The Hindu : 'Content, teacher involvement key to e-learning'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

'Content, teacher involvement key to e-learning'

By K. Ramachandran

NAMAKKAL, MARCH 13. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for providing high-quality education to learners, independent of their geographical location, was the focus of a two-day conference on e-learning organised at the PGP College of Engineering and Technology here recently.

(E-learning or electronic learning is an effective process of learning digitally-created and delivered content with technological support.)

It was concluded at the end of the deliberations that while technologies, infrastructure and delivery systems might help in creating an e-learning environment, the quality of the content and teachers' involvement in providing quality education was more important for the success of technology-enhanced learning.

P. Rama Rao, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad, who inaugurated the meet, said any e-learning system should have a strong technology infrastructure; a major effort by a committed faculty to develop quality content. It should forge strong academic and technology partnerships.

This comment set the tone for the technical sessions at which technologies, learning management systems, content development and delivery systems were discussed.

Palani G. Periyasamy, chairman, PGP Group of Institutions, said education could not be confined to any geographical area. His group had set up institutions in Namakkal area, while there was a choice for locating them in or around Chennai. This idea was the basis for the conference, held in association with the University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

Today, e-learning was a $ 50-billion industry, having emerged from a simple computer-based learning system to one which could integrate various technological platforms.

A satellite-based system used by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay to extend high quality postgraduate education in information technology subjects to working professionals and engineering college teachers was explained by M.U. Deshpande, professor in the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology at the IIT. Classroom lectures were simultaneously multicast live using the satellite to remote learners at nine centres. The two-way communication (using VSAT connectivity) helped in interaction and real-time replies. The courses were offered in human-computer interaction, embedded systems, mobile computing, signals and systems and modern information systems.

K.R. Srivatsan, Director, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala, explained the features of "Virtual learning campuses as a cooperative approach to enhance education quality in colleges."

A technology-enhanced learning and teaching (TELT) environment would soon become the principal infrastructure in all educational institutions and should be recognised so. He suggested creation of virtual learning resource centres in groups of colleges in each region with the required infrastructure and a strong broadband network.

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