8888883662/9673277180]

SKN Sinhgad Business School, Pandharpur (Solapur) (Approved by AICTE & affiliated to Solapur University) At Post - Korti, Pandharpur- Karad Road, Tal.- Pandharpur, Dist.- Solapur - 413304 Tel.: 02186 -250105

MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 19) Director : Dr. Archana A. Ghatule [8888859755]

Sinhgad Institute of Computer Sciences, Pandharpur (Solapur) (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to Solapur University) At Post - Korti, Pandharpur- Karad Road, Tal.- Pandharpur, Dist.- Solapur - 413304 Tel.: 02186 -250104 MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 10) Director : Dr. Arjun Ghatule [8888842663]

(Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune) 111/1, Warje, Pune-Mumbai Bypass Highway, Pune - 411052 Tel : 020-25218401/02/03/04/06/ Tele Fax: 020-25218405 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 15) MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 08) Principal : Dr. P. M. Patil [9850607506] Shrinath Shikshan Prasarak Mandal’s

Sinhgad Management School, Kondhapuri, Dist - Pune (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Pune) Gat No. 37/1, 37/2 At Post Kondhapuri, Tal: Shirur, Dist: Pune - 412 209. Tel : 02138 - 645330, Mobile - 9970736585/9822031650 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 16) Director : Dr. N. G. Sarode [9823724382] Shri Yashwantrao Chavan Shikshan Prasarak Mandal's

Sinhgad Institute of Business Management, Mumbai (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to University of Mumbai) Plot No- 126, MHADA Colony, Chandivali , Mumbai-400 072 Tel.: (022) 28472090/ 28582090. Telefax : (022) 28582090 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 17) Director : Dr. Meera Vijay [9820283524]

Sinhgad Business School, Solapur (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to Solapur University) Gat No. 38/1/B, Opp. Solapur University, Solapur - Pune Road, Kegaon, Solapur - 413255 Tel. : 0217 - 2500554 MBA - Master of Business Administration (MB 20) Director : Dr. Rajshekhar Yelikar [9423588975/8605015602]

Sinhgad School of Computer Studies, Solapur (Approved by AICTE & Affiliated to Solapur University) Gat No. 38/1/B, Opp. Solapur University, Solapur - Pune Road, Kegaon, Solapur - 413255 Tel. : 0217 - 2500553 MCA - Master of Computer Application (MC 11) Director : Dr. Urmila Pol [9049960699/8605015608]

19x25.3

Selection Procedure : For MBA & MCA Candidate must have appeared for MH-CET conducted by the DTE, Maharashtra State and (for OMS Candidates any qualifying examination as CAT, XAT, MAT, CMAT, ATMA, AMMICET for MBA & MAMICET for MCA) also for GD & PI (MBA only) conducted by competent authority. The students desirous for admission under Institute Level Quota as well as against probable vacancies should download the application form www.sinhgad.edu & duly filled in forms are to be forwarded to Dy. Registrar (Admissions) Sinhgad Business Schools, 19/15, Erandwane, Smt. Khilare Marg, Off Karve Road, Pune 411004 (Admissions Authority) along with DD of Rs. 1000/- drawn in favor of Sinhgad Business School, payable at Pune or apply in prescribed form to the Directors of the respective Institutes before the cut off date declared by DTE for the respective courses. Unique Features : Excellent placement record in Corporate and MNCs, Language Lab, Well stocked Library, E-Library & Wi-Fi connectivity. (Subject to Pune Jurisdiction only) Excellent Hostels (Boys & Girls) with Mess facilities. Prof. M. N. Navale

Note: The Institute has not authorised any person/ Agency / Representative for Admission.

President

Innovation by Private University

Learning in Virtual World

Implementing Agency Hindustan University Website www.hindustanuniv. ac.in Objective To create a virtual lab for e-learning, testing and research in Structural / Computer/ Aeronautical/ Automobile Engineering Achievements • Reduction in overheads • Increased better skilled students • Up gradation of technical knowledge of the industry personnel

industan University Centre of Excellence in Innovation and Visualisation (HUCEIV) has virtual simulation and experimental projects for the students and industrial personnel. There is a nodal centre for e-learning, testing and research in Structural Engineering with Computer Aided Laboratory (MNSECAL). The Virtual Labs allow the students to perform experiments that cannot be done in physical labs. Virtual ALSIM Flight Simulator can remotely simulate the aircraft flying. Target Group: Students from around the world; professionals, engineers and employees of various aviation, automobile, computing, electronics and instrumentation and civil industries Challenges: In the beginning we faced the challenge of getting our concept accepted by the management. While implementing the technology, we faced many issues related to modern hardware and software. There were connectivity related issues, which had to be tackled in effective ways by the experts.

Changing The Ed-Eco-System

algotias University has been established with the mission “of graduting socially responsible future technologists and business leaders”. Galgotias University enables the systematic developments of thinking quotient across an academic environment. Thinking defines us and propels us towards right knowledge. We believe that for India to be a world leader in innovation, it needs eco-systems that develop mature thinking quotient as a continuous process. Target Group: The students, who derive pleasure from learning for its own sake Challenges: The challenges that we face are related to globalisation and the knowledge economy. Many initiatives are being taken by Government of India through MHRD to raise the professional standards of teaching. Research is a highly valued activity for academic staff and while there is still a strong bias towards the traditional scholarship of discovery. Current Higher Education policy also seeks to promote integrative and applied research practices. Implementation and adoption of the ever changing technologies in the field of higher education is also fraught with challenges.

Offering High Tech Learning

Implementing Agency JK Lakshmipat University Website www.jklu.edu.in

K Lakshmipat University (JKLU) offers students an open, green and high-tech learning environment, combining the serene settings of the Gurukuls of yesteryears with the technological advancements of the new age. JKLU has been set up under Rajasthan Private Universities Act by “Lakshmipat Singhania Foundation for Higher Learning”. Target Group: Indian residents, foreign nationals, persons of Indian origins, children of Indian workers in Gulf countries, and other non-resident Indians Challenges: A major challenge was related to the creation of state of the art infrastructure within a short period of time. All the recruitments and selections were done after involving experts from national institutes. Merit was the sole criterion. It was a challenge to get the right kind of people on-board for the project. Scalable designs and solutions were preferred over the rigid ones. The entire exercise of building the brands was also fraught with complications.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Implementing Agency Galgotias University Website www. galgotiasuniversity. edu.in Objective At Galgotias University, we have diversified and upgraded the content and quality of the technical education Achievements • Ranked amongst Top Engineering / Management Institutions by leading Global Corporate and the National Media • Galgotias Moonbuggy was selected to be displayed at US Space and Rocket Centre with a permanent recognition

Objective The mission of the University is to practice a ‘mentoring ‘based education system with intellectual, moral and spiritual culture that is rooted in Indian ethos Achievements Faculty members have represented the University at international forums in different countries, like Singapore, Czechoslovakia and UAE (Dubai)

Innovation by Private University

Propelling Innovative Minds

Implementing Agency Apeejay Stya University (ASU) Website www.university. apeejay.edu/ index.php/uniqueacademic-system Objective To deepen the understanding of the human condition and fostering universal values Achievements • Established Apeejay Centre of Excellence and conducted Design and Innovation workshop jointly with MIT Media Labs, USA • Strong industryacademia interface

peejay Stya University has adopted a dedicated liberal education approach, one that is designed to foster not only subjects oriented knowledge. It also leads to development of important social values in the students. The students learn about the virtues of developing a national identity while at the same time being in tune with global developments. They learn to value their culture and traditions and also have respect for the multifarious ways of life in the world. Target Group: Students Challenges: A major challenge we faced is related to aligning community and students to the liberal arts concept. The orientation of young faculty towards research and innovation is also a cause for concern. We also needed to inculcate among the faculty the liberal arts approach to the programme of teaching. The introduction of choice based credit system was also challenging. Strengthening and inculcating the culture of research right from the under graduate level was also challenging.

Bridging Distance Learning Gaps

ahatma Gandhi University offers programmes for Certificate, Diplomas, Bachelors and Masters in many different fields. The University also offers Choice Based Credit Based programmes, especially in the field of IT, Management and Hotel Management. MGU has introduced ‘e-learning’ as a supplementary methodology for all its students to enhance understanding of key concepts and bridge the gap between distance and classroom based learning. Target Group: Under Graduate, Post Graduate and Working Professionals. Challenges: Converting the content in the form of LMS and E-Books was a big task, but with the help of our strong IT team, we were able to accomplish the task. The challenge is to create and update our curriculum according to the needs of the industry so that our students are readily accepted for the placements. Conducting Flexible e-Learning and Online Examination with a large student base is a Challenge but with the help of our Strong IT Team we have overcome this challenge.

