The State of Sourcing

The growth of technology-enabled learning globally has resulted in hundreds of service providers mushrooming in India in the last 10 years. In 2009, the ValueNotes report ‘e-learning Outsourcing: Advantage India’ estimated over 140 technology-enabled learning providers catering to the corporate, government and education sectors across the world. While these companies primarily focused on international markets for business (US and UK), ValueNotes highlighted the trend towards exploring the domestic corporate and education market.

With the Indian higher education sector undergoing major changes, domestic providers are now offering a variety of services to help educational institutions become more efficient and globally competitive. Technology can benefit these institutes in areas such as course delivery (through e-learning), automation of administrative processes (ERP, etc), and exam management (through online delivery and assessment), among others.

Continue reading ‘Exam Technology Outsourcing: The Indian Higher Education Context’ »

ValueNotes is pleased to announce the launch of its report titled ‘Examinations and the role of technology: Emerging Directions’, in collaboration with EDGE forum, supported by MeritTrac and Excelsoft. The report was released during the 3-day conference EDGE2010 in New Delhi last Thursday, and I’m extremely happy to say, it was received with much enthusiasm from the crowd. We attended the conference primarily to present the findings of our report, but also to participate in the many discussions and sessions held pertaining to the Indian higher education sector.

The event had a great turnout, from biggies such as Sam Pitroda and Kapil Sibal who inaugurated the conference, to eminent personalities from the field of higher education. Many vice chancellors, pro chancellors, directors, principals represented the academic side, as well as senior management from companies servicing the sector. There were also quite a few foreign university/exam board/accreditation agency representatives, who gave the event a truly global perspective.

Continue reading ‘Our experience at EDGE2010!’ »

When Kapil Sibal first started to make news with efforts to bring education to the forefront, he took pretty much every one by surprise. Hardly does education grab front page headlines in the newspapers. With 44 Universities set to lose their deemed status,  it is the status of more than 1 lakh students that is at stake now. Will they manage to pressurize the government into not doing anything? National Knowledge Commission and the Prof Yashpal-led Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education have both recommended that ‘deemed to be university’ system be scrapped.

Considering that the repercussions of any university not functioning properly will be borne by the student community, its extremely important that their interests be held paramount. With universities running in 2-3 rooms, it is obvious that deemed university is a tag that many use for dubious purposes. The UGC has also added to the woes by providing the deemed university status to as many as 36 institutes in the last 5 years. Deemed is the now ‘doomed’… do you think?

Continue reading ‘'Deemed' – Not fit’ »

This is an oft repeated and clichéd way to refer appearing for and clearing the CAT exams. This time around it was more like ‘belling the ‘clawed’ CAT, where claws = online.

Assessments for admissions to some of India’s most prestigious management institutes, including the Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) was mired in a controversy. As the exams moved online, problems hit from day one. Students complained of technical glitches that ranged from passwords not being accepted to screens going blank. Authorities were unavailable to help, and as usual, passed the buck, and as a result, many students are likely to lose out on a year.

I believe it would have been a bigger shock, had all of this passed without a hitch. This is of course not to say that these errors are acceptable. Students completely rely on this to chart the future course of their lives.

Continue reading ‘Belling the CAT-2009’ »

The failure of IGNOU’s online engineering entrance test made headlines. The reasons cited include sabotage by someone who was not given the contract (which I hope is not the case, way too easy!!), too many people logging onto the website at the designated time (shouldn’t this be anticipated), among others. Of course, we will know the truth once the Delhi Police cyber security cell completes its investigation.

For a university that has presence in over 34 countries, and caters to 1.8 million students, it is imperative to gradually adopt e-learning in a big way.  And online tests form a major part of it. Equally important is that it gets everything right, as issues like this really undermine the efforts and the people associated. Especially in developing countries which have only in the last few years considered experimenting with online learning alternatives, instances such as these serve as less than desirable examples, and might deter institutions from venturing online.

Continue reading ‘Online tests the way forward?’ »

As you may be aware, following the release of the ValueNotes e-learning offshoring report, we held an executive briefing to discuss the key findings with members of the industry, and also to facilitate Indian e-learning buyer-vendor interactions. The result was phenomenal, as Deepali blogged about earlier.

