digitalLEARNING August 2015

5th

Come, be a part of 5th World

21-22 August 2015, Hotel Le Meridian, New Delhi

Skilling Youth, Skilling India

Education Summit to Meet, Discuss & Disseminate Knowledge

Confirmed Speakers@WES 2015 Government Speakers Dr Daljit Singh Cheema Madan Mohan Mittal Hon’ble Minister of Hon’ble Minister School Education, Govt. Technical Education of Punjab Government of Punjab

Higher Education Speakers

School Education Speakers

Priyanka Bhatkoti Principal Maxfort School New Delhi

Prof G S N Raju Vice Chancellor Andhra University

Ryan Pinto CEO, Ryan International Group of Institutions

Dr Satbir Bedi Joint Secretary MHRD

Prof Dr K Lal Kishore Dr Prafulla Agnihotri Vice Chancellor Director JNTU, Anantpur IIM Tiruchirappalli

Sudha Gupta Chairperson, Presidium Group of Schools

Dr Vandana Lulla Director Podar Group of International Schools School

Dr G Immanuel Chairman CISCE

C Roul Principal Secretary School Education, Government of Punjab

Shri M V V Prasada Rao Director (VE & E) CBSE

Subrat Sahoo Secretary, Department of School Education Government of Chhattisgarh

Prof V S S Kumar Vice Chancellor JNTU Kakinada

Dr Kavita A Sharma Dr Devinder Dayal Singh Sandhu President South Asian Vice Chancellor University Kurukshetra University

Hazel Siromoni Managing Director Maple Bear

Anita Malhotra Kalpana Mohan Shanti Krishnamurthy Principal, Lotus Valley Principal, Vidyashilp Principal, Chinmaya International School Academy, Bangalore International Residential Gurgaon School, Coimbatore Gurgaon

Kavita C Das Kavita Sanghvi Bijoya Baksi Dr Indu Khetarpal Principal Principal Principal Principal St John’s High School MET Rishikul Vidyalaya Navrachana School Salwan Public School Mumbai Chandigarh Vadodara New Delhi

Prof Uday B Desai Director IIT Hyderabad

Lakshmi Kumar Pramod Sharma Aditi Mukherjee Director Director cum Principal Principal The Orchid School Genesis Global School GEMS Akademia Pune Noida International School, Kolkata

World Education Summit 2015 organised by digitalLearning

magazine aims to build a strong community around all the stakeholders of education, providing various business and networking opportunities for clients, partners and education leaders of both school and higher education. With rapidly changing dynamics of education, WES provides an ideal platform to all the stakeholders to come together and deliberate, discuss and explore the horizon.

World Education Conference: The conference would be a unique platform for sharing of knowledge, challenges, ideas and best practices among the stakeholders in the domain of education. Bureaucrats, tecnocrats, academicians, industry personnel and civil society members along with education experts, senior leaders and management teams of various schools, foreign education representatives , practitioners, business leaders would all benefit through the thought provoking sessions, workshops and round table discussions etc. The conference would have three parallel tracks: School Education Track

Nominate for WES Awards

2015

Higher Education Track Skill Development & Vocational Education Track

World Education Expo: The two day Exhibition will attract more than 200 stakeholders from government bodies, private sector, NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and educational institutions. The Exhibition would put the spotlight on education sector. WES 2015 will have ample space for Edupreneurs - global or national to showcase their education technologies, new ideas & innovation and best teaching learning practices.

Generate tremendous business leads Drive brand promotions Network with third party vendors, partners & channel Maximize brand visibility

For Programme details contact: Seema Gupta, seema@elets.in, 08860651643 For Sponsorship/ Expo details contact: Fahim Haq, fahim@elets.in, 08860651632

Sponsors@WES 2015 Creative Learning Partner

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Partner Publications

Contents

ISSN 0973-4139 ISSN 0973-4139

VOLUME VOLUME1111ISSUE ISSUE0804AUGUST APRIL 2015

School Education 08 Swach Bharat Abhiyan to be

part of curriculum in Rajasthan

Campus Calling 10 IIT Delhi and Punjab University

LESSONS LEARNED THROUGH ERP

ranked among top 2 per cent

NIIT ranks top 20 by TrainingIndustry.com

News Policy 14 Draft of new education policy

to be ready by year end: Smriti Irani AICTE gets a new head

ERP Symantec 23

16 WES 43

In the secure zone

Higher Education Degree 24

Reaping the benefits of higher degrees

Guest Column 30

A new narrative for the Indian education system

44 45 46

Robokidz enhance creative thoughts for kids Delivering education through innovation & technology Nurturing skills among children Developing creative minds

47 48 49 50 51 52

Facilitating edu-visits across streams Altering lives through video communication Tutorial going live Ricoh aids learning through innovation Now, Re-live your classroom Competent through next education

Avaya India 32

Avaya banks on innovations

NIOS 34

NIOS focuses on vocational education

CRM 36

CRM augments student life cycle

Flipped Classroom 40

Fruits of Flipped classrooms

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

ASIA’S PREMIER MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION Volume 11

Issue 8

August 2015

PRESIDENT: Dr M P Narayanan EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta ADVISORY BOARD Prof Asha Kanwar, President, Commonwealth of Learning Dr Jyrki Pulkkinen, Senior Adviser, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland Dr Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Secretary, Depertment of School Education & Literacy, MHRD, Government of India EDITORIAL TEAM EDUCATION Senior Assistant Editor: Garima Pant Assistant Editor: Bhawna Satsangi GOVRNANCE Senior Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma, Rachita Jha Senior Correspondent: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Correspondent: Poulami Chakraborty Junior Correspondent: Sneha Mejari Trainee Sub-Editor: Akanki Sharma

A Quarterly

Magazine

on Banking

& Finance bfsi.eletsonl

ine.com

WEB DEVELOPMENT & IT INFRASTRUCTURE Team Lead-Web Development: Ishvinder Singh Senior Executive – IT: Zuber Ahmed Executive – Information Management: Khabirul Islam EVENT TEAM Manager: Gagandeep Kapani ADMINISTRATION Head Administration: Archana Jaiswal

Special Interv

iew

Shri Bab Bokhiriyaubhai

Minister of CooperationAgriculture & , Gujarat

FULL COVE

RAGE

EDITORIAL & MARKETING CORRESPONDENCE digitalLearning – Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd: 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@elets.in digitalLearning is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd in technical collaboration with the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS). Owner, Publisher, Printer - Dr Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media, D - 249, Sector-63, Noida 201 307.UP and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30 Sector-50, Noida, Up

Editor: Dr 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.

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 at: editorial@elets.in

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

in Cooperatives

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DESIGN TEAM Creative Head: Pramod Gupta Deputy Art Director: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur Senior Web Designer: Shyam Kishore

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01 | ISSUE 2

HEALTH Senior Assistant Editor: Garima Pant Senior Correspondent: Anshuman Ojha Correspondent: Romiya Das

2015 | VOLUME

GUJARAT

Special Issue APRIL - JUNE

EDITORIAL

A Tribute to the Missile Man The man who added ‘Wings of Fire’, fuelling the education dreams of millions of children passed away doing what he did best – Igniting Minds. The missile man who came from out of political spectrum, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam rose from the humble origins to become the President of India from 2002 to 2007. An aeronautics engineer from Madras Institute of Technology, Dr. Kalam was considered the brain of missile programme. Always close to education world, he utilised any opportunity that came to him to address students, especially school children, to dream big so that they become achievers in life. He stressed upon to make education system more skill oriented and called for a review of universities and senior secondary syllabi. He also mooted the idea of introducing mobile skill development laboratory, which will be ICT enabled and will have a mechanical and chemical engineering set up. And to pay respect to the departed leader Delhi Government announced to name the higher education and skill education guarantee scheme after the former President Abdul Kalam, who passed away while giving a lecture in Shillong recently. Vocational education and skill development has become a dire need to improve the productivity and efficiency of the youth in the country. It is absolutely necessary to have skilled workforce for rapid economic growth, high productivity and reduction of unemployment. India has 69 per cent of its population between 16-29 years. Greater efforts have to be taken to provide vocational education and training so that employability of people should be increased worldwide. A lot of private sector companies are investing into the skill development of the workforce. New technical training institutes are getting established and vocational institutes are coming up to provide special training to the economic and socially disadvantaged, through social partnership and in house training. Taking this initiative forward, digitalLearning is organising the 5th World Education Summit (WES) in August to discuss the paradigm of skill education and the significance of skill development in the creation of a knowledge sharing society. With thought leaders and the who’s who of the education sector slated to be a part of this platform, WES 2015 will add wings to the skill development initiative of the government. Looking forward to your presence at the 5th World Education Summit 2015 to be held on August 21-22.

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

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

NEWS

To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

Learning indicators by NCERT to gauge student’s growth The NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training) is revamping the education modules for students of class I to VIII. The entire rehash is done to give a new dimension to the present primary education infrastructure. The indicators will also try to level the parameters which are used to monitor the learning curve of the students. The NCERT has already pin pointed a plethora of subjects, which includes, English, Hindi, Urdu, EVS (Environmental Science), Science,Social Science and Art Education. The learning indicators is a well known practice amongst the global education fraternity and now this is foraying into the Indian education system. Several tailor made parameters are set to measure a child’s development. For example a student of standard one should have possess the knolwedge to write proper words and letters with proper spacing. A fellow student of class II should be comfortable in writing rhyming words and he or she must contribute in the school magazine. In a similar way a class VIII student should have the acumen to understand new concepts and should have an eye to explore unknown areas of the knwoledge domain.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to be part of curriculum in Rajasthan The much hyped programme of Prime minister Narendra Modi, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is now all set in Rajasthan to become a part of curriculum in the textbooks Education minister Vasudev Devnani has solicited the help of Rajasthan Pustakalaya Mandal, entrusted with the task of revising the course content in state textbooks, to prepare course content on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that will help generate awareness about the cleanliness campaign. Addressing education officials, Devnani recently said that he would change the curriculum from class I to VIII in the government schools. He also emphasised that more chapters should be added that promote Indian customs and traditions. “Teaching Indian value system is our priority to bring our education system back on the track. The course content team should work on these lines to bring our students closer to our culture and values,” said Devnani. Routines and habits deeply entrenched in our culture like touching elders’ feet as a mark of respect, protecting environment will be taught to the students as also road safety rules. In addition the minister is keen on including chapters on Rajasthan, highlighting its rich history and heritage. “I am keen on localising the course content by adding the history, local gods and goddesses, social reformers, culture and traditions and freedom fighters of Rajasthan in the textbooks. Other than Maharana Pratap, school textbooks will have chapters on Sindhi community’s revered figure Hemu Kalani, “ he said.

Encouraging bird watching in Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu government is making an effort to make children familiarise with birds in the state for which ‘Know Our Birds’ training programme was announced by the Forest Department for school students at Vellode Bird Sanctuary. The forest department has now collaborated with the School Education Department to ensure adequacy of enrolment. The programme has been initiated with the view to provide an opportunity to students of levels VIII to XII to spot and identify birds in their natural habitat. As part of the training, children will be taught to watch birds, identify them and learn their characteristics, living

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

pattern at the Wetland Bird Sanctuary. More than 100 birds, both of native and foreign origin and species

flock to the sanctuary that is situated in Vadamugam Vellode village, close to the Erode-Chennimalai road in Perundurai Taluk. The training will ensure certificates for the children who will be involved in watching birds with binoculars, entering into discussions about their observations with ornithologists. The schedule encompasses watching various species of birds with binoculars provided by the Forest Department, discussion about the observation, and interaction with ornithologists based on a power point presentation. The students who go through the process will receive certificates.

IIT-Delhi and Punjab University ranked among top 2 per cent The Center for World University Rankings has said in its report that IIT-Delhi and Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh have been ranked among the top 2 per cent institutions of higher education worldwide. Panjab University has brought kudos as it has been ranked second among Indian universities and 4th among all higher education institutions of the country. In this years’ CWUR World University Rankings, Panjab University has figured in the 25,000+ degreegranting institutions of higher education worldwide. The top 1000 include 16 institutions from India which has 6 universities and 10 institutes including IITs, IISc, AIIMS and TIFR. The top slot in the country has been bagged by IIT-Delhi with a

rank of 341 and is followed by Delhi University(DU), Indian Institute of Science(IISc) and Panjab University. Last year PU ranking was 543 in the world and 5th in India. Harvard University from USA tops the list. The global university ranking includes parameters like quality of education, training of students, prestige of the faculty members and quality of research. “It is great to know that Panjab University continues to be adjudged among the premier most academic institutes of India in numerous national and international surveys that assign different weight factors to a variety of parameters. An analysis of details of different rankings shall provide us guidance to set our priorities in attending to different

sectors, where improvements are urgently required if we are to retain our competitive position, given our own limited resources and uncertain and inadequate Governmental support. The material contributions from our alumni who have done well and the Corporate Sector are our hope for support, if we have to bridge the gap between us and the rest of the Universities in China and South Korea. The PU faculty has new confidence and enthusiasm today, I am looking forward to work with them during my second term,” Vice Chancellor,Panjab University Prof Arun Grover said in a statement.

Madhya Pradesh gets $300 million to improve education quality

Madhya Pradesh is all set to get 300 million US dollars which was sanctioned by World Bank Board for MP Higher Education Quality Improvement Project to improve student learning specially for the disadvantaged groups. The project is expected to benefit

about 3.6 million students, 10,800 academic staff and 1,400 administrators and officers in nearly 200 government colleges and universities. World Bank Board has noted that the higher education has expanded rapidly in the country with

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

enrolment doubling from 8.4 million students in 2001 to 17 million in 2011. Madhya Pradesh sees nearly 10 per cent of this enrolment with nearly 1.6 million enrolled in the state’s universities and colleges. A study done by the World Bank took note that newly graduated engineers are turned away for poor technical skills by employers. An overwhelming 77 per cent employers in the state said that bad technical skills remained the number one reason for these rejections. The Project will focus on good quality for higher learning, making scholarships available to disadvantaged students, improving resources available

for learning, research, teaching. Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director said that the project will produce a skilled and trained labour force. The Project will also focus on upgrading the qualifications and skills of faculty members through a state institute for higher education training and research. As of now, only about half of an incoming students graduate at the end of three years, and an even smaller percentage of students find employment. The drop-out rate for students especially from disadvantaged backgrounds are high, between the first and the second years of study.