Implementing Agency Mahatma Gandhi University Website www.mgu.edu.in Objective To reach out to the larger community of students who might not be in a position to access higher education due to geographical, economical, social or personal factors Achievements • MGU has introduced ‘Industry Speakers and Video Lectures’ as a supplementary methodology to enhance understanding of key concepts

Clinical Programme

Implementing Agency O P Jindal Global University [Centre for Clinical Programmes] Website www.jgu.edu.in

entre for Clinical Programmes, Jindal Global School is committed to the cause of bridging the disconnect between the constitutional promise of a dignified life to every citizen and the reality of undignified human existence of majority of the population, especially in rural India. The Jindal Global Law School clinical programmes is focussed on securing the objectives of good governance and citizen participation, in pursuance of the larger social justice mission. The clinical programmes work with communities, in collaboration with civil society organisations, to support their effective participation in local governance. Target Group: Rural Communities, law students, law schools, NGOs, Govt. Bodies, Policy makers Challenges: The challenge of convincing the villagers to accept this model was overcome through dialogue and co-ordination. We also faced the challenge of preparing material for legal literacy, but we managed to find our way out through the help of law students and other communities. There were also the financial constraints. There were issues related to lack of support from the government.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective Address the problems of governance and ethical deficit Achievements • Government of India has recognised this model as one of the best practices for law school-based initiatives • Sub-committee on higher educationPlanning Commission of India mentions this model as strong example

Innovation by Management Institute

Tech Enabled Classroom

Implementing Agency Maharaja College of Management, Udaipur Website www. maharajacolleges.org Objective To prepare students to exploit opportunities being newly created in the field of management Achievements • Education Excellence Award 2012 • Best Citizens of India Award 2012 • Rating B++ by ICRA • Indian Leadership Award in Education Excellence 2011

he education programme of Maharaja College of Management, Udaipur, is designed to respond to the intellectual capital requirement of business and industry. The Institute’s mandate is to create technology enabled management solutions for nation building. An effective blend of activities and interactive multimedia demonstrations make learning more engaging and responsive. There is interactivity in digital classrooms. Elements like language lab, automated document keeping system, attendance alerts, student performance reports and fees reports, bring efficiency to the institute. Target Group: Young graduates of any stream Challenges: It was a challenge to create an integrated management institute that does consulting and research, rather than just focussing on teaching. It was a challenge for the institute to bring technical soundness to the students. The varied educational background of the students leads to its own set of challenges, but this too is also being overcome through implementation of better education and management techniques.

Creating Young Entrepreneurs

he Manjula K Ponda College of Business and Management was created with the purpose of reigniting the spirit of an entrepreneur in students. Right from its inception they propagated entrepreneurship as a career option and projected themselves as a no placement college. The College recognises the need for aligning itself globally and build on the brand equity, which is based on processes. Target Group: The Youth Challenges: The toughest challenge is to make people get rid of their traditional modes of thinking and complete their studies so that they can become eligible for a good job. So educationists must also focus on changing the mindsets of today’s parents. We have to work hard to make people have faith in the modern education system. The idea has to be germinated in every mind that it is everyone’s responsibility to get educated so that they can perform better service for the nation. Accomplishing such lofty goals is a challenge, but we are doing our best to overcome them.

Implementing Agency M K Ponda College of Business and Management Website www. mkpondacollege.org Objective To create occupation for the under privileged class and bring them into the mainstream Achievements • Succeeded in changing the mindsets of the youth and parents • Meritorious achievements of our last three batches have done us proud

Learning through Mooodle

T Implementing Agency INMANTEC Website www.inmantec.edu

his project was developed after taking into consideration the fact that the psyche of students is different. The organisation has customised Moodle for catering to the diverse kinds of academic and administration related requirements. The Project was implemented and later upgraded to LAMP architecture, Moodle 1.9.17+, Jail Server, Google apps for education and wordpress. Target Group: Students and faculties Challenges: Changes from manual system to new electronic system cannot be an overnight journey. It took months to make people understand the value of the system and start using the system. The stakeholders became convinced about the efficiency of the new system only after we organised many workshops, which were devoted to showcasing the powers of technology. It was also a challenge to regularly update our Moodle courses, because of the fact that everyone is not tech savvy and hence might not like uploading files on a regular basis. We have developed many easy to access solutions to further popularise our solution.

Objective • To share data and content with students • To publish official documents, with safe guard and security • To cater to students who aren’t tech-savvy Achievements • Students were able to do their assignments faster after conducting through research, once they had access to online class notes

digitalLEARNING / august 2012

Innovation by Management Institute

Seeding Entrepreneurship

Implementing Agency PS Senior Secondary School Website www.pssenior.org

he GLPSS M&E is a 15 month old programme with 150 hours of learning. This unique programme aims to teach fundamentals in management through classroom lectures, case studies, group discussions, business games, role plays, seminars and group work. Programme delivery envisages a judicious integration of latest technology available in learning domains like audio visual aids and learning management systems. Target Group: Students from 11th standard and 12th standard Challenges: It was a challenge to sell the programme to the parents and the students. It is especially difficult as the students are located at a crucial juncture of their life when they are in 11th or 12th standard. We also needed to provide the management framework in such a way that the 11th standard students should be able to understand it. There had to be proper learning atmosphere, where there are no evaluations. Only by following this kind of strategy we could ensure full attendance. Generating enough interest in the minds of the students for this programme was also a challenge.

Objective • To expose management to students to the ideas of entrepreneurship •To create a community of job creators. Achievements • Better communication skills • Girls are performing better in this programme

Innovation by Engineering Institute

Army Institute of Technology

Implementing Agency Army Institute of Technology Website www.aitpune.edu.in/ parent, www.intranet. aitcomp.edu Objective To make parents aware of the progress of their wards right from admission to placement Achievement Good placements of students - average salary of about Rs. four Lakh and highest salary of `10.8 Lakh per annum

rmy Institute of Technology (AIT) is an institution that caters to people who are serving in the army, or are ex-army. The system is designed in such a way that it gives information about the performance of the childeren to perents, even if they are located at different places. This system also provides information on earlier university results, college tests, attendance as on date, achievements in sports and extra co-curricular activities, disciplinary action, etc. Target Group: Parents / Students / Stakeholders Challenges: Students were providing incorrect mobile numbers of their parents for sending SMS, but that problem was resolved through effective counselling. Staff were reluctant to admit some new technologies, but now they have been trained in using the same. At first it was found to be difficult to have an effective higher percentage of placements, but that too was solved by providing better training to students.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Imparting Quality Education

stablished in 1998, the MIT Pune’s Maharashtra Academy of Engineering (MAE) is imparting quality engineering education in the state of Maharashtra. The institute is known for its implementation of innovative technologies in academic and administrative sectors. The MAE aims to impart value-based engineering education of highest standards and hence it provides a comprehensive and holistic learning experience to its students. Target Group: Students from rural India Challenges: Initially, it was a challenge to attract student community as the institute was newly established but in a very short span of time the institute became very popular with students. Use of technology sometimes causes technical issues and to overcome the same, the institute enrolled a team of experts who ensure that we have a seamless quality of operations. The team of professionals at the Internet centre takes care of all the technical issues which may arise. Every academic activity entails some kind of participation from students.

Implementing Agency MIT Pune’s Maharashtra Academy of Engineering Website www.maepune.ac.in Objective To cater to the needs of Rural Indian students for higher technical education Achievements • Global recognition of the prestigious national robotic contest ROBOCON • Accreditation from the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) for excellence in imparting quality engineering education

Innovation by Engineering Institute

Imparting Quality Education

Implementing Agency Swami Parmanand Group of Colleges Website www.spcet.org Objective To train and nurture young minds to grow into creative individuals who can play valuable role in industry and society Achievements • International Intellectual Achievement Award by Global Achiever Foundation • Best upcoming Engineering college from Punjab awarded by India Achieve Podium

he project lays emphasis on imparting quality education to students and providing solutions for use of facilities like VOIP, WiFi, video and audio conferencing. It provides hardware and software innovations that enable IT based service for connectivity in rural areas. Students have access to online lectures, tutorials and question bank for better understanding of engineering subjects. Target Group: Youth from all over India, including those from economically weaker sections of Society Challenges: Challenges are faced while training students from financially weak backgrounds. The poor grasp of English language of some students was also a cause of concern, so effective English had to be taught to them at the very onset. Maintaining harmony amongst students who are from varied backgrounds is a task by itself. Providing vocational training to students from rural background is at times a difficult exercise. The idea is to create a crop of students who can compete at the global level, it is not an easy task, but with lot of efforts we are making it possible.

