How online technology is changing the way the world learns by pralhad jadhav

Indian higher education is at an inflexion point. Several forces from within and outside are
hitting the entire sector. These forces including cost, technology and new sets of demanding
learners, are forcing education providers to re-look at existing models of education delivery.
The questions is will the existing brick and mortar, infrastructure-led higher education system be
able to meet the rising new demands or cope with the large scale changes. With each passing
moment, it is clear they cannot.
While access, equity, and quality (or excellence) remain the thrust areas of the Human Resources
Development Ministrys mandate, it is time policy makers and administrators consider how
higher education can be delivered differently but, with the same thrust and objectives.
More than any other force, technology today is a large force multiplier, that possesses the ability
to answer the most critical questions around the same issues of access, equity, excellence and
affordability today, unlike, even the recent past.
Technology can mediate higher education delivery since it can help us new pedagogical tools,
make higher education more learner-centric, and make the entire curriculum transaction, far
more innovative and engaging for the learner.
Everyone agrees on how technology can improve higher education transaction. But it is pertinent
to argue more on how a technology-mediated system can help meet Indias national goals, and
how it offers considerably higher leverage for institutions and administrators.
Consider this: Today our Gross Enrollment ratio (the number of people studying in higher
education institutions as a proportion of the 17 -25 age group population in the country), is less
than 20 percent.
As per 2011 Census of India data, 225 million people are in the 10 - 19 years age group. Going
by current projections, and the Government of Indias ambitious GER target of reaching 25 30
per cent in the next 5-7 years, our country will still have a deficit of at least 25 30 million seats
in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the same time frame. And remember, we have taken
over 100 years to build the present capacity of 20 million seats in 650 universities and 40,000
other HEIs.
Thus, the biggest question today is: How do we create the infrastructure, facilities, and most
importantly the critical mass of teachers to meet this surge in the number of aspirants?

Theoretically, we can use public and private funding to create the capacity required. But will all
the aspirants be able to afford the cost of higher education? Can we create such a large number of
quality teachers in the limited time frame?
AFP
Data from the RBI show that more than 25 lakh students today have taken educational loans
worth INR 48,416 crore. Yes, students borrow educational loans hoping to repay once get a job
after graduation. But the reality is that the new emerging class of learners will be from Indias
hinterland. They need completely new forms of learning and new forms of financing of higher
education.
So what are the options available for increasing the capacity and capability of the HEIs.
1. We can double the capacity of the top 10 per cent of existing institutions that account for 3
million students.
2. Elevate the top 10 percent institutions in India and declare them universities so that they can
offer more degrees, diplomas and skill based certification programmes and thus make the
learners more employable or economically productive..
These two can at best cater to 5 million students. What about the rest of the learners who are
eager to enter higher education, and become part of Indias growth story?
Here Option 3 emerges: Use an ideal combination of technology and newer forms of pedagogy
to scale up the capacity in HEIs - dramatically.
Recent advances in mobile/internet technologies and the rise of open and online education,
together hold the promise for augmenting conventional education to meet present and emerging
needs. Technology can help scale up or optimize the reach and access to education delivery
elastically.
And significantly, technology mediated education, with a combination of scientific pedagogical
designs/methods/processes - keeping the adult learner at its heart - can help deliver a degree or
any other learning program at a disproportionately low cost compared to conventional education.
And it can ensure access; equity and affordability.

Massive Online and Open Courses (MOOCs) offered by some global players may not work for
all kinds of learners due to its content-broadcast model (not learner centric). However, as the
authors can vouch for, technology platforms/ tools are available to make online education and
pedagogy on par with the offline methods. They can ensure and track with quantifiable metrics,
learner engagement, learning outcomes, assessments and specific analytics on outcomes for each
learner or large groups of learners.
We should also remember online learning does not merely mean having a library of videos and
course material. That would be a mere digital library. The new age online learning needs to
match the perception and efficacy of the offline model. Thats where a strong expertise of
pedagogy can travel along with technology.
Advantages of new age online higher education:
The biggest advantage that online learning offers students is the flexibility to learn at their own
pace, learn anywhere anytime of their choice. Unlike in a crowded classroom of today, our
experience shows, online learners because of the inherent nature of the platform are not afraid of
sending a mail or live message to raise queries or doubts.
Online education offers personalized learning methods. In a typical college this is not possible
with existing resources.
In an online, open environment, a student can see, listen and interact with the finest expert in any
field and absorb that information at his or her own pace, at a very low cost. Social media,
communities, discussion forums, chat, mail and online docs can accelerate interaction even better
than they can do over classrooms.
Tracking learning milestones, sending notifications and submission of assignments, tracking
classroom participation levels of each student, and deriving any amount of analytics about the
entire learning process, are all possible in online format. The providers (institutions) can get
dashboards containing defined metrics at any point of time, which is not easily achieved in
traditional education.
And all these are happening, as we speak. Thus, an institution can opt for adding an online
capability to its brick and mortar model, enabling them to force-multiply the capability of its
teachers, spread its infrastructure, people and educational offerings to thousands of online
learners at very little extra cost. For the students, online education means getting higher
knowledge and value added certification, access to the best of teachers and learning resources,
live case studies, inputs from industry experts or practicing professionals.
Youngsters who cannot afford to enter colleges and are forced take up a job to meet family
commitments, can continue to earn while they learn and gain higher education. Once they

complete their course or programme, the students will certainly pick up knowledge or domain
experience to move up the social ladder to match their aspirations.
In the foreseeable future, education providers and policy makers have the option to adopt
technologies to scale up their capacity and deliver programs that can build domain knowledge /
skills of millions of students. Thus online education not only increases the reach and power of
education, but has the capacity to add power to Indias economic prowess.
The only question is how fast are we going to decide!