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Vol. 01 No. 04 January 2016

In this issue

Guest Column 02

Spotlight On 05

Regional Round Up 07

CEMCA News 09

Case Study 15

Book Review 17

SMART Tips 19

Technology Tracking 20

Partner Speak 21

Research Shows 22

Forthcoming Events 24

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Guest Column...

Blended Language Learningat the University ofPardubice, Czech Republic

Linda Pospíšilová

Introduction

The Language Centre of the University ofPardubice provides specific languagetraining to 5 non-philological faculties inthe fields of Business, Chemistry,Transport, IT, and Health and Medicine inEnglish. For the past four years both thefull-time and part-time (distance)programmes have been supported by e-courses designed in LMS Moodle andfurther extended by implementation ofdigital portfolio using the open-sourcesystem called Mahara.

LMS Moodle as an open source learningmanagement system belongs after morethan ten years of its existence to one ofthe most widespread LMS usedworldwide. Moodle learning environmentoffers tools for synchronous andasynchronous ways of communicationincluding various collaborative tools,nevertheless its main focus still remainson the tutor as a manager of the courseand on the content presented by thetutors themselves to the students. Thusthe focus seems to be more on teachingthan on learning process. Downes [1]mentions in his contribution on eLearninggenerations when dealing with the fourthgeneration of eLearning the foundation ofcontent management systems createdprimarily for content construction andcontent management. At the same timethe fourth generation of eLearning ischaracterised by Downes as thegeneration of Web 2.0, which can be

described as an era of social softwaredevelopment, such as Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube to name afew. This period of time can be furtherdefined as astage of individual contentconstruction and self-presentation alsoby means of blogging and microblogging, e.g. by using Twitter.

On one hand, the LMS Moodle version2.5 brought, in my opinion,revolutionaryimprovement when a new option emergeswhich lies in allowing students the rightto participate on the course contentcreation. On the other hand,implementation of a digital portfolioallows for a student-centred constructivelearning environment and guidedautonomous learning at the same time. Itcan be interconnected with the Moodleenvironment; Mahara users can recordtheir learning progress, collect theirdigital or digitalized artefacts and sharethem according to their own preferencesand learning purposes. At our institutionwe avoided using single sign-on in orderto prevent the situation in which theuniversity graduates who no longerattend University of Pardubice loseaccess to all learning systems of theuniversity, namely universityadministrative systems and LMS Moodlecourses. We considered student’suninterrupted access to digital portfolioto be an elementary condition being incompliance with the philosophy oflifelong learning. For this reason ourMahoodle as such does not represent a

complete technological interconnectionbetween Moodle and Mahara includingthe so convenient single sign-on optionand at expense of losing this comfort acontinuous access to student’s ePortfoliois maintained and the system is open toour partner institutions allowing variousways of cooperation and projectpromotion.

There is one more term to be mentionedand explained in relation to ePortfoliosand it is the so called PLE, personallearning environment, which is defined byAttwell [2] as a “new approach to usingtechnologies for learning” furtherexplained by Lubensky [3] as “a facilityfor an individual to access, aggregate,configure and manipulate digital artefactsof their ongoing learning experience”,thus perfectly matching the definition ofdigital portfolios.

ePortfolio in Practice

Work with ePortfolio in the languagelearning and teaching process isconsidered to be beneficial andsupportive for language skill developmentfor its long term effect. On the contrary,progress reporting and learning processrecord can be one of the drawbacks ofimplementation of this tool in learning andalso in formal education processes due tolimited language lessons provided by theuniversity.

In the academic year 2013/14Mahara wasfirst used in three groups for fourseparate purposes to test itsopportunities and threads. The firsthurdle could be seen in introducingMahara ePortfolio system to new usersand the aspect of Mahara complexity andintricacy is often explained as the mainreason why teachers do not pursue inusing and introducing Mahara to thestudents. I decided to overcome thisobstacle by providing students withnecessary face-to-face initial training andongoing support in a form of videotutorials placed on the Group Page inMahara. The students having particular

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difficulties were treatedindividually. It can be said that myenthusiasm and strong belief inMahara’s potential boughtstudent’s interest and helped toovercome the initial difficulties.Another important aspect wasgiving students clear instructionsfor their Mahara assignment and Ialways used my own MaharaPage or Blog post as the firstcontribution which could functionas a sample assignment. To mysatisfaction the students did notuse my contributions as modelassignments and were notinfluenced by them. In theacademic year 2014/15 we couldalready observe in some studentsstudying more than one field orchanging their fields of studywithin the universitycertainpenetration of digital portfolio usein more than one study field.

Experimenting with Mahara

Mahara has been used in the followingclass projects related to languagelearning, developing various skills,subskills, and also soft skills:

• Résumé Creation

• Mahoodle Project – PageMinipresentation

• Blogging with Health Professionals

• Going International with Mahara

Résumé Creation

The students of English for Graphic Artswere instructed and consequently askedto create their Résumé in Englishlanguage, design a view of the Résuméand share it with their tutor. The mostbeneficial aspect of this assignment canbe seen in opening the door to students’creativity and visualization of thestandard curriculum vitae format. It isessential to motivate students inupdating their CVs regularly andmaintaining their ePortfolio alive.

Mahoodle Project – PageMinipresentation

The students enrolled in Moodle course‘English for Graphic Arts’were also provided withspecific content focusedon basics of chemistry,graphics and printingtechniques. They wereasked to choose a topicof their interest andexpand on the theme bymeans of designing aPage in Mahara ePortfolioand presenting theirproject in the face-to-facesessions. Optimally thestudent’s classpresentations werescheduled at the sametime the theme wasdiscussed thus expandingthe topics andinformation presented bythe teacher in the Moodlecourse. The drawbackwas experienced with low

level of repeatability of using Mahara as apresenting tool in the following semesterthe students frequently did not opt forMahara when presenting a similarprojectand demonstrated their favour ofPowerPoint. The reasons can be explainedby the nature of Mahara ePortfolio toolwhich is not primarily a presentation tool.

Blogging with HealthProfessionals

A larger group of 43 students of Nursingwas invited into Mahara to participate onthe Blogging project. Firstly the GroupPage on Blogging and useful tips createdby the tutor was introduced to thestudents including a sample of Blog inEnglish presented on the web and thenthe students were requested to share theirhospital internship experience andanecdotes with the aim to offer studentswith no practical experience some form ofprofessional advice. The students were atthe same time motivated to read the blogposts of their peers and deliver theirfeedback.

Example of Visualised Résumé

Example of the Moodle course Topic”Paper Products”Presentation using Mahara Page

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Going International with Mahara

In the years 2013 – 2015 ePortfolio toolhas been used to monitor, enhance, andreflect on theinternationalcooperation betweenUniversity ofPardubice andseveral universitiesin Finland, Germany,and UK. Theportfolio has beenused mainly as a toolaccompanyingstudents

participating at exchange programmeswith partner universities to prepare,record, and reflect on their short studyvisits.

Conclusion: Feedback andAssessment

Implementation of ePortfolio Mahara toolin ESP teaching and learning at theLanguage Centre, University of Pardubicehas been piloted for the very first time inthe academic year 2012/13 and has beenused for several purposes by 7 teacherssince then. From the point of view of atutor I would reflect on the past academicyears as a period of intensive and rathersuccessful attempt of moving theeducational focus to students and to their

active participation, reflection, andpeer review through partial projectsmaking a larger portfolio of anindividual, the course, or even theinstitution. The students usingePortfolio in their courses areregularly asked to provide feedbackreflecting their attitudes andopinions. Selected examples of theirunedited comments are presented inthe table below to best reflect onstudent’s work in Mahara:

Q: Please, comment briefly on theMAHARA project (benefits,disadvantages, usage, suggestions)

A1: It was the best what we have done. J,but it was little bit difficult to make thepages at the beginnig

A2: good for practising writting

A3: I did my page on Mahara and I washappy that finnish studentt wrote meback. I was happy to speak withsomeone in English.

A4: I believe that it could be more useful, ifthe students have a chance to workmore often on the MAHARA. To writeEnglish and to read I find important aswell as to speak.

A5: I think that MAHARA is good way todiversity teaching.

A6: Only comment is to mahara, and it isabout its user-unfriendly environment - ifound very hard to find some things inmenu, and i am not total computer noob.

Selected unedited responses on Maharaimplementation from a Feedback questionnaire

A Page prepared for the Finnish students as apart of an International experiment in Mahara

A Group Page excerpt introducing Blogging toHealth Studies

An excerpt from a reflective diary on an exchange visit

Mgr. Linda Pospíšilová, Language Centre, University of Pardubice, Studentská95, 53009 Pardubice, Czech Republice-mail: linda[dot]pospisilova[at]upce[dot]czTwitter: mrslindaposp Facebook: Linda PospisilovaLinkedIn:cz.linkedin.com/pub/linda-pospisilova/49/616/22/

Literature

1. DOWNES, Stephen E-LearningGeneration, 2012 [online]. [cit. 2012-02-11]. http://halfanhour.blogspot.cz/2012/02/e-learning-generations.html

2. ATTWELL G. The Personal LearningEnvironments - the future ofeLearning.[online]. In: eLearningPapers, 2007, vol. 2 no. 1/2007 [cit.2013-02-15]. http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media11561.pdf

3. LUBENSKY, Ron. In: Buchem, Ilona: Acollection of definitions of “PersonalLearning Environment (PLE), 2010[online]. [cit. 2012-08-25].http://slidesha.re/aCDw1k.