Higher education in abroad attracts Indian students Lakhs of Indian students are heading abroad for higher studies compelled by the lack of quality higher education in the country and mounting competition for limited seats available in the institutions. This has been revealed in a recent ASSOCHAM study. The exodus of students abroad has led to a loss of a staggering 6 to 7 billion dollars that is spent by these students on higher education. What is more worrisome is the fact that only a very small percentage of these students are heading back home after completing their studies. Indian students are discovering new destinations

with many opting to go to Singapore, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Canada, China and Norway. There has been a significant rise of 20-25% in the number of students travelling abroad for higher education. The study indicates that while 2.9 lakh Indians went abroad in 2013, the numbers went up to 6.8 lakh this year. “An important reason for many Indians choosing to study abroad is the lack of good institutions in India and growing competition for limited seats amongst the existing institutes. Very few universities in India provide good quality education

and thus the challenge of securing admission in them becomes more daunting each year,” said ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S. Rawat. He said that Delhi University is a good example of how students get put off by challenging cut offs for admission. Subjects like economics see cut off between 90 per cent to 98 per cent. Likewise an engineering aspirant has less than one in 50 chance of securing admission

Importance of ideation in research a must

MDI Gurgaon, a B-school had organised an induction ceremony for its Doctoral Programmes: Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) and Executive Fellow Programme in Management (EFPM). At the programme, Professor Sanjay Govind Dhande, member, BOG, MDI Gurgaon, threw light on the new chapter of the academic life that the students were embarking on. In his address to students, he talked about the role of academic research in the growth and development of any business. Research is an essential part of any business that offers well-targeted products and services. It can be instrumental in defining a product mix for a business- for example from defining the mix of various FMCG products that a firm produce to different categories of

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

in-patient beds that a hospital should have. Business decisions that are based on good market research can minimise risks and pay dividends and hence B-schools are turning more proactive in developing strategies to deliver their research services around what is relevant and in demand. Prof. CP Shrimali, Director, MDI Gurgaon in his address to the students advise them not to limit themselves in the four walls of the classrooms. He encouraged the students to participate in debates, discussions, conferences and seminars for a 360-degree development. The number of students in the 2015 batch is 21 doctoral students. The programmes are aimed at allowing the fellow researchers to create benchmarks and measure progress in order to be able to gauge the performance of any business.

into the IITs. Most IITians go abroad for research but do not return back. The study suggested setting up of a National Higher Education Commission (NHEC), an independent regulator on the lines of SEBI or CVC ( Central Vigilance Commission). The proposed NHEC must ensure mandatory quality rating of all universities and institutions of higher learning, be they government, state, autonomous or private, it said.

NIIT ranks top 20 by TrainingIndustry.com NIIT Limited, a global leader in skills and talent development has been listed on the prestigious Top 20 Workforce Development Companies List by TrainingIndustry.com. The US based TrainingIndustry. com continuously reviews companies and community colleges that provide customised corporate training services and conducts an annual assessment to determine suppliers’ experience and capabilities. It continually monitors the training marketplace for the best providers of training services and technologies. Rahul Patwardhan, CEO, NIIT Ltd said, “We are honoured to be on this list with some of the finest workforce development companies in the world. For the past three decades, NIIT has been at the forefront of skills and talent development not just in India, but around the world. It is our endeavour to train the next generation of highly skilled professionals for the current and future corporate workforce.”

NEWS

To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

Draft of new education policy to be ready by year end: Smriti Irani The draft of the new education policy being prepared by the BJP government at Centre is likely to be finalised by year end. Suggestions of people from villages, towns, districts have been invited, analysed and incorporated while framing the new policy. “Our last education policy had been formulated over two decades back but the world has changed a lot since then. We launched a project to formulate another one this January and made people participate in the exercise. Earlier, a select band of bureaucrats, academicians and politicians used to make this policy, but we have been asking people what they want their children to study. Aspirations vary across India. This is the first such endeavour in India,” said Smriti Irani, the union education minister. “The goal of education is the empowerment of self and that of the nation. There have been academics in India who have long been forgotten, such as KP Jaiswal who died in 1937 and who wrote on Indian history. He was the one to excavate the Nalanda University. But, we have forgotten him. Rather, we remember Plato when someone says ‘Republic’. If I start talking about the glorious past and culture of India, I will be called a saffroniser,” the minister said.

Policy Views National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) took suggestions from officials of school education department from across the state for the new education policy in offing. Teachers and education department representatives from 17 different districts of state gave suggestions on 11 themes set by the NCERT. The last time that the National education policy was revised was in 1986. “Such meetings are being carried out in all the states to reach out to the teachers at grassroot level. Once we get suggestions from teachers across the country, a final policy will be made,” said NCERT planning and monitoring head Prof Siraj Anwar. State education minister Paras Jain, who attended the meet, said, “Practice of holding 5th and 8th board exams should be stopped so that students and teachers can focus on overall development of students.”

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

‘Reward and punishment’ policy for Gujarat schools Based on the performance of government schools, the Gujarat education department has decided to adopt a “reward and punishment” policy to ensure better results in future. The decision has been taken following shocking results of students that were revealed in Gunotsav, 2014, the annual evaluation of primary classes from class II to VIII. The overall performance of students in the state board exams has been declining over the past few years. It has been decided to award cash prizes along with citations for best performers in teaching and administrative staff. Taluka primary education officers, block resource co-ordinators (BRC), education inspectors, cluster resource persons (CRC), principals and teachers of schools scoring the highest grades (A+ and A) in Gunotsav 2015 — would be awarded cash as well as citations ranging from `10,000 to `20,000.

Yoga compulsory for CBSE students Yoga has been made compulsory in CBSE curricula for Classes XI and XII. Directions have been given that for students of other classes it should be held “at least” twice a week as part of their physical activity programme. AYUSH Minister Shripad Yasso Naik, submitted this in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, adding that yoga education has also been made a compulsory part of study and practice by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). “The HRD Ministry has further informed that there are 15,962 schools affiliated to the CBSE which have already been advised to provide compulsory 40-45 minutes of physical activities or games to the students of Classes I-X every day and that students of Classes XI-XII should participate in physical activity, games, mass physical training, yoga for at least two periods per week (90-120 minutes/ week). The board offers physical and health education for classes XI and XII and yoga is compulsory part of its curriculum,” Naik said. The minister said that NCTE has already developed modules on yoga education for diploma in elementary education and master of education.

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

India’s workforce set to get skilled

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the National Skill Development Mission and unveiled the New National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015. The framework of the National Mission for Skill Development focuses on the need to scale up skill training efforts to meet the demands of the employers and drive economic growth. India currently faces a severe shortage of well-trained skilled workers. It is estimated that only 2.3 per cent of the workforce in India has undergone formal skill training as compared to 68 per cent in the UK, 75 per cent in Germany, 52 per cent in USA, 80 per cent in Japan and 96 per cent South Korea. Large sections of the educated workforce have little or no job skills, making them largely unemployable. India’s annual skilling capacity was estimated at approximately 7 million during the period 2013-14. Apart from meeting its own demand, India has the potential to provide a skilled workforce to fill the expected shortfall in the ageing developed world. Having being one of the youngest nations in the world, 54 per cent of the India’s population is below 25 years of age and over 62 per cent of the population in the working age group is (15-59 years). The country’s population pyramid is expected to bulge across the 15–59 age group over the next decade. This demographic advantage is predicted to last only until 2040. India therefore has a very narrow time frame to harness its demographic dividend and to overcome its skill shortages.

Students in Maharashtra to get tablets

To promote e-learning in education system, Maharashtra government is set to give tablets to students of state-aided secondary schools. The cost of the project is estimated to be `2,250 crore. Currently the state has nearly 75 lakh students from 6 to 10 standard, about 15 lakh in each class. As per the report, the government currently spends `250 crore per year on providing text books to the students in the secondary classes. The state education department is learning the concept of e-learning on tabs before finalising on the project. The department has met some private firms in respect to the project. The government is taking keen steps to improve the quality of education in the State.

AICTE gets a new head All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has appointed Prof. Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabushe, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati as the Chairman. In his earlier stint, he has served as Director, College of Engineering, Pune since 2006 on deputation from IIT, Guwahati. He has 29 years of teaching and research experience. Prof. Shasrabudhe graduated from BVB College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli affiliated to Karnataka University with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and was a gold medalist. Thereafter, he obtained his M.E. and Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1982 and 1989. Before joining IIT Guwahati as Associate Professor in 1995, he has also served as Lecturer and Assistant Professor at NERIST. Under this role at NERIST, he has taken several role and initiatives in IIT Guwahati and COEP for academic, curricular and co-curricular activities, research and good governance. He is also Chairman, Basic Scientific Research (BSR), Empowered Committee of UGC.

Prof Anil D. Sahasrabudhe new AICTE Chairman

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

ERP

or any educational institution, who wants to run the system smoothly and add more students to their campus, it is essential to adopt technology. With growing expectations of improved performance, higher education leaders continue to think more creatively about how their people, processes and technology can work together more efficiently. At a time when the students are technology-savvy, implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) will bring process efficiency across the organisation and reduce chances of errors. For an educational institute which performs multiple functions like management, admissions, fees management, class management, time table management, accounting, transport, library etc. it is necessary to bring in ERP technology to be more effective and accurate in their task.

To streamline the process of admissions, management, class management, time table management, fee management, accounting, transport etcâ&#x20AC;Ś implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an essential part to run the system proficiently. Bhawna Satsangi of Elets News Network (ENN) talks to industry experts to find out the opportunities and challenges in deploying ERP system

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Lessons Learned Through

ERP

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

ERP ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

Mails

` Projects Vendors of ERP believe that in order to make the system manageable and transparent, educational institutions must adopt ERP in their system. It is a complete integrated solution which has been designed to cover the in depth functionalities of any educational institute. It is also important to take the time and spend the money to educate everyone about the usage of the system and provide training to people who will operate the system. The technology is about leveraging the benefits by the people who are using it. The educational institutes today need a mechanism that can streamline their work in more efficient manner. Students no longer are hooked on to one course or engaging once with an educational institute. As the student life-cycle increases, it becomes important to have a system that allows for managing the student-institute relationship for its entire duration of study.

Challenges Despite promises for improved organisation and more effective management, there are number of challenges and a high failure rate in the implementation of technology. The implementation of ERP system involves high degree of complexity. The reason to the failure of the technology can be many including no interest among employees/users to learn using new technology, strategic goals are not defined, project team is not selected from the experienced employees, accuracy of data is not assured, system efficiency measures do not allow for successful changes, technical issues etc.

Purchasing

CRM CRM

Business Analytics

Financial Management

Sales ERP system is a complete integrated solution which helps in leveraging the benefits for the above verticals of business

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

ERP

An educational institute should look into issues including multitude of legacy systems, training of existing staff and internal IT resources before deploying ERP solutions The success of the technology depends upon varied factors as it embraces operations of an institute. Participation of management, participation of students, encouraging attitude among the employees, possibility to connect the integral information solutions with other business information systems, cooperation between advisers and employees are of key importance for any technology to flourish in a set up. The other key pain areas an educational institute should look into before deploying ERP is multitude of legacy systems, training of existing staff and internal IT resources which are the top problems. “It is very hard to move away from a system that has been used for many years-especially if the stakeholders are invested in it emotionally. Also, getting the new system implemented without having significant internal bandwidth for technology would impede the speed of implementation,” says Shreekala Kurup, COO, Crack Verbal.

Benefits Use of ERP solutions is essential in a system where different users with varied roles and responsibilities have to streamline

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

their workflow. Students, management, teachers, principal, staff, parents, alumni all the data is managed under one platform in a time sensitive manner along with the rules and policies. The success of the technology depends upon factors such as participation of the management, the modernisation of existing business processes, possibility to connect the integral information solutions with other business information systems, cooperation between advisers and employees and educated staff to tackle the issues of ERP system at ease. “ERP solutions would make it easy for an educational institute to scale up and spend less time, money, and energy managing resources. A major chunk of bandwidth goes into processes that are offline, such as the providing of forms etc. All of this, if automated properly, would provide a seamless end-toend experience for the student,” informs Kurup. “The important trend that we are seeing and catering to is primarily on the fact that anybody can create content and anybody can conduct content. So, both the creation and conduction of contact is actually going away from the standard methods of how we have done it in the past to something that anybody has been able to create. So, our learning system caters to that. Even beyond that what is happening we have capabilities integrating with the sub-standard platforms like Coursera, learner.com etc. and corporate have started using these more and more in terms of partnership,” informs Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, Vice President-Product Management, SAP Labs. Learning is very popular for SAP modules and there is large number of customers worldwide using SAP ERP solu-

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tions. From a trending perspective, skill development is getting linked to learning. The integration points are needed to be tighter now. Digital learning is probably going to the way to go online learning. MOOCs being the most prominent of how knowledge is going to be disseminated. “Today we have a knowledge economy where learning is all over the place. It is not just in the classrooms. Specialised learning skills that people are starting to develop, the need for industry are starting to move towards it.” openSAP is SAP’s innovative learning platform and a thought leader for Enterprise MOOCs, focusing on key SAP technology & business innovations. openSAP offers maximum learning flexibility with compelling MOOC format and provides an engaging and effective learning experience through gamification and by connecting with fellow students and SAP experts.

OpenSAP: in Numbers l 35 openSAP Enterprise MOOCs delivered since May 2013 l 730,000 course enrolments l 225,000 unique learners l 20-35 per cent successful completion rate* l 5 million videos were watched and selftests completed l Compared to an average of 4-7 per cent reported by academic MOOC providers openSAP learners l 15 per cent SAP internal employees vs. 85 per cent SAP externals l Learners come from 180 countries: l 30 per cent of users on openSAP are from India, 16 per cent United States, 13.5 per cent Germany, 41.5 per cent Other l 81.4 per cent Male, 18.6 per cent Female l 75 per cent Professional, 8 per cent Students, 14 per cent Unknown, 3 per cent other course topics l 150,000+ signed up to develop applications on SAP HANA l Over 100,000 signed up to learn to develop on SAP HANA Cloud Platform l 75,000+ signed up to SAP UX topics l SAP S/4HANA has attracted 55,000+ to date

“Our objective is to offer huge number of courses to the learners. We are running initiatives with Universities. We believe that there is knowledge among the student community and we have a crowd sourcing platform called SAPmile and we are working with six colleges in terms of crowd sourcing, problem statement that we actually want the students to work on. We want to have crowd sourcing platform that allows students to participate in initiatives in terms of execution of certain ideas,” informs Srikanth. “An institute offering a course at a K12 level and at a graduate-level might avoid duplicating the process. Also, with various other systems going on the cloud, it is very easy to have each part of an ERP linked to other services using webhooks,” adds Kurup.

Adoption To understand the process of ERP adoption, it is also essential to understand the ERP life cycle framework or process models. According to the study by Ehie and Madsen suggested fivestage implementation process of ERP namely project preparation, business blueprint, realisation, final preparation, Go live and support. Despite being one of the best technologies to be adopted in the education sector to improve the working of the sector, yet the adoption seems to be minimal due to high costs involved in the implementation process. “I think one of the biggest deterrents for adopting of an ERP solution has been that until now, systems were heavy and depended a lot on customisation. Now with SAAS offerings and integration with other systems, the implementation times can be reduced to merely a few weeks. So in the coming years, more and more institutes will be adopting a robust ERP system,” feels Kurup.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

ERP

Enabled

Efficient Learning

The implementation of ERP system makes the institutes cost efficient over disjointed traditional systems. An ERP system shall also help organise data better and provide the right MIS to the stakeholders thereby making decision prompt and more accurate, says Shantanu Rooj, CEO, Schoolguru Why does the education sector need ERP solution? An ERP Solution automates various processes in an organisation using one integrated solution, thereby bringing interoperability of data. The intended advantage of implementing an ERP is to bring process efficiency across the organisation and reduce chances of error. An educational institute, like any other type of organisation, performs multiple functions like admission management, enquiry management, fees management, timetable management, infrastructure management, human resource management, stores management, library management, accounting, transport management, examination management, student support management etc. To bring in efficiency, effectiveness and accuracy into their operations, it is imperative for the education sector to implement an ERP system.

