E-CONTENT GENERATION AND DELIVERY MANAGEMENT FOR STUDENT CENTRIC LEARNING

1. E-CONTENT GENERATION AND DELIVERY MANAGEMENT FOR STUDENT CENTRIC LEARNING Proposal submitted to Department of Higher Education Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India, New Delhi by NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WARANGAL CSE-NITW

2. A case for e-learning E-CONTENT GENERATION & DELIVERY MANAGEMENT   FOR STUDENT CENTRIC LEARNING CSE-NITW

3. The Scenario • Prof. X teaches subject Y rather well and has a great reputation. The premier Institution where X works has digitized his class room lectures and supplied to other institutions through internet and CDs. • There is a college A, far away from the big cities and has • limited internet access, • not very experienced/ qualified staff and • generally rural students and they try to use Prof. X’s lectures on subject Y, but……. CSE-NITW

4. The Hurdles • With the limited bandwidth available, it is difficult to use net option • Some of the faculty could get benefit from the CD lectures but for the most interest wanes soon. • By and large, the students couldn't make much headway. • On the whole the utility of CDs has come down This could be for any number of reasons, such as…. CSE-NITW

5. The gap analysis • Students do not have the sufficient knowledge of pre-requisites • The lesson runs too fast for their understanding, even after replays • The examples/analogies are few/ not easily understandable • Some words are difficult to assimilate • They have limited learning abilities and undeveloped analytical skills unknown to X • How can you improve the Teaching-learning? CSE-NITW

6. The Remedy • We suggest that there is a remedy to the situation in the form of Student centric e-learning • This allows the student to learn from a package (internet or CD) in an interactive fashion. • It assumes that no two students need learn alike, as the learning experience is personalized through a number of options provided in the software. CSE-NITW

7. The Proposal • We propose to develop the interactive learner-oriented content and a software to drive it. • Content will be organized suitable to a great number of learner patterns • Propose to implement different methods using Data Mining Techniques • Students and faculty feedback will be collected for dynamic change of content • Proposed to develop software to Classify the level of student based on the collected inputs. • Depending on the level of student, the software will drive the content from repository. ( why?) • Conducted Several MHRD FDPs • Conducted 8 week rigorous training programme on Finishing School for Engineering Graduates • Trained 225 students • Able to place 60% of the students. CSE-NITW

8. Proposal (Contd) • Takes care of inabilities, difficulties and weaknesses that are to be expected of underprivileged, rural and inhibited students • Provides for self assessment at each step and interactive learning. • We further propose to distribute the content to engineering colleges and train the teachers to use our software and content. • We also train the teachers in ways and means of developing such content and also dynamically improving the existing content. • We also propose to create web base to continually improve and deploy better content and to manage content in any institution, any where. CSE-NITW

9. NIT, Warangal Relevance • Faculty were developed more than 150 video based lectures in the subject areas of Computer Science & Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Civil Engineering for the students and faculty of various engineering colleges of Andhra Pradesh under SONET and JKC programmes of Govt. of AP. • The objectives for this proposal include but not limited to: • To establish the basic infrastructure for developing student centric content for various engineering subjects. • To develop Interaction with global Universities and Research Laboratories in the area manages e-learning with a view to develop expertise, update technology and improve R&D in knowledge creation and management. • To provide technical assistance to the ministry and industry • Organise short term courses/workshops/seminars/conferences to disseminate the course contents developed by teachers CSE-NITW

10. Pilot Project • Develop e-content on Database technologies: • Database Management systems • Distributed databases • Data Warehousing • Data Mining • OLAP • OLTP • Application oriented case studies • Design of hands on experiments using popular database packages ( Oracle or DB2 or Microsoft SQL server) to strengthen laboratory instructions. CSE-NITW

11. Inter Institutional/Industry Interaction • Institutes/Industries • IIT, Delhi • IIIT, Hyderabad • JNTU, Kakinada • JNTU, Hyderabad • Gayatri Vidyaparishad, Visakhapatnam • GITAM University, Visakhapatnam • Industries • TCS, Hyderabad • CDAC, Hyderabad • Infosys • IBM, Bangalore • Oracle India Development Center, Hyderabad CSE-NITW

12. Features • Video • Text • Cursor Glossary • Slides • References • Tests • Low Bandwidth • Examples • Alternate • Discussion • Help CSE-NITW

13. Video • There is a presentation of the full lesson in video. The student has the options of full screen (only seeing and listening) or video and text( seeing, listening and reading) • The video has multiple entry points useful for replays as and when needed. • The volume can be adjusted/ muted CSE-NITW

14. Text • As a help to learner we give the total lecture in words which consolidates learning and improves retention. • There is a list of topics display on main screen, which can be used to enter various topics directly • There is a print facility for those whom want a hard copy. CSE-NITW

15. Cursor glossary in Text • Some abbreviations are not easily expandable for all students • Some words/phrases need further explaining for proper understanding • Some expressions are to be disambiguated. When we stop to comprehend a word/concept, it is much more difficult to concentrate on listening. The Solution: We identified certain places in our text, and marked them. If you put your cursor you will get the expansion, explanation or conflict-resolution in a special box. CSE-NITW