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Spotlight On...

Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) isan emerging Islamic university which isfully owned and funded by the MalaysianGovernment. Being the 12th PublicInstitution of Higher learning, it aims tospearhead knowledge and be the globalreference centre for Islamic Science.USIM embraces a holistic approachtowards the delivery of knowledge, whichunites revelational sciences (Naqliknowledge) and the rational sciences

Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia:Global Reference Centre in theIntegration of Naqli and AqliKnowledge

Dr. Nurkhamimi Zainuddin, Prof. Dr. Rozhan M. Idrus & Ahmad Farid Mohd Jamal

(Aqli knowledge). USIM is committed tobe excellent in three tracks in terms of itsacademic programmes and research whichare;

1. Islamic Studies, Quran and Sunnah

2. Islamic Science, Technology andEngineering

3. Islamic Arts, Social Science andHumanities

The three tracks are supported by the sixCentres of Excellence which areresponsible for enhancing the researchenvironment.

The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2015 (Higher Education) as announced onApril 2015, has emphasised the thirdphase of the Malaysian government’seffort to achieve Vision 2020. Prior to thisannouncement is one of its CriticalAgenda Projects (CAPs) which is theexecution of e-Learning by MalaysianPublic University. Driven by thegovernment ambition, USIM decided toinclude e-Learning into its Key ResultArea (KRA). Listed as an accentedproject, e-Learning development is a mustand had facilitates the establishment ofresponsible department specifically tocater the needs and requirement of onlineeducation.

The popularization and prominence of e-Learning in USIM had given rise to the e-Learning centre founded by the 2nd ViceChancellor of USIM; Professor Dato’ Dr.Muhamad Muda. This centre was nameGlobal Open Access Learning Centre(GOAL Centre).1 GOAL Centre isresponsible for the realization of onlineprogramme and the development of onlineeducation system. Officially operating onthe 1st of October 2011, Currently, GOALCentre is located in the Library buildingand run by twelve (12) staffs headed bythe director; Prof. Dr. Rozhan M. Idrus.

1http://goalcentre.usim.edu.my/2http://goals.usim.edu.my/

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The establishment of GOAL Center movealigned with the development of the newonline education system which took placeon the August of 2011. This system,named Global Open Access LearningSystem (GOALS)2 has fully replaced theprevious system (myLMS Ver. 4.0) inNovember 2011. This system is acomprehensive and flexible e-Learningplatform that is designed to provide userswith a single dashboard; that integrateinformation, administration, teaching &learning, communication and supportservices. GOALS houses all the learningmaterials and content required for theprogrammes includes education activitiessuch as quizzes, discussion and even webconference system.The establishment ofthis centre is also seen as an innovativeways of USIM to be more competitive inthe global world by providing holisticgraduates, quality teaching & learningfacilities and world-class education.

Noted too that GOAL centre offers itsonline distance academic programmethrough fully online medium, known as;

1. Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia OpenEducation (USIMOE) programme.

2. Global Access Continuous Education(G-ACE) / Lifelong Learningprogramme.

As part of USIM responsibility to be achannel of knowledge transfer, GOALCentre has developed an online sharing

platform known as USIM OpenEducational Resources (OER). The mainobjective of OER is for the member ofUSIM to have a channel to share theirknowledge and create a good relationshipbetween USIM and local or internationalcommunity and society, as well as astrategy to put the USIM in the publiceye.

To acculturate the e-learning mentality,GOAL Centre have GOALShare, a sharingplatform in promoting the use of GOALSand also has purchase Turnitin inensuring the proper writing of thesis andprevent the culture of plagiarism amonguniversity members. GOAL centre are alsoresponsible in the development of e-content and the only centre in USIMresponsible for the creation of e-learningmodule for the use of this institution.

USIM is currently among Malaysianhigher education institution that hasembarked on a MOOCs initiative, whichwere launched in 2015. USIM MOOCsadopt an approach where MOOCs areoffered as courses that serve for full

university programmes. USIM MOOCs isavailable at www.openlearning.com/usimmooc.Vice Chancellor of USIM says,

“I envisage GOAL centre to be oureffective artillery to transform theeducation mindset in USIM, alignedwith the Malaysian EducationBlueprint 2015-2025 (HigherEducation).”

Thus GOAL centrestarts to collaboratewith several parties including CEMCA inkeeping itself abreast with internetpedagogies, new knowledge andinformation. These whole progress andstrategy of providing virtuous onlineeducation is align with USIM strategicplan to transform USIM as a globallyranked education providers, as well asmaking USIM as a platform to promoteinterest in innovative teaching andlearning, and provide the impetus ofexciting and mesmerizing delivery mediumfor learners in particular and the society ingeneral.

Dr. Nurkhamimi Zainuddin is the Programme Coordinator at the GOAL Centre, USIMand he can be reached at khamimi[at]usim[dot]edu[dot]my

Prof. Dr. Rozhan M. Idrus is the Director at the GOAL Centre, USIM and he can bereached at rozhan[at]usim[dot]edu[dot]my

Mr. Ahmad Farid Mohd. Jamal is the Assistant Registrar at the GOAL Centre, USIMand he can be reached at ahmadfarid[at]usim[dot]edu[dot]my

Ms. Sanjogita Mishra joined CEMCA as ProgrammeOfficer (Skills) in January 2016. Till recently Sanjogita wasworking as Dean – Skills Integration at CenturionUniversity and Director Learning & Development forGramTarang Employability Training Services (GTETS), asocial entrepreneurial outreach of Centurion University,

Bhubaneswar, India. Sanjogita holds a Bachelor of Engineering (inElectronics & Telecom) from Army Institute of Technology, PuneUniversity and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management, from XIMB,Xavier University, Bhubaneswar (India). She is passionate aboutcontributing towards shaping the Skilling ecosystem of India. We atCEMCA and COL welcome Ms. Sanjogita Mishra and look forward to hercontributions to serve our stakeholder better.

CEMCA wishes to acknowledgeformer Programme Officer – Skills, Dr.Ankuran Dutta for his contributionsto CEMCA in the field of CommunityMedia and Technology EnabledLearning. Dr. Ankuran Dutta served

in CEMCA as a Programme Officer from 18th Nov2013 to 14th Oct 2015. He is presently working withGuwahati university as Associate Professor andHead of Department of Communication andJournalism. His email id is ankurandutta@gmail.com.CEMCA wishes him success in his academic pursuit.

CEMCA Staff News

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NSOU organised NationalConference on OER from18-19 December, 2015.Open EducationalResources provide richand massive open contentinfrastructure to fostercreation andredistribution of free andhigh quality educationalresources. The objectiveof the national conference was forarticulating novel ideas and developmenton OER. It aims to enhance a spirit ofinnovation among all personnel ofknowledge sector in order to reach thegoal of Democratization of knowledge. Itgives the platform for interaction onissues relating to OER among theacademicians, researchers, and policymakers

Dr. Anirban Ghosh, Officer-in-Charge,School of Professional Studies of theUniversity delivered the welcome address

Regional Round Up

National Conference on OER held on 18-19December, 2015 at Netaji Subhas OpenUniversity, Kolkata, India

mentioning theimportance of OER inopen education system.

Professor PhalguniGupta, Director,National Institute ofTeachers’ TrainingInstitute and Researchdwelt at length in hisinaugural address, the

security issue of the openness ofeverything. He is more concerned aboutthe security of the materials. He told thatif everything is open, there is no need tocome to the class rooms for interactionwith the teachers. Dr. Gupta reiteratedthat the teachers have to motivate thestudents to come to the classes in thewww era. The on-line materials are notsufficient to gather knowledge as it wouldbe nothing but a bookish knowledge. Inthis context, he also mentioned thesystem of open book examination for thestudents. In the same way for the on-lineprogramme and on-line examination, deep

thought of teachers is required to set thequestions. It should be designed in sucha way that the answer cannot be readilyavailable on-line. In case of openness, weshould be careful and it cannot bemisused. Before any materials are madepublic, the important factors like who ispreparing and for whom it is beingprepared are to be taken care of.

Professor Ashok Kolaskar, Vice-Chancellor, The Neotia University andformer Adviser, National KnowledgeCommission, India, opined that thequality and standard of the resourcesshould be maintained and it should beclearly defined where the resources wouldbe put. He also stressed upon the clearcut policy on educational resources.There should be an OER Policy to makethe resources available to the public. Theusefulness of OER is to share theknowledge among others. He also pointedout that the achievers evaluation throughrubrics is very important in case ofevaluating the OER. He stressed upon thedegree of alignment and standardizationof the OER. Quality assessment is anothermajor issue of OER in respect of subjectmatter and the technology we use.Professor Kolsakar also mentioned thatthe OER should be developed in regionallanguages to cater to the needs of thelarger sections of the society. It should bedeveloped in proper socio-cultural needs.

Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, EducationOfficer, CEMCA began his lecture withthe history of OER and stated itsadvantage in sharing the resources. Healso told about the role of UNESCO andCOL in promoting the OER. He mentionedthat presently the CEMCA is working indeveloping the Institutional Policies ofOER in Asian Countries. He described the6Rs in respect of OER and different typesof open licensing policies in using theOER.

Professor Uma Kanjilal, Dept. of Libraryand Information Science, IGNOU, in herkey-note address discussed variousissues relating to the open access, open

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courseware, OER, MOOCs and e-learning.Prof. Kanjilal told that the OER will avoidthe duplication of effort as a result thecost will be minimum. She described indetail the various types of licences undercreative common. As far as quality isconcerned, the contents which are madeavailable on public domain, will bereviewed by others which in turn improvethe quality. She also stressed upon adefinite policy regarding the OER anddescribed the importance of ‘Stack’ i.e.repository where all the OER will beavailable.

In his Presidential Address, ProfessorSubha Sankar Sarkar Vice Chancellor,NSOU, described the terms viz. OpenEducation, Open Educational Resources,Open Access and he mentioned that thecommon thing in these words - openness.He added that the OER is used with someriders like different types of licenses.Professor Srakar also advised that theOER should be designed in such a waythat the intenders can easily search theirsubject matter. He also felt that fordeveloping the OER, subject experts and

technology experts have to work togetherfor a qualitative content.

There were five technical sessions viz.Theme I: Open Educational Resourcesand Courseware, Theme II: OpenLearning Spaces and Technologies,Theme III: Open Educational Practicesand Higher Education-i, Theme IV: OpenEducational Practices and HigherEducation-ii, and Theme V: QualityAssurance and Open EducationalResources

Dr. Anirban Ghosh, Associate Professor,NSOU demonstrated how to create e-content through various ICT tools likewiki etc. Mr. Mizanoor Rehman formBangldesh Open University presented abrief report on OER of their country.

The Organizing Committee received about40papers, Out of these papers, only 25Papers were selected for presentation inthese technical session as per the theme.About fifty participants including theparticipant from Bangladesh OpenUniversity attended the 2-day long UGC-DEB National Conference on OER.

The Valedictory session started with thepresidential address, delivered by Dr AsitBaran Aich. Dr Manas Ranjan Panigrahibriefly expressed valedictory address withsuggestions and recommendationsregarding OER. The National Conferenceon Open Educational Resources wasconcluded by Dr Anirban Ghosh,Associate Professor of Commerce,Officer- in-Charge, School of ProfessionalStudies.

After having all sessions, this conferencerecommends two major issues as follows:

• More and more awarenessprogramme on OER may beconducted to make aware of thepotential strength of OER ineducation system

• Framing of institutional OpenEducational Resource mandatesrather than institutional policy toensure inclusive and equitableeducational opportunities with OERprovision.

• Inclusion of Open EducationalResource Repository in institutionallibrary.

Open University Malaysia(OUM) hosted 29th AnnualConference of AAOUThe 29th Annual Conference of the Asian Association of OpenUniversities (AAOU) was convened in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysiaon 30 November to 2 December 2015. The conferencewas organized by Open University Malaysia (OUM) with thetheme of “New Frontiers in Open and Distance Learning (ODL)”.The five sub-themes were - New Paradigm for Open Universities,Technology as Drivers in Open and Distance Learning, NewResearch and Practices in Open and Distance Learning, QualityAssurance in Open and Distance Learning, Open KnowledgeMovement. Various parallel sessions were organized to focus onthe sub-themes. More than 250 representatives from over 15countries took part in this conference. Prof. Emeritus Anuwar Ali,President/Vice Chancellor, OUM, delivered a welcoming speechat the opening ceremony. He addressed in his welcoming addressthat ODL plays an important role in alleviating the constraint as it

allows higher education to be widely accessible to the massesanytime, anywhere.

Dr. Kam Cheong Li, Secretary-General of AAOU, Prof. Dato’Halimah Badioze Zaman, Head of ICT Cluster, National ProfessorCouncil, Malaysia, Prof. Asha Kanwar, President and CEO of theCommonwealth of Learning, Prof Nageshwar Rao, ViceChancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Prof. Ir D.rTian Belawati, Rector, Universitas Terbuka Indonesia were invitedto make keynote speeches on various dimensions of ODLincluding its development and research practices.

AAOU recognized individual for their outstanding service andcontributions in the areas of open and distance education withthe distinguished AAOU Meritorious Service Award. It alsopresented the Best Paper Awards comprising one gold and twosilver medal awards for deserving candidates. Moreover, AAOUYoung Innovator Award and AAOU Best Practice Award werealso presented to encourage the academicians and researchers inthe field of ODL.

The recommendations and outcomes of this conference will havefar-reaching benefits to the ODL community.

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CEMCA News

Meeting of ViceChancellors of StateOpen Universities onReforming ODLsystem in India

CEMCA has conducted survey on theStatus of State Open Universities in Indiawhich was commissioned under theHigher Education initiative at CEMCA. Inorder to provide a forum for the sharingthe findings of status study and todiscuss the different emerging issues ofODL system in India for reformation ameet of the Vice Chancellors of StateOpen Universities was organised on 14-15December 2015 by CEMCA. Theobjectives of this meeting were to: share

and discuss the report “Status of theState Open Universities in India” toupdate and forward the recommendations;share the best practices of the openuniversities on ODL system; and Identifypossible action oriented recommendationsfor the attainment of SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs) Four: “Ensure

inclusive and equitable quality educationand promote lifelong learningopportunities for all by 2030”. A total of 15participants, comprising Vice Chancellorsand their nominee of State Openuniversities including Dr. B K Bhadri,Assistant Education Advisor, MHRD,Govt. of India and Prof. H C Pokhriyal,SOL-Delhi University participated in themeeting. Prof. Manjulika Srivastava ofIGNOU was the facilitator for the meeting.

The meeting began with an introductoryby Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi,Programme Officer, and CEMCA. He alsoexplained the objectives of the meeting.Prof. Manjulika Srivastava of IGNOUpresented the “Status of the State OpenUniversities in India” survey report andNew Agenda, Economic Goals and OpenUniversities. Supplementing to both thepresentation Prof. Pokhriyal highlightedon the New Education Policy specialconcerns to the Open and DistanceLearning.

A detailed discussion took palace on thereport with a view to updating thecontents and forwards therecommendation for the development ofODL system in India. Participantsdiscussed in groups on differentemerging issues of ODL system such asCurriculum (focusing on skills andcompetencies), Support Services,Accreditation of Open Universities, ICTsin programme design and delivery, andStaff Development. Participants alsohighlighted and share the Best Practicesof their own open university which willlead to the attainment of SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs). At the end ofthis meeting a set of recommendationsand suggestive actions were made by allthe participants. The meeting wasconcluded with summarising of thediscussions by Prof. Manjulika Srivastavaand Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi. Mr. R.Thyagarajan, CEMCA proposed the voteof thanks appreciating the contribution ofall participants and overall success of themeeting.

National Consultation on OpenEducational Resources,Convention Centre, JawaharlalNehru University, New DelhiCEMCA, UNESCO and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)jointly organized a National Consultation on the theme ‘Open

Educational Resources for Inclusive Development: IdentifyingChallenges, Addressing Opportunities’ at the Convention Centre,Jawaharlal Nehru University on 1st and 2nd December 2015.

The objectives of this consultation were to (a) identify challenges tothe creation and use of Open Educational Resources (OER); and (b)identify opportunities for interventions for inclusive developmentthrough OER at the institutional and national level. The Consultationfocused on seven themes, each of which addressed during a

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dedicated consultative session. The themes were:Examining the benefits and implications of the 2014 OpenLicensing Policy Guidelines of the National Mission onEducation through ICT; Examining good practices and casestudies on OER-based learning; Exploring the role of digitallibraries vis-à-vis OER initiatives; Adapting existinginstitutional OER policies; Developing and applyingframeworks to assess the quality of OER; OER for personswith disabilities; and OER for skill development. A total of150 participants including OER experts, practitioners andcontent developers from different parts of Indiaparticipated in the consultation. A set of recommendationsand suggestive actions were made by all the participants.

Delegate from Universiti SainsIslam Malaysia (USIM) visitsCEMCAOfficials from Global Open Access Learning Centre (GOAL),USIM Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus, Director; Dr. NurkhamimiZainuddin, Coordinator and Mr. Ahmad Farid Mohd Jamal,Officer visited CEMCA on 25th November 2015 to discusscollaborative projects relating to technical and vocational skilldevelopment, OER, MOOCs and for learners with specialsneeds. Dr. Ramesh Sharma (Director, CEMCA) Dr. ManasRanjan Panigrahi, (Program Officer, Education) and Mr. R.Thyagarajan, (Head, Administration and Finance) discussedvarious areas of collaboration like innovations in technologyenhanced pedagogy, blended learning implementation andcourses skills based etc.