What are the benefits of deploying ERP solutions in the education system? Implementing an ERP system is more cost effective over disjointed traditional systems. Basic campus management requires lots of manpower for various

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

functions like admissions, fees etc. Bringing an ERP solution can dramatically cut costs for mundane activities. An ERP system shall also help organise data better and provide the right MIS to the stakeholders thereby making decision prompt and more accurate. Due to the use of various database management systems, the data stored in an ERP system is quite secure. An institute shall be able to provide segmented rights to various types of users ensuring that critical data is protected from misuse.

What are the key pain areas to be focused on while deploying ERP solutions? Implementing an ERP solution requires a lot of top management commitment. Once implemented, the ERP becomes the backbone of the organisation for performing routine functions. Without proper guidelines and monitoring, an ERP implementation fails due to faulty decision making during the process of implementation. A ready-to-use ERP often requires the organisation to modify or change its existing processes and adapt the standard processes defined in the ERP. This change management becomes one of the crucial factors for the

successful implementation of an ERP solution. While implementing an ERP, the organisation must take the total cost of ownership into consideration. This shall include several associated costs (apart from the cost of the software) like cost of servers, licensed operating systems, databases and antivirus. ERP systems may also necessitate certain changes on the desktop computers and the local LAN. Some ERP systems also require skilled professionals to manage the same on a continuous basis. Last but not the least, it is important to budget the cost of customisation of the ERP, in case some of the standard processes are not suitable for the organisation.

How can these solutions improve the education structure? A proper implementation of an ERP solution can bring in better efficiency and transparency in an institute. Most of the institutes in India are operated and owned by charitable trusts. It is hence important to ensure a transparent system of flow of data which shall boost the process of decision making. For trusts, who manage multiple institutions, an integrated multi-institute ERP shall be a big advantage which shall help them

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ERP improves profit margins of the companies cross-pollinate the institutes by optimally using the available resources. A CRM solution, which front-ends such ERP systems, helps the management keep in touch with the ultimate customer.

What is the market size of these technological solutions?

A proper implementation of an ERP solution can bring in better efficiency and transparency in an institute. Most of the institutes in India are operated and owned by charitable trusts

The ERP market size in India is a multibillion dollar opportunity. The market comprises of opportunity in the core area of ERP software and supplementary areas like implementation services, customisation services, maintenance services, servers and storage, databases and operating systems, associated security solutions etc.

of the internet, the educational institutes have now started realising the importance of automation. Currently, not even 2 per cent of the institutes in India are automated and less than 0.5 per cent have implemented an ERP solution. However, we believe that in the next few years, as we see more privatisation and corporatisation of education taking place, the rate of adoption of such solutions shall improve.

What is the rate of adoption of these solutions in education sector?

How can institutes keep ERP database protected at all times?

Due to the increase in the penetration

Institutes must use multiple strategies

to keep their data safe and available at all times. Use of a proper RDBMS system with well configured access controls shall work as the first ring of defense. Institutes need to protect their data from various attacks like viruses, malware and hacking attempts. It is important to implement a sturdy antivirus system and keep it updated at all times to protect the data in the servers. Needless to say that institutes must have a rugged data back-up and recovery management system to protect their data against any accident or catastrophe.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

ERP

ERP makes Education Proactive Schools and higher education institutions need an ERP solution to bridge the gap and also move towards creating world-class institutions. For the successful ERP implementation, both the school as well as the ERP implementation partner should work in unison and understand the key issues, informs Suhas Gopinath, Chief Executive Officer, Globals Why does the education sector need ERP solutions? Education sector in itself is quite a large sector like any other large industries where data driven decision-making is critical. An education institution comprises of multiple departments and many stakeholders including students, teachers, parents, administrators, management and the alumni. All these cannot be managed with paper work. Schools and higher education institutions need an ERP solution to bridge the gap and also move towards creating world-class institutions and get benefited with data driven decision-making capabilities with business intelligence and analytics that an ERP system offered with tools like Cognos, making the education institution proactive from being reactive in their administration.

What are the benefits of deploying ERP solutions in the education system? Unlike the good old days, institutions these days are connected and hence can utilise the power of technology to enhance productivity. Some of the benefits of deploying an ERP solution in the Education system are: l Increased efficiency and reduced business process cycle time l Collaboration and enhanced communication between multiple stakeholders l Real-Time data for teachers and parents on studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academics, for better implementation of remedial programmes l Consolidation of valuable data and streamlined flow of information

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

ERP implementation partner should work in unison and understand the key issues l Making education institutions to be

less dependent on people for access to information and making people agnostic l Analytical reports helping in data driven decision making l Information available in omni-channel (mobile, web, Email / IVRS)

What are the key pain areas to be focused on while deploying these solutions? For any successful ERP implementation, both the school as well as the ERP implementation partner should work in unison and understand the key issues and follow the process to ensure that the solution meets the needs of the end users on a day-to-day basis. Based on our experience of implementing Educube in hundreds of schools across six countries, we have identified the following pain areas: The key process involved â&#x20AC;&#x201C; student lifecycle needs to put in place correctly. This includes student related modules like the

enrolments/ admissions, student management, attendance, notifications etc. For teachers, one of the key pain areas is grading. With Educube, we solve this with our flexible and comprehensive performance module that comes with different flavours to meet the complex needs of different types of schools like CCE module for CBSE and performance module catering to IGCSE, ICSE, Ontario, IB and State Board Schools as well. It is very important to understand the current process followed at the school and use the opportunity of the ERP implementation to enhance any processes. While implementing Educube, we work very closely with schools to not only implement our solution but also share the best practices and consult them for any business process reengineering.

How can technology improve the education structure? A comprehensive ERP solution is a one stop shop for managing the entire institution or group of institutions as it lets management access data from any location anytime. An ERP solution streamlines the workflows, management and administrative processes of an institution with just a single application. Sharing of information and data across the departments is made possible and reduces the redundant multiple entry of data. Communication is made quick and easy with email reports and SMS alerts. This especially benefits parents to know about their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attendance report; notice board updates etc. An ERP solution helps the administrator to easily update employee payroll, school fees and much more.

SYMANTEC

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In the Secure Zone Over the last 20 years, Symantec has been working as a guardian angel in the field of cyber security in India. Equipped with an able workforce of more than 4,000, the company considers the Indian market a key innovation hub for Symantec. Cheri McGuire, Vice President - Global Government Affairs & Cyber security Policy, Symantec Corporation shares with Garima Pant of Elets News Network (ENN) the organisations plans for the future After being in the Indian market for the last 20 years, how do you gauge the current scenario of cyber security? What are the key threats and challenges when it comes to cyber security in India? We cemented our presence in India with our hard work and dedication. 23 per cent of our workforce is spread across some of the major cities like Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad and we have 35 per cent of global engineering talent with us here. Our prime focus as a company is on identifying and nurturing innovation and talent. We have a long-term commitment in the country and we are looking forward to grow that. As a part of this commitment, we will be delivering hands on experience and filling the skills gap in the sector. We saw a number of significant emerging trends last year in the security domain. As we all know that service security is not a problem. India has always been in the terror target and over the last few years there has been a steep rise in the terror related activities in the country. A slew of terror attacks targeted various key sectors like financial services, transportation and communication, including the economic and national security of the country. It is not just the large organisations that are on the radar of the terrorists, but also small establishments. Taking up this huge challenge, we are creating a massive blanket of security which will provide full proof security for all. Along with this, we are also generating awareness amongst the netizens and also doing our best to secure all electronic devices such as mobile, computer or any other.

tion management which includes storage, back-up, e-discovery and archiving) of the company can be accelerated to provide solutions in the market place. Thus, the CEO and the Board of Directors decided on separating out an entity and creating an independent company on the information management side, called Veritas. We will be operationally separated on October 1st, and by January next year, the independent identity will be on its own. What steps can be taken to firewall India against all possible security threats? Cheri McGuire talks about creating a massive There are a number of basic blanket of security in India things which we need to keep in mind in this era of cyber terrorism Increasing threats have also opened which go towards using strong passa gamut of opportunities. How have words, using multi-factor authenticayou seen the business grow and tion, encrypting data at rest and in tranwhat are the business opportunities sit and making sure that you have up in the coming year? to date and modern security suites inWe made an announcement last year in stalled. We have a significant challenge October that we were refocusing Symanof using outdated security and we have tec just on security and we are actually watched the threat landscape evolve sigseparating the business. So, a third of nificantly in the last several years. The Symantecâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global business is on inforsolutions that were available four-five mation management, storage, back-up, years ago, only provide a fraction of the e-discovery and archiving and with the protection that we need today to protect explosion in applications and content against advanced persistent threats that development, there is a huge demand we are seeing on a regular basis. So, folfor storage and archiving and informalowing some basic practices that do not tion management solutions. But, at the take much to implement but can truly same time, we see this explosion in the make a difference in securing infrastrucgrowth and need for cyber security. So, ture securing networks. both these parts (security and informa-

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

HIGHER EDUCATION DEGREE

Reaping

the Benefits of Higher Degree

There is a growing awareness about greater return on investment in higher education as higher studies and post graduate degrees fetch you higher salaries. A string of surveys have also indicated that a higher degree will ensure you land a job and have better chances of employment. Elets News Networks (ENN) checks out signs of the times

f you already have a graduation degree and are scouting for a job, there are high chances that you will start earning at much lower scale than the next candidate who had a post graduate degree. But if you have a post graduate degree then you could hope for a higher salary package.

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Demands are rising for a greater return on investment in higher education.Â By some measures, the return on investment is high: college graduates have much higher earnings and lower unemployment rates, on average, than people with a lower-level degree or diploma. The gap is even greater between the expected earnings of graduates holding

a four-year bachelor-of-arts degree and those with a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s or professional degree. The rate at which this gap is growing suggests that many students must continue their education past college to reap the full benefit of their degree. A survey by recruitment firm, Monster India says that the level of education is a key factor that defines the pay

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cheque. As per the survey, someone with a professional or post-graduation degree is likely to earn Rs 100 per hour more as compared to an ordinary graduate. Also, a person who has a 3-year bachelor’s degree will earn Rs 80 per hour more than a candidate who has had only higher secondary education. “In general, it is beneficial to invest in education in order to obtain higher returns in future, in terms of wages,” says the survey report. The increasing gap in the salary scales between the graduate and post graduate degree holders has fuelled a race of sorts among students to go in for higher studies. An awareness about higher studies and their greater prospects is gaining ground and percolating to all levels. An increasing number of surveys done in the area are also indicative of the same.

Numbers Support A survey done globally by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has shown how business school graduates have seen a huge jump in salary offers over their pre degree levels. The students who got job offers early this year said that the post degree salary increase was nearly 90 per cent over their pre degree salary. The GMAC study is significant since it is a non profit organisation, that runs the GMAT examination which is mandatory to gain entry to global business schools. It has its relevance not just globally but also domestically. The survey was conducted among 3,329 graduate management students in 2015 spread across 112 universities in 29 countries. It said that more than half, as many as 59 per cent, of job-seeking graduate business students reported that they received an early job offer prior to their graduation. The survey also showed that domestic students have higher chances of receiving an early job offer compared to international students. It said that, “In 2015, 70 per cent of domestic students

Higher Degrees fetching better pay packets in corporate sector

The increasing gap in the salary scales between the graduate and post graduate degree holders has fuelled a race of sorts among students to go in for higher studies. An awareness about higher studies and their greater prospects is gaining ground and percolating to all levels seeking jobs reported an early job offer, compared with 42 per cent of job-seeking international students.” Significantly, the jobs applied by both domestic and international students is much the same yet Indian students receive 25 per cent higher interviews. In this context, the survey has de-

fined “domestic student” as one attending school within their country of citizenship while an “International student” refers to individuals who are either studying outside their country of citizenship, or who seek to work in a location outside their country of citizenship. As per an ASSOCHAM survey, a staggering number of students go abroad to pursue higher education including for MBA degrees. In 2014 about 7 lakh students from India went outside the country up from 2.9 lakh in 2013. Anshu Kataria, heading Aryans Group of Colleges says, “The demand for skilled work force is not being met with by simple graduates. There is an awareness in the student fraternity for the need to go in for higher studies to get a good job at the end of their academic stint.” India is not an isolated case when it comes to higher preference for post graduate students who end up getting better salaries. Globally the scene

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

HIGHER EDUCATION DEGREE is much the same. A study done to understand the market forces and factors that impact salaries by Graduate Careers Australia indicated that a post graduate degree could drive you into a different pay grade, a higher one and helps you negotiate more. The study looked at 50,000 educated job hunters and found that 86.3 per cent of post graduates who sought full time jobs landed one. In the same period 76.2 per cent of graduates who wanted a full time job finally bagged one – 10 per cent less than the post graduates. Even as chances of a post graduate landing a job improve, it is the cost of higher education, coupled with stiff competition across India that makes

Market Indicators In 2015, 70 per cent of domestic students seeking jobs reported an early job offer, compared with 42 per cent of job-seeking international students Jobs applied by both domestic and international students is much the same yet Indian students receive 25 per cent higher interviews As many as 59 per cent, of 3000 job-seeking graduate business students reported that they received an early job offer prior to their graduation

Industry Choices of Higher Degree holders people start scouting for jobs as soon as they are out of the college. In a global survey, where 4000 students were targeted, who were fresh out of the college, a staggering 75 per cent said that they were keen on a post graduate degree as they were convinced it would boost their employment prospects. Another report, titled as ‘tomorrow’s growth’ that was released in 2013 by the Confederation of British Industry, predicted that the employment prospects would be much higher in the highly skilled roles. “Anticipated changes to occupational structure mean that by 2020 nearly half of all employment will be for highly skilled roles.”

Salaries improve with higher academic degrees

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

The indications are already there. Says, Katja Hall, CBI Policy Director, “Businesses already report major skills shortages in areas like manufacturing and engineering – a situation expected to become more acute as the economy picks up… In short, we need many more people to achieve appropriate higherlevel qualifications.” Back home in India, the head of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Shekhar Sanyal, told a popular media house, “MTech, Master of Technology, graduates are in high demand and much sought-after by technical industries, not just in India but worldwide… If you are good and technically sound, MTech can open up various opportunities for you.” The business sector too is relying heavily on the post graduate business force. The Graduate Management Admission Council studied employers in 50 countries around the world and found that 75 per cent of employers were looking at hiring MBA graduates – five percent more than previous year. Even as the cost of post graduate degrees goes up, compelling students to think twice before they venture into higher studies, experts in the field suggest that finally it is not the degree but what you manage to do with it that defines your success. The onus finally rests on the candidate to convince the employers about your knowledge and skills.