Brining Excellence in education

he Vidhya Jyothi Trust is committed to the cause of excellence in the field of Engineering, Technology and Management. Rajasthan is a state with total population of about six crores and it faces the need of quality institutions. The self-financed institutions of Vidhya Jyothi Trust will meet the educational needs of Rajasthan. Challenges: The engineering science based education, tends to get overtly class-room oriented. This leads to students losing confidence in working with their own hands in laboratories, studios and workshops. The spirit of apprenticeship is missing. The focus on “learning by doing” should be developed so as to motivate students for innovation and entrepreneurship. The concept of the 4 i in education Innovation, Implementation, Integration and Incubation - is based on the idea of bringing learning closer to the students. The goal is to create students who are ready to meet the real challenges that life will throw at them when they enter the job market.

Implementing Agency Vidhya Jyothi Trust Chennai and Pali Rajasthan Website www. sugaldamani.com Objective • To produce good Engineers and Managers • To provide for synergetic coupling of science, mathematics, management and information technology in engineering education

Improving Employability

S Implementing Agency Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College Website www.srec.ac.in

ri Ramakrishna Engineering College (SREC), a part of SNR Sons Charitable Trust, was started in the year 1994 with the mission of creating the base on which students can have their learning and grow into engineers and scientists of global standards. To fulfil its mission in education, the college has started a programme for better employability through Innovative Projects and Training. Target Group: Students of Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology, Sri Ramakrishna Polytechnic College Challenges: Students find it difficult to cope up with the busy schedule that is always entailed in many of the training programmes. There is also the lack of support from some sections of the industry in providing projects to the students. There is difficulty in funding of the projects by the management. Students need to work extra hours to complete final year projects within the stipulated time. The students who are from rural backgrounds often find it difficult to cope with the programme, but with some amount of training they are able to make the improvements.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective Develop entrepreneurship skills in students and mould them into successful entrepreneurs Achievements • Placement of students has steadily increased over the years and reached a maximum of 75 percent in the current year • Received Govt. funding for different student projects

Government Sector Initiative in Education

IT@School

G Implementing Agency Department of General Education, Government of Kerala Website www.itschool.gov.in Objective • Connect IT education and State school curriculum • Create a complete ICT enabled educational ecosystem Achievements • One of world’s largest simultaneous deployment of FOSS based ICT education • Estimated 4 million students and 0.2 million teachers beneficiaries annually

overnment of Kerala rolled out the IT@School Project in year 2001, to augment IT education in schools and also to enhance the quality of IT education for a complete ICT enabled educational system. Designed to improve the intellectual ability of the teachers and comprehension ability of the students (learner), the ICT based system also enhances the quality of service (QoS) parameters in education service delivery in the state. Intelligent content design for enabling faster and effective learning with National Curriculum Framework (NCF) has been done to explore and exploit satellite technology and create a synergistic atmosphere of edutainment in schools in the state. Target Group: The entire teaching and learning population in Kerala Challenges: It was a major challenge to create awareness among people and other stakeholders and this was overcome through campaigns and workshops. Then there was the issue of lack of funds. There were also issues related to usage of proprietary software, and this issue got resolved when we moved on to free software platform. The lack of ICT hardware in schools was also the cause for some complications.

ICT@School

nder School Education Department of Bihar, a society was started to curb discrepancy in implementation. The objective is to reach out to the school children in the state where electricity and theft are two of the major roadblocks for computerisation in schools. The SSA ICT@School scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the MHRD. The core objective is to reach out to the children of Bihar and also take care of major road blocks and failure points in education. Target Group: School Children of Bihar Challenges: The major challenge was related to the high cost of procurement. A cartel got formed and started quoting very high prices. As the trainers were on low salary, their performance was below par. There was no PF facility for employees. Other challenges were related to major breakdown of hardware and theft.

Implementing Agency State Educational Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd Website www.bseidc.in Objective Implement SSA ICT@ School in shortest possible time Achievements • Unbiased RFP with open specification towards technology • Keenness to discuss with all stakeholders • Sharing of data with Stakeholders at all times • Maintaining timeline for fulfillment of objectives

Online Data Query Application

I Implementing Agency Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics BANBEIS, Govt of Bangladesh Website www.banbeis.gov.bd

n 1999 BANBEIS established EMIS with Oracle database and developed client server base application with oracle developer tools. BANBEIS gets data requests from individuals and organisations every day. Sometime it gets the same request form different individuals or organisations. After analysing the different requests and identifying the common trends and patterns, we decided to develop an online and interactive application to address the multifarious data requirements. Developed in PHP, Java and MySql, it has the option of viewing and printing data (in excel form) by location/gender/type/ category and is integrated with BANBEIS website. Target Group: Government and non-government agencies, development partners and international organisations, education researchers, teachers, students and all other education workers. Challenges: It was a challenge to develop the online application for education. High data volume and poor internet connectivity posed its own set of challenges. The connectivity issue was overcome by acquiring of an 8 Mbps dedicated leased line. Addition funds had to be mobilised to fulfil the agenda of the initiative.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To build knowledge base society through internet Achievements •BANBEIS is branding Bangladesh in the world with its education data • A cost effective and quick access to education data • Integrated data exchange among different educational organisations.

Government Sector Initiative in Education

Community Mobilisation

S Implementing Agency Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty Website www.serp.ap.gov. in/EDU Objective • Create an enabling atmosphere for appropriate child care practices • Empowerment of the local community Achievements • 21,718 children enrolled in about 1186 ECE centres across the state • Created social capital, 2372 teachers and Ayahs and 118 Cluster coordinators

ociety for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) is implementing Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) in rural districts of Andhra Pradesh. SERP facilitated community mobilisation to create an enabling atmosphere for appropriate child care practices and empowerment of the local community. Community governed and community managed centre’s have been established to improve the physical, mental and cognitive development of the children. With target group of children being between age group 3-5 years, the project is active in 55 Blocks in 11 districts in Andhra Pradesh. The project is providing the platform to address the education needs of early childhood and is fully managed and run by the community based organisations (SHG federations). Target Group: Children between age group 3-5 years Challenges: Migration was the biggest challenge when the organisation started the initiative. However, as ECE centres are considered to be a safer place, the parents started keeping their wards in them.

Ask a Question

he project called ‘Ask A Question’ (AAQ), is the unique activity of the ‘Talk To A Teacher’ programme from IIT Bombay. The project provides learners an opportunity to interact with a panel of faculty members from IIT Bombay. Started with a need of meeting the paucity of experienced and expert faculty in engineering colleges all over India, AAQ is initiated to bridge the knowledge gap between IIT and other engineering colleges in India. The project provides an opportunity for the learners to get into direct face to face interaction with IIT Bombay faculties to get authentic clarification of their quires. Target Group: Students with Engineering and Science background, Research scholars, Working professionals from industry, Teachers Challenges: The challenges were mainly due to infrastructure related issues and time management. At times students in diverse locations are unable to access the courseware at the right time. Making students ask the right question is a challenge by itself. Though the transmission of the live session is done at lower bandwidth getting connectivity in rural and urban colleges is a challenging task.

Implementing Agency IIT Bombay Website www.co-learn.in/ask Objective • Bridge the knowledge gap between IIT and other engineering colleges in India. • Address the problem of paucity of experienced faculty Achievements • Over 35000 beneficiaries, more than 60 Educational Institutes actively participating as Remote Centres • Over 300 live questions answered till date

Online Labs for Schools

he Online Labs (OLabs) is an innovative, interactive simulation providing online practical science experiments for students in Classes 9 and 10. It includes interactive simulations based on mathematical models, videos and rich animations for Physics and Chemistry. Initially 30 labs for Physics and Chemistry Experiments have been developed under this research initiative. Through OLabs, students with no access to physical labs can be taught experiments over the web and on low cost mobile devices like the Aakash tablets. Implementing Agency CREATE@Amrita, CDAC-Mumbai Website www.amrita.edu/ create

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective • Extend, improve, integrate, refine, and assist the learning and experimentation process of subjects in physical sciences • Use of cloud, web and low end mobile devices Achievements • Launched at five schools in Kerala and Karnataka • Over 3000 Students from Class 9 and Class 10 use online labs

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Government Sector Initiative in Education

Restructuring Higher Education

Implementing Agency Ministry of Higher Education, Sri Lanka Website www.mohe.gov.lk Objective • Enhance the quality of the higher education • Enhance the quality of the graduates • Increasing the employability of graduates • Creating “world class” universities Achievements • World rank of selected universities has been upgraded • Excellence in promoting talents of students

he project aims to develop the leadership qualities and positive attitudes of all the new entrants to state universities for developing. It brought about a student loan scheme to purchase a Laptop Computer and promote an IT culture in the universities. A Quality Assurance system has been brought-in for covering the entire higher education sector, with the aim of providing assurance to government and the public at large. Target Group: Students involve higher education Challenges: The negative attitude of the general public towards the leadership and positive attitudes programme was a major challenge faced while implementation, but with the commencement of the programme, the Ministry was able to bring up the favourable attitude up by 88 percent. Facilitating online service for 15,000 students for the Pre-orientation Programme was also a challenge and this was overcome by the extensive commitment of NODES staff and through collaborations with the Ministry of Education.

