Development of theIGNOU Open Course Guide (IOCG)

- to set the Open Distributed Technology Enhanced Learning (ODTEL) for IGNOU’s Courses

K.R. Srivathsan, IGNOUsrivathsan@ignou.ac.in

1st IOCG WorkshopMay 13-14, 2009

Need for Convergence in IGNOU Presently IGNOU has many component

systems of technologies and services to help its students in learning.

IGNOU Website, TV Channels, EDUSAT Telecon through SITs, sGyankosh, IGNOU Online, SMS, Call Centre, ….

Principal learning support through Study Centres, Contact Classes.

Administrative support through RCs/RSD, SSC, SRD, SED

1. Two major needs not adequately addressed: Web-based learner support for courses, peer-2-peer students interaction through forums and web-mentoring.

2. No live Students Database and progress tracking.

Need to bring convergence within and between Learning Support and Admin support systems.

Education is not about ‘coaching’ students against Board/university exams.

Today: No agility in syllabus; Students ‘programmed’ like Artificial Intelligence Systems to ‘answer’ questions!

Make education LEARNING CENTRIC. Get out of ‘cramming’ students to pass ‘contrived’ examinations. Promote learning and scholarship.

Bring Teachers to the centre of the education system. They and the system to engage students in Learning Activities designed to impart requisite understanding and skill sets.

Equip learners to tackle related real world problems and developments in the subject areas.

Link Education with developments – be they in the scientific and socioeconomic sense.

Some Perspectives In Education

“QUALITY EDUCATION TO ALL, INDEPENDENT OF GEOGRAPHY.”

“ENABLE, EDUCATE AND EMPOWER EVERY CITIZEN AND COMMUNITY THROUGH KNOWLEDGE.”

Most importantly connect education to community empowerment and developments – socioeconomic as well as promoting values and scholarship.

How do we ensure our system delivers QUALITY EDUCATION?

We plan to use all available modes of learners engagements in the course to provide a holistic education in every subject offered by IGNOU.

Build on IGNOU’s core strengths and the responsibilities given to it under the Parliament Act.

Our Vision for IGNOU

For over 10(20?) years we talk of e-learning. Plenty of Technology: Laptops and Netbooks,

High cap thumb drives, IP-TV, iPods, iPhones, GPRS, 3G, Broadband, Satellite, Virtualization, Green IT, etc.

Whole world of new Internet services/applications: Google & ever improving search engines, Open Source systems, LMS, SCIENTIFIC DATABASES, Open Content, Open Access Publishing, e-Books, …

Google’s Slogan: “My other computer is a Datacentre”.

Increasing reach and Affordability.

How we go ahead from CONNECTIVITY & CONTENT to formal systems of Tech Assisted Learning, Teaching And Evaluation (TELTE)? Quality Assured Instruction.

Towards practicing e-learning

What Tech Enhanced Learning Environment Provides

Sel

f S

tud

y /

Dis

cove

ry

Group Interactions/ P2P Learning

Knowledge

Man

agem

ent

PersonalDash Board

WebContent

LMS

CourseExercises

Course Map & Library

WebResources

E-Mail

DiscussionForums

IOCG

SMS AlertsM-Learn

QMS &Web Mentoring

& Alerts

TV &Webinars

Laying the Basis For Quality Education To make our graduates EMPLOYABLE.

To be PRODUCTIVE ON THE JOB and in LIFE. To observe REAL WORLD PROBLEMS, abstract

the issues and apply what they have learnt and their innate sense to solve them.