INDUSTRY SPEAK

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VSAT or Virtual Classroom – Which Platform Should

Educators Choose?

oming together of the Internet and learning has revolutionized education delivery. The Indian e-learning industry is estimated to be at a whopping $3 billion by the end of 2015. With a rapid increase in mobile and Internet penetration, India is steadily moving towards becoming one of the largest consumers of online education. Newer ways of imparting education, such as VSAT and Virtual Classroom have become game changers. These technology solutions are facilitating learning anytime, anywhere. Online education has offered immense possibilities to learners and an unprecedented reach to educators. When it comes to live learning, many educators are still undecided while choosing the right education delivery platform. The two available options – VSAT and Virtual Classroom - seem to be promising. Let’s deep dive into these platforms by comparing the WizIQ Virtual Classroom, the awardwinning online classroom, with VSAT based on a set of parameters and find out the best option for educators.

Ease of use & Maintenance To impart learning through VSAT, an educator has to set up the complete VSAT system which includes, learning centres, the Hub Earth Station, a studio for teachers to deliver classes from, servers for data, dish antenna above classrooms for reception and a few more technical things. Sounds a little complicated? Yes, this might be too much to handle for an uninitiated educator. To deliver learning through the WizIQ Virtual Classroom, all you need is a device (desktop, laptop, mobile phone, Android tablet or iPad) and an Internet connection. You don’t need to go through the tedious process of setting up things. You can start

using the Virtual Classroom right away. VSAT requires technical support and high maintenance for elaborate and expensive infrastructure. With the WizIQ Virtual Classroom, you can breathe easy. It is practically a zero-maintenance platform and comes with round-the-clock technical support provided by a team of trained professionals.

Cost The initial cost of setting up a VSAT system is much higher as compared to the WizIQ Virtual Classroom. You can simply subscribe to a Virtual Classroom plan based on your teaching needs. Your total cost of ownership (TCO) is restricted to your subscription plan. Moreover, the subscription plans are flexible, which allow you to make an investment depending on the size of your teaching business. The cost of maintaining the VSAT equipment is high. The setup and maintenance costs are not affordable for individual educators and mid-level educa-

tion service providers. The WizIQ Virtual Classroom clearly emerges as a viable and cost-effective solution for educators.

Quality of Communication Live, online learning relies heavily on data transmission for high-quality communication. Since, educator and learners are at different locations, any fluctuations or instability in transmitting data can hamper the learning experience. VSAT system provides a stable transmission via satellite. However, only oneway transmission is possible through VSAT. Learners can only listen to the lecture delivered via radio or TV. Real learning happens when both educator and learners can communicate freely and instantly without any restrictions. The WizIQ Virtual Classroom makes two-way communication possible between educator and learners. It offers 6-way video and unlimited audio streaming, enabling educator and learners to view and hear each other. Audio and

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

INDUSTRY SPEAK

Indian citizens. This is a big drawback as online education is about global reach.

Mobile Learning According to a recent study, India has approximately 213 million mobile Internet users. More and more content is being consumed by people on their mobile devices. Mobile learning is surely becoming popular among learners. The WizIQ Virtual Classroom allows learners to attend live classes on mobile devices, such as iPhone, iPad, and Android tablets using WizIQ Apps for iOS and Android. Learners can learn on the go without feeling the need to be confined to a certain place for learning. Mobile learning has a strong potential to be the future of online education. VSAT doesn’t support mobile learning. It allows educators to deliver learning through radio and TV only. This is a limitation that can snowball into a serious challenge as more people start preferring mobile devices over any other medium.

Reach & Flexibility The Virtual Classroom lets educator and learners collaborate in real time anytime, anywhere, even from the comfort of their homes and offices. Just log in to your computer and launch the Virtual Classroom to learn or teach instantly. However, there are a few challenges with VSAT, including: l Teachers need to travel to a studio to deliver classes. l Learners need to be present at one place where dish antenna is installed to receive transmission. l Currently, education delivery through VSAT technology is restricted to only

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video communication can happen even on low Internet bandwidth. Class participants have an option of switching to the audio mode if the Internet connection is very slow. However, two-way communication is still maintained, which makes the live class interactive.

GUEST COLUMN

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Inching Towards Digital Education Traditional classroom teaching model has slowly metamorphosed into digital education learning platform, which is self-driven, ‘eduprenuerial’ and fast! – making India one of the biggest education markets in the world believes Sameer Buti, Director, Classteacher Learning Systems

ccess to information ‘anytime, anywhere’ is becoming the defining mantra for educational digital learning solution providers in India. Traditional classroom teaching model has slowly metamorphosed into digital education learning platform, which is self-driven, ‘eduprenuerial’ and fast – making India one of the biggest education markets in the world. Pupils well-versed with the likes of PlayStations and iPads, via digital learning, are making smart classroom environment more inclusive, participatory and transforming the education system into an IT-enabled education system. However, resistance to change along with certain infrastructure challenges is hindering the growth of this market. But with digital undercurrents via Narendra Modi’s digital India dream, India’s online education market is poised to grow to a $40 billion market by 2017. Online learning or Live Virtual Classrooms (LVC) have opened new career avenues for young professionals who are driven to imbibe new skills – at the luxury and comfort of their own pace and time. With the evolution of technologies such as the Cloud, Data Centers and Virtualisation, the digital education ecosystem that we forsee is not a distant reality. There is a growing affinity by Indian youth for new technologies and products such as tablets, notebooks, LMS and IWB, educational institutes,

Traditional classroom teaching model has slowly metamorphosed into digital education

and schools as there is a huge potential for technology to be integrated into education industry. Trickling down to the K12 segment, number of rural schools and teachers are embracing the ‘selflearning’ teaching models, serving as a significant communication bridge between students and teachers. On the corporate front, with a vision to make education more contextualised, relevant, edgy, and agile, there are quite a few companies that have carved their business imperatives on one common theme: to make education reachable, offline and online, affordable, and relevant for today’s quick-witted students. No-

table companies like Intel, Qualcomm, Datawind, Samsung, Tata are looking to leverage on digital India’s initiatives. For creating 5 million digitally literate Indians by December 2015, Intel has created activity charts to make learning more relevant to rural areas and to provide app-based learning, which will serve as a blueprint for other corporates to follow-through on the digital learning initiatives – both on government and corporate level. Today, teachers are not just giving lectures, they are facilitating an e-learning culture via embracing new age digital media technologies serving the education industry. The scope of instant interactivity – given that students are ‘mobility-driven’ and want information fast at the press of the button – is generating demand of tablets and offline pen drives, which serves meticulously as a repository of online course (chapterwise), for entrepreneurs to come up with their ‘brainchild’ of learning systems to best serve the effervescent and fastgrowing education industry in India. The digital platforms, by a huge margin, strategically deal with the less innovative pedagogy styles and lack of teachers for specialised subjects – giving students the best e-learning experience and seeding an element of independency in their learning style. (The author is Director, Classteacher Learning Systems

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

INTERVIEW GUEST COLUMN

A New Narrative for the Indian Education System The launch of Digital India initiative will lead India in making a true knowledge economy that can alter the face of education in a country which has long suffered due to the digital divide. Aditya Malik, CEO & MD, Talentedge talks with Elets News Network (ENN) about the digital empowerment to succeed academically and professionally

“I

dream of a Digital India, where access to information knows no barrier.” These are the now famous words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that underscore his commitment to creating a digitally connected nation where information technology empowers all

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

citizens in areas as diverse as education, health, employment, taxation, etc. He launched his ambitious project ‘Digital India’ amidst much fanfare and media buzz and for good reason. The vision and goals charted out as part of the initiative can go a long way in making India a true knowledge economy and can alter the

face of education in a country which has long suffered due to the digital divide. Digital divide refers to the gap that exists, in a country like ours, between those who have ready access to information and communication technology and those for whom digital knowledge is still a distant dream. In India,

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the digital divide exists due to a variety of factors such as poor computer skills, abysmally low literacy levels, inadequate funds, lack of political will so far, unavailability of the internet in many corners of the country etc. However, in the last few years digital inclusion has been deemed not just as a minor social issue but as one of the primary economic concerns for the country. In a highly competitive global market, digital empowerment has become a pre-requisite to succeed academically and professionally for our large and youth-dominated population. Faster communication facilities such as National Optical Fibre Network and wider adoption of internet enabled devices are likely to spur a string of highly positive changes in the education sector of India. The Digital India Initiative holds the power to make education modern and accessible to all. Increased broadband connectivity can truly lead to higher penetration of e-learning, successfully shattering the barriers of geographical distance and economic disadvantage in access to education. If the ambitious plan of Digital India is actually translated into reality, the education landspace can really be revved up and a greater percentage of our population can be given quality and productive training, equipping them to contribute to the GDP in a significant manner. In fact, according to a McKinsey report, the incremental impact of Digital India on the GDP is likely to be in the range of 25 to 30 per cent by 2025. Digital India Initiative will certainly revitalise the Indian education system, propelling K-12, higher education, vocational and skill building in the right direction. Since 2004, government has invested significant funds to build solid educational infrastructure. However, such programmes were often not successful due to lack of, or sometimes the complete absence of, technological interventions. Digital India is an opportunity for us, as a nation, to revisit and improve the student learning experience, build teacher capacity and provide better educational governance.

Some of the key provisions of the Digital India Initiative that are likely to boost the education sector include the national scholarships portal, the e-education programme, Bharat Net and the Digital Locker System. With the national scholarships portal coming in to being, it will be simpler for the students across geographies to apply for national level scholarships and also track their scholarship amount status. This system will not just ensure a seamless and transparent process, but will also give students ready information about the scholarships on one singular platform. At present, many students are completely oblivious to the kind of educational aid they are eligible for, especially in cases where they aren’t connected to spe-

services to rural India. The government targets, providing broadband connectivity to a quarter of a million rural villages by 2019 and making Wi-Fi hotspots available in schools. This will enhance the reach of the e-education programme and help in the development of superlative content by experienced professionals and faculty available to those who need it most. Through virtual classrooms and interactive e-learning sessions, spreading education can become hassle-free for administrators and far more enjoyable for students. Another step that will greatly enhance student convenience is the Digital Locker System. This apparatus, aims to mitigate the pain associated with physical documentation. It will galvanise

Several remote areas in the country currently suffer from the lack of good quality educational infrastructure. This highly acknowledged pain point can finally be addressed with digital learning initiatives and will receive a further impetus through mobile learning cialised career counselling services or information. Also, through this facility the scholarship amount will be credited directly into the student’s account with a status update on mobile at every step of the disbursement, delivering a higher level of ease. The e-education programme aims at making technologically advanced education available across the latitude and longitude of the country. Several remote areas in the country currently suffer from the lack of good quality educational infrastructure. This highly acknowledged pain point can finally be addressed with digital learning initiatives and will receive a further impetus through mobile learning. Education can be imparted even in areas where it isn’t possible to have good teachers via e-learning programmes and content. Bharat Net on the other hand is likely to serve as the infrastructural backbone for the endeavour of delivering digital learning

sharing of e-documents through registered repositories while ensuring the authenticity of the documents online and substantially reduce burden on the students. With unwavering political will and industry participation, Digital India can truly revolutionise the education space in India. For years, our country has been the IT hub of the world. It has produced the world’s best talent in the space of information technology yet somehow it hasn’t managed to leverage this expertise to solve many of its own problems. However, with the advent of the Digital India campaign, the transformation of the Indian education space and every other key sector is now likely to be accelerated. Talentedge with the aim to inspire ‘Now you can’ vision for the learners is extremely excited to be part of this digital revolution era that will change the way India learns forever.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

AVAYA INDIA

Avaya Banks on Innovation The Software Define Network (SDN) apex technology and engagement development platforms are elements that put together to make Internet of Things (IoT) relevant for education sector. With the prime need to bring innovations in the education sector, Satish Murthy, Senior Director and Bangalore Site Leader at Avaya India talks to Bhawna Satsangi of Elets News Network (ENN) about the need to upscale skills among students What are the smart solutions Avaya offers for smart education? Avaya’s focus has been to create platforms that make it really easy for any vertical to operate. We have education solutions that are very simple. We need our educators to focus on education and not on technology elements. We need them to focus on creating content, focus on better ways to communicate to

students as more and more best practices exists world over so we need to be able to use those things as India is moving towards an innovation based economy, students are expected to move beyond learning and develop critical thinking. The demand for teachers and educational institutions is so high that it will take some time for every teacher and educational institute to reach the level of maturity that we expect from students in our country. How do you make sure that best practices that are available are easily used by teachers in different school environments? For that we have put on creating infrastructure that is extremely resilient, and secure. That is the foundation based on which we have build SDN apex technology, engagement development platforms. These are sort of elements if we put it all together with self search like Internet of Things (IoT) it is possible to create highly useful solutions for the education sector. We have worked with our partners to create a solution where inside a classroom it aids

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the teacher, basically speeding up the process of day to today class attendance, allow teachers to share content with the students and can do a quick test with them to make sure students have understood the content. We have focused a lot on simplicity. For example, what if a student decides to access content that is prohibited by the school and what if somebody hack from outside, that’s a security breach. These become an issue only after they become public. The reputation gets tarnished. So creating a system, which gives that confidence to school administrator just because they are not deep into technology that doesn’t mean that the technology elements in the school can misused for anything. We are working with our partners to make sure that solutions are created that educational institutions can use it with confidence. What is the framework you have developed for delivering these solutions? We are talking about foundational technologies like networking, communication technologies. The technologies that we have developed on networking is called fabric and SDN effect. Typically when you have a network which is basically cabling, internet cabling, wireless networking they are connected to common data centers inside of schools. It takes a lot

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of time to trouble shoot these things, to set up these things. Even a minor glitch will hamper the hours of productive time. What we have done from the infrastructure perspective is to make these things resilient and simple. From an educational perspective, we put element that we bring in with education specific component that they bring in and put it together as a solution that can be deployed at customer location. How much potential does Avaya sees in education sector? Avaya is a leader in education vertical in US and it’s an area where Avaya has a pedigree and a long history of success. What are the opportunities does Avaya sees while deploying smart solutions for smart education? The prime need for innovation based economy such as ours is to upscale our skills. Some of the government initiatives like Skill India, there’s more demand than supply. There’s huge number of people who needs to be trained into newer technology. What is the rate of adoption of your solutions in education sector? Some of the large institutions and government educational institutions have deployed our product. What are the features of the smart campus? Principally, any smart campus needs to have mechanism for educating students in a better way that enhances their basic capabilities. So moving away from bored, rigid classroom to an environment which supports globalisation, which is critical thinking. Any smart campus must really provide mechanism for innovative ways for education to happen. The second area is increasingly the type of students who attend particular institution needs to be addressed in more student specific ways. For example, students with special needs who need specific type of education or children who have different aptitude, institutes have to create mechanism where