Rural Development

MR APARD is the apex training institute for building the capacities of Rural Development Officials and Panchayat Raj Elected Representatives in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The institute caters to the capacity building and training requirements of around 2.61 Lac elected representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions and about 50 thousand officials from Panchayat Raj, Rural Development and other development departments. The e-learning project was initiated as a part of implementation of capacity building and training programmes under BRGF and MGNREGS sponsored by Ministry of Panchayat Raj and Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Target Group: Elected Representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions, officials of Panchayat Raj, Rural Development Departments, Bharat Nirman Volunteers (BNVS) Challenges: For establishing virtual class room facility, obtaining necessary permissions from NIC was a major challenge. Only after lot of correspondence, NIC realised that this project deserves encouragement.

Implementing Agency AMR-Andhra Pradesh Academy of Rural Development Website www.apard.gov.in Objective Provide life-long learning opportunity and self paced learning opportunities on Rural Development Achievement Help grassroots level functionaries to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of Rural Development and other allied sectors

Finance India Implementing Agency Finance India

he primary aim of the journal is to promote research by disseminating the results of such research in finance, accounting, financial economics and related areas. The journal is intended to provide scholars a major forum for inter and intra disciplinary study of various aspects of finance. Target Group: Researchers and Policy Makers

Website www.financeindia. org Objective

Promote research by disseminating the results of such research in finance

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Achievements

• Published more than 100 volumes of this research Journal • Updates on research articles, bibliography, abstracts of doctoral dissertations, statistics, book reviews, annotated listings etc

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Government Sector Initiative in Education

Regulating meals with Cloud Telephony

D Implementing Agency Mid Day Meal Authority, UP Objective • Tracks number of schools that served mid day meal • Tracks number of children that have had lunch in the school on working days Achievements • Better implementation of the Mid Day Meal Scheme • Various inferences on efficacy of MDM implementation available on the portal 24×7

aily Monitoring System is a unique innovation, through which real time, grass-root level data is collected systematically from over 1,50,000 schools spread throughout UP on a daily basis for monitoring Mid-day Meal scheme. The data becomes automatically available on a website and helps in monitoring the progress efficiently through customised MIS/DSS. It marks a paradigm shift in the process of data collection for many huge/decentralised government projects. The UP Government has replicated the project for monitoring book distribution under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and for daily monitoring of imple mentation of ICDS programme. Target Group: About 1.35 crore children studying and availing government subsidised meals on daily basis in Uttar Pradesh

Website: www.upmdm.org

Online Scholarship Management

he Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) for Minority students was taken up in the year 2008-09 to cater to the needs of the students studying in cases ranging from Class XI to PhD.. Through this system Students have the facility of tracking their application online. This is a foolproof, user friendly and transparent system. Every year about 4 to 5 Lakh Students are getting benefit and continuing their studies otherwise large number might have dropped out. Target Group: Minorities of different religious backgrounds Challenges: Handling the voluminous work was a major challenge. Serving more than five lakh students in time bound manner is not an easy task. Avoiding middle men and keeping the system transparent was also a challenge. Streamlining the fee structure of large number of universities having affiliated colleges with different fee structures was also difficult. We had to instil confidence in the miniorities that their fees will be paid on time and they would not have to face any botheration on this issue.

Developing Capacity Against Risk

T Implementing Agency Department of Disaster Management, Institute of Land & Disaster Management, Kerala

he project has been designed with the objective of developing efficient disaster management ideas in society. Institute of Land and Disaster Management is an autonomous body constituted under the Revenue Department, Government of Kerala. It aims to impart professional training, including induction training, in-service training and refresher training to personnel of the Land Revenue and Survey Department of Kerala State. Target Group: Children up to the age 10

Website: www.ildm.kerala.gov.in

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Implementing Agency Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation Ltd Website www.apsmfc.com Objective Create awareness among the minority students about scholarship and fee reimbursement initiatives from Govt of India and State Government Achievements • Online Scholarship System is being used by more than five lakh students every year • Drop-out rate among the minority students has been reduced

Objectives • To impart professional training • To undertake research and study projects with a view of introducing new techniques Achievements Books targeting children from the level of LKG to Class 5 was developed and distributed on the subjects of disasters and its risk reduction strategies

Government Sector Initiative in Education

Enhancing Teaching-Learning

Implementing Agency Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education and Intel Technology Pvt Ltd (Joint initiative) Website www.apsche.org

he APSCHE is the first body of its kind in the country, set up as per the recommendations of National Education Policy, 1986, with focus on coordinating and determining standards in institutions of Higher Education or Research. Intel® Teach programme is an innovative professional development programme for teachers to develop student-centred learning through technology integration and project-based approaches. The project has helped institutions to discover how the power of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be turned into teaching strategies that captivates the students, motivates them, and ultimately moves them towards effective learning. Target Group: Teachers, Educators and Student teachers from Colleges of Education under APSCHE umbrella Challenges: The challenge we faced was because of the strong opposition from some people, who questioned the need of integrating technology. This problem was solved by the support of others who were strongly in favour of new technology. We also need to work towards ensuring the quality of this endeavour across more than 600 colleges. Extensive training programme for teachers was undertaken.

Objective Help the Teacher Educators (TEs) and Student Teachers (STs) learn how best to use Technology to enhance teaching and learning Achievements Integrating Intel Teach pre-service curriculum as part of computer education paper in colleges of education across 17 Universities in the state

Innovation in Open and Distance Learning for K-12 and Higher Education

ICT Based Agri- Education Implementing Agency

University of Colombo Institute for Agrotechnology and Rural Sciences Website www.uciars.cmb. ac.lk Objective

To open new avenues to the rural farming community Achievements

• Many Sri Lankan Farmers have started to use e-mail and internet information search • Government authorities became to be aware of expansion need of the program

griculture is the mainstay of the rural sector in Sri Lanka. Farmers are resource poor and face constraints in gaining access to information and knowledge that could improve their crop productivity. To expose rural farmer to knowledge, University of Colombo has built an Online Diploma in Agro-technology in local languages. This is the first-ever attempt by Sri Lankan university system for giving opportunity for farmers to pursue further education through Open and distance learning. A prototype was developed and implemented with farmers all around the country.

Target Group: Farmers, young entrepreneurs from rural areas, agriculture related professionals Challenges: The difference in the age and levels of qualification of the farmers was a cause of many problems. This was solved by providing the farmers with one month of training in basic computational skills. Most farmers lacked computing skills, so we had to organise workshops to train them. Basic English language skills also had to be imparted.

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Online Education

arss, through its various initiatives like the Indian Management Institute, is working with Indian Universities for building digital courses and curriculum to meet the demands of the industry. The courses, the pedagogy, the methodology and the content, produced by the Indian Management Institute, are contemporary, relevant, practical, industry aligned and deep rooted. The online learning platform of Marss, complete with a host of audiovisual content provides an excellent flexible learning platform to the students.

Target Group: Working professionals and fresh graduates Challenges: A key challenge is related to the lack of penetration of computers. The organisation is attempting to overcome this problem by offering free laptops or tablets to the students who enrol for the course. It is a challenge to convince people that online education can lead to betterment of knowledge and the thinking process. Now that IMI is providing university degree to its students, there is a new recognition of the value in distance education.

Implementing Agency Marss Education Private Limited Website www.imiedu.in Objective • To provide best quality education to the students • To reach out to the under privileged areas, tribal section • To realise vision of creating and crafting the University as a centre of excellence in education Achievements • Courses are based on the latest syllabi that is industry oriented, versatile and cover the latest technology of the stream • MGU has introd

Innovation in Open and Distance Learning for K-12 and Higher Education

The e-Learning Platform

Implementing Agency Sikkim Manipal University Website www.smude.edu.in Objective To open a channel of communication between the 400 thousand students on the rolls of SMU-DDE in India Achievements • The EduNxt environment has shown a 260 percent growth in usage over the last year • Students, Faculty and Industry Experts on a Single platform

he EduNxt platform is an easy to use delivery system. It enables a collaborative and interactive environment for learning and includes small group mentoring, virtual classrooms, simulation, self-study content, recorded presentations and shared browsing. With a reach of over 400,000 students enrolled across 825 learning centres in India, EduNxt is the pinnacle of learning management system in India.

