e-learning in India- A wave

 By Sadaket Malik2003 supported by Ministry of Communication and
 Information Technology, Govt. of India. Faculties are
 using this platform to post the lecture notes,
 Over the past five years, Ministry of Humanhandouts, and reference material on the Intranet for
Resource Development (MHRD) has been busy insupporting the classroom teaching, benefiting over 75
attaining the goal of making education accessible toUniversities / Institutes across India, and the list is
every child, particularly among the marginalisedgrowing. Yet another project to provide web based
sections in the rural areas. We are also addressingtraining is the National Programme on Technology
the gap that exists between the market demandsEnhanced Learning (NPTEL), which is being funded by
and the available skill sets among professionalsthe Ministry of Human Resource Development
through the participation of private sector in the(MHRD) and was first conceived in 1999 to pave the
curriculum framework.way for introducing multimedia and web technology
          Coming to the aspect of quality,to enhance learning of basic science and engineering
infrastructure and faculty are two major concernsconcepts, was launched in September 2006.
that need to be focused on. We are roping in as 
many colleges as possible under the ambit of the interestingly,  The major advantage is the
University Grants Commission (UGC) to upgrade theirconsistency that e-learning provides. e-learning is
quality. The UGC and AICTE are also pursuing variousself-paced, and learning is done at the learners pace.
measures to lure fresh graduates into research andThe content can be repeated until it is understood by
teaching profession.the trainee. It can be made compelling and interesting
 with multimedia, and the trainee can be given multiple
Very recently, the Ministry launched National Missionlearning paths depending on his or her needs.
on Education through Information and Communication 
Technology (ICT).An amount of Rs.4612 crore isHowever, one of the problems with e-learning in India
being incurred during the 11th Five Year Plan for theis the lack of course content, especially outside the
scheme. There is a budget provision of Rs.502 croremainstream focus areas of IT education,
during the current financial year 2008-09.English-language content, and tutorial-like courses.
          The government alone cannotThere will be high demand for people who can
address all these challenges. The private sector needsdevelop multi-lingual courseware that addresses
to play a proactive role to supplement the efforts ofvarious topics. Gartner says that one of the top 10
the government. A PPP model is to be developedpositions among Global 1000 companies of the future
with the active participation of stakeholders at thewill be that of an online learning designer.
central and state level. 
           The 11th Five Year Plan has kept a            Significant infrastructure has been
target of raising the gross enrollment ratio to 15% byset up for production of video-based teaching
the end of the plan year. This is where ICT steps in.material by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT),
Integration of ICT in education will give an impetus toBangalore based Indian Institutes of Sciences (IISc)
our efforts to attain our target of increasing ourand Technical Teacher Training Institutes
gross enrollment ratio by widening the reach of(TTTI).Gyan Darshan which was launched on January
education to the remote and marginalised areas of26, 2000 as an exclusive higher education TV channel
our country.on Doordarshan to provide quality distance education
          With a large percentage of ourcan be considered as an effective effort in India.
population constituting the workforce, ICT also gives          At the institutional level many
them space to pursue education at their owninstitutes, mainly private as of now have entered into
convenient pace and time. The role of Open andonline distance education and the much talked about
Distance Learning (ODL) systems, which haveNIIT Varsity offers training to 500,000 students
accepted and integrated ICT in their functioning andannually across 33 countries. One of the world's
outreach, particularly finds mention here.leading management schools IIM Calcutta amongst
 others entered into a strategic alliance with NIIT, to
         However, there is also significantoffer executive development programmes through
knowledge retention at the end of the trainingvirtual classrooms. Researchers, academics, teachers,
programs. High quality, e-learning solutions can beand students worldwide are excitedly embracing
developed in India with the right technology andblogs (web logs). Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu, a
industry support in sectors as distinct as steel, IT,state in South India played host to the Bloggers'
automobiles, cement and telecom. Industry watchersconference held at the TIDEL Park. CDAC and
estimate that because of its advantages, India isIGNOU are two of the India's most esteemed
bound to grow in stature as the hub for e-learningorganisations in their respective fields, which have
programs.held conferences in the field of e-Learning. Online
 Education is coming up as the biggest challenge to
Interestingly, many companies are booming up here indistance education in the near future.
India for providing eClasses; places like Mumbai and            Change is a painful process and is
Bangalore are becoming prominent centers fortherefore resisted by most organisations but the
providing eTutorials. It's booming but the big questionneed of the hour is effective change management
is what the future of eLearning is? Everyoneby the leaders of the higher educational institutes,
educators, parents, and students have the questionwhich are into e-Learning.
in mind but no one able to answer. To check it out 
its imperative to look the trends concerned with Higher educational institutions in India which plan to
learning, which are already taking control in our world?venture into e-Learning should take a lesson from this
          Considering above facts it seemsand are suggested to first follow the education and
imperative that eLearning would co exist with othercommunication strategy of organisational change
technologies and the way of acquiring knowledge.where the stakeholders should be informed as to
And as soon as low cost PCs would be madehow the change will affect them.
available and broadband will penetrate deeper 
particularly in developing countries there are chancesMost of the states run universities in India require an
the e-learning will strengthen.IT / ICT policy of their own.
           E learning is interactive too. With the             The government needs to
growth of eLearning more and more pupil will opt forstimulate a learning culture, and e-Learning must
it, as there would be no worry that math's teacherbecome a policy issue. Government must recognise
will beat for a sum doing wrong; since classes arethe e-Learning Industry as a separate forum and not
available at ease there also be no hurry to get latetreat it as part of the IT enabled services or a sub
and then standing out side waiting for permission.sector of the IT industry. A case in point is the
More and more working professionals would beAustralian Government support for promoting
interested in learning eWay because of flexibility thee-Learning. The Government there has been
eLearning offers. The eLearning will soon become asuccessful in increasing the industry use of e-Learning
great tool to enhance qualifications, and gettingin workplaces.
promotions in the job market. So to sum up, theSchools and Universities taking the e-Learning route
future of eLearning is bright.are still a very small fraction of the overall number. In
         Talking of e-Learning and academicaddition, the transition from distance learning to
bodies in India like, UGC-INFONET. The chairman ofe-Learning is moving at a snail's pace. Universities are
the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2002long over due in making significant improvement in
decided that the universities and colleges should alsothe quality and employability of their courses offered.
reap the benefits, which ICT had in store for them.Through e-Learning, they have a chance to improve
The deliberations of the various committees led toboth the quality and quantity.
the setting up of the UGC-INFONET towards the endThe Industry Unlike the west, in India, evens the
of 2004. UGC also joined this crusade of introducinglarge corporates and business houses have been slow
e-Learning. Wholly funded by UGC, UGC-INFONETto adapt to e-Learning.
provides electronic access to scholarly literature 
available over the Internet in all areas of learning to         With the tremendous explosion in web
the university sector in India.usage as a knowledge sharing and delivering platform,
 e-Learning will become more a norm than an
There are several companies that are workingexception. It is incumbent upon all of us to drive this
towards e-learning in India. Our product focus is onprocess. Together we need to create an e-Learning
providing simple, cost-effective e-learning tools forinfrastructure that is sustainable and continues to
individuals.transform learning, education and training.
           Forays have been made in the field 
of e-Learning in form of Brihaspati, an e-LearningNothing can replace traditional classroom teaching, but
platform developed as open source freeware whiche-learning complements the process and can help
IIT, Kanpur has developed and is using since Januaryreach out to the masses.