Students are expected to move beyond learning and develop critical thinking

Currently our focus is to make Internetof-Things as an area which in the next 5-10 years and beyond will play a significant role in our life education is targeted to students that would be an example of a smart campus. We live in a hyper connected world, so school security has become paramount. Schools in terms of real estate cost, manpower cost everything is going up. Improving efficiency, removing redundancy in terms of energy, one of the key reasons where smart campuses can make a big difference. Smart campuses would leverage smart devices that we already have. How will smart schools play an important role in improving the performance of the students? Significantly it will play an important role. I think every student has a specific requirement and we typically treat group of students, which really not helps in targeting that particular student to upskill herself. In a smart campus, a

benefit to the student is to get tailored information. The entire best practices from institutions can be used to educate the students. How Avaya is supporting the Make in India initiative in developing the solution? Avaya India has R&D centres in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. India centres are most important locations for innovations happening for Avaya. Some areas like SDN effect technology has happened in Bangalore offices. Lot of work has been done from Bangalore and Pune. From make in India perspective we are shifting gears towards the country. What are your future plans? Currently our focus is to make internet of things as an area which in the next 5-10 years and beyond will play a significant role in our life. That’s the area of innovation on which we are working on. Other areas we are working on creating technologies that make it irrelevant where you are sitting in terms of location. Even if you have campus spread across multiple locations, or to rural areas, creating more mechanism for certification and resilience that’s what we are focusing right now.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

NIOS

NIOS Focuses on Vocational

Education

National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has three million students in India and abroad. Prof Chandra Bhushan Sharma, Chairman, NIOS in an exclusive interview with Seema Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) talks about the success ratio of the education programmes at the elementary level

NIOS is offering quality education online

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Please share the vision of NIOS to provide online study material for all students and flexible examination system to reach out to students of all age groups? National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is the largest institution, in terms of enrolment. Started as a wing of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in 1979, NIOS became an independent organisation in 1989. The NIOS has served more learners in the school sector than any other institution. Today, it has approximately three million students on its roll in India and abroad. NIOS has developed its own Learning Management System (LMS) for providing quality school education online. LMS has been named as VOS (Virtual Open Schooling). Through the VOS, learners can pursue school–based courses online leading to certification. Learners can study the study material using asynchronous or synchronous mode facilitating interaction with peers and teachers. Currently, NIOS is offering five vocational courses under the VOS, ICT applications and four independent six months modules of rural technology. VOS offers online admissions, online content related to the subjects, online live chat-rooms, discussion forum, blog, online classes through video conferenc-

ing, online assignment and assessment, etc. to learners through LMS. After the successful completion of the course, learners appear in on-demand examination (term end) for certification. NIOS offers number of vocational, life enrichment and community oriented courses besides general and academic courses at secondary and senior secondary level. What is the success ratio of the students passing out from NIOS? NIOS offers a number of vocational, life enrichment and community oriented courses besides academic courses leading to secondary and senior secondary certificate. During the academic session 201415, 28,734 learners had registered for our vocational courses across India. Female learners exceeded the males, both in registration and pass percentage. Nearly 73 per cent female learners and 64 per cent male learners have successfully completed their courses. Negotiations with agencies in India and abroad are going on to augment vocational education especially of girls between 14-18 years age group. Please throw light on your Open Basic Education Programme for elementary level courses? NIOS has launched the Open Basic Education (OBE) programme in 1994 as

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an alternative educational programme equivalent to elementary education of the formal education system. It is an equivalency programme and provides three tier education under OBE i.e. A level (equivalent to class 3), B level (equivalent to class 5) and C level (equivalent to class 8). In the year 2000, the programme was also operationalised for children between 6 to 14 years age group with the help of accredited agencies (AAs). The RTE Act, 2009 has made it compulsory for all children between the age of 6 to 14 years to join the formal schooling system. However, NIOS was advised to continue the OBE programme till 31st March 2013 and then again till March 2015. The country still has significant number of out of school children, which is estimated to be 60.41 lakhs (2.97 per cent). Therefore, considering the proposal of NIOS, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has decided to continue the OBE programme for children between the age group 6-14 years till March 2017 with the objective to mainstream children. How do you ensure that children learn basic language and numeracy skills? NIOS offers courses at the secondary and senior secondary levels to its learners. Learners who have attained the minimum age of 14 years can register for the secondary course and 15 years for the senior secondary course. It is presumed that by this age, these learners will have already established their numeracy and language skills through their interaction at school and society at large. The learners who register for the Open Basic Education (OBE) programme have to complete six years of age at the time of registration or are adults who have already acquired functional literacy skills. There are accredited agencies authorised by NIOS to conduct classes for these learners to ensure that adequate language and numeracy skills are developed in them. What is the student assessment system maintained by NIOS? The Assessment of learners in NIOS is done through public examination as well as ‘On Demand Examination’. Transfer of Credits (TOC) is allowed in two subjects for the

drop out learners from other recognised boards/councils. The teaching and learning activity is conducted through 30 Personal Contact Programmes (PCP) in theory and 05 PCP in practical components at the accredited institutes, study centre allotted to the learners during the first year of the registration. The internal assessment is conducted at the study centre through tutor marked assignments (TMA) during the course of PCP and 20 per cent of the weightage is allotted for TMA. Assessment in practical components is judged through external examination conducted at the relevant study centre and theory examination is done through public examination conducted twice a year or through on demand examination conducted round the year. The learner gets an opportunity to appear in nine public examinations and as many as on demand examinations during the valid-

Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC): The major objective of collaboration with ITDC is to provide the learners knowledge and exposure of the hotel industry. The courses are diploma in food production and management, diploma in food beverage operations, diploma in housekeeping and maintenance, diploma in front office operations, diploma in bakery and confectionary. These courses are of one year duration. Indian Medical Association (IMA)- The IMA has helped us in designing diploma in medical imaging technology and diploma in medical laboratory technology. The duration of these two courses is 2 years. Construction Industry Development Council– The CIDC assisted in designing construction related courses. The course on Construction Supervision (Civ-

The Assessment of learners in NIOS is done through public examination as well as ‘On Demand Examination’. Transfer of Credits (TOC) is allowed in two subjects for the drop out learners from other recognised boards/councils ity of registration i.e. within five years. Fair evaluation is ensured by allotting random code to each learner appearing in the assessment. The marks of assessment conducted are recorded on an OMR award sheet in duplicate. The result of the assessment is declared within 30 days from the last date of the examination and the same is made available on NIOS website. There is also a facility of accumulation of result and transfer the same into the next examination result till the learner is eligible for certification. NIOS has also entered into many collaborative projects with NGOs and private organisations for the development of vocational courses. Kindly throw light on them? What are the subjects you are focusing through vocational streams? NIOS has partnered with a number of professional bodies like:-

il) is offered through the network of CIDC. The duration of this course is 6 months. CISCO – The online course “IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software” developed by CISCO is being offered by NIOS. The duration of the course is 6 months and entry qualification is 10th pass. National Informatics Center (NIC)– NIC and NIOS have taken up jointly the development of two courses viz certificate in web designing and diploma in web designing and development with specific emphasis on guidelines for Indian Government Website (GIGW). The NIOS has plans to provide all our study material as MOOC and also provide the facility to appear for examination whenever, wherever. If our proposal is accepted, we would like to start a new stream of +2 Vocational. Learners desirous of obtaining a +2 certificate in vocational stream should be allowed to obtain it without being forced to study tradition ‘Content’ leased subjects.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

CRM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) might have been widespread in the corporate sector; its usage in education sector is gaining strength over the period of time to serve students entire life cycle, Elets News Network (ENN) finds out how CRM helps in improving student admission processes while enhancing personal communication

he shifting focus of the educational institutions towards technology helps to operate and interact with students, alumni and staff members in an innovative way. But, this will be ineffective if the focus on them is lost. It is true that the technology is paramount in every sphere today and to cope with the rising demands, it is essential for the educational institutes to change their style of working. The institutes are in a financial press and to get through the problems of falling revenues and rising costs, more and more institutions are moving to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software system. The software tool not only helps in reducing the cost but also increases revenue, identify new opportunities, and channels for expansion, improving customer value, satisfaction and profitability. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The education sector is witnessing a huge change in the way prospective students are getting to know about them (digital marketing), engaging with them (social media), and converting into paying students (multiple influence points). Many of these students are in their teens or early 20s and hence are some of the earliest adopters of new technology. The dynamic nature of this demographic forces a lot of education companies to rethink how they are

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

CRM Augments

Student Life Cycle

reaching out and talking to these students,â&#x20AC;? informs Shreekala Kurup, COO, Crack Verbal. While CRM is widespread in corporate sector, its usage has been limited in education sphere. With the rising service expectations, universities have to realign their strategies to serve students across their entire student life cycle. But the usage of CRM will definitely play a wider role as the educational institutions may benefit from CRM by improving

student facing processes, personalising communication with students, sharing information among departments, and increasing student retention and satisfaction. Having been one of the booming technologies for organisations and institutes to decrease cost and increase revenue, this solution also helps in trimming the expenses, quality effectiveness of the recruitment process and stabilising existing relations with students.

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Proper lead tracking and reduction in the errors or duplication of entries into institutes reduce the time of the executive for following up with the similar lead which is admitted from different source and provides further merging if there is any duplicate entry done. Educational institutes increase their revenue because the lead is properly converted into an account with the help of dormancy module. CRM allows to have a less length of the sales cycle due to dormancy module every lead is properly nurtured with the lead history on where most of the time is been given converting the lead into an account. The CRM allows to have a proper allocation of the money in different areas like advertisement for varied courses, road shows etc as the CRM

in this domain. Email sequences and automated campaigns are some of the ways in which CRM is being used in this sector,” explains Kurup. To help institutions succeed Kurup emphasised on three main functions that should be made operational: (a) Lead management (b) Conversion & Engagement (c) Post-sales Services

Adoption of CRM At the outset, an institute that is considering moving to a CRM needs to be forward-looking and technologysavvy. Institutes need to understand that for a CRM system to really work, there has to be a way by which everyone in the organisation is empowered to both information as well as ability to make decisions. So, in some sense CRM would require an institution to

To speed up response processes, many communication elements can be automated. It can shorten the overall length of the enrollment process, reducing recruit attrition. It opens the doors to e-document submission and submission besides assisting in spotting trends Advantages The use of CRM systems helps the educational institutions attract and withhold correspondingly qualified and prospective students, better relationship with corporate, improve the conversion coefficient and cut down the number of lost opportunities or applicants. To speed up response processes, many communication elements can be automated. It can shorten the overall length of the enrollment process, reducing recruit attrition. It opens the doors to e-document submission and submission besides assisting in spotting trends which become the feedback for other departments included in the process. The usage of CRM can help efficiently manage staff, faculty, administrative and student information and later result in significant improvements in employee efficiency, daily working processes and cross-department collaboration.

provides you with the graphical view of how much return every medium is providing in terms of expenses incurred.

Customer satisfaction Customer with higher satisfaction at every stage of the lead is been integrated with predefine SMS and email with different course so when an inquiry is made by the student sms is send to the mobile number which creates confidence in students. In present times, with the advent of the internet, most education companies have the means to attract the best students from a wider pool. The student of today is enhanced bombarded with tones of information from various sources. “The differentiating factor that the student is looking for is someone who can answer his/her queries promptly, and engage from the get-go in a relevant way. This is where CRM assumes huge significance

revisit its own workflows to see what changes need to be made to leverage the full functionality of the CRM. The crucial advantage of CRM comes into play when scaling up an institution – it reduces the manual effort that goes into customer management by a huge factor. So, if an institute foresees a spurt of growth in the near future, it would profit a lot from adopting CRM. On the contrary, Kurup feels, “Currently, I think there is still some reliance on using non-automated systems such as Google Docs, MSExcel etc. However, these systems are broken and do not provide a 360-degree engagement of the student. Secondly, many educational institutes do not want to spend too much on technology implementation and training people to using complex systems. The way forward is to use a simple cloud-based CRM system and implement only the basic requirements, before moving

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

CRM

Emerging CRM processes and technologies will drive the growth of new types of resources and services into a more complex integration and functionality.â&#x20AC;? The emerging CRM processes and technologies will drive the growth of new types of resources and services. This new functionality is much focused in the student area and precisely in the higher education side. The performance of the technology will have an impact on students, administrative staff and management. A key to any CRM implementation is to understand that the details will vary from company to company. A suggestion would be to pick up a few key metrics such as student acquisition cost and student service cost, and then measure the success based on the reduction in the costs in those parameters. This way, it will be easy to justify any further investment made on the CRM system. CRM delivers conceptual and instructional framework for directing institutional activities to attract and retain its various customers. The benefits of implementing CRM are far reaching. Adopting the technology will increase the revenue up to 42 per cent, decrease in cost of sales by 35 per cent, decrease in order errors by 80 per cent, reduction in length of sales cycle by 25 per cent, increase in margin by 2 per cent and increase in customer satisfaction rating by 20 per cent.

Impact of using CRM The use of CRM drives the growth of

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The education sector is witnessing a huge change in the way prospective students are getting to know about them (digital marketing), engaging with them (social media), and converting into paying students (multiple influence points), says Shreekala Kurup, COO, Crack Verbalâ&#x20AC;? new types of resources and services. The new functionality will be focused in the student area. The student related functionality and performance will have a greater impact on students as well as on the administrative staff and management, the faculty and institution as a whole. CRM has a major impact on schools through shifting the focus from product to customer or client. The purpose of CRM for education institutes is to increase the pupil number, to improve pupil outcomes and so on. A good CRM helps the schools to grow. With the increasing number of satisfied parents, and positive endorsements to prospective parents will lead to adding more numbers to the school. It is also

necessary to involve practical strategies for engaging with parents or the wider community. In an effort to understand how education relationship management tools are supporting students through the entire lifecycle, it is essential to deploy a good system of CRM to report the efficiency achieved by the users. A survey done by American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers shows that 80 per cent of respondents reported seeing increased efficiency with the use of CRM, including efficiencies in advising, alumni development, registration and student support service. The report also finds that CRM has a significant influence on changes in practice and staffing. 82 per cent of respondents have indicated that there had been changes in practice according to the survey done by American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers. The CRM system has little to offer particularly to the technology savvy students of today who want to be more in control of their learning environment. They need higher level of access to information about their performance, and their future. They also demand that technology resources be an integral part of their learning experience. With the virtual access to faculty and students, the old way of interacting with them is untenable.

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all over India are looking to use technology to enhance learning in classrooms. The AIE can be your partner to implement practical, effective, and easy to use learning systems that have proven results in the Indian classroom environment. Whether your school follows an Indian board or an International one, the AIE has custom tailored solutions in Math, English, and Arts for grades KG. through 8. Our on-site training and continued monitoring and support ensures that your school investment propagates through to measurable student success. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s our promise.