Foundations, Concepts, Contextual Skills

Self-development Responsibility, Accountability

Professional Competence, Maturity

Quality

Instruction

By Teachers

Quality

Efforts by

Students

TELT

Quality

Ambience

& Process

es

Quality

Resource

s

‘The End of Education is Character.’ – Sai Baba

Education Grid: IITK IIITM-K IGNOU

Education Grid over Regional

Broadband/ ERNET or Internet

Communication Gateway &

Resource Centre

College 1College 2

College 3

College 4College n

Resource Centre 1

E-Learning

Resource Centre 2

Computational Servers

Resource Centre 3ScientificPortals

National Education Grid over Broadband ERNET/Internet

(& EDUSAT?)Network

VISTA Programs

Coordination Centre

Education Grid is a suite of systems and collaborative processes over a network of institutions

Recall Kerala Education Grid

1. Network of Education Servers across colleges

2. Resource Centres in premier institutions.

3. Develop and maintain pedagogically sound refereed courseware in identified subjects.

4. Deploy courseware over subject specific Course Knowledge and Collaboration Space in each subject over the network of Servers.

5. Introduce an IT facilitation layer in the University/ Higher Education System.

Governed by quality management of Content Development and Teacher Training Processes.

IGNOU Education Grid (IEG)

Experts,Mentors

University Study Centres

IGNOU/Universities/Institutions Open Study

Guide & Web Collaboration

Services* *

Academic Management

Education Grid Gateway Systems

Tier–5: Instruction/Evaluation Management Space (Colleges, Study Centers)

Tier-4: Content Alignment & Capacity Building (AU)

College

Tier–3: Content/Web Resources (IGNOU, NPTEL, …)

Tier-2: Systems, Applications (Over Clouds and LAN)

Tier-1: ICT Infrastructure (RailTel, TelCos, STPI, NKN)

STPI

ERNET

RAILTEL

Managed Services

IGNOU practices a robust system of generating printed Self Learning Materials (SLMs) for the learners.

SLMs are pedagogically structured, authored by experts.

IGNOU’s SLMs in various courses are globally respected and also used in several open distance education programs run by the state open universities and others.

Regional Centres of IGNOU provide critical logistics support for Study Centres and supporting them for conducting the contact classes and examinations.

IGNOU now faces the challenge of upgrading the above system and its best practices in the Internet era.

Leverage on Core Strengths of IGNOU

J+

_

1.Instruction Delivery

3. SelfTest

2. Learning Activities,

Interactions,Exercises & Practice

4. Feedback to learners

Set Instructional objectives Evaluate against

Instructional Objectives

Teacher – Learner Involvement in all stages

5. Exams &Evaluation

6. Assessment

+

Final Marks, Grade

IGNOU’s ODTEL: A UNIFIED E-L FRAMEWORK

• Each component system is backed by appropriate ICT systems & back office services.

• IGNOU setting up an ‘Educational Technology & Info. Services (ETIS)’ to support and service ODTEL.

Instruction Delivery & Course Management

1. Instruction Delivery may use different modes:

(i) Teacher taking the class uses rich content;

(ii) Tutored Video Instruction using Recorded Video Lectures (RVL)

(ii) IGNOU’s Self Learning Materials (SLM) and supplementary content.

(iv) Web-accessed/DVD based content and interactive study.

Examples: NPTEL RVLs – full suites of ~ 40 lectures per course Visit: www.youtube.com/iit

Web Content: Like NPTEL or Open Courseware, Wikiversity, Curriki.org, etc.: http://nptel.iitm.ac.in

2. Course Management: Engaging learners in disciplined ways of self study, group sessions, exercises and practice Introducing the IGNOU Open Course Guide (IOCG) system.

2. IGNOU Course

Management Group

(CMG)

4. Colleges & Study Centres

3. CMG to develop &

Deploy IGNOU Open Course Guide (IOCG)

Tier-4: Setting the stage for Quality ODTEL:

IGNOU Open Course Guide System

Students & Teachers

24 X7 access

1.SLMs,RVLs, MM Content, Open Web

Instruction Design Cycle

Instruction Management

Cycles

Course Home PageAbout the Course, Prerequisites, Syllabus Instructions to SCs, Tutors Course Objectives

Course Evaluation approach Course Support and Counseling

details. Sequence of Learning Modules

Calendar & Alert Systems Course Concept Map linking

Learning Modules Recommended Text Books, References, Web References

Course CalendarInstruction Team and Contact details

Tier-4: IGNOU Open Course Guide

IOCG is implemented in IGNOU using Mediawiki

Challenge of Immersing Learners in Quality Learning Environment

At the end of a learning effort, a Learner should be able to say ‘I understand’ Add to his/her Tacit capabilities.