What we didn’t expect was the great response to the ValueNotes industry presentation, an integral part of the event. Since we’re still getting requests, we thought we should share a few of the slides with interested parties in the Indian e-learning space. And what better place to do so than our blog!

Continue reading ‘e-learning outsourcing 2009: Advantage India’ »

Almost all of us remember fondly teachers who tried to make lessons interesting. Iinnovation is still the key, as it was then. Our research in the education segment, corroborates that blended education is generating interest, but is quite sporadic. Studies have indicated that e-learning is equally, if not more effective than traditional teaching methods.

The use of ICT for education is a worldwide movement, yet the effect is still limited. How many schools in SE Asia have really started including ICT as a teaching media – it is at best an elitist phenomenon. While education has become a booming business, we are still struggling with the quality of instruction. The corporate world is adopting training at a pace like never before, going all out to include training in all strategic decisions. How often do teachers undergo training? How equipped is an English teacher today to make Shakespeare come alive on the screen? Will a geography teacher for standard V use ICT to explain earthquakes? Will the management of a school equip all teachers to care and handle successfully a dyslexic child?

Continue reading ‘Fast forwarding 'E' into learning for K-12’ »

This week I’m in the process of applying ValueNotes’ proprietary company rating model to the Indian e-learning outsourcing industry. One of the sub-parameters that companies are being rated on is marketing presence in key client markets, that will illustrate a part of the company’s overall strategic intent.

A quick summative analysis of Indian players reveals that the majority of firms (small ones, these) have at best a few marketing representatives in key markets such as US and UK. While the big boys have set up base and even moved beyond to expand in the Middle East and various parts of Europe, the rest of the industry has a long way to go before it can catch up!

Continue reading ‘Marketing e-learning online’ »

With 100% literacy rate, we thought there was nothing better that Kerala could do… but think again, they went one up on that. Kerala, a state in Southern India, is set to declare 100% e-literacy in November 2009.

Kerala, a tourist hub, has always maintained  a giant headway over other states, and has continued to beat national averages. The initiative, called Akshaya Scheme, spearheaded by the government has found acceptance at the grass-root level of Panchayats (rural governing bodies) and citizens alike. So what did they do right? This definitely was not an achievement that came about overnight and there is really no  shortcut to this feat. This is a result of sustained efforts over the last six years, with an actionable plan, in conjugation with funds, building up on past achievements, partnerships (BSNL, Tulip, others, in this case), and a set time line that was adhered to. This is just another example of ambitious projects being completed with a good mix of PPP. Quite a phillip to the e-learning industry.

Any lessons that states like Rajasthan, Bihar, UP, can learn from this bit of news?

The HRD ministry in India set up a 12-member ’round table on legal education’ this August, and with it, hopes to evolve a brand new approach to legal education in the country, in line with international standards. Among other issues such as encouraging the element of research, the board will recommend ways to improve curriculum design and delivery as well as current examination systems. As TOI reported, jurist N R Madhava Menon, a member of the round table commented, “The current pedagogy of lecture method does not impart skills to train a lawyer. Lawyers need skills for negotiations, intervention and other things that is needed internationally…”

This brings us to the question of how technology, ICT and yes, e-learning could be incorporated to enhance the system’s ‘curriculum design, delivery as well as the examination methods’. There has been little progress in bringing e-learning into the picture in law schools in the country. Fact of the matter is, even internationally, several renowned institutes have been experimenting with various technologies that would improve law students’ learning experiences. To illustrate, the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice has been using Moodle (an open source, self-service course management system) to introduce a range of e-learning elements such as webcasts, podcasts, chatting, MCQs, interactive materials, and of most importance to law schools, portfolios (to train lawyers and as a means of compiling evidence of post-qualification continuing professional development). Some of these functions worked, some didn’t and some are still being researched for future applicability to law students. What’s important is that a lot of investments  are being made (even by government bodies  such as the UK’s UKCLE) to test the boundaries for e-learning in the legal education context. Take a look at this presentation of an experiment by Glasgow Caledonian University in using SecondLife (a 3D virtual world) as a platform for enhancing students’ learning experiences!

Continue reading ‘L'e'gal makeover’ »