Capacity Building of SpecialTeacher Educators of Odisha onICT Integration in TeachingLearning for Differently AbledChildrenCEMCA, New Delhi in collaboration with Chetana College ofSpecial Education, Bhubaneswar organised a capacity buildingprogramme from October 28-30, 2015 for the special teachereducators of Odisha. This is in line with the CEMCAengagements in India for building a strong Communities ofPractice (CoP) for ICT integrated teacher education and intendedto: build and strengthen teacher educators’ capacities tointegrate ICTs into teacher-education, focusing on theirprofessional development; and leveraging the CoP platformcreate an environment of peer collaboration; and assist teachereducators to develop and use digital libraries/OERs ontechnology and its use in education. A total of 30 special teachereducators (13 female and 17 male) having specialisation onMental Retardation, Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment,Clinical Psychology etc. from 12 special teacher educationInstitutions of Odisha attended and received hands-on training.

The programme was inaugurated by Shri Mahendra Kumar Mallik(IAS), State Project Director, OPEPA, Govt. of Odisha who sharedprogress of inclusive education in brief such as about 102,485Children With Special Needs (CWSN) enrolled in schools, 11,520teachers provided training on Curricular Adaption for CWSN, 500and 2000 teachers provided 7 days training on Braille and SignLanguage each in Odisha. Accepting the utility of ICT in specialeducation and its lack of extensive utilisation by teachers inOdisha, he agreed that OPEPA not yet initiated any trainingexclusively for special teachers. And he gave commitment with

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the help of CEMCA we will promote and implement the approach “ICTintegrated teaching learning through Community of Practice (CoP)” forour teachers of CWSN. Finally Shri Mallik wished all the participantsto successful completion of the Programme. In his remarks Dr. ManasRanjan Panigrahi, CEMCA shared the importance of ICT in educationand briefed out about of usefulness of ICT in the field of educationand special education. The Guest of Honour of the Programme, ShriBibhuti Bhusan Pattnaik, Additional Secretary cum Director, SocialSecurity and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Govt. ofOdisha, stated that the development of educational standard ofchildren with special needs in Odisha is a big challenge in inclusivesetup as well as in special setup. ICT integration in education willminimise the challenges some extent. Appreciating initiation ofCEMCA and Chetana he further stated that the use of ICT in teachingand learning is helpful for the children with special needs and specialteachers.

The workshop was facilitated by Ms. G Mythili, IGNOU and Dr. ManasRanjan Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCA. The three-day trainingincluded Synchronous and Asynchronous Technologies; OnlineTools for Teaching Learning; Understanding Open EducationalResources: Role in Teaching and Learning; Creative CommonsLicences; Teacher Activities supported by ICT: Curriculum planning,Instructional design, Content delivery, Student Assessment; recenttrends in online education; Using Wikis; Preparing teaching content:Using Audio/Podcasts; Using Blogs; Collaborative practices: GoogleDocs; Student Assessment using ICT, Creating quizzes (Hot Potato).Participants were exposed to theoretical as well as practical applicationof the different ICT tools through hands-on-experiences.

In the valedictory session, the participants expressed that thecontents provided in the training was more helpful for them effectivelyuse of ICT in teaching-learning. Dr. Ajay Mishra, President, JewelsInternational Chetana, Bhubaneswar, Odisha; Dr. Subha KantaMohanty, Deputy Director, RC-IGNOU, Bhubaneswar; and Prof.Narayan Chandra Pati, General Secretary, Jewels International Chetana,Bhubaneswar, Odisha were present in the valedictory session. Thereport of the workshop was presented by Mr. Binaya BhusanMohapatra, Principal, Chetana College of Special Education.

Capacity Building ofVocational Teachers ofBosch Vocational Center,Bengaluru on OpenEducational Resources(OER)Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia(CEMCA), New Delhi in collaboration with the BoschVocational Center, Bengaluru organized a two-daytraining on Open Education Resources (OER) forTeachers of the Bosch Vocational Center (BVC) andCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments on15th and 16th October 2015. The objective of thistraining program was to scale up the training activitiesat BVC and CSR by promoting the awareness and useof OER to support capacity building initiatives by BVCand CSR through open educational resources. Tenteachers of BVC and CRS in attended this training.

Dr. O P Goel, General Manager, Corporate SocialResponsibility & Head - Bosch Vocational Training,Bosch Limited, Banaglore inaugurated the programmeand explained the objectives of the capacity buildingprogramme. Dr. Goel welcomed Dr. Manas RanjanPanigrahi, Programme Officer (Education) from theCommonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia(CEMCA), New Delhi, who conducted the training.The technical sessions began by introducing theteachers to the universe of OER. This was followed byexplaining the development and designing ofinstructional materials using Wiki and CreativeCommons Platform. The vocational teachers were alsointroduced to the Creative Common licenses, WebSearch for OERs and OER Commons. This two daystraining programme was full of hands-on practices anddemonstrations on creating and searching relevantOER.

In the valedictory session, the participants sharedtheir happiness asserting that, we will now start usingthe learnings from this training programme to developcourse contents with the available OER found free ofcost on the internet, in a structured manner. Dr. O PGoel has also expressed his interest in working withCEMCA for developing the Train the Trainer (TTT)Programme for higher scalability.

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CEMCA supportedwork receives ICDEPrize for Innovationand Best Practice -2015A paper based on the adoption andimplementation of the ‘OER-based e-Learning’ professional developmentonline course of the CommonwealthEducational Media Centre for Asia(CEMCA) at the Open University of SriLanka received ICDE Prize forInnovation and Best Practice – 2015 atthe 26th ICDE World Conference heldat Sun City, South Africa, 14-16October, 2015. The activity was led byProf. Shironica Karunanayaka, andconducted with the support of Prof.J.C.N. Rajendra and Dr. UdithaRatnayake under the guidance of expertConsultancy provided by Dr. SomNaidu.

The paper entitled “From OER to OEP:Shifting Practitioner Perspectives andPractices with Innovative LearningExperience Design”, presented by Prof.Shironica P. Karunanayaka of the Facultyof Education, the Open University of SriLanka (OUSL), with Prof. Som Naidu,Monash University, Australia wasadjudicated one of the five best papers in

innovation and best practice categoryas selected by the Editorial Board ofOpen Praxis and scientific committee ofthe conference. It will be published in afuture issue of Open Praxis. Wecongratulate Prof. ShironicaKarunanayaka and thank Dr. SomNaidu for the support.

CurriculumFinalization andTraining onDevelopment of SLMas OER for Post-Graduate Diploma inCyber SecurityCEMCA has been supporting thedevelopment of skill based open anddistance learning courses using OER. Inthis regard CEMCA has initiateddeveloping a modular programme entitledPost-Graduate Diploma in Cyber Securityin collaboration with Uttarakhand OpenUniversity (UOU), Haldwani. The UOUorganized a workshop for Curriculumfinalization and training on developmentof Self-learning Materials as OER for the

programme Post-Graduate Diploma inCyber Security from 18-19 September, 2015at UOU campus Haldwani. The expertsand course developers reviewed the draftcurriculum and syllabus, and alsodiscussed the issues related toorganization of practical, course durationand availability of the support materialsfor practical and internship.

In the inaugural session Dr.Jeetendra Pande from UOU,in his opening remarksdiscussed the relevance ofthe course on cybersecurity in today’s time. Hefurther spoke on theimportance of spreadingmass awareness on cybersecurity. The welcomeaddress was given by Prof.Durgesh Pant, Director,Department of Computer

Science, UOU. Appreciating CEMCA’ssupport and contribution for UOU, heinformed the participants that the cyberwar is the next biggest threat to thecountry. He advocated spreading massawareness in cyber security througheducation and train the educated youth ofthe country over the defensive cyber

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techniques and creates “cybervolunteers” to fight with cyber terrorism.

Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, ProgrammeOfficer Education, CEMCA made apresentation and led a discussion ondevelopment of SLMs using OER. Theexperts and course developers fromvarious organization throughout thecountry, which included CyberEmergency Response Team of India(CERT-In), MDI Gurgoan, Cyber SecurityConsultants from Chandigarh,

Educational experts from Bhimtal andUttarakhand Open University discussedand debated the course on cyber securityin the school and college level andprepared the draft of the syllabus for thecourse, which will be develop using OER.

Prof. Subhash Dhuliya, Vice Chancellor ofUOU congratulated School of ComputerScience & IT and CEMCA for takingtimely steps to develop the curriculum forcyber security programme and he furtherinformed that UOU will offer this PG

Diploma in Cyber Security form theforthcoming session. Mr. AshutoshBahuguna, Mr Mukesh Kumar fromCERT-In, Prof. Ashok Panjwani from MDIGurgoan, Mr. Ashok Karatia, Mr.Charanjeet Singh, Dr. Sandeep Budhani,Mr. Rajendra Goswami, Mr. Balam Dafouti,Mr. Rajesh Aray and Mr. Vineet Paudiyalparticipated in the workshop and were themember of the draft committee forfinalizing the curriculum on cybersecurity.

Capacity Building ofHigher EducationTeachers on e-Content Developmentusing MoodleCEMCA, New Delhi in collaboration withthe Central University of Punjab,Bathinda (CUPB) organized a two-day(15-16 September, 2015) capacity buildingprogramme for university teachers on e-Content Development using Moodle atUniversity premises.