Target Group: Students pursuing Higher Education at the Graduation and Post-Graduation Levels. Age Group – 18 to 50. Challenges: It is a cause of concern that many of the students are not inclined towards usage of modern technology. As large percentage of our students are working professionals, they need access to their learning environment and their mentor’s during non-working hours. We addressed this by putting large number of content online which can be accessible anytime anywhere.

The e-Connect

PU e-Connect is a strong and secure online connection and common platform, specially made to cater to the needs of Distance Learners, that links the University, its study centres and its students located at different parts of the country and the globe. Based on enterprise web portal technology, it automates all the processes of distance education and minimizes the physical differences by providing 24x7 accessibility through its various useful features.

Target Group: Students and staff members at institutions Challenges: Initially it was a challenge to provide help and support to many students based at study centres in different parts of the country. There was too much load on the server at some points of time. So we had to bring about improvement in the server architecture and set up clusters of servers at the backend. Bandwidth was also improved to ensure smooth functioning of the system. The acceptance of the system by end users is also important. Addressing the security and privacy related concerns was also a challenge.

Implementing Agency Lovely Professional University (LPU) Website www.lpu.in Objective To make online connection a boon for the students by providing them personalised learning environment Achievements • The University is able to save papers by developing completely paperless system of operation • The system is now being used by more than 16000 users

e-Examination System

eb based Examination System is secured with IP based policy and students are allocated with roll numbers for logging into the system. The Online Examination System is a web based application developed through an open source MySQL and PHP solutions. This customised software has been developed for dual degree students of PAU. This is run from an In–House Apache Webserver on their internal network. The examination consists of different types of multiple choice questions and subjective questions. The questions and time to attempt are fixed. The answers

Implementing Agency Punjab Agricultural University Website www.pau.edu

are evaluated and the marks obtained for each along with the answer given by the student are stored in the database. The examiner can get the results immediately. The software maintains the details for each student as well as provides a facility for editing the student details if required. There is password based access for individual answer sheets and general mark lists. This Online Examination System in PHP and MySQL can be modified and customized to suit the need of any Educational Institutions, Primary and Secondary Schools, Colleges, Professional and Vocational Institutes, Universities or Training Academies.

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Objective To automate the examination procedure Achievements • Online Sharing of Data, Records and information • The system is now used by more than 10000 users

Innovation in Open and Distance Learning for K-12 and Higher Education

Spreading Education

G Implementing Agency Gedaref digital city organisation Website www.community. telecentre.org/ photo/albums/idea

edaref digital city organisation (GDCO) is a civil society in Sudan founded in partnership between Gedaref and Eindhoven communities. GDCO established projects target the illiterate children and young who are often outside the umbrella of mainstream education providers. The students study for two years and then are accommodated in fourth grade in e-school. After eight years of study, the student is given an international certificate from the Sudan National Telecentre academy (SuNTA) from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in India.

Target Group: Children, youth, women and people with disability Challenges: The major challenge we faced is due to the fact that ICT is not part of our culture and it is not a priority. The poverty in the country also makes it difficult to undertake such projects for education. The cost of e-infrastructure is relatively high. At times children in rural areas are engaged in bringing water from the river, so they hardly have the time to read and learn. Overcoming the digital divide is a challenge.

Elevating Employability

I Implementing Agency Aide – et – Action India Website www.aide-et-action. org, www.aeasouthasia.org Objective To bring about a reduction in the number of households living below the poverty line Achievements iLEAD along with Aide et Action has trained various international organisations like American Indian Foundation, Children International and a few others

LEAD tries to address the employment concerns of one half of the world’s poor who live in South Asia. Skills training is offered in about 30 areas, including Information Technology, Hospitality, Dress designing, Secretarial training, Beautician courses, Mobile Phone services and repair. Target Group: School and College drop-out youth from disadvantaged sections of the society between 18 – 25 years of age. Challenges: Youth having biased choices of courses – The youth many a times tend to choose courses under the influence of either the family or friends. Such a selection of course leads to a mismatch between the skills of the youth and the course. Also it becomes difficult for the youth to retain in the course or on the job. To avoid this kind of a biased selection of courses, iLEAD has developed an Aptitude test for the youth. Along with the aptitude test, the youth are counseled about the course and the market demand.

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Objective Connecting the unconnected in rural communities Achievements • Added value e-services including agriculture extension, e-Sheppard, e-tanker, telemedicine • Utilisation of Telecentres to reduce the cost of education and improve its quality

Digi-library

oftTech offers digital learning library covering more than 100 subjects in Vocational education streams. Vocational education covers skills as recommended by National Vocational Training under Director General of Employment & Training. These can be used by institutes and students to achieve their education/training objectives. Target Group: Vocational Institutes, Students Challenges: Teachers from institutes were reluctant to adopt the new technology. SoftTech invested significant efforts to create awareness on its value as an effective learning and reinforcement tool which complements the role of teachers. Support to remote clients about installation was a big task due to lack of basic computer knowledge. Company has taken local support to overcome this issue. Later on remote applications are used to solve the problems. Due to variation in the syllabi throughout India there are difficulties in marketing of the digital library.

Implementing Agency SoftTech Engineers Pvt Ltd Website www.elearningsofttech.com Objective • To bridge the gap between academic curricula and industry expectations. • To bridge the gap in availability of qualified faculty in remote institutions Achievements • Success in generating more employable resources for the industry • Adoption in ITIs from Himachal Pradesh

NOW SCHOOLS CAN TELL PARENTS ABOUT THEIR INCLUSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Introducing Dyslexia Screening Test-Junior, India edition - the only learning disability screening test that can be administered by school teachers.

Benefits of the DST-JINDIA • Early identification leading to timely intervention and support for school children • Standardization study conducted in schools across India • Age range covered - 6 years 6 months to 11 years 5 months • Child Friendly • Guides the development of in-school support Dyslexia is not a rare condition. In fact, it is the most common cause of learning disability in children. However, there are very few professionals in schools who can identify children with dyslexia. As a result, this condition is largely undetected and dyslexic children do not get critical support and intervention at an appropriate age. increases opportunities for children to be The DST-J screened at an early age for the risk of dyslexia as it can be administered by teachers in addition to special educators, school psychologists and clinical psychologists. Equipped with this test kit, schools and teachers will be able to create an inclusive learning environment where all children are valued and supported according to their needs. INDIA

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Innovation in Open and Distance Learning for K-12 and Higher Education

Education for The Professional

Implementing Agency Suryadatta Group of Institutes Website www.suryadatta.org Objective To enhance self esteem and improve the career prospects of participants Achievements • These programme helped participants to enhance their self esteem • The programmes increased employment opportunities for participants

uryadatta Group is devoted to vocational education programmes. The organisation has taken number of initiatives such as Computer Literacy Programme for Senior Citizens, Workshop by Mumbai Dabbawala, English & IT Awareness Programme for Auto Rickshaw drivers etc. Suryadatta Group has hosted many activities spreading awareness amongst society as regards to fatal issues, inculcating employability skills etc. Target Group: Housewives, school children, senior citizens, auto drivers, and other needy sections of society Challenges: The idea of providing computer literacy to poorer sections is quite difficult as they have education related constraints and also time related issues. It takes lot of time and effort to help them develop the right kind of concepts. Even senior citizens find it difficult to pick up computer related skills.

Virtual Learning

irtual Voyage Institute of Media and Management is striving to provide world class training to students. The institute is focussed on creating job-ready individuals, who are skilled enough to work in modern industry. During the education process, the students are given ample opportunity to interact with industry. Target Group: Virtual Voyage is focused on central provinces of India. We cater to the students and professionals from in and around Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Challenges: The major challenge we have faced is linked to the fact that today’s youth and their parents are mostly unaware of the vocational stream of growth in the Industry the career opportunities that lie in it. A lot of interest and acumen is required to get the best out of these fields. People are more inclined to pick up traditional courses and they simply run after meaningless degrees. Spoken English, soft skills and communication are also a major barrier.

The Mind Enhancer

T Implementing Agency Brainwave education consultants

he self modulated programme named THOUGHTWEB and FLEXILEARN have been specially designed to facilitate psychological upliftment of people of all ages and professions. It provides training for handling of interviews and public speaking. Target Group: People Of All Age Groups, Castes, Sex and Creed Challenges: The adamant attitude of some village folks was a big challenge for us. Lot of counselling had to be done to overcome this problem. Also the senior students tend to be argumentative; then there is the issue of too much interference by the parents. Availability of adequately qualified staff was also a cause of concern during the initial stages.