16. Slides • There is slide presentation of the lecture which facilitates more concrete learning of the lesson. • It is very useful to skim through before a test • For novice teachers it provides direction in prioritizing and epitomizing. • Even for a student - the best way to learn is by teaching. You can always learn better by teaching the lesson to your friends using these slides. CSE-NITW

17. References • Learning thirst is unquenchable and we can inculcate that in students through broadening their vistas. • We provide this through • Hyperlinks, a click will take you to the required site. (Internet connection needed) • Printed text ( here and now) • Suggested references, where relevant information can be found ( text books, papers etc) CSE-NITW

18. Take Test - 1 Pre-Test • This tests the preliminary knowledge in the concerned subject before a student starts learning. • It could be a test of familiarity with pre-requisite's and background of the student CSE-NITW

19. Take Test -2 • Post Test • This tests the understanding after the exposure to the lesson. It can be used for self assessment by student or as a requirement to learn new lesson. • The questions are in three levels of difficulty. • The first level concerns basics and knowledge around the lesson. • the second examines the remembered information from different sources and • the third brings out the application of this knowledge as well, in various contexts. CSE-NITW

20. Take Tests- personalized The test can be taken with • Variable time option, say 15,20 or 30min etc. • Randomization option, that is not necessarily same order for everyone or every time • Number of questions option which allows one to choose e.g. 5,10,15 or all • Level of difficulty option – one or more levels CSE-NITW

21. Take Tests - Answers • The Answers can be seen as a single result or as explanation (where necessary) along with your answer and the correct answer, and what is wrong with the other alternative answers • In this way, Test becomes an integral part of learning as well as a metric of understanding CSE-NITW

22. Low Bandwidth Option • One of the defining factors of Urban-Rural divide is the low penetration of internet in rural areas • Typically rural areas do not have high speed net connection needed for streaming video, animation, graphics etc. • To mitigate this to some extent we provide a low band width version which has text, line drawings and pictures that are not real time data intensive and inhibits heavy downloads. CSE-NITW

23. Alternate It is always possible to find an alternate • Way of presentation, • Point of view, • Author/Teacher’s view • Text/Picture option The good students use this to broaden their understanding whereas for the not-so-gifted could find an easier way to learn. CSE-NITW

24. Examples/Analogies • People learn by examples , the more the merrier. • But scope/ time constraints do not allow such lavishness for all the students; • But some need them, so we provide extra analogies/examples to enhance the learning experience under this head CSE-NITW

25. Discussion • Notwithstanding all this, a student will have doubts/questions and a need for exchange of ideas. • Under the option Discussion, one can communicate with his teachers/ colleagues/ other netizens by opening a discussion thread or by contributing to an already open thread • This feature needs an occasional internet connection CSE-NITW

26. Help • There is clickable Help Screen which explains various features to a student in simple English • As far as possible, the logic behind a feature is also explained • You can always write to elearn@nitw.ac.in for any further information CSE-NITW

27. Continuous Challenge • In the competitive world, one needs constant reinventing of oneself, which is well provided in student centric e-learning. • This method produces e-content with short shelf life, as it requires constant evolutions to be in tune with learner’s aspirations CSE-NITW

28. More on Continuous Challenge • There is standardization in the form of SCORM which has gone through umpteen versions, before reaching the present somewhat-stable state. • There is a plethora of Content Management Systems on myriad platforms……. and still evolving • This shows how current and relevant the field is CSE-NITW

29. Budget for pilot project Capital equipment – 20 lakhs Manpower – 5 lakhs Travel – 2 lakhs Contingencies – 2 lakhs Miscellaneous – 1 lakh Total – 30 lakhs CSE-NITW

30. In conclusion • We are proposing a paradigm that will initiate and facilitate new learning environments • We are advocating an open ended, inclusive content and upgradeable and scalable software, so that it will be challenging to use this suite as well as find new ideas to better it. CSE-NITW

31. List of courses planned CSE-NITW

32. In short, we propose to • Setup of the studio for Content generation for Engineering & Technology subjects • Create Software matrix and integrate with each of the content modules. • Train 500 faculty per year and Human Resource Development through continuing educational programmes / workshops / conferences. • Establish a resource centre and conduct/deliver managed e-learning for desiring engineering colleges. CSE-NITW

33. Outcomes • Enrichment of Teaching-learning process: The interactive software and adoptable content will enrich the teaching learning process and help students with various talents to learn better and increased job satisfaction for faculty. Further it empowers the faculty to teach successive batches of students with increased transfer of knowledge. • Training, hand holding and enabling the engineering college faculty to impart online courses/programmes, thereby reducing the cost of education to a minimum and increasing ROI for the stake holders. • Offering managed e-learning servicesfor such of those colleges who can not conduct on their own. These services will be offered from the central web site located at NIT, Warangal. • NIT, Warangal will become a Nodal centre in the filed of knowledge management - e-learning content, driving software which drives the e-content and training various engineering college faculty. Also NIT, Warangal provides a platform for dissemination of technical knowledge and know-how through refresher programmes for in-service personnel, get-togethers and publication of Research Digest. CSE-NITW

34. Thank You …. CSE-NITW