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FLIPPED CLASSROOM

Fruits of Flip Side

Classrooms

Flipped Classroom is a process that would turn around the traditional technique of teaching methodology, shifting focus from lecture delivering to student learning. Zankrut Oza, Assistant Professor, VES Institute of Management Studies and Research (VESIM) shares an overview of the flipped classroom

“Y

ou will be doing your students a much greater service by reducing the amount of material that you are covering and actually ensuring that students are learning it, rather than making sure that you are ticking off everyone checkpoint in your ideal syllabus. Learning comes from practice, and you have to help and teach your students to practice just as you help and give them the basic knowledge and skills of your discipline,” said by James M. Lang, Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty. General method of teaching in our country even today is focused on the faculty in the classroom, giving students only an interactive opportunity when required, i.e. to solve any doubt or when a question is raised by the faculty, student has to revert compulsorily. The modes of teaching has been board-oriented, dictated or in power point presen-

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Flipped classroom is a learner-centred method, which shifts focus from lecture delivering to student learning tation form. Here, the overall feel is that a faculty is like a broadcasting station and others are the avid listeners tuning into the classroom.

While catching the frequency, every listener has his own grasping power to catch the content, understand and analyse it. In the whole process, it is selfunderstood (read misunderstood) by a faculty that every student has received the same content as transferred. Here, the students catered to are average or just above average, while the best of the students are not challenged on learning topics and below-the-average or struggling students are left haywire. Most of the time was spent on lecturing and a little on its application, which disturbingly dilutes the basic essence of studying in education system. To overcome such hurdles, a teaching technique was developed known as “flipped classroom” or “inverted classroom”. We are not talking about anti-gravity experiment, but a process that would turn around the traditional technique of teaching methodology. The core of the flipped classroom is a learn-

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er-centred method, which intentionally shifts focus from lecture delivering to student learning. So, what happens exactly over here is that in place of lectures delivered in the classroom, assignments are given to be worked at home, thus creating a reverse scenario. Faculty search the online tutorial videos or podcasts or create their own subject matter of expertise and the students listen to them at home. The class time is utilised for execution based on this knowledge. This breaks the educator’s mind-set of teaching with Bloom’s Revised Taxanomy (2001) where students are focusing on higher forms of cognitive learning like analysis, application, evaluation in the classroom and performing the lower levels of cognitive work like comprehension and receiving knowledge outside of class. Inside the classroom, students receive the support from their faculty in application and help in completing projection from their peers.

New Buzzword In last few years, “flip classroom” has become a buzzword in the international education ecosystem. It all started with a Harvard professor Eric Mazur developing concepts which influenced flipped teaching method, by creating an instructional plan, which he called as peer instruction. Prof Mazur also published a book in 1997, known as Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual. His finding was a method to shift knowledge transfer outside the class and collate the information inside the classroom, which gives him a chance to coach his students in their learning instead of lecture. A research was carried out in two colleges for the subject of economics by three faculties namely Lage, Platt and Tregliaon with the help of VCRs, moving away from the presentation way of teaching. They published a paper called “Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment” (2000) which says that a faculty or trainer can leverage the classroom duration that becomes available from the inversion of the classroom. One of the first executors of this concept was Salman Khan – an educator

and founder of Khan Academy. He used the Yahoo’s Doodle Notepad to teach his cousin Nadia in Maths. When asked for similar help, he made educative videos and uploaded them on YouTube. Sighting the success and recommendations, he started the world infamous “Khan Academy” on the same teaching model, which is backed by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ann and John Doerr, the Brazilbased Lemann Foundation, AT&T and Google. With the increasing popularity in Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), it became easier for faculties to find relevant online content for the flipped classrooms. International organisation, TED, known for their conferences and online inspirational talks, took a step ahead with TED-Ed, a web portal of educational videos which can be customised further. Aim behind it was to leverage both educators and animators to create quality videos. The head of TED, Chris Anderson said, “It’s a better fit for education in the 21st century, and it’s

Students of this generation love technology. If it can be leveraged, they can have joy in studying and knowing a concept before it is introduced in the class the next logical step in TED’s evolution. TED-Ed was found as a way of empowering teachers, as well as giving a large platform for great teachers to produce their talks or lessons on video for the world.” There are many free online tools available for educators to support flipped classroom and create their own videos, customise and use them with students like SooMeta, Office Mix, FlipGrid, EduCreations, KnowMia, 9Slides, Jing, Video In Video, Mozilla PopCornMaker, etc. Open source Learning Management System like Moodle is also available and can be reframed according to the needs. No wonder, there is a vast community of over 25,000 Flipped Educators on a web portal called FLN’s Professional Learning Community (formerly called the Ning). One can easily join the FLN’s

free online Professional Learning Community (PLC) and get connected with thousands of flipped educators across the globe. Their mission is to provide educators with the knowledge, skills, and resources to successfully implement flipped learning.

Flipped Classroom-Need Now, the question arises is whether the students really need flipped classroom? It is positive, as the benefits for students are enormous. First of all, a change in methodology surely excites them and brings freshness in way of teaching. By using the flipped-classroom method, students can learn the subject or topics at their own pace. With the process, students start framing collaborative groups, helping each other to learn instead of just relying on the faculty. Students of this generation love technology. If it can be leveraged, they can have joy in studying and knowing a concept before it is introduced in the class. Once they have gone through the study material, the communication in the classroom turns to be interactive and brick and mortar walls are broken. Here, more time can be given to groups with similar problems or the individual who fails to understand the given matter of the subject. With students becoming active part of the learning process, it helps creating learners out of the students. As said by Robert Talert, “Aim of higher education is to produce learners, not just students!” There has been a debate whether it works well with higher education or not, but the reasons are reasonably sufficient enough to practice. It helps working students to refer the material whenever needed. Many of the students live far from the institute they study, lot of their time is wasted in travelling. With flipped classroom method, they can go through teaching material at any place and any moment of time. It helps the faculties, to remain absent physically on some unavoidable circumstances without hampering the ongoing sessions in an institution. It increases the student – faculty and student – student interaction, working more in collaboration. It also helps

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FLIPPED CLASSROOM a faculty really differentiate the level of the students in the classroom and take the flow of the subject accordingly. It has been found that with flipping the classroom, students excel in the course outlines and understand the topic in holistic nature. In an era, where many communities do not trust the educational system, or there are issues with the content of the lecture, it creates transparency among the whole ecosystem. Instead of in worrying what students are being exposed in the classroom, parents or guardians can find the discussed topics in a moment. In flipped classrooms, students can also be assigned to individual or group readings and prepare for presentation. Flipped Classroom technique is integration in teaching, it will serve as an integral part of learning and not detach them from classrooms. Students will come to classrooms more to learn the continued topic and benefit the most with active learning system. Smart faculties involve surprise test, quiz or discussion on pre – given topic and asses the student, where points or marks are given accordingly. It’s not just an activity to be different from other faculties or institutions, but a practised methodology which can be measured and taken as a regular practice in teaching. Key elements to practise the flipped learning are divided in simpler steps: l Give an opportunity to the students for gaining first exposure to the subject prior to classroom teaching begins l Provide an incentive based system for students to prepare for classroom learning l There must be a mechanism to assess the learning of the student and consider it in grades l In this situation, in-class activities increase students dive deep in search of knowledge, which focuses on higher level cognitive activities in the classroom The Four Pillars of F-L-I-P as given by the Flipped Learning Network are:

F – Flexible Environment A work environment where the faculty and the students both get the flexibil-

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ity of space and medium to interact and learn from each other

L – Learning Culture Moving away from traditional teaching methods, it enhances students to learn without teacher and a culture of selflearning is fostered among the students

I – Intentional Content Faculties can make the content keeping in mind the level of the students and set the structure and direction of the content accordingly

P – Professional Educator It gives an opportunity to faculty for transforming themselves into professional educators, who not only teach a subject, but also improve its instructional method, heartily accepts the criticism, be reflective in their practice and thrive for excellence in their area and subject matter of interest

While we are discussing a lot on implementing and culture creation of flipped learning, it is also necessary to know the views of the students. Talking about the perception of students, in 2013, Speak Up online surveys, done by the national education, Project Tomorrow in support with the Flipped Learning Network in USA, on 180,000 plus middle and high school students, almost three-quarters of these students agree that flipped learning would be a good way for them to learn, with 32 per cent of those students strongly agreeing with that idea. In the same survey done amongst district administrators of the education system, 25 per cent recognised flipped learning as a significant impact making method on transforming teaching and learning in their district.

For researcher in various fields of education system of academia and trainers, there lays ample opportunities to do research for understanding, developing and challenging the flipped classroom method of teaching. Various academic and management journals are looking for such scholarly research works and foster the growth and implementation of the method. Discussing only the advantages and looking on one side of the subject is a very narrow approach, henceforth, it is necessary to have a glance and know the challenges of flipped classroom system. It has also been observed that for initial phase for most of the faculties, they find it difficult to manage the class, which they are used to keep under their control. Chaos leading to discussion and debate is good for churning the best from a topic, but if it leads in the wrong direction, it can create issues for the actioner. A methodology what we are looking now as an opportunity can also turn into an urgency, if students, stop coming into the classroom for receiving the informational content delivery which they can get easily on their own. It turns into a challenge for faculties to transform how they use their classroom interaction in such a way that it continues to be relevant and valuable for the student community. One also need to understand that self-generated videos or given material are not just a person speaking or delivering the whole as in the length of the lecture. Other problem faced is to integrate the amount of content online and offline mode, and the quantity to be served in both the mediums. With the challenges, there are advantages and emerging opportunities to explore and execute the flipped classroom technique, with the emphasis laid on skilled India. It can be a useful way to deliver education to millions of students. Way further, it fulfils the dreams of Digital India and the next neo generation is waiting for the educators and academia to adapt their chosen and interesting mediums of learning. On the cross roads, time will be the best judge of the scenario.

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Robokidz Enhances Creative thoughts for Kids Robokidz with an aim to bring a change in the development years of children has launched programmes for kids to expose them to the world of robotics. The young and dedicated team delivers robotics education programme for school students in the form of workshops and robotic lab

orn in 2010 with the motto of promoting technology, scientific thinking and innovation, Robokidz has surpassed five years of creating an aura of a science and technology spectacle year after year. Well established as Science and Technology Skill Development Company, Robokkidz is reaching out to more than 30,000 kids in over 300 Schools across India. The company has made an inception by exposing school children to the world of robotics. The dedicated young and dynamic team creates and deliver robotics education programme for school students in form of Workshops, Year Long Programme and Robotics Lab. Robokidz has a weekend programme named Young Engineer’s Club designed especially for kids with little or no knowledge of robotics and electronics. The team inspires young kids to develop

Sagar Lalit Sanghvi, Founder & MD, Gemini Training & Staffing

Robokkidz is reaching out to more than 30,000 kids in over 300 Schools across India an interest in science and engineering. They mentor students about doing activities in a group and analyse and solve any problems faced during their activities. Students will be working on many real life applications under the guidance of trained faculties. The mission of Robokidz is to inspire and develop children to think creatively, reason systematically and explore their potential to shape their future. The team strives to provide best possible resources and education in the field of Electronics and Robotics. Robocon Jr. is an initiative by MIT’s Pune Vishwashanti, Gurukul and Robokidz India LLP with an aim to unleash the young engineers within the child. It is robotics competition for kids of ages 8 to 15 years. This allows them to learn in an active, constructionist

environment, building physical objects and experiencing abstract concepts in intentionally meaningful ways. The opportunity to use robotics, to simulate learning and problem solving offers children the possibility of realising that computer technology extends beyond the reach of their desktops. Since four years, Robokidz has been organising various National and State-level Robotics Competitions in association with premium institutes like MIT, Pune and IIT Bombay. These competitions have been creating a visual spectacle year after year. Some of the events hosted by us are: Robosoccer – 2010 Robosoccer – 2011 Robocon Jr. – 2013 Robocon Jr. – 2014 Techfest, IIT Bombay – 2015.

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Delivering Education through

Innovation & Technology With the focus of providing smart safety solutions for students, tech Smart has developed smart modules that make school infrastructure smart and helps teachers and parents to track the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities with a single move

he vision of tech Smart, a solution division of Secureye, is to deliver education through innovation and technology. Focusing on the security of the students at schools, tech Smart is working on providing smart infrastructure to the schools. A pioneer in providing security and surveillance hardware and dedicated solutions for institutions, tech Smart has created a niche in the market just by providing simple and innovative solutions to cut the operational hazards of the business. The integrated solutions developed by the team of experts make infrastructure smart. The experts at tech Smart have developed comprehensive solutions for child safety, enquiry, school bus tracking, admission, fee, class timetable, assignments, and academics of any institution for multiple locations.

Modules at tech Smart School Bus Tracking: To keep your children safe from the challenges of going missing, abduction, road accidents and other mishaps, the School Bus Tracking solution helps in keeping an eye on the students going to school from starting point to the doorstep. The solution makes sure that every student and his guardian are well informed about the schedule of the bus. Bus will be enabled with driver console which will make driver smart by providing detailed information about stoppages and students. Parents will get a notification of the bus reaching the stop before two stops on their mobile. Parents and school administration can do the real-time tracking of the bus.

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Transport Management System to track children Digital ID Card: The technology will help outdoor and indoor tracking of Student once he is out of house. It will capture attendance in Classroom, library, labs etc. and the parents can get the information about the movement of their child on the mobile. It will also empower students with real time daily activities and time table along with SOS button for emergency use. Digital ID Cards will also activate cashless management in school like a student can do cashless transactions in Canteen, Fee, Uniform etc Live recording and broadcasting of lecture: This solution presents a complete automated end-to-end system that supports capturing, editing, packaging, broadcasting, viewing, and archiving. The system architecture minimises the pre- and post-production time, and a fully automated lecture capture system that synchronously captures all the content of the lecture, including audio, video, and presentation material.

Teachers can edit the content they recorded in the classroom. The lecture can be made available for online streaming or podcast. With the help of content management system, the recorded lecture can be published online or on the digital library of the school. Mobile APP: The application provides real-time updates to parents at the click of a button. The app sends a text to the parents after the teacher approves absence of the students. The teacher and parents can chat and discuss the progress and problems of the child on this platform. Besides, there are add-on cameras mounted in the school buses and the classes, which record all activities. With the help of mobile app, parents can also track the location of their children. In case of misbehaviour by driver or conductor or by other students, parents can immediately get the information and help their child.

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Nurturing Skills Among Children CADD@School methodology helps students to develop balanced brain skills and to apply their knowledge to better their performance in studies and activities. CADD courses are designed to equip the kids to meet their daily challenges and help them transform from a kid to Kiddovator

ADD Centre is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest CAD training organisation with 520 centres and presence in 24 countries having trained over 1 million college students and professionals for 27 years. CADD Centre is keen on associating with schools to add value to students through the CADD@School initiative. CADD@School has identified certain skills needed for the students of age 12 to 17 like logical thinking, analytical ability and soft skills and will impart these skills through the specially designed and customised KIDOVATORS programme. The KIDOVATORS programme aims to nurture balanced brain development in students of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 11th standards by training them on generic, specific and soft skills which will be of great value addition. Classrooms ought to be a digital zone that will enable the students to enter the engineering mindset. This mindset develops when the students

grasp complex scientific concepts of the school or college curriculum in a practical way. CADD@School remains a value addition programme that seeks to widen the horizons of the student without becoming an obstacle to the regular curriculum. The training using our licensed software will take place on campus in a convenient manner for both the student and the institution.