The purpose of the training was to buildcapacity of teachers in providing themhands on training about the developmentof online courses. Since the Universityhas been asked by the Ministry of HumanResource Development (MHRD), NewDelhi to develop Massive Open OnlineCourses (MOOCs), the programme was

intended to train the faculty in developingonline courses. The University hasalready communicated to MHRD a list 41interested faculty who will be developing29 courses as MOOC. A total of 36 (30faculty members and 6 Ph.D. scholars)attended the training programme.

Professor Ashok Dhawan, Dean of CUPBinaugurated the programme in thepresence of Dr. Pankaj Khare, Registrar ofCUPB and presided over by Prof. S.K.Bawa, Dean, School of Education. Dr.Shireeesh Pal Singh welcomed theresource person Mr Ashutosh Taunk.Prof. Dhawan highlighted the role ofknowledge expansion in higher educationand how countries like USA haveeffectively used the MOOCs foreducational offerings. Dr. Khare spokeabout the utility of the training for thefaculties of CUPB. Prof. S.K. Bawahighlighted the use of ICT in classroomsituations and also the importance ofsuch trainings.

The technicalsessions startedwith a briefintroduction on LMSand the need ofimplementing it ineducationalinstitution likeCUPB. The Resourceperson helped theparticipants ingaining hands on

experience on how to install Moodle,creating Admin page, how to enroll usersand to assign student and teacher rolesand also trained the participants oncreating a course by uploading files suchas PDF, videos, PowerPoints etc. Thesecond day was focused on creatingcourse using the IP address and on howmultiple questions can be uploaded asQuiz. The method to take backups and torestore the same was also demonstrated.The trainer also introduced theparticipants to OER resources like OCW,Moodle HUB, Creative CommonsLicenses, logo, copyright issues,plagiarism, similarity index, Moodlemobile and other free VLE tools. All theparticipants were also assigned a courseand made as a teacher to the course onlocal server and also on KTS cloud. Allhave the logins to each, so that they canprepare the required content anywherepossible. Participants were also informedabout Paypal, Microsoft, Googleintegrations and SSO capability.

The two days training was concludedwith. Prof. R.K. Kohli, Vice Chancellor,addressing the participants during thevaledictory highlighted that technology isthe future medium of instruction andcalled upon all the participants to keeppace with the changing technology toface the challenges ahead. The report ofthe workshop was presented by Dr.Jubilee Padmanabhan, and the certificateswere distributed for all the participants byThe Vice Chancellor, CUPB.

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Development of OERPolicy of the CentralUniversity ofHimachal Pradesh(CUHP),DharamshalaCommonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi assistedthe Central University of HimachalPradesh (CUHP), Dharamshala towardsdeveloping an OER Policy of CUHPUniversity. To this purpose a meeting washeld on 1st September 2015 at theUniversity. The School of Education ofCentral University of Himachal Pradesh(CUHP) facilitated the meeting to chalkout the mechanism for the implementationof Open Educational Resource Policy(OERP).

Convenor of the meeting and Dean ofEducation, Dr. Manoj Kumar Saxena saidall the delegates were divided into four

groups. “In the long brainstormingsession every member gave their opinionand then this draft policy document isprepared,” said Dr.Saxena.

Inaugurating the workshop the ViceChancellor of CUHP Prof. (Dr.) KuldipChand Agnihotri said, “it’s a platformthrough which we can create an openrepository of knowledge to the learners ofall sections of the society.” Lauding theefforts of CEMCA Prof. Agnihotri said,the OERs will act as a viaduct among allcommonwealth countries and help toshare the treasure of knowledge with eachother.

Programme Officer (Education) of CEMCADr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi complimentedthe CUHP for showing interest in OERsand assured CEMCA’s full support/expertise to develop OER policy for theuniversity. “It will help to increase thereach of this University to theheterogeneous masses,” said Dr.Panigrahi.

Pro Vice Chancellor of CUHP, Prof.Yoginder Singh Verma lauded the initiative

of the Department of Educationparticularly for adopting new methods ofteaching and learning. “With the adventof mass communication tools particularlythe World Wide Web, there is nomonopoly of anyone on knowledge. Nowwith a click one can access any documentand can excel in their life. In the samemanner the OERs will give a new edge indisseminating knowledge. “

Deans, Heads, faculty members fromdifferent schools of CUHP and resourceperson Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi,Programme Officer (Education) CEMCAdiscussed various aspects of OER policydevelopment. At the end of meeting thegroup finalised a ‘draft policy’ documentfor the proper and efficientimplementation of Open EducationResources (OER) in CUHP.

The meeting was also attended by Prof.Arvind Aggarwal, Prof. I.V. Malhan, Prof.H.R. Sharma, Prof. Ambrish Mahajan, andheads of different departments andfaculty members and Registrar (retd.)Brig. Jagdish Chand Rangra.

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Case Study

Skilling – Where lies the Gap?

By Ms. Sanjogita Mishra

Historical Background

Traditionally, the ITIs and the Polytechnic colleges of the nationwere put in charge of imparting “Vocational” training and produceskilled manpower in the nation. This system of training andeducation was considered to be inferior to the conventionalmodes of education. This meant that students opting to betrained in ITIs and Polytechnics were thought to be lesser inintelligence and incapable of coping with the conventionaleducational system and therefore, by extension, inferior. Thiskind of thinking, of treating tactile skills involving dexterity ofhandbeing somehow lesser than mental skills, owes its origins tothe ‘Caste System’. The upper castes had appropriated tothemselves the more theoretical task of thinking and ruminating,analysis and decision making to themselves while relegatinglabour of body to the lower castes.

The conventional educational system was designed to impartanalytical skills and decision making skills with no emphasis onhands-on skills. In any business or organization,only a handful ofpeople are needed at the decision making level and a largenumber of people who work with other skills. The conventionaleducation system did not lay enough importance on “ExperientialLearning” and did not linkskill with degree and certification. Theresult is a mechanical engineer who does not know welding or acivil engineer who doesn’t know mixing mortar.

We are witnessing the coming of a new era in the country withinitiatives like “skilling India”, “Make in India”, “Swach Bharat”and “Digital India”. With India being the most populous and theyoungest nation today, the presence or absence of skills is goingto make or break the destiny of India. “Skills” today is “BharatBhagya Vidhata”.

Given the potential of Skilling which has the ability to transformthe demographic disaster to demographic dividend in India, it isabsolutely imperative that we have a system in place thatsystematically skills and produces appropriately skilled youth insync with their cultural context, aspirations and the demand ofthe market.

Current Issue – Problem Definition

As a result of this kind of gap between hands-on and mentalskilling, India today has educated youth but unskilled and henceunemployable. The supply of the small pool of skilled manpowerdoes not match the demand in every sector. For example, thesupply of “Engineers” (who can be technically called Skilled) isway more than the demand. As they say on a lighter note – “Indiais a country where people first become engineers and then figureout what they want to become”. Earning degrees is aspirational tothe middle-class youth but acquiring skills is not. Either due tofalse pride of possessing degrees leading to lack of dignity oflabour or due to mismatching supply-demand of skills, the youth isbeing rendered unemployable by the conventional system ofeducation.

Quick Resolution

This inequality has led the Government of India to establish“National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)” in a PPPmodel with a mandate to partner with private players enabling themto impart skills to the youth culminating into employment. Theseinstitutions are called “Vocational Training Partners” (VTP / TP)as they partner with NSDC or with government departments likeMinistry of Rural Development, DGET, MSME, Urban Departmentof Development. All these departments launchedPlacementLinked Training Programmes (PLTPs) under various names.Thus, various schemes were floated to incentivize the SkillProvider and the youth to participate in such Skilling movement.

Simultaneously there were efforts made to understand the demandfor skilled manpower in various industry sectors and geographies.There was also a need for identification of various job roles in agiven industry sector and standardization of skills required toperform the identified job. Thus were born the Sector SkillCouncils (SSCs) which are a group of industry bodies in a given

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industry sector, responsible for defining the job roles, developingthe Qualification Pack (QP) for the job roles, defining the NationalOccupational Standards (NOS) in a QP and maintaining standardsand quality in training, assessment and certification.

Challenges in Skilling Landscape

This quick-fix like all instant solutions has its challenges which areaffecting the quality and efficacy of the process. Some of them are-

1. Lack of standardization

Even though Job Roles have been identified and QP-NOSdefined painstakingly, it does not translate to standardization oftraining material and delivery.

2. Traditional Teaching-Learning Pedagogy

The teaching material and the pedagogy for Skill training istypically class room and theory based focussed on theknowledge bit and not on the “Skills” bit.

3. Lack of Training of Trainers

Trainers are mostly grown up trainees. There is not muchdifference between the capabilities of trainers and that oftrainees in terms of education and exposure. Therefore it isimperative that Trainers be given rigourous and thoroughtraining.

The cost of training of trainers have to be borne by the TrainingPartners who either have very little budget to spend on this orhave high profit motive and therefore see Train the Trainer(TTT) conducted by the SSCs as a burden. These TTTs areconducted in metropolitan cities where the cost of lodging andboarding the trainer itself is high and has to be borne by theTraining Partners.