Website www. brainwaveeducations. com

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Implementing Agency Virtual Voyage Institute Of Design, Media and Management Website www. virtualvoyageworld. com Objective Virtual Voyage believes that concentrated production work combined with industry lead to better results Achievements Seminars in different fields to provide participants exposure to industry

Objective To extract life skill with self help to induce the right moral values through motivational speaking Achievements • Above 10,000 students trained since last 10 years • Interview cracking has become far more easier • Adolescents feel more comfortable in the classroom • Teacher student relationship has become more conducive

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Special Feature

Shaping the Hidden Potential… is the mission behind setting up of BRICCKS [Blue Ribbon Integrated Coaching, Consulting & Knowledge Solutions]

ndia is a country of great human potential that remains largely untapped because of being inadequately skilled. It’s a sad story that lurks behind millions of people who graduate from educational institutes across the country. We have people who are literate yet unemployable due to lack of communication, soft and vocational skills. As per estimates, India will have the largest chunk of young working population by the year 2020. It’s a huge opportunity but only if we are able to provide the right skills that will make them employable not just nationally but internationally as well. One of the key issues plaguing the Indian industry today is the huge demand-supply skill gap. 90% of the jobs in India are skill based requiring some sort of vocational training. Against this, it is estimated that only 5% of the youth in India are vocationally trained. The current capacity of institutions and initiatives which are imparting skill development in the country is 3.1 million per annum against country’s ambitious target of skilling 500 million people by 2022. It is in this not-so-productive scenario that organizations like BRICCKS can step in and play a vital role in training and shaping the potential that’s hidden within the country. BRICCKS has been set up with a clear vision to address and fill the gap that exists in India with respect to the need for skilled manpower capable of driving the country’s growth. Explains TanujaVashisht, CEO, BRICCKS, “Indian education system by and large is primarily based on theoretical concepts rather than practical application. This means that though we churn out educated youth, majority of them fail the standards of employability. Our approach is a little different. It is geared more towards comprehensive skill development tailored to the needs of specific sectors and knowledge domains”. The team at BRICCKS is an eclectic mix of seasoned academicians, education scientists, curriculum experts, business consultants, authors and entrepreneurs. Between them, they share a rich experience and knowledge of the education scenario in India. They have spent years in the fields of e-learning, coaching, trainings, business consultancy, content writing and curriculum design in K12 domain and beyond. It is this expertise that they bring to all the programs and trainings they design and conduct. All their training programs are based on a scientific approach born out of extensive pedagogical and andragogical research. BRICCKS understands that imparting skills is not merely about

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training but also a lot about changing attitudes and deep seated perceptions. And therefore, their programs are designed in a manner that encourages professionals to challenge their selfimposed limits and helps them attain their highest potential. With a view to cater to specific needs of different sectors, BRICCKS offers, designs and develops exclusive coaching modules, learning solutions and proven strategies for success and growth. The programs are customized for all levels of professionals from diverse fields like IT, Telecom, FMCG and Manufacturing. The company aims to reach out to Corporates looking to upgrade the skill sets of their employees and also to educational institutes who would like to impart practical training to their students to give them an edge in today’s competitive environment. BRICCKS has tied up with Australia based ‘The Personal Leadership Academy’ to bring internationally acclaimed programs to India. As their first collaboration for India – Sales Mastery India 2012 kicks off in October [17th till 19th at the LeelaKempinski, Gurgaon, the stage is set for professionals in India to benefit from international expertise, delivered crisp & sharp. For more information on BRICCKS and Sales Mastery India 2012, log on to www.briccks.com

TanujaVashisht CEO, BRICCKS

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corporate diary

Projecting a Vibrant Image Vineet Mahajan, Head-Display Products, Panasonic India Pvt Ltd, shares with digitalLEARNING his views on the nitty-gritty’s of projector market in India

Vineet Mahajan Head-Display Products, Panasonic India Pvt Ltd Tell us about the models that you have launched. This year, Panasonic launched 28 new models, so now our total number of models is 53. We launched specific models for the price sensitive market, short throw and Ultra short throw catering to education vertical. We also launched 9 new models in between 6000 lumens to 20,000 lumens catering to E-cinema, large venue and Digital signage market. The portfolio of 53 models is capable enough to satisfy the dynamic needs of the market ranging from 2200 Lumens to 20000 Lumens. From user-inspired design to advanced engineering, innovation is what sets Panasonic projectors apart from the competition. We have focus on education, government, event management, auditoriums, cinema, home cinema and corporate verticals. Provide us with your views on the factors that are driving the projectors market in India. The demand for projectors is on a rising curve due to strong buying in education, government, Cinema, IT/ITES segments, corporate etc. On technology front, both LCD and DLP projectors are in demand, and gradually the market

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witnesses a trend in LED Lamp technology. With IT infrastructure spend¬ing becoming essential part of every business budget, projectors are on their way to becoming integral to any organisation. With the advent of growing technologies, education today has moved out of the realm of conventional methods of teaching to a smarter and digitised form of imparting knowledge to give real life experience of learning. Education has clearly emerged as the major sector for projectors. It contributes to more than 30 percent approximately of the total projector market in India. What are the emerging technologies in this segment? The LED lamp based projectors are getting in fashion nowadays, but price will be a challenge. In the current scenario we don’t see drastic emergence of Pico projectors. However, we believe it will witness high demand in years to come. Further, these projectors have the capability to overcome screen size limitations that exist in mobile electronics devices. Hence, they are capable of projecting large images, irrespective of their size. Thus, the usage of such projectors is best suited in an environment with small space. Secondly, with the shift for better viewing experience by the user’s third dimension (3D) technology in projectors is catching up very fast in India. These projectors actually aim at bringing pictures which are life-like and might just be conned into thinking that the images of people that on the screen are actually real.

What are the opportunities and challenges in the Projector market? The opportunities are immense as more and more organisations in India are upgrading their IT infra structure. Moreover, with the rapid increase in the demand for video-conferencing facility, the requirement for large display /projector is a must. Market is and will witness a high demand of projectors from Education and government segments. Only challenge can be that the demand of a projector can be substituted by LCD / Plasma Displays. Channel partners have the liberty of selling both forms of displays either Projector or FPD (Flat Panel display (LCD / Plasma). What kind of growth are you expecting in the projector market in India? Panasonic has been in the projector market for last 35 years. The market size for projectors in India in 2011 was around 240,000 units and it is likely to cross 275,000 units in 2012. The Indian projector market is expected to grow by 18 percent annually in the next three years from its current level in 2012. Panasonic has always been the leader in innovative technologies and aims at providing its customers nothing but the best. The year 2012 witnessed a huge jump in the sales of Panasonic range of projectors. With Sanyo projectors coming under the Panasonic Brand name, we witnessed a jump of 180 percent versus last year in the same month. Sanyo brand of projectors was withdrawn on April’2012.

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corporate diary

Education Has

to be Research Based

Established in 1993, Jagan Institute of Management Studies is now regarded as a premier business school in India. Manish Gupta, Chancellor, JIMS, spoke to Sheena Joseph about various aspects of management education Please share with us the inspiration behind JIMS. The main inspiration behind the institute is the ambition to create a better centre for higher education. But then we realised that under graduate education is also required. IP and JIMS commenced operations simultaneously. We have also kept our fees at very nominal rate. We have two campuses and one university in Jaipur. We are also trying to set up our university in Haryana. What according to you is the importance of Industry â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Academic interface? What have been the significant achievements of JIMS in this regard? Industry is our primary customer, then come the students. If we develop our courses according to the industry specifications, then we can make our students happy. What measures have you taken to ensure that the course material being imparted at the Institute is updated with the latest requirements? Since we develop our courses according to the industry standards, we believe that our students should be updated with the current corporate environment, for this purpose we have organised a summit last month in which corporate leaders were called to share their views about the current industry requirement and how we can amend our syllabus for the same. How has ICT technology been incorporated into the educational

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system at your college? What are your views on the importance of ICT in education? We believe that ICT plays a vital role in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s environment. We are already using lease lines OHPs, CDs, Internet connections both LAN as well as WiFi. At times we have guest lectures in an auditorium with the capacity of approx 200250. These lectures are also beamed to different classrooms so that all students can listen and benefit from the speech. We are also in discussion stage to have satellite technology in our institute. With foreign collaborations being an important element for many higher education institutes, could you elucidate the collaborations that JIMS is exploring? In initial stages, we began with the faculty exchange programme with foreign universities. But later due to AICTE notifications we were not able to continue with this. We are waiting for the right policy to start again so that we can start with the foreign exchange again.