CADD@School helps in enhancing brain development in kids. Childhood is all about learning. The brain and the learning connections within the brain are the heart of learning for kids to achieve their aspiration. For instance, when student learn the fundamentals of engineering drawing they learn the concept of arts, science and analytics that are taught at schools. This early initiation from Cadd@School helps the kid acquire experience, develop skills, and broaden their knowledge by increasing the control of materials, creativity and analytical skills. The programme brings a host of creative and professional software courses to the students of higher secondary schools or technical and vocational training institutions. The programme opens the gate to the world of imagination and creativity. It helps students excel in higher studies and future career, harnessing the power of visual thinking.

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Developing Creative Minds Aiming to empower students with skills, MindBox programmes designed for students from grade 1to12 aid in developing their thinking process and creativity

indBox is an initiative that aims to empower students with 21st century skills. The company develops creativity & life skills of students by an output method of expression using Visual Communication as language, design thinking and STEAM as a subject. The delivery happens using Technology as a tool inside the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus through Project | Design Based Training Methodology for Class 1st-12th students. MindBox provides curriculum, worksheet, softwareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s along with qualified faculty to conduct these sessions and a four way assessment system for school and students. They also provide national and international level competition for students to demonstrate and showcase their skills. Programmes Art2Robotics The programme help students to learn to build robots and perform tasks with using pre-programmed, easy to use smart Cubo Kits. The programme help develops motor skills, improves creativity and imagination, and exposure to collaboration at a young age. Art2Paint (Digital Painting) This programme combines the power

Mindbox provides national and international level competition for students of software and hardware technology with traditional art skills in training students on creating digital paintings. It is a fun activity based programme, introduces students to handling of digital tools of art creation at an early stage of education.

Game Maker Lite. The programme is for students studying in grade 4-7. It helps in improving the number and shape recognition, grouping and counting, develops sense of video perception and colour recognition, improves hand-eye coordination and promoting creativity.

Art2Animation A fun based programme of claymation helps students learn to create models with plasticine clay and animate them with the help of HUE HD camera and Animation software. The Programme introduces students to the creative medium of claymation of expression of creativity and imagination. The programme helps improve the sense of colour, size and proportions, experience of creating different shapes and forms.

Art2Video (Videography) Art2video will create, develop and frame your moments. Select a theme or a function, conceptualise and record the entire event, edit and add titles and digital effects and produce a final video output. Programme includes videography, storyboarding, shot composition, lighting techniques, importing video, edit, adding effects, audio and text and making a final DVD of the same.

Art2Game (Game Maker) The objective of this programme is to design and develop a simple 2D game for a PC using drag and drop based programming software

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Art2Animation An objective oriented programme designed to help students use their own creativity and imagination in creating 3D animation content using industry standard software Autodesk Maya. A programme that covers up the entire 3D animation pipeline. The programme is designed for students of grade 8-10.

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Making our Youth Industry-Ready Purple Squirrel Eduventures collaborates with colleges across the country as Knowledge Partners to design programmes that align with curriculum and evolving industry expectations

urple Squirrel Eduventures believes the world’s largest youth population needs industry-driven experiential learning to shape its future. The Mumbaibased, SINE IIT-Bombay incubated startup designs industry exposure programmes that combine industry visits, workshops and projects for students across streams. Founded in September 2013, Purple Squirrel has already partnered with more than 450 companies and worked with 10,000 students across 80 colleges in 12 cities. It was funded by India Quotient in August 2014 and Matrix Partners India in April 2015.

Programmes Eduventures For a student, an industry visit is their first real encounter with the professional world, and it is likely to leave a lasting impact. PSQ’s Eduventures are curriculum-mapped industry visits designed to help students understand their career options better. Our Eduventures combine learning modules

– industry visits, skill development workshops, projects and unique local experiences - that can be customised for students. Colleges can choose from eight industry hubs across the country.

Live Projects Students work on live projects with companies across sectors. While projects train students, they also help companies shortlist talent and nurture employees into mentorship roles.

Skill-development Workshops Workshops impart field-specific skills that focus on hands-on training, making students more employable. The workshop format is flexible – ranging from half a day to three days.

ODIs A first-of-its-kind initiative, One-Day Industry Visits directly connect students to companies and workshops in their city. Spanning 20 cities across the country, ODIs introduce students to world outside of their classrooms.

Designed for you Our programmes cover all education streams Media students can spend time learning the ropes at various media companies such as advertising agencies, production houses and PR firms. They can learn and improve on skills such as photography, video editing and copywriting. We tie up with companies such as Ogilvy, NDTV, Radio Mirchi etc to design our programmes. B-school students and commerce students can explore various facets of management like finance, marketing, human resources and operations. Attending workshops and seminars at some of the biggest management firms in the country is definitely an experience to remember. We work with companies across sectors such as Amul, Just Dial, Coca Cola and Nielsen. Engineering Eduventures span a wide range of interest areas, ranging from manufacturing to infrastructure and information technology to research. The programme also pays special attention to tech-oriented startups as they are the future. Our tie-ups feature companies such as P&G, UB Group, Siemens and Hyundai. Entrepreneurship culture is highlighted with students getting a chance to visit in India’s most promising startups such as Myntra and Zomato. Students are also introduced to the social sector through NGOs such as CRY and Akanksha.

The PSQ Impact

Abhijit Jorvekar (Vice President, Quick Heal), conducting an induction session at SIBM, Pune

Based on post-Eduventure feedback, 80.5% of the students said they had more clarity on their career options. Also, 55% of our partner companies are willing to offer internships and projects to our students.

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Hardik Sanghvi, Managing Director, VMukti Solutions

Altering Lives through Video

Communication

The objective of VMukti is to bring transformation in the lives of the people through innovations in video communication technology. The firm strives for innovations in webcasting, live video streaming and surveillance especially in the education sector

Mukti stands as one of the pioneer forces when it comes to Cloud based video streaming, surveillance and meeting. Constant focus on research and development since inception with the highest qualified and skilled talent in this industry has created a brand from a company called VMukti. The company provides expertise in balanced, cost effective delivery

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of live streaming and webcasting media across multiple platforms throughout the world. VMukti is thoroughly committed to provide reliable and quality services with unique fail-safe streaming solutions viz. cloud based video surveillance, webcam surveillance and meeting. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to manage portal, streaming knowledge base and skilled technical support team have made sure

that VMukti provides services and products par excellence. Through the unique global network of unfailing distribution servers, VMukti ensure the delivery of the highest quality content with high speed and performance regardless of the audience size and geographic location of the end user. The webinar software developed by experts is a quintessential example of the live event webcasting needs of the businesses worldwide. VMukti Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and its interactive live video streaming solutions are certified by Intel and have bagged numerous awards from reputed international organisations like NASSCOM, Red Herring & ISBA. The firm has 80 per cent of market share in India. The objective of VMukti is to bring out transformation in the lives of people through innovation in video communication technology. The company is a provider of monitoring and surveillance services in various verticals like education, media, government institutions, insurance, retail, finance, and banking and finance.

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Tutorial Going Live Working on the model of one-to-two education and providing an online tutoring platform for children, Vedantu is a breather for many students, who can also prepare for competitive exams with the teachers online in due course of time

assionately driven with a thought that education needs to be more personalised, four childhood friends Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena and Anand Prakash, after graduating from IIT, decided to bring a positive change in this sector and conceptualised Vedantu (www.vedantu.com) in 2014. The name Vedantu is influenced by Sanskrit words Veda (Knowledge) + Tantu (Network), signifying a ‘Knowledge Network.’ A live online tutoring platform, Vedantu aims to personalise and democratise learning with primary focus on 6th to 10th tuition sector in CBSE & ICSE curriculum. Students also have an option to prepare for tougher competitive exams like NTSE, PSA etc. or simply get their doubts cleared anytime, anywhere. The company spot and create quality teachers and ensure the quality education spreads without boundaries. Vedantu has completely re-imagined 1-to-1 teaching learning and created in-house WAVE technology (Whiteboard, Audio and Video Environment). It makes online learning a pleasure and enables teaching sessions even at a low bandwidth. A first of its kind ‘Marketplace for Teachers’ model, which has already been proven in other countries, Vedantu is on a mission to make it a game changer in India too. Here a student/parent can come and browse through a list of teachers based on ratings/reviews, communicate with them (chat/talk), choose a teacher and learn Live online with him/her. No other platform in India gives this end-toend integrated experience. This model addresses the basic problem of generalisation and one-size-fits-all in education today. Vedantu is the only initiative in the EdTech space that uses data analytics and algorithms to connect the most relevant teachers to the students

From L to R : Vamsi Krishna - CEO and Co-Founder, Anand Prakash Co-Founder & Head HR, Saurabh Saxena - Co-Founder & Head AIR, Pulkit Jain - Co-Founder & Head RDX as per their requirements and monitors the sessions. This is the most unbiased educational practice. We have so far catered to over 19K students and have successfully conducted over 10k hours of learning sessions. Vedantu offers services for students throughout India and in some special cases students abroad. The company is currently focusing on tier 1 cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, but it is getting traction from over 92 cities already. Vedantu has recently raised $5million in a Series A round of funding from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management. The first venture by these friends in education, Lakshya, was founded in 2006 which later got acquired by a listed company called MT Educare (Mahesh Tutorials) in 2012. As part of Lakshya the founders taught and mentored more than 10,000 students and trained more than 200 teachers. Key Differentiators Generalisation – Vedantu is solving the basic issue of one size fits all

mentality in education today. Apart from 1-to-1 learning, the company realised that best learning happens when a teacher sits with a student to discuss and teach him/her on a notebook shared between them. The shared Whiteboard on Vedantu replicates this for student and teacher sitting thousands of kilometres away. Passionate Teachers– Vedantu is inducting and creating a pool of high quality teachers/mentors who really love what they do and who are ‘Teachers by Choice’. In the process, company is creating employment for Women/Housewives who previously had limitations in going out to teach. Last mile problem - Making quality learning accessible anytime-anywhere with absolutely no boundaries. The new app for teachers, ‘Tapp’ connects them to students in no time. The content library is available at a click of a button. One can sort content, check documents, view videos, and attempt tests and assignments – all at one place. The company has integrated ‘Click to Call’ model.

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Ricoh Aids Learning through Innovation The paradigms of learning are changing rapidly. As the world is becoming digital, students are fast embracing technology into their personal lives, therefore, necessitating interactive learning environments in education too

he concepts of learning are rapidly changing. With every component tuning into digital mode, the students are imbibing technological advancement into their personal space. This change has seeped in the need to have an interactive learning environments in learning as well. The growing demands of the educational institutes are immense, ranging from infrastructure upgradation and technological adoption to staffing issues and providing engaging learning experiences. Having a vast experience in IT services, Ricoh is able to address the concerns of the stakeholders to a great extent. To aid institutions with a better result, Ricoh provides customised solutions for the educational institutions, be it schools or those of higher learning. The solutions help optimise and reduce cost to maximise return on investment. It also offers security for institution administrative work like student data and other sensitive information. The futuristic vision helps in reducing the chances of technology and multimedia content becoming obsolete. Ricoh solutions help in enhancing the productivity of both the faculty and the institute. The company provides end-to-end business solution for every department like computer centre, printing centre, classrooms, and institutional buildings. Some of the other offerings by Ricoh are: l ClassTech- an interactive learning solution for schools l Document and print management services- These are designed to meet the academic and administrative requirements of K-12 and higher education institutes

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End-to-end business solutions for every department INSTITUTION BUILDING • CCTV and security solutions • On-campus digital signage solutions

ADMINISTRATION CENTRE CLASSROOMS

LIBRARY AND EXAMINATION CENTRE • Access based secure printing solutions – question papers, answer sheets • Library management system

• Comprehensive student ERP systems • LMS integration with multifunction printers • School/College administration solutions • Workflow management systems including admissions and financial aid AUDITORIUM & • Education analytics • Cloud based platforms for housing COMMUNICATIONS CENTRE educational content and student • Multimedia interactive projectors PRINTING CENTRE records storage including Ultra Short Throw models • DPO for student life cycle • Copy printers for large volume printing – • Interactive whiteboards management question papers, notices • Portable communication systems – • Multifunction printers for economical end-toconnecting students with other end print-copy-scan solution schools, virtual classes with academic • Laser printers for low volume day-to-day printing experts • Wide format printers for printing posters, banners • Digitization and document management services SECURING TRANSPORT including archiving • Large scale printers including professional • GPS based tracking for the finishing such as folding, binding, lamination, entire school bus fleet booklet making • RFID tracking systems • Printing from mobile devices

• ClassTechTM interactive learning solution • Tablets and laptops for students

COMPUTER CENTRE • Installation of IT infrastructure including desktops/laptops • Facility management services • Student and staff IT support through virtual desk • Dedicated on-campus communication/collaboration through DocuLounge

l Visual Communication solutionsEnables collaborative and interactive learning in classrooms, thus, not only enriching the learning experience for students but also enhancing retention and making the entire process more productive for the students and teachers l IT Products & Services- Ricoh has the technical expertise and resources to build while own and operate large scale ICT projects for educational institutes. The company has partnered with global leaders to provide the best in class offerings across diverse applications. Ricoh specialising in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services has a distinct focus to cater to the growing demands of the education sector. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in about 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2015, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,231 billion yen (approx.

18.5 billion USD) and operates in about 200 countries and regions. What sets us apart is that we deliver not only a wide array of products, but consistent service levels across the globe, with a single point of contact and central coordination. In India, Ricoh operates through a robust network of 24 offices, and over 2500 dealers and business associates spread across the country. We are known for the quality of our technology, the exceptional standard of our customer service and our sustainability initiatives. Ricoh India Limited has been an ISO certified organisation since 1994, and is currently certified under ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 27001:2005 standards. The company also holds CMMI Level 4 certification. Under its corporate tagline, imagine. change., Ricoh helps companies transform the way they work and harness the collective imagination of their employees.