TACIT

EXPLICIT

Codified Knowledge and

Processes accessible over the net, paper…

Global networked

Information and computational

base

People’s Competencies, Communications, Feelings,

Intuitions, Social interactions, Judgment, Guestimation, People’s Real World

Adapt Nonaka’s four types of Learning Activities:

Quality Learning with Learning Ambience nurtures above SECI Innovations Driven Learning Environment (IDLE).

CMG to build the IOCG rich with pointers to case studies, learning activities, multimedia illustrations, real world situations, term papers, projects and field work.

Use LMS for course events management, interactions, discussion forums, assessment activities & for feedback to students.

Tier-3&4: IOCG Categories of Learning Activities Based Upon Tacit – Explicit Interplay

Socialize Externalize

Internalize Combinational Thinking

Tacit

Tacit

Explicit

Explicit

Module TopicMotivational/anecdotal content Instructional Objectives

Learning Activities Sequencing: RVL to be played, SLM Unit, textbook sections, recommended problem set,

practice, experiments, etc. LMS used for asynchronous Interactions and

directives to students. Use of TV Sessions, IP-TV, Webinar driven by

Calendar Guidance for Tutorial Monitored Self test and counseling classes for learners.

Module test (part of continuous evaluation). Mid-term and end term tests conducted. Computer Assisted Evaluation methods may be used.

Tier-4: SAMPLE IOCG MODULE

IOCG Technology: A Canonical Course Management System

IOCG Over Open Wiki

Learners Distributed

Over Geography

Course and Instruction

Management Team

IOCG guides course related learning activities management

SLM, LMS (Moodle), VoD, Books Web Content, Discussion

Forums, QMS, etc.

CMG formally appointed for each course by the School.

CMG Prepares the IGNOU OPEN COURSE GUIDE (IOCG)

Relevant RVLs and content preloaded in Study Centre server and distributed to registered students in a course.

IOCG has built-in Course Calendar and schedule of learning and assessment activities for the course duration.

An LMS (MOODLE) used for Tests, assessment, individual feedback to learners.

Self Tests, Evaluation, Feedback counseling, Students interaction among themselves & with counselors and CMG through Discussion Forums and other means.

Support for M-Learning, SMS & mail Alerts for course ents.

Query Management System addresses personal queries.

IOCG as Formal TEL Academic System

‘Canonical’ refers to concepts that have a kind of uniqueness or naturalness, and are "independent of coordinates."

An example: A Browser is canonical as an interface between user and his/her interactions with the diverse information and services in the Internet.

The IOCG System is canonical in the sense its structure is quite simple – at its core it is a Wiki – and it allows diverse pedagogies to be built over it.

Any pedagogic option may be built as statements and declarations of links to activities in the IOCG.

IOCG guides and coordinates the instruction team, learners and those who manage the course related resources and information.

IOCG – a Canonical Course Management System?

Tutored Video Instruction (TVI) was introduced by Prof. J. Gibbons, Stanford University in 1970s.

TVI involves recording video lectures of class and given to students (in ‘distance’ mode) to play and listen. They need not attend the routine lectures.

Weekly contact, or Interaction Classes held for tutorials, small tests, answering common doubts (as expressed in a discussion forum), conducting continuous evaluation exercises, motivational topics, case studies and problem solving, etc.

Interaction classes may be more extended than tutorials.

TVI changes ‘Distance Learning’ and classroom learning to COLLABORATIVE LEARNING.

Studies show performance of students as a whole increases by ~ 0.6σ shift in the mean of the class.

Tier-5: Tutored Video Instruction

2. IGNOU Course

Management Group