What is the importance of research based education in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s changing times? Does JIMS contribute towards intensive research in the education sector? Education has to be research based. While teaching to our students we try our best to ensure that the content is of best possible quality. For this we encourage our faculties to indulge in lot of educational research, so that the best outcomes become possible. We are clearly aware that whatever is taught needs to be based on proper research. Since education is becoming globally acceptable, one has to face the challenges and for that a proper research is required. Please shed light on the role of private Institutes. With the set up of private institutions, any child who passes 10+2 has many options. I remember the time of 1989 or 1985, when a child had to work very hard and very few seats were there. Parents were not able to afford high fees. Now they can continue with their studies. The private institutes are helping many students to gain quality education at reasonable costs. Basically the institutions are leading to a social inclusion on a large scale. Even children with lower marks can find quality institutions. Our only purpose is to serve the students; if our students are satisfied then our purpose is achieved.

Product Launch

ViewSonic Unveils Ultraportable

LED Projectors Projectors feature high LED brightness with 30,000 hours of long life

iewSonic Corp, a leading global provider of computing, consumer electronics and communications solutions has launched the ultraportable and energy-efficient LED projectors. Featuring diminutive form factors and 30,000-hour, long-life LED lamps, the PLED-W500 and PLED-W200 usher in a new category of ViewSonic projectors. They support 3D technology with 120Hz frame rates for exciting 3D visuals, and can project 33-40 inch screens from a 1 m distance. They also feature versatile USB connectivity, while the built-in Microsoft Office/PDF viewer and SD/SDHC card reader can display documents and play multimedia files without needing a PC. The projectors of PLED-W500 and PLED-W200 are priced at Rs 61,000 and Rs 44,000 “The ultraportable LED projector transforms the projector from a cumbersome gadget to an incredibly lightweight, compact device that can be carried anywhere to meet all your projection needs,” said Kuldeep Ramaiya, Country Manager, India. “With their high-brightness, long-life lamps, the ultraportable LED projectors are superior to others in the same class” he added.

PLED-W500 The PLED-W500 shines with its innovative, stylish new look. The piano-black mirrored surface and geometric inset

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buttons make the projector modern, sleek and elegant, ideal for business presentations and multimedia entertainment. With dimensions of 214 x 164 x 42 mm, the PLED-W500 is compact and weighs only 1.18 kg. 500 ANSI lumens, superior in the LED pocket projector category, provide 20,000 hours of brightness for energy and cost savings. The 1.4:1 short throw ratio projects a 33” screen from a 1 m distance with high native WXGA resolution. 2GB of onboard memory allows you to store documents and multimedia files, enhancing presentation efficiency. With HDMI 1.3 support, simply connect the PLED-W500 with a PC, tablet or other device to enjoy a widescreen gaming or home theater experience. You can also view smooth 3D video with a 120Hz refresh rate using active shutter glasses. PLED-W500 has versatile USB connectivity, built-in Microsoft Office/PDF viewer and SD/SDHC card reader which can display documents and play multimedia files without needing a PC.

PLED-W200 The pocket-sized PLED-W200 offers ultimate mobility. Measuring 130 x 126 x 32 mm and weighing only 420 g, the PLED-W200 is ultrathin and easily carried in a briefcase. Its LED light source with 250 ANSI lumens lasts 30,000 hours while producing brilliant color.

With a built-in 32 GB SD/SDHC card reader, Microsoft Office/PDF viewer and dual integrated 2W speakers, display Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other multimedia files without needing a PC. The PLED-W200 also features 1.16:1 short throw ratio that can project a 40” screen from a 1 m distance with high native WXGA resolution. ViewSonic’s ultraportable LED projectors are thin, compact and lightweight for easy mobility between meeting rooms and on the go. Innovative new look and energy-efficient LED lamps with 20000 hours ( PLED-W500) 30,000-hour lifespan (PLED-W200) makes PLED series the best choice for the professional usage. 0-second poweron and power-off makes presentation immediately, and no need to wait for the projector to cool down. The PLEDW500 and PLED-W200 provide 500 and 250 lumens of brightness, respectively – superior to others in the pocket projector category. Developed with Texas Instruments’ high performance DPP6401 image processing chip, the projectors support 3D graphics with 120Hz frame rates for exciting 3D gaming and movies using active shutter glasses. With the built-in 32 GB SD/SDHC card reader and Microsoft Office/PDF viewer, the projectors can play Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other multimedia files directly.

Special Feature

Integrating Skills Development into Education

Dr Haresh Tank Director, Station-e Language Lab

n a world today where all roads lead to systemic change - politics, economy and you name it - education holds the key, because it is the new generation that is going to usher in the change and more importantly sustain it. India is a special case; it is the youngest country in the world. It is a country with large young population, with so many millions in schools and colleges receiving education and so many millions about to enter the system. In such a scenario, education cannot be allowed to remain a bookish, theoretical exercise that is somewhat disconnected with the contemporary world. Education should be utilised to channelize the youth towards nation building.

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For a country that aims at upskilling 500 million people, it is unfortunate that education policy does not seem to pay heed to skills development. Moreover, skills development is not even an item on the agenda of government panels chalking out future plans for the country. Countries like South Korea have made it a national priority. As a result, they have been able to integrate skills development into education system and transform the youth into the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;demographic dividend.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; World over, there are lessons to be learnt from small yet powerful countries that took giant strides and rode on the wave of skills development. If India is to assume its rightful place in the world, we have to rethink our education policy and focus on skills development.

Station-e: A Model for Skills Development Universities: Universities are the platform from which the youth launch themselves into the world of business and industry, testing their worth and proving their mettle. If they fail to impress their employers, all their knowledge goes in vain. It is imperative to ensure that when students take admissions into Masters at university, their soft skills should also be honed so that they are able to find employment true to their talents/knowledge. Station-e has developed the concept of Skills Development Centre (SDC), which can be established at university campus. It can serve as the soft skills training hub for the university and

provide placement facilities as well. Easy to establish with ready-to-use, customised training modules, the SDC can work wonders for employability and marketability of the youth power. Engineering and Management Institutes: The best opportunities for employment today lie in engineering and management fields. However, when it comes to interviews, many deserving students are rejected because they lack communication proficiency. The management domain operates on the finesse of communication, yet we have never cared to teach our students basic communication skills. There is a course on communication, but it is a mere ritual. Station-e has developed the concept of Skills Development Centre (SDC) especially for engineering and management institutes. Students would undergo training into various soft skills including communication skills and they would be thoroughly prepared for interviews. This will serve to enhance the employability of the youth, as well as enhance the efficacy of the engineering and management institutes. Schools: Station-e has developed a customised model for schools. It is our misfortune that schools in this country do very little in honing the crucial skills of the students and hence the skills deficit continues to haunt us in colleges and universities. To address the issue at the initial level, we have devised the concept of Digital Classroom, which seek to develop the skills of students at the school level and ready them for higher education.

Project Update

Satellite Supported Networking of Rural Schools

Experiences of RGPEEE The project launched by the Government in December 2005, aims to add value to elementary education By Dr Masood Parveez, Senior Regional Director, IGNOU Regional Centre Jabalpur (MP) and Project Director, RGPEEE, Jabalpur, MP Dr U C Pandey, Regional Director, IGNOU Regional Centre, Bhagalpur, Bihar

he quality of school education has long been a cause of concern. Despite the sincere efforts made by the Government since independence, the desired changes are visible only in selected urban pockets. The schools in remote and geographically inaccessible areas still starve for the good quality teachers and infrastructure. Trained teachers aspiring for better wages and better lifestyle are unwilling to go to such areas. The already available teachers are largely untrained, inadequately paid and overburdened with work. The result is poor quality of educational delivery leading to low turn up of students, low success rates and high dropout. With the enactment of Right to Education, the Government of India has now waged a decisive battle against these issues. Ensuring free education for the students of the age group of 6-14 is now a constitutional obligation and school education has now come to the forefront of the national agenda.

Towards satellite based solutions India is one of the major countries across the world to realise the potential of satellite based technologies for education. The Department of Space, Government of India, has made huge investments for the launch of EduSat, a dedicated satellite, solely available for education and development. The satellite has been specially designed to use interactive satellite terminals, create virtual classrooms, develop mechanisms for video on demand and to create effective mechanisms for teaching and training at remote locations. This capability has facilitated one national level network and five regional/state level networks in the country in Ku-band. Rajiv Gandhi

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Conclusions and Recommendations The project has been a major initiative of ISRO, MHRD, IGNOU and State Governments of Hindi speaking states in India. The implementation of the project has testified the following assumptions: • ICT can be viably utilised to compensate for the deficiencies in the trained teachers in rural areas. The video lessons can be immensely useful for improving the quality of school education as the students find such lessons as per their needs, tastes and learning styles. • The teachers feel empowered as they can explain the –difficult topics in syllabus through innovative video lessons. It was otherwise not possible to explain the teachers such difficult concepts through just “chalk and talk”. • The teachers training programmes through SITs has been a new opportunity that helps project officials in fulfilling its mandate.