Also the Trainer from a semi-urban training centre is unable tocope with the pace of TTT and the culture of the place whereTTT is arranged. The SSCs on the other hand, cannot make theTTT sessions financially viable until a minimum number ofparticipants show up for the Training.

Below is a snapshot of the TTT sessions planned andconducted by a certain SSC in the last 6 months

This is just an indicator of the fact that out of every 60 TTTsplanned 35 end up being cancelled. Of the 40% of the TTTsconducted, there is no tracking of the Trainer trained to see ifhis capabilities have been increased because of the TTT.

4. Substance to meet Scale and Speed

Skill Training Providers like Don Bosco or NTTF who areimparting quality skills, are not able to scale up numbers whileTraining Providers mass manufacturing “Skilled” manpowerare only creating low quality manpower.

Solutions Proposed“Technology Enabled Learning” can easily provide scalabilityand speed. Provided the right inputs have gone into building thetechnology, it will assure “Quality” or Substance. That way the3Ss of Skill, Speed & Scale will be matched by the 3Ss ofSubstance, Stability and Sustainability.

1. Develop standardized learning content as OER

We need to consolidate resources in developing standardized(QP-NOS Compliant), re-usable content. To overcome theproblems associated with traditional classroom pedagogy thelearning content has to have elements of interactivity. Contentmust be augmented by Audio-Visual narration anddemonstration of Skill appropriate to the NOS Element beingtaught. Animation must be inserted to make learning faster andeffective.

2. Conduct Route Training for Trainers

Instead of calling Trainers from across India to a commonvenue for training of trainers program, the Master Trainer orlet’s call him the Master Training Commando must go on aroute, armed with various learning tools training all partners inhis route. These commandos must be groomed for a group ofjob roles in a region.They must continue to mentor andprovide lifelong learning options to the local trainers who inturn do the same for their students.

3. Multiple Touch Points with learners

Many learning media should be made available to learners,especially the Trainers for clearing their doubt orstrengthening their concepts. Apart from traditional trainerguides and trainee workbooks, which are the least impactfulfor learners preferring kinaesthetic mode of learning, someother media are –

1. Audio-Visual content in regional language to be madeavailable through smart phone apps and internet.

2. Audio content to be made available on IVR or audiomedia like radio programmes

3. Video content to be made available on visual media likeCable TV.

4. Setting up Helpline for technical assistance.

S. NO Month TTT Planned TTT Confirmed TTT Cancelled

1 June 3 3 0

2 July 11 6 5

3 August 20 7 13

4 September 16 5 11

5 October 8 2 16

Ms. Mishra is Programme Officer–Skills at CommonwealthEducational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), 7/8 Sarva priyaVihar, New Delhi and she can be reached atsanjogitamishra[at]co[dot]org

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Book Review

Quality Models in Online and OpenEducation around the Globe: State of the Ar tand Recommendations

Authors: Ebba Ossiannilsson, Keith Williams, Anthony F. Camilleriand Mark Brown; published by International Council for Open andDistance Education – ICDE

Lilleakerveien 23, 0283 Oslo, Norway:

http://www.icde.org/admin/filestore/Resources/Reports/ICDEQualitymodels2.pdf

By Prof. Paul Kawachi

Ossiannilsson et al as authors are to be commended for thistimely work surveying quality frameworks in ODE. The report isreleased under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA attribution andshare-alike open license allowing others to extract and reusesafely. The report itself is quite short - only 52 pages in total withthe substance on 41 pages (pp 7-48), consisting of five chapters:(1) Setting the Scene, (2) Research methodology(4) Discussionand Conclusions, and (5) Recommendations. Of these the finalChapter-5 is the most adventurous setting down elevenrecommendations on how to assure quality.

Chapter-1 gives a good overview of the challenges in Africa andEurope. It also refers to openness in place, and in time, and thenopenness in access bringing wider student diversity (p17), butdoes not mention openness to people, to methods, and to ideas(the cornerstone declaration for an open university), or opennessto cost, and openness to languages. The Chapter-2 on researchmethodology is less than one page, but a further four pages (pp

This book is the project report proposed and funded by the ICDE.There are three parts to this work: the Executive Summary, the FullReport, and the Appendices - and these are published separately.The Executive Summary is at

http://icde.org/admin/filestore/Resources/Reports/Qualitymodelsexecutivesummary3.pdf although the main workdoes contain this as pp 6-11. The eight appendices span a further39 pages, and are published separately via a link http://icde.org/admin/filestore/Resources/Reports/ICDEQualitymodelsappendices2.pdf.

16-19) are given elsewhere as Appendix-7.Chapter-3 refers to their survey of existingframeworks but the References areincomplete (eg Khan 2001 p9, Shelton2011 p20, Williams, Kear& Rosewell 2012p27) and include some that are not citedin the text. Chapter-4 gives a discussionthat in particular finds that this “studyshowed well that e-learning today needsto be mainstreamed as we globally areliving in an e-society” (p41) that is thenincorporated into the main conclusion forelearning quality assurance to be mergedwith conventional educational qualityassurance.

The six pages of Chapter-5 give elevenrecommendations,and each of these isthen covered on pp33-37 of Appendix-8as Proposalsdirected to ICDE.The elevenrecommendationsare (i) Mainstream e-learning quality intotraditionalinstitutional qualityassurance, (ii)Support thecontextualisation ofquality systems, (iii)Support professionaldevelopment, inparticular throughdocumentation of

best practice and exchange of information, (iv) Communicate andpromote general principles,(v) Assist institutions in designing apersonalised quality management system, (vi) Address unbundlingand the emergence of non-traditional educational providers, (vii)Address quality issues around credentialisation throughqualifications frameworks, (viii) Support knowledge transfer fromopen and distance learning to traditional quality systems, (ix)Support quality assurance audits and benchmarking exercises inthe field of online, open, flexible, e-learning and distance education,(x) Encourage, facilitate and support research and scholarship inthe field of quality, and (xi) Encourage, facilitate and supportimplementing quality assurance related to new modes of teaching.Most of these eleven recommendations are quite general -suggesting for example we encourage research in the field ofquality assurance. Three of them however are quite significant ;-Recommendation (i) to merge quality for elearning into existing

Book Review

18

educational quality frameworks - rather than isolate them frommainstream pedagogy - something that the CEMCA TIPSFramework has already advocated and done for OER andgeneral pedagogy; Recommendation (ii) to make qualityassurance frameworks available in non-English languages toreach other contexts - again something that the CEMCA TIPShas advocated and done with full versions in Urdu, andChinese, as well as English, and abstracts in Chinese, German,Spanish, French, Italian and Polish (see for example http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/node/164389 ); andRecommendation (iii) calling for compiling training materialsappropriate for institutions and quality assurance agents -which has already been done by CEMCA and is currently wellunderway.

The main thrust of this report is to give an overview of qualityassurance for elearning around the world not prescriptively andwith an emphasis not to stifle innovation. The point ofRecommendation (vi) therefore seems a little incongruous sinceit notes the diversity of educational provision and states this“will likely require widely (internationally) recognised standardsfor provision and providers at each unbundled level, backed upby appropriate inspection and compliance bodies regulated bylaw” (p47) that could open up some risk to stifling theinnovation they seek to preserve and promote.

This book reports on how quality for elearning is defined indifferent regions around the world. The book takes on a lot anddelivers a list of recommendations as quality benchmark criteriato be considered by institutions providing elearning. My recentwork on quality assurance for open educational resources(OER) (Kawachi, 2013a ; 2014) offered criteria for creating OERthat encompassed a defining eight OER-specific criteria andanother thirty elearning criteria, so that teachers as creators hada full overview. This book goes much further advocating thattheir elearning criteria be blended in with general pedagogycriteria for guiding institutions on quality assurance. I agreewith this approach. Here administration and teachers have awide set of criteria that fully covers the real classroom context,where this includes online study inside and outside theinstitution.

While the study discusses at some length the concept ofquality, it does not analyse and distil the various views into auseful takeaway definition of quality. This may be seen as aoversight, but the authors are trying hard not to commit to anyone-size-fits-all conclusion, and they leave each reader to pickup points from here and there to build each their own workabledefinition. Good definitions of quality are given elsewhere byothers (eg by Harvey & Green, 1993) and with respect to OERby Kawachi, (2014a) where a working definition varies accordingto context and the perspective of the individual.

One of the aims of this study (p3) is to inform governmentpolicy makers. The relevant parts of the text are; “governmentsand higher education institutions should work towards full openaccess of educational resources” (p23), and “governments[should be invited] to establish comprehensive systems of

quality assurance and accreditation for cross border highereducation” (p34).

A key point made by the authors, and highlighted by Titlestad(2015) in his blog posting, is that quality guidelines should notstifle innovation. It is easy to see how a comprehensive guide toquality can feel oppressive to a teacher wanting some simple adviceon a few points to bear in mind when she or he creates an OER.