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Now, Re-Live your Classroom The vision of Impartus is to aid students with the video technologies while providing some innovative solutions in learning. The Lecture capture technology enables students to virtually re-wind their classroom experience on an anytime, anywhere basis

ounded in 2011 by a group of IIT and IIM alumnus, Impartus has developed products for the education sector. Having been one of the ed-tech companies, Impartus provide video solutions for teaching learning enhancement and taking learning beyond classrooms. With a team of more than 20 professionals across various organisational functions, the team is dedicated to bring innovations in the video solutions for the effective, fun learning for students and teachers. The comprehensive solution has “lecture capture technology” (automatic video recording of live classroom lectures) as its core feature. The access to recorded lectures and other study material through Impartus enables students to virtually re-live their classroom experience on anytime anywhere basis. It also assists the teacher in self-improvement. Impartus is an amalgamation of hardware and software which is provided as a turnkey solution to its customers. The end-user apps are available for all popular devices (laptops, tablets, mobiles) and platforms (Android, iOS, Windows). It is available in both cloud as well as onpremise installation and has robust Live Streaming functionality. The recorded videos are not just raw videos, they are fitted with numerous tools, making them interactive and engaging. The recordings

are done intelligently in multi-view mode (teacher, student, blackboard and presentation).

Interactive features include: Searchable Videos The captured videos can be tagged by teachers and students alike. Also, the system auto-tags the lecture using intelligent algorithms. This makes the video searchable and discoverable. The student can search by a keyword and all the videos and other content related to that keyword appear on the user screen.

Tap-To-Toggle The captured lectures are available in multiple views. To simulate the real classroom environment we have left it on the user’s choice to select the view he wants to view. The user can switch from one view to another just by clicking and tapping on the screen.

Video Bookmarks While viewing a lecture, the user can mark a segment and keep it as separate bookmark for future reference. All this can be done with few button clicks and the user can also create a playlist of such bookmarks.

Notes The user can create notes on the recorded videos which can be shared among fellow students as well. The lecturer can also

choose to create a note at some point during the lecture and share it to all the students. This feature can be used to provide the students with some extra information after the lecture.

Hand-Raiser Many a times, students have doubts when they are reviewing the lecture. The system facilitates the student with the ability to ask questions whenever she wants. These questions are then pushed onto the teacher’s working space. The teacher will have an option to either revert back on the platform itself with the answer or he may choose to discuss the same in the next scheduled lecture.

Post Editing Post-editing is an optional feature in this system. If enabled, all the recorded videos can be edited manually by the teacher to remove unwanted content post lecture. The lectures are distributed to students only after the lecturer confirms that the editing has been completed. Impartus is working on global innovations in the field of lecture capture, flipped classroom, and video intelligence. It has built a formidable education technology team pan India and abroad and has offices in Bangalore, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Kenya. Its e-learning channel partner is Pearson India and financial investor is Kaizen Private Equity.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

WES

Competent

through Next Education

Taking educational techniques to a next level through its easy and fun learning tools, Next Education shall give a tough edge to education solutions

ledge to creating brighter future of students, Next Education empowers schools with technology-based K-12 solutions that are used by over 1,50,000 teachers and impacts 7,000,000 students across 7,000 schools. To make learning and teaching easier, more fun, and more effective, Next Education has developed 10,000 learning modules that account for more than 1,000 hours of classroom teaching at school and junior college levels. The modules have been designed using contemporary learning design principles and undergone testing on and off the field. The company’s products are learner centric and make teaching easier and more effective for teachers. The learning solutions cover the syllabi of CBSE, ICSE, Army and all State Boards and cover seven Indian languages. From Leh to Kanyakumari, Next Education service network is spread across the country. With its on-site service support, teacher training, and advisory services, Next Education is transforming the face of school education in India. The Next learning architectural is an experiential education model designed as a blend of extensive research by the team of educators within the Indian market segment and contemporary international learning design principles. The products designed cater to both the teacher and the student. The teacher becomes a facilitator for the student’s journey in exploring each new

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

concept. And during the journey the student is encouraged to collaborate with other students and together build new cognitive models of the concept being taught.

Next Education provides end-to-end service in education sector: Set up and Implementation

The dedicated team of technicians and trainers ensure a smooth set up and an effective implementation of the solution.

e-Learning Support Engineer/ Technical Support Engineer The company has more than 400 personnel across the length and breadth of the country and ensures that they attend the clients’ problems within a week.

Customer Helpline The customer helpline makes sure that every customer’s voice is heard and acted upon.

Regular Teacher Training A product implementation is successful only if the customer uses it effectively. Our regular teacher training programmes ensure that schools are abreast with the latest features and additions in our products and continue using the solution effectively.

Exhaustive Upgrades The company aims to build a relationship and not just a transaction. Our

development team constantly upgrades our products with the latest in syllabi and teaching methodologies.

Products and Solutions Teach Next: An interactive e-learning solution combining the best of new-age technology, creative and interactive tools. Next Books: An award-winning and engaging series of comprehensive curriculum books for pre-primary and primary schools. Next Deeksha: Training, accreditation services, and consultancy solutions for schools by experienced and dedicated inhouse educators. Next Lab: An experiential learning approach for schools enabling students to use hands-on activities to understand English, Maths, Science and Robotics better. Learn Next: An independent, engaging and intelligent platform which fosters self-learning, and helps students grasp complex topics easily. Next ERP: An integrated school management system which streamlines all processes, departments and functions of a school. Next Gurukul: An online K-12 community which facilitates collaboration among students, teachers, parents and principals. Next Learning Platform: An adaptive technology solution to provide teachers and students a platform to envision, explore and create individualised learning materials.

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EduLanche offers academic Networking Platform With a vision to provide an academic networking platform, and enrich the user experience, EduLanche is scaling up to become the world’s largest academic network serving students, teachers, publishers, institutions and recruiters from around the globe, says Dr Nishanth B Singh, CEO, EduLanche What prompted you to start EduLanche? I completed medical school training successfully in 2012 at Government Medical College, Thrissur followed by a year of rural healthcare in India during 2013-14. Curiosity in e-learning led to development of free knowledge sharing website, www.lifehugger.com during medical school days. The intuitive idea of developing a network for academics, led to the launch of EduLanche Academic Network in 2014. Personally, I funded the initial phase of the project with funds received from publications. What are the various difficulties encountered in doing business on ground level? We believe it is important to anticipate and avoid hurdles as much as possible and have the conviction to face difficulties that may emerge in the course of the business.

What is the market size of the services offered by you in India at present? EduLanche Academic Network has a global potential proven by the user base expanding in India and abroad. The market opportunity is substantial at $300 billion. India’s online education alone is predicted to reach $110 billion by 2015. What are the major benefits for organisations adopting your solutions? EduLanche offers an exclusive platform for academic networking. E-learning, e-commerce, recruitment solutions and advertising have been enabled to enrich the user experience. On EduLanche, students can seamlessly connect with teachers, academic institutions, recruiters and vice-versa. What is the vision of your company for next two years? EduLanche is scaling up to become the

world’s largest academic network serving students, teachers, publishers, institutions and recruiters from around the globe in five years from now. What are the various methods you are using to increase the visibility of your organisation? EduLanche mostly depends on word of mouth publicity among students to inform teachers and institutions about the benefits of EduLanche Academic Network Online and direct marketing is being utilised. How you can differentiate your services from competitors? EduLanche is most awarded educational startup and has won five major awards within six months of launch for being the first to have integrated learning, networking and careers on a single platform.

digitalLEARNING / August 2015

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Effective Learning Pramod Ponnaluri, Co-Founder, Kitki started his venture in 2013 with a vision to offer experiential learning modules to aid kids experience the beauty of learning through hands-on workshops and field visits. Today, the company develops board games based on geometry, chemistry and history that drive learning in an effective manner

What were the various reasons behind starting Kitki? I never even thought I would become an entrepreneur. I was part of a fairly standard rat race - do well in school, graduate from a good college (BITS-Pilani), get a well-paying corporate job and climb the hierarchy ladder. It was only after 6 years of corporate experience that I started thinking more freely and realised how I ended up doing a lot of stuff only because someone said so or because that was the trend. Life is short. Why should anyone do what they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t love. But there is not enough encouragement

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

for kids to dig deep and find what really interests them. Learning new things certainly helps but unfortunately rote learning has taken precedence over true learning. That is where the root of the problem lies and instead of blaming the system, we decided to find a solution and thus started Kitki. What are the various difficulties encountered in doing business on ground level? Kitki was started in 2013 with a plan to partner with schools and offer experiential learning modules that can help

kids experience the true beauty of learning through hands-on workshops and field visits. What we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realise early enough was that schools take time to make such big changes and we struggled for over one year trying to convince schools to take our modules more seriously. After several pilot programmes at different types of schools, we knew that we could not sustain ourselves with that model. However, during this period we noticed how well game-like mechanics could engage kids and create an interest to learn among them. We took the hint and started developing board games that

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are a lot of fun but at the same time drive learning in an effective manner. What is the market size of the services offered by you in India at present? While the overall toys industry could be around `10,000 crore, we think educational games are about 20-25 per cent of the board games market in India. But our scope includes an additional segment of schools and further, our board games can cater to an international market. What are the major benefits for organisations adopting your solutions? Our games are just like any board game. But at the same time, the games are set in an educational context and subtly enough for kids to learn. Kids (and even adults) can purchase these from toy stores and online stores and have fun at home, at parties, at picnics, anywhere. Even schools are interested in adding these to their classrooms to enhance the learning experience. What is the vision of your company for next two years? We have already designed three board games that are based on concepts from geometry, chemistry and history. We are looking to build a portfolio of similar high quality board games over the next few years and let kids experience how fascinating learning really is and to develop a curiosity to learn them. What are the various methods you are using to increase the visibility of your organisation? Apart from the traditional options of selling through toy stores and online stores, we are looking at spreading the word through workshops and stalls at offices and residential townships. In-

The games are set in an educational context and subtly enough for kids to learn

While the overall toys industry could be around `10,000 crore, we think educational games are about 2025 per cent of the board games market in India. But our scope includes an additional segment of schools and further, our board games can cater to an international market stead of focusing on a one time sale, we are looking to build a strong relationship with our potential customers. How can you differentiate your services from competitors? Game-based learning in India doesn’t have enough competitors yet. Many of those who are in the space are looking focused on only digital learning. Our physical format board games and the high quality detail in both the concepts and the graphic work differentiate Kitki. What are the ways of engaging the customers with you? Can you share a case study? Our board games give us the opportunity of developing different variations of a similar

subject. For example, our game on history is based on medieval Indian history and specifically highlights the rise of the Delhi Sultanate. The next version will be on how the Delhi Sultanate’s strength grew into the Central India. We plan to stay alongside a child’s learning experience through new games at different stages. What are the major stakeholders and sectors you are focusing on? As of now we are focusing only on game-based learning products through board games. We may enter the digital space as well, once we understand our customers better. What are the various initiatives taken by your organisation to emerge as a market leader? We value customer relationships a lot more than absolute sales. We plan to just be honest, let our customers know about our aim and let them be a big part of the revolution. We recently ended one such campaign through which we asked people to help us raise enough funds to manufacture our game on geometry, Three Sticks. The campaign was launched on an international platform called Indiegogo and we received a tremendous response. People pre-ordered the game from all over the world, including teachers and education experts and helped us raise over $11,000! We will continue to work towards building better relationships and not worry about our sales or our market share. digitalLEARNING / August 2015

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Willswell

Drives Innovation In a bid to fulfil market requirement, the company intends to design and develop innovative products in video electronics that are tailor-made for the requirements of the India market, says Trushal Alshi, Founder and Managing Director, Willswell Technologies Pvt. Ltd. What were the various reasons behind starting Willswell Technologies? Our team has strong technical background in video electronics.There is much space out there for consumer and commercial video electronics in India. We observed that most of the video electronics hardware is being imported to India, and in most of the cases, the importers (mostly traders) do not have control on quality and technical support for the products. The established brands for products, like projectors, also import the finished products. So overall there is limited scope for innovations as the products are not developed, designed in India. They are not tailor-made for the requirements of the Indian market. Our company intends to design and develop innovative products in video electronics like DLP led projectors with interactive function and multi-OS projectors. We also intend to carry out research and development in embedded systems for real-time scientific learning. Tell us about the various difficulties and hurdles that are encountered in doing business at the ground level? Being an Indian start-up company in hardware, our brand value was not considered up to the mark. Also, hardware productsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; company is very capital intensive, unlike software products and services companies. Initially, for a long time we had to carry out market research extensively. Products had to be evaluated and tested rigorously before promoting and selling them full fledge. The existing international brands

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

projectors (certain models) fall in 25,000-30,000 thousand price range. These projectors have many drawback compared to our WXGA resolution DLP LED projectors. Despite the fact that our projectors have many advantages like long lamp life, portability, low power consumption and very little or no maintenance, the high prices of our projectors in comparison to established international models makes it difficult for us to pitch in our projectors. Our portable interactive kits (PIWB) are a low cost alternative to traditional bulky â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;with frameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; smart boards. However, there is very low level of awareness about the overall concept. What is the market size of the products offered by you in India at present? The present products like projectors have a market value as high as `600 crore. Our other product, the portable interactive whiteboard kit, is a first of its kind in India. The market size we expect for such a product is around `10 crore in the first Willswell intends to design and develop innovative products in video electronics

year and depends on the increase in awareness about the product. What are the major benefits for organisations and individuals adopting your solutions? Our strong technical background in

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Portable interactive kits are low cost alternative to bulky smart boards

audio video electronics enables us to understand the technical requirements of our clients at a deeper level.This enables us to suggest and provide end to end solutions to them. Our clients can trust us for quality and post-sales support. One example is our portable interactive kit. Using this product, existing projector installations can be converted to interactive smart touch board using stylus like e-pen. Any chalk board, whiteboard or plain wall can be converted into interactive board. This option not only saves space in classrooms, meetings rooms, but also provides portability feature. The product has all the features that a conventional smart board provides but at the same time is offered at less than half of the cost of the framed smart boards.The products can also be afforded by students who have projectors available with them. What is the vision of your company for the next two years? We intend to become a reputed brand in education and consumer video electronics and will be known for our excellent quality and best technical support.We will be having more variety of innovative products in interactive and video projection domain.

August 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Digital marketing, dominant online presence and professional networking are few of the important measures that we are engaging in to increase the visibility.Roadshows, exhibitions are also important for us What are the various methods you are using to increase the visibility of your organisation? Digital marketing, dominant online presence and professional networking are few of the important measures that we are engaging in to increase the visibility. Roadshows, exhibitions are also important for us. How do you differentiate your services from competitors? Very strong technical expertise is our major asset. Openness to new ideas of learning and constant drive for innovation is what will enable us to provide a better experience to our clients as compared to our competitors.

What are the measures adopted by you to engage customers. Please share a special case study? Initial engagements with clients have been a wonderful experience. Our products are very innovative and not many target clients knew about the concept of converting whiteboards into interactive touch screen. We had to carry out several rounds of meetings and demonstrations for the initial clients. These happy clients are now recommending our products to potential clients. What are the major stakeholders and sectors you are focussing on? Our focus is on education, corporate and consumer electronics domains. We are also promoting good quality DLP LED projectors as replacement to TV so market is not limited to Education and Corporate. What are the various initiatives taken by your organisation to emerge as a market leader? We are paying a lot of attention to the quality of our products. Post sales technical support and periodic upgradation of products to next better level experience is definitely going to help us in the long run. Fruitful long term association with existing client base will also help us emerge as leaders in the market.

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