Project for EduSat Supported Elementary Education (RGPEEE) which is on the national beam of EduSat in Ku band is a major venture of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and governments of seven Hindi speaking states in India, namely Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. The project launched by the Government in December 2005, aims to add value to elementary education.

RGPEEE: The core ideas The project was established with its hub at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, with field sites located in remote and rural schools of Sidhi and some of the adjoining states of Bihar, UP and Chhattisgarh. Sidhi was selected as the focus of the project keeping in view its peculiarly difficult socio economic conditions. However, it was decided to expand the network to other states after gaining new insights and experiences for using the potentialities of EduSat. This Project which was initially known as “Sidhi Project” was launched

Project Update

as the joint initiative of IGNOU, MHRD, ISRO and the Governments of those Hindi speaking states where the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s downlinks were established. Started in December 2005 the Project has now expanded to 7 different states in India where Hindi is the link language with 1082 Receive Only Terminals (ROTs) and 33 Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) in different parts of the country. The RGPEEE had following few core ideas and contentions: 1. ICT can be a viable means to link the urban centred institutions with the rural schools. 2. The teachers have to be identified from the grassroots and their capacities have to be built up for development of such interactive lessons. 3. The teachers training programmes can be devised from the teaching hub during the long term vacations of the teachers or on holidays. The Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) developed under the project can prove handy for holding such interactive sessions. 4. The feedback from the receiving

sites can be taken in order to bring about further improvements in the project. 5. The Project was conceived in such a way that in future it will be expanded in all the Hindi speaking belt keeping in view of the fact that the Hindi is a link language .

Project impact: What has been learnt? The feedback studies undertaken by the Project officials have revealed mixed response on the project initiatives. Whereas such telecast schedules merged with teaching schedules at receiving locations showed results as per expectations in some of the schools in some other areas huge administrative issues cropped up. Project officials faced huge cases of thefts of the equipments. Simultaneously the issue of monitoring the network came up as a huge challenge as the administrative network of the school education was the only channel for monitoring and the school teachers did not feel accountable to any

other agency. The huge cases of theft made it difficult for the project officials to get the sites insured as the insurance agencies were not very keen to get the sites insured. The schools did not have any security of their own and therefore it was difficult to prevent thefts. There were other issues noticed in the process of implantation. For instance, there was shortage of teachers at the grassroots locations. Holding workshops and orientation programmes to identify the hard â&#x20AC;&#x201C; spots and motivated teachers and their training became difficult keeping in view of limited staff available at project site and non availability of trainers. Frequent transfers of the teachers was another difficult issue to be handled as new teachers need to be oriented again and project officials found it hard to do it frequently. Despite the inconsistencies, the RGPEEE has been able to prove that satellite based networking can be used to improve the quality of school education. The idea is worth replicating on a larger scale.

digitalLEARNING / august 2012

corporate diary

The

Agents of

Please share the genesis of Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment in India? What benefits does it offer to students and teachers? Pearson owns some of the best known brands in assessments and remediation worldwide. Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment (PCTA) office was established in India in 2009. The company has been engaged in publishing and distributing the most comprehensive and locally adaptable standardised assessment solutions. PCTA has recently published the standardised Dyslexia Screening Test – Junior, India Edition (DST-J India) to determine if students are at risk of dyslexia. The DST-J India is unique, as it empowers school teachers to assess children for the risk of Dyslexia, after they get trained by our experts in the administration of the test. How do you see the acceptance of new assessment techniques by students and teachers? Please share with us the details of your tie-ups with schools in India. Already large numbers of schools have bought the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests (WIAT) and the Dyslexia Screening Test Series from us. These tests are typically used by school psychologists for assessment of IQ, achievement or to determine if students

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Change

Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment is engaged in publication and distribution of assessment related tools and therapy resources. Sushil Eapen, Managing Director, Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment, in a candid conversation with Pragya Gupta, provides his views on emergence of new psychological assessment techniques

are at risk of mental health problems. We also offer workshops for training and certifying school teachers on the subject of Learning Disability with a special focus on Dyslexia and Working Memory. Hundreds of school teachers across India have attended our popular teachers training programme. Almost all of them have given feedback about the high level of quality of the tests from our company and our teacher training programmes. How do the use of new techniques and technology offers better learning delivery outcomes? Our company is progressively going digital in our offering of our tests to our customers. We now offer a remediation programme to improve working memory in children by using a patented and online program called Cogmed. Working memory problems account for many of the difficulties children face during learning. Cogmed is the only evidence-based remediation programme for improving working memory. It is now being offered in India and there is widespread acceptance of this programme, which has changed the lives of many children.

Please shed some light on the importance of psychological assessment and its acceptance in India While psychological assessments have been used for many years in India, most of the instruments used in our country have outdated test items and norms. Pearson has made a commitment to set up its own office in India to adapt, translate and standardise many of these flagship instruments in India. There are a large number of children in our country who suffer from problems such as dyslexia, autism, depression, anxiety, working memory deficit and related problems. Our assessments help to identify these problems and in many cases we offer remediation for the identified children. It is very important to assess for these problems so that students can be identified early and that would allow opportunities for remediation. More and more schools in India are employing special education teachers and school psychologists who can identify these problems at the school settings and offer solutions. We are helping to train these professionals through development of high quality assessment and interpreting the results. Please share your future plans for the Indian education segment. We are committed to improving the quality of assessments being used in the Indian educational settings. In many ways, we are agents of change – we offer application level tests that discourage rote-learning. For instance, there is our solution called Stanford Achievement Test Series, Tenth Edition, India (Stanford 10 India). In future we expect technology to play a big role in the process of assessments and interventions. We will be introducing many such assessments for our customers in India, both in clinical and educational settings.

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corporate diary

“Tablets can be the Digital Answer for Rote Learning if Not Used Properly” Amit Gupta, CEO, S Chand, speaks to Pragya Gupta, on the subject of the role that tablets can play in education space What is your view of the role that tablets can play in Education? There is an uncalled hype around tablets in education. Tablets are nothing more than a device, which occupy the space between a smart phone and a laptop computer. There is no denial about the importance of technology in education. But what is most important is to establish a context and definition about learning and type of learning. The tablet can be a strong tool if used properly. At the same time, it can be a major deterrent to effective learning. This goes back again to establishing a context, if a tablet is used for refreshing and carrying out an assessment of learning, it can be a great device. But if tablet is used as a substitute for a computing device, a laptop or as a substitute to a book or teacher in a classroom or formal environment, it can be disastrous. In that case, it would encourage casual ‘need to know’ learning and would be more focused on examination success. My apprehension is if not used properly, tablets can be the digital answer for rote learning. Access to information, affordability and flexibility are major positives, but the technology has to be properly mentored and developed in order to bring maximum benefits to the learners. What is your take on the content availability? Content in any medium, from books to computers, to web to smart devices and now for tablets, is the most critical and relevant part of the learning process. Unfortunately, world over, the content is being given the least priority. Developing good content based on pedagogy, sound

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of tablets being promoted in educational institutions merely because of their affordability. Distribution of tablets in a country like India where there continue to be gaps in the learning infrastructure tantamounts to an overemphasis being placed on devices and new technologies. If the tablets have to enter the education stream, they have to come through a natural process.

instruction design, at the same time keeping learner engagements is not only expensive, it is also time consuming and it calls for specialisation. It is also important to understand that the content should bring real-life experience into the learning process. Unfortunately, there are no benchmarks for quality content and everyone is engaged in developing content. In my opinion, content would be available for tablets in every form standalone (stored alone on the device), in a network or through the web. There will be vendors converting existing content, organisations developing new content and the state providing budget outlays and investing money in development of content. In my opinion, more than worrying about customisation of content, while advocating and distributing tablets, it is also important to define what would be the contribution of content on the tablet to overall learning process. It is also important to research and debate the issue

Please share with us S Chand’s plans for using tablets in education space? S Chand primarily is ‘Knowledge Corporation’ with an unmatched legacy of content creation and delivery. As a content company, we feel responsible to the education community as a whole. The content provided by us is unmatched in the K-12 and technology space in the country. Our simple belief is that in a classroom, content should be delivered in a manner where all aspects of learning processes are covered. That’s why our content is not merely multimedia rich animation and videos; it is also based on the context of establishing an interactive learning process in the classroom. Similarly, when we look at tablets, we relate to them as an individual learning device. We need to differentiate between academic learning, information gathering, application, skill development, and assessment. Considering the strength of tablets and also looking at low impact learning aspects of a tablet, we should be coming up with content that fills the gap between the classroom and after classroom studies and provides the learner with simple and engrossing content.