The report states in the preface (p3) and executive summary (p6)that “improving the quality of student experiences is extremelyimportant when considering quality in online education” butcuriously does not ask any student for his or her perspective onwhat constitutes quality. This is despite the leading objective toestablish an overview “encompassing the fundamental notion ofstudents as active participants in an engaging experience” (p6) andthe ‘critical’ role for ICDE “working … to ensure studentengagement in determining quality standards” (p11).

The report does mention however that it is necessary to “focus onwhat the learners (students) themselves see and define as quality.As consumers/customers their views may not necessarily be thesame as other stakeholders. Accordinglythere are demands for theirinvolvement in co-definition of quality” (pp 23-24). The studentperspective on OER quality is given as the base ground level in theKawachi pyramid (Figure-3, p24, Kawachi, 2014), with the teacherperspective at mid-level, and the institutional perspective at thehighest level.

In their Appendix-2 the authors refer to OER as “publicly-fundededucational resources licensed to make materials needed forlearners freely available to all” (lines 7-8) which emphasises the costaspect, and does not mention the driving point for an open licenceis legal safety to reuse. This description is a little strange and islikely just a verbatimextract from another ICDE document ratherthan a definition or effort to explain OER to governments.

The authors call (p46) for ICDE to engage with ISO in forthcomingISO-21001 standards on quality for educational organisations. Mosteducational institutions at the tertiary level - and probably all at theprimary, secondary and informal level - lack expertise in OER andelearning. It could be more practical in this regard to lobbygovernments to add OER and elearning into national teachertraining curricula, and thereby develop the human capacity of ODEprofessionals.

ICDE recommend this report as essential reading for all ODEprofessionals; “It is a must read for any person concerned withquality” (p3), and in consideration of the masses of materialsavailable to them as elearning frameworks (around forty or fifty inthe English literature) this report offers a short basis for thosewanting a global view.

Prof. Paul is Professor of Instructional Design, Fellow of theRoyal Society of Arts, and a lifelong student - currently studyinglaw online at Cumbria University. He can be reached atkawachi[at]open-ed[dot]net

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About the ePathshala

The digital India campaign has promotedextensive use of ICTs teaching learningprocess. The ePathshala, a joint initiativeof Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment (MHRD), Govt. of India andNational Council of Educational Researchand Training (NCERT) has beendeveloped for showcasing anddisseminating all educational e-resourcesincluding textbooks, audio, video,periodicals and a variety of other printand non-print materials.

Reaching out, bridging divide

The platform addresses the dualchallenge of reaching out to a diverseclientele and bridging the digital divide(geographical, socio-cultural andlinguistic) offering comparable quality ofe-contents and ensure its access free atevery time and every place.

The eBooks

Students, teachers, educators andparents can access e-books throughmultiple technology platforms i.e. mobilephones, and tablets (as e-pub) and onweb through laptops and desktops (asflipbooks). ePathshala also allows you tocarry as many books as their devicesupport. Features of these books allowusers to pinch, select, zoom, bookmark,highlight, navigate, share and make notesdigitally.

Download the App

Are you a mobile user? Access resourcesthrough mobile apps (Android, iOS,

SMART Tips

ePathshala

Dr. Amarendra P. Behera

Windows).Currently available in:Hindi, English, Urdu

epathshala.gov.in,epathshala.nic.in

The following resources can beaccessed on epathshala.

1. eBooks

2. Audio/Video

3. Curricular Resources

4. Teaching Instructions

5. Learning Outcomes

6. Periodicals

Prof. Behera is a Professor and Head of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) and Training Division, Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET),NCERT, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi. He can be reached at:amar_b2000[at]yahoo[dot]com and behera[dot]ciet[at]gmail[dot]com

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Technology Tracking

Reporting Using SCORM in LMS

Mr. Ashutosh Taunk

We are getting smarter and smarter day byday, and so id pushed to our technologies.Less is being manual, in a way it is good asit condenses human errors. One way is toutilize smart technology into our learningand teaching pedagogies, so that, ourteachers can focus on quality of contentmore than the assessment and tracking, forexample, who did what and how. SCORMsare an excellent tracking tool for learningand development.

Simply put, SCORM is nothing but,Sharable Content Object Reference Model,keep in mind this can be only used inconjugation with eLearning platforms oralso called as LMS. The reason to be usedwith LMS is that, LMS is the place wherethe user participation will be tracked.SCORM will record the user id and willthrough the learning outcome or the userscore to the LMS and that’s how it reducesthe burden of teachers, and they do nothave to sit for hours and identify the usercounts.

SCORM is a typical in e-Learning thatmakes it potential to track the results oflearners in a LMS. To use SCORMfeatures, a course has to be a SCORMcompliant and it must meet therequirements of the standards set bythe ADL, Advanced Distributed Learning.It makes it possible to create an e-Learningcourse in any authoring environment andrun it in any SCORMcompliant LMS and report your learners’results to that LMS.

How it works?

The basic set up of a SCORM compliantcourse is simple, here is how it works:

Create a course in an e-Learningauthoring tool (like easy generator,articulate) or in a LMS, publish the e-Learning course as a SCORM package(something like save as SCORM), uploadthe SCORM compliant course in LMS andinvite learners for participation. All resultsof your leaners will be stored in LMS.

What SCORM Tracks?If a course is SCORM compliant it canstore almost everything:

• End result of a quiz/ entire course(fail, pass and the end result)

• Number and type of Questionsanswered, correct or incorrect

• Answers given

• Pages viewed and for how long

• Total time spent

• Score per Learning objective

• Incomplete results and progress (sothe learner can resume a courselater)

• You name it, it can be registered andstored, requires customization.

Does SCORM compliant always meansthe same

No it doesn’t, as the last bullet abovesays, SCORM hassome compulsory part(basically all the results) but also

elements that can beadded optionally.Bookmarks and resultsper learning objectiveare optional. Thismeans that if you needto buy an authoringtool or a LMS youshould check if thatsupports the elementsthat you need!

Report tracking. If theresults are stowed in the database of LMSit does not mean you can get them out inan easy way. That depends on the reportcontribution of LMS. Some LMS havevery detailed report or a possibility tocreate one. If you want to make sure thatthe LMS does what you need, must checkthe reporting function!

Version of Application

SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004

Yes there are twoversion of SCORM:SCORM 1.2 andSCORM 2004. Thelatest version is

SCORM 2004 but both are still in use. Infact the oldest version (SCORM 1.2) is themost popular one. So what is thedifference? The core variance betweenthe two is that SCORM 2004 addsselections for complex navigation andsequencing. If you need that, choosemake sure both your authoringenvironment and your LMS are bothSCORM 2004 compliant. If you just needthe learners results SCORM 1.2 will do aswell.

Mr. Taunk is eLearning Specialist inKnowlexs, Noida, India. He can bereached atashutoshtaunk[at]gmail[dot]com

21

Partner Speak

This year (2014-15)with the support ofCommonwealthEducational MediaCentre for Asia(CEMCA), New

Delhi, JSS Karnataka Open Schoolconducted two workshops todevelop and finalize the coursematerials as OER for the CertificateProgramme “Nursing Assistance andGeriatric Care Assistance” in amodular approach. CEMCA gavevaluable technical and academicsupport regarding the developmentof course materials. Indeed, it was animportant and useful activity to JSSKarnataka Open School (KOS). Ithank CEMCA for providing allnecessary help and cooperation todevelop the course materials.CEMCA’s cooperation and guidanceis highly useful for us to providelearning opportunities to the massprospective learners. On behalf ofJSS Mahavidyapeetha and KOS, Ithank CEMCA officials wholeheartedly for their support.

Dr. K. M. Veeraiah, Director,JSSKOS, Karnataka,

India

Ideosync MediaCombine partneredwith CEMCA toundertake an in-depth participatoryAction Research inSouth Asia to

explore sustainability of CommunityRadio. It was a pleasure working withthe team at CEMCA. The CEMCAleadership understands the value ofinnovative work that departs fromtraditional practice and enablespartners to bring their own experienceand priorities to strengthen theoutcomes of projects. I foundCEMCA to be a supportivecollaborator in the work that weundertook. I hope that CEMCA willcontinue this approach and engagewith stakeholders in the region,partnering with organizations likeours in undertaking critical new workthat informs and deepens bothscholarship and practice in the fieldof community media andcommunication for social change.

Ms. Venu Arora, Executive Director,Ideosync Media Combine, 1381,

Sector 37, Faridabad,India

Three day trainingworkshop wasorganised byCommonwealthEducational MediaCentre for Asia

(CEMCA), New Delhi in collaborationwith School of Education, CentralUniversity of Himachal Pradesh forteacher educators. DIET teachereducators of Himachal Pradesh wereactively participated and trained in theworkshop. CEMCA workshop keepshigh standard and it was a wonderfulacademic ceremony to all theparticipants, faculty members andresearch scholars of School ofEducation, CUHP. Reflections of theworkshop revealed that the duration ofthe workshop should be increased fromthree to five or seven days and also thefollow-up training programmes of similarshould be organised. Throughout thesessions of the workshop, the expertshad given special care to balance thetheoretical and practical aspects of ICT.In this regard the School of Education,Central University of Himachal Pradeshis thankful to CEMCA for providing allthe support for organising the trainingworkshop. In future, Central Universityof Himachal Pradesh will welcome suchcollaborations with CEMCA.

