E-Learning: A Tool for Education in Rural India
The population of India counts to 1.0270 billion according to the 2001 census. 70% of this population is habited in villages or rural areas. Rural Indian population is not as fortune as the urban population in terms of access to quality education system (technical education) and information & communication technology infrastructure of cities. The Information Technology (IT) Giant India needs to take its development programs of education, health, technology, agriculture to the masses to eliminate disparities, specifically the digital divide. India has an excellent education system of more than 380 universities and 1265 engineering colleges [4] providing IT education in the country. Despite this the availability of trained manpower is in short supply as far as IT manpower is concerned. As projected in many reports India could face a shortage of 0.5 million skilled IT manpower by 2009. These statistics are indicative of the fact that there is a need of other alternatives to reduce the digital divide (Rural V/s Urban) in the country and also to fill the gap of shortage of IT trained manpower. In such a scenario e-Learning could play a vital role since its enabler, IT infrastructure is developing in India at a very fast pace as it is evident with the development of Business Process Outsourcing industry and number of telephone users in the country. The President of India in his address (4th August, 2004) to the children of the nation said “education is the catalyst of change” and ‘Information Technology is the major driving force and change agent”. To achieve the objective of providing education to all children, he announced the project “EDUSAT”, which would install 150,000 ground terminals in the country. In addition new initiative of e-Government policies of the government are encouraging the usage of information technology in all sectors of the economy including education. In the nutshell, India has a conducive environment where e-Learning could develop in future to solve many problems of education especially in rural India. Keeping this in background, author presented in this paper, various facets of e-Learning in India, present status of e-Learning activities, major organizations & their technologies for creating e-Learning information systems, regulatory framework, government initiations, impact of e-Learning technologies on the education system. In addition the paper includes a framework of e-Learning for rural India and a business case of implementation of e-learning “knowledge hubs” in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh.
Experiences with reusable E-learning objects: From theory to practice
The idea of creating E-learning courses by combining reusable E-learning objects (ELOs), stored in a database, is gathering momentum. There is, however, no one definition of what constitutes an ELO or of what size such an object should be to maximise its reusability capability. The first part of this article explores these issues. The second part discusses the practical application of creating and reusing ELOs at the Centre for Economic Development and Applied Research (CEDAR) at Royal Roads University (RRU), Canada. First, some background on RRU and CEDAR is given. This is followed by an explanation of how reusable ELOs are defined, stored, and tagged in an online learner and content management tool. CEDAR's approach to ELOs and to sound instructional design is then discussed. Several examples are provided of how CEDAR implements reusable ELOs. Finally, the reader is given the opportunity to experiment with an online, template-based ELO.
Educational innovation in Musical Language Course: responses and the overcoming of limitations
This article presents an innovative methodological proposal for the development of auditory education in the course of the Language of Music. Based on this proposal, we analyze an educational community’s response to the innovations implemented, and we identify the limitations recognized throughout the learning and teaching process, as well as the strategies developed to overcome them. To this end, we applied a qualitative methodology with the classroom-based research method. The compilation of data was carried out through participant observation, captured in the journals of the professor and researcher, interviews and analysis of documents. The research results demonstrate that patience, responsibility and perseverance in their work on behalf of the professors have been key to overcoming the limitations identified and in promoting that students enjoy and learn their class contents in meaningful ways. Recibido 05/02/2018 Aceptado: 09/03/2018