E-learning Tools and Technologies for Broader IT education

1. E-learning Tools and Technologies for Broader IT education Mangala Sunder Krishnan Department of Chemistry IIT Madras Chennai 600036 Web courses coordinator: NPTEL Project, the Ministry of HRD

2. Acknowledgment • Professor K. R. Srivathsan and his team in IIITM • My partners in the NPTEL project • My e-learning and computer-based-course design guru, Prof. Bryan C. Sanctuary, McGill University, Canada, • My project associates in the Web Studio, IIT Madras (well over fifty) from whom I learnt a lot

3. Elementary Lecture • What is learning at a distance? • Pedagogical differences between on-campus and off-campus learning • Technological challenges in online learning • Different methods / approaches for a successful process

4. Use examples from • National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL Project, Ministry of HRD) • Approaches from MIT’s Open Courseware • Sample Lessons from the Open Learning Initiative of Carnegie Mellon University

5. Learning a topical subject at a distance • No philosophies (not there yet, perhaps) but practical problems. • Necessity to learn for professional/career development • Effective learning in a reasonably short time to ensure competitiveness (on topics like e-security, it is a must) • Formal teaching methods may not have evolved adequately.

6. Learning a topical subject at a distance • Cannot be reduced to teaching, examination and assessment in a time bound, academic programme • Requires interaction of a faceless kind for most part of the process of teaching and learning (though it can be partly corrected by video streaming)

7. 2. Activation of cognitive process 1. Motivation Next Module 3. Learning from past experience 5. Challenges 4. Application “Instruction is not Information” - Merrill  Recall Gagne’s 9 steps of instruction. To that we add suitable Learning Model: Ex: Problem Based Learning. ENSURE A WEB-SUPPORTED LEARNING ECOSYSTEM FOR EACH MODULE WITH CONTENT IN EACH OF THE ABOVE 5 LEARNING ACTIVITIES COMPONENT. Slide, courtesy of Professor K. R. Srivathsan, Director, IIITM Kerala

8. Pedagogical differences • Classrooms and physical campuses do not exist. Anytime, anywhere, any pace learning has to be enabled • Topical subjects can only be offered on a broad basis and cannot be highly specialized—cost is an important factor • Feedback and redesign of classes and coursework-- not immediate based on the response of the students • Requires a high degree of organization than classroom lecturing

9. The technology • Integrated teaching-interaction-learning-design-education through an Online University setup • Access, connectivity all times and periodic assessment • Remember learning is not training or controlling the classroom environment.

10. Teachers’ Collaboration & Certification Area In MOODLE CORE APPROVED E-COURSE CONTENT (NPTEL + …) Students Open Blog / Discussions In each subject AICTE approved Subject Experts Education Grid, & EDUSAT Services Subject Wiki Management Integrated Syllabus, Content Management and Instructional Support Services Model For each subject area, we need this web-accessible environment Slide by Prof. K. R. Srivathsan  Well-managed system as above for each subject will keep syllabus automatically up to date.

11. Description of a learning environment through a project currently undertaken • National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning to provide access to a little more than 750 engineering courses online by 2010. • The users are teachers and students all over India first (others from outside are not excluded) • The programme follows a curriculum closely • Course contents to meet the needs of undergraduates

12. Web Courses --Objectives Summary of the programme for web supplements • Localization of examples • Elaboration of key concepts and theorems to facilitate clearer understanding • Case studies to provide more comprehensive design experience • Examples that require the use of different categories of engineering knowledge under different sets of assumptions. • Question banks to assist instructors to design good test and examinations

13. Simple course management packages that provide features like e-mail queries by students, bulletin board and frequently asked questions (FAQ). • Many modules are being prepared preferably by a team of faculty. • The material will be suitably organized to create CDs to meet the needs of students of different universities. • The same material can be suitably restructured for printing.

14. Video Courses --Objectives The programme for video lectures: • The course will consist of around 40 video lectures. Each video lecture will be of one hour duration to enhance the longevity of the video lectures. • Video lectures are confined to core concepts. • Its contents are distinct from text book and web support material

15. Video Courses --Objectives • The video lectures utilize the facilities of the video medium and are expected to contain interactions with professionals from industry as appropriate. • The lectures will emphasize the relations of theory to industrial practice as appropriate creation of video lecture units is not tied with the scheduling of regular courses in the Institution.

16. Deployment and follow-up Services The following possibilities are being examined regarding dissemination of web content: • Host the e-content on a web site that students can log on to. • E-contents be made available in the form of CDs. • Colleges be encouraged to host these materials on one of their servers and allow students to access. • E-content converted into print form and then distributed at a low cost. • Navigational flexibility of e-material, not possible in print format.

17. Several workshops in IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IISc Bangalore and IIT Bombay. Review of E-support material by various faculty outside of the PIs in progress. Generation of E-Support Material for the video: All the courses to be broadcast through Eklavya, or, are in the queue for broadcast in the coming months

18. E-learning /supplementing engineering education through NPTEL • The site which contains details of courseware for undergraduate engineering programmes is http://nptel.iitm.ac.in

19. E-Learning Resources through Sakshat Portal • The site to visit is Sakshat portal maintained by the IGNOU for the Ministry of HRD

20. E-learning through the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) • The site to visit is the open educational initiative by Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA http://www.cmu.edu/oli (Google search: Open Learning Initiative, OLI)

21. Basic principles for e-learning (not e-training, manpower quality control through e-, web processes • Education is a process through which concepts are identified by the teachers • Organized in a logical fashion from easy to difficult to profound concepts • Explained through examples specific to the subject • Development of the thought processes which evolved the concepts indicated

22. Basic principles for learning (not e-training, manpower quality control through e-, web processes • Conceptual understanding tested through questions of different levels of difficulties and different types of responses –multiple choices, fill in the blanks and matching are but a small part, not the most, of the examination processes. • Analytic abilities, comprehension of the subject, retention of important data and scientific INFORMATION by the learner are all part of the learning paradigm. • Most important it is quite personal-based on one-to-one contact between the teacher and the learner.

23. Basic principles for e-learning (not e-training, manpower quality control through e-, web processes • E-learning methodologies to capture the above without one of the most important elements—that of a lively classroom in which discussion and dialogue are instantaneous. • E-education to students done through a network are still not quite effective because of the dilution of one or more of the interactions, or evaluation.

24. Designing a platform which minimizes the losses and not necessarily eliminate them altogether (not possible to eliminate?) • Things which are not stated in the class but are understood by the students, interpreted from the spontaneous responses and personalization of delivery, must be recaptured? • How do we make a Feynman or a Jagdish Chandra Bose (who would excite the audience) out of the internet? • How do we bring in the simultaneous laughter and joy of a good demonstration we understand when we see together? • Difficult questions and some may not even have any answer except in a contact classroom. • Hence the objective is to put the principles behind any subject in as lucid a form as possible and enable the process of learning to be unfolded as one goes through a course material online.

25. E-Learning Standards • Content • Pedagogy • Delivery • Feedback

26. The learning paradigm is different • Even in a course like e-security, a demonstration by a professional in a classroom of how the attack of a virus happened in the most secure system in the US will bring in a different experience from merely reading about it through a web course.

27. Content and pedagogy for e-learning (suggestions only) • Supplementary audio-video lessons are extremely important in the learning process of an individual in isolation, connected to others through wires and wireless mode. • Audio-tracks in which a teacher who is excited to teach the subject explains the concept as an adjunct to a web based text will add to the learning abilities.

28. Content and pedagogy for e-learning • Difficulty level of different learners must be assessed periodically. Classroom provides for this instantly when blank faces are more in number after describing a concept. A good teacher will immediately switch to a lower gear and will try to bring in a more elementary example, or engage the one who seemingly understood the idea to explain to others! • Participation by students is important.

29. Content and pedagogy for e-learning • Visual aids of several different kinds must be included in the design. • They may range from a representative diagram describing the best and the most secured network to one that was the least secure– there was a time when someone found out the password for the administration of the hotmail network because it had very few characters!! Fortunately, he distributed it widely over the network to bring Microsoft on its knees for sometime.

30. Content and pedagogy for e-learning • They may involve animations at various levels of how to assemble such networks and how to detect a breach in cyber security of a given company etc. • They may involve possible scenarios of different levels of insecure network and asking learners to identify the most susceptible one, etc.

31. Interactivity and feedback in the learning cycle (Content and pedagogy) • An example –asking a student to list/identify things in the order of increasing priority procedural lapses in setting up a secure network environment can be quite useful. • Even better would be to let the student design a simple, correct sequence of setting up the network from a set of given components on the screen

32. Interactivity and feedback in the learning cycle (Content and pedagogy) • Compare his/her design with the solution provided by the course designer • Analyze why and how the solution by the student was not adequate if there is deficiency of understanding. • These are cognitive elements in learning which must be built in the environment.

33. Assessment, feedback and redesign of e-learning materials. • As important as are student feedbacks in the evolution of a good text book over several editions. (not reprinting) • Text books often take decades to become good and well referred to sources, • Good text books often motivate the learner to explore the subject further.

34. Assessment, feedback and redesign of e-learning materials. • Assessment is not multiple choice questions. • Analysis of answers by students is not characterizing how many answered correctly and how many were wrong? • Analysis is to draw an inference as to WHY the students went wrong?

35. Assessment, feedback and redesign of e-learning materials. • Analysis is to find those questions that a majority do not answer correctly and REDESIGNING them in line with what was expected as outcome of the course. • Redesign must necessarily result in better performance by the students. • Redesigning a course may require adding preliminary requirements, making simple concepts even more transparent and discovering alternative ways of explaining the concepts.

36. A course through e-learning is never made once and once only • As the learner base increases as well as widens across regions, other topological issues become important. • Designing minimum requirements and learning methods becomes more challenging. • Supplementary information for under-prepared students and challenges in taking the subject forward to better – prepared students needs to be added and also balanced across course limits.

37. E-learning is a whole new PARADIGM yet to be understood fully • It is becoming increasingly important in a world which is turned FLAT (Michael Freedman?) • Important in the world in which the learner has access to more and more high quality learning environments in the open sources saga. • Important in the world in which learning outside of a traditional classroom can pay rich dividends if only the learner is focused about his needs and matches them with the professional career.

38. Recall how we got here. • India started with Gurukulam where learning was within closed doors and was the privilege of the few. • India also had the World’s first distant learner—the Ekalavya with a Guru refusing him to teach things. • If his example is to be quoted, e-learning could be better that conventional learning!! • We only have to find out how Ekalavya did or, better ( since we don’t know), how he could have done!!

39. Thank you very much

40. Technical standards for e-learning • There are three files attached here which give you the flair for standards which are evolving. Content creation styles Content standardization Content delivery Standards