[LINK] Research-intensive distance education in India and Australia

[Tom Worthington]

At 08:39 AM 5/05/2009, I wrote:
>Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, 
>Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) is visiting Australia to talk 
>about e-learning. She will speak at the ANU in Canberra on 
>"Standards and distance education", 11 May 2009 ...

Professor Kanjilalis speaking to federal government agencies later in 
the day and at University of Canberra, later in the week.

For my notes at the ANU talk: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/05/distance-education-for-millions-of.html>

"Initial distance education in India was printed material by post. 
Integrated multimedia is being added, with TV and radio. It needs to 
be kept in mind that infrastructure is needed, including libraries 
and A/V facilities, computers, and Internet.

India has a Distance Education Council to oversee provision of 
courses. This sets standards for materials, registration processes, 
support services for learners, ICT infrastructure and assessment. 
Before creating a course, the institution has to do need assessment 
to show there is a requirement for a course and who the target group are.

The Indian Distance Education Guidelines are available online:

    1. Norms and Standards for Management Programmes
    2. Norms and Standards for IT Education
    3. DEC-GUIDELINES, for regulating the Establishment and Operation 
of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Institutions in India
    4. Norms for ODL
    5. Norms for Online Programmes

The India PM has set up a National Knowledge Commission as a 
high-level advisory body. There will be an advisory group on 
Pedological Content and a Technical Advisory Group.

India uses its own satellites for broadcasting educational material. 
More interactive and feedback techniques as resources permit. Few 
Indian students have Internet access at home, so some methods being 
used are cyber cafes. Mobile phone SMS is being used for student 
support and 3G smart phone support will be offered when these phones 
are more widely available."

ps: For my own experiences of Indian cybercafes and wireless 
networking, see: Living in an Indian Village in Goa for Three Weeks 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/travel/india.shtml>

pps: Unfortunately the batter went flat in my MP3 recorder, so only 
the first 10 minutes of the talk were recorded: Uma Kanjilal ANU 2009 
05 11 (MP3 4.48Mbytes): 
<http://www.tomwcommunications.com-a.googlepages.com/uma_kanjilal_anu_20090511.mp3>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University