Dr. Manoj K. Saxena, Dean, School ofEducation, Central University of

Himachal Pradesh, India

Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA) is engaged inpromoting adoption of blended approachto ICT integration in continuousprofessional development of teachereducators. In this regard, with the supportCEMCA, Regional Institute of Education,

NCERT, Bhopal (RIE-Bhopal) organised a hands-on trainingprogrammefor the DIET teacher educators of MadhyaPradesh. This training contributes to create and expandlearning opportunities for DIET Teacher Educators bycreating a status of trainer of ICT-education. The continuous

follow up was made from RIE-Bhopal and CEMCA to engage thesetrainers for further training, resulted that the trainees were usingICTs for teaching and learning and also providing training to peers.CEMCA provided an opportunity to the practitioners, through thistraining workshop, not only to equip with the ICT skills but also toimplement it in the teaching learning. It was really an exciting andwonderful experience with the CEMCA. In future, the institute alsoexpects the similar nature of collaboration with the CEMCA.

Prof. Hrushikesh Senapaty, Principal, Regional Institute ofEducation, NCERT, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India,

Currently Director, NCERT, New Delhi

22

Research Shows

Community Radio and Sustainability

Ms. Venu Arora

Community Radio in India completed adecade in 2012; currently there are 1831

operational community radio stations inIndia, and 15 in Bangladesh. Nepal has alonger history of CR with 2462 communityradio stations on air. Community Radiohas been supported through a policy inIndia and Bangladesh and for severalyears through an open mediaenvironment in Nepal. The CommunityRadio practices in India, Bangladesh andNepal are varied and there are nuanceddifferences in the approaches tocommunity radio in these countries.

CEMCA in partnership with IdeosyncMedia Combine,(www.ideosyncmedia.org) a Delhi basedcommunication for social Changeorganization that works with communitymedia and has extensively worked withCommunity Radio in India, implemented aresearch to explore Sustainabilityindicators for Community Radio Stationsin South Asia

The research uses participatoryapproaches by working with 12 selectedCR stations in India, Nepal andBangladesh. CR stations werepurposively selected to represent thediversity in the geography, institutionalunderpinnings and policy guidelinescurrently extant in the sector. The

research uses a mixed method approachincluding qualitative and quantitativetools and is founded on EthnographicAction Research principles. Researchmethodologies were validated through astakeholder process. Communityresearchers from each participating CRstation were trained in ethnographicresearch tools. Data was collected over sixmonths during 2014 and included weeklydiary notes, significant good practicestories, brief survey questionnaire, annualbudgets and monthly expense sheets ofthe CRS. Ideosync researchers undertookfield visits and in depth interviews withCR staff, volunteers and managementcommittee members.

A desk research guided the formulation ofkey ideas around sustainability. Analysisof the data involved exploringrelationships between different sets ofdata and triangulating the informationgleaned from all the different methods.Core principles of Community Mediawerecentred throughout the analysis to seekanswers to the critical question – ‘whatare the key practices that help CR stationssustain better and what challenges dothey see to their sustainability?”

Key outcomes indicate that CR stations inthe South Asia region have evolvedseveral robust ways to engage and enableparticipation of their geographicalcommunities especially in the process ofcontent creation. Most CR stations reporta fairly large number of women amongtheir staff and volunteers. However,thequality of participation with communities’especially marginalised communities and

women were varied and not intense.Overall the percentage of liveprogramming across CR stations wasfound to be very low.

The research also shows that CR stationswere not financially independent withvery few having their own separate bankaccounts. Further, CR stations had notyet evolved processes to be accountableto their communities.They seemed to belargely controlled by their parentorganizations with few mechanisms forfinancial transparency in place. This isnot to say that CR stations and theirparent organizations did not want to betransparent but that processes andmethodologies had not yet been evolvedto ensure financial independence andtransparency for the CR stations.

In terms of financial models for resourcegeneration, several CR stationssupported by large and medium NGOs areable to generate funds throughdevelopment projects. Overall CRstations were low on communitygenerated financial support.

In terms of financial sustainability, theresearch further showed, greater diversityof funding sources among smaller morecommunity driven CR stations than inlarger NGO or educational institutionsupported CR stations. The researchestablishes the need for public fundingsupport for Community Radios in poor,remote and sparsely populated regionswhere local community have no financialresources to contribute for the CRstation’s sustainability.

Some of the other key outcomes of theresearch include:

• CR Stations supported by largeparent organizations enjoyedgreater infrastructural stability,However there were concurrentanxieties around closure of the CRin case the parent organization’ssupport is withdrawn

1 CRFC data accessed on 20th March 2015 http://

crfc.in/list-of-cr-station/?status=operational-

station

2 ACORAB statistics accessed on 20th March,

2014 on

http://www.acorab.org.np/

23

Ms. Venu Arora is an Executive Director of Ideosync Media Combine,177 Ashok Enclave III, Sector-35, Faridabad, India and she can be reached atvarora[at]ideosyncmedia[dot]org.

• Small NGO or cooperative run CRstations have greater financialdiversity than university andEducational run CR Stations. Forlarge NGO supported CR Stations,the capacities of the staff from theparent organization to bring in fundsand /or the size and track record ofthe parent organization helped increating greater financialsustainability for the station.

• CR stations that have hadprolonged years of communityengagement stand a better chanceof generating community funding.

• In terms of finances for the CRstation, the data indicates thathigher the community participationin program production, lower theoverall monthly expenditure of theradio station

• Transparency of financial decisionmaking, financial independence ofthe CR Station and accountability toits community were some of theareas where most CR stationsscored low.

• Almost all CR Stations in the studyare perceived as being “for thecommunity”- both by the volunteersand team members working at thestation, as well as by listeners

• Data indicates that 25% of CRStations in the study are able tocreate spaces for decision makingby marginalized communitymembers. However, presence ofmarginalized community members ineither staff teams or managementcommittee does not necessarilyenable them to have a voice in

guiding the perspectives of variousprograms or deciding internalpolicies of the CRS.

• Gender parity is high in moststations however only fivecommunity radio stations out oftwelve that participated in the studyhave formally adopted a genderpolicy. While women from thecommunity may play a strongleadership role in the day-to-daycontent and broadcast managementof the station, the same is notnecessarily the case in areas likefinancial, technological orinstitutional decision-making.

• Stories that emerged as significantgood practices show a high numberof good practices around contentand production while fewer oralmost no good practice storiesaround internal CR policies.

To conclude, this research shows that theCR stations in the South Asiaregion arecontinuing to evolve strong communityengagement practices that are leadingthem towards social sustainabilityhowever more work needs to be done tohelp them become stronger and moreindependent media institutions. This willrequire greater capacity building in termsof clarifying the purpose and goals of freeand plural community media and lay downprinciples and practices for transparentand accountable institution building inorder to strengthen the overallinstitutional sustainability of the CRstations. The research has also resulted inthe drafting of Key SustainabilityGuidelines for the CR stations.

is normally published quarterly by

Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA).

CEMCA, a Regional Office of theCommonwealth of Learning (COL)Vancouver, Canada, is an international

agency.

CEMCA’s mission is to promote the

meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of

ICTs to serve the educational and training

needs of Commonwealth member states of

Asia.

visit us at:7/8, Sarv Priya Vihar

New Delhi - 110 016, India

please call us at:

0091 11 2653 71460091 11 2653 71480091 11 2651 6681

Our Fax No. is0091 11 2653 7147or visit our website:

http://www.cemca.org.ine-mail: admin[at]cemca[dot]org[dot]in

Editor-in-ChiefR. Thyagarajan

EditorsManas Ranjan Panigrahi, PhD

Sanjogita Mishra

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For and on behalf of CEMCA

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24

Forthcoming Events

Asian Education TechnologyConference 2016 (AETC 2016)

Venue: ERC Institute (ERCI), 30 PrinsepStreet, #01-01 ERCI Campus, Singapore188647

Date:29-30 November 2016

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The 25th AMIC Confer enceonRethinking Communication in aResurgent Asia

Venue: Manila Philippines

Date: 15-17 September 2016

For more information visit/ contact:http://www.amic.asia/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id= 78:amic-25th-international-conference&Itemid=105

OER16: Open Culture 7th OpenEducational ResourcesConference

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Date: 19-20 April 2016Conference Theme:OER16: Open Culture

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International Distance EducationConference (IDEC) 2016

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11th International Conference one-Learning (ICEL-2016)

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30th AAOU Conference on OpenEducation in Asia: ChangingPerspectives

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Fourth International Conferenceon Learning and Teaching inComputing and Engineering

Venue: IIT Bombay, India

Date:March 31st - April 3rd, 2016

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Two - Day InternationalConference on DisciplinaryDiscourses in Use of Technology

Venue: University of Hyderabad, India

Date: March 17-18, 2016

For more information, contact:INDIA-EU PROJECT (2013-17)Enhancing Quality, Access andGovernance in Undergraduate Educationin IndiaUniversity of Hyderabad, Indiae. Mail: iacddt@uohyd.ac.inhttp://www.projectequal.net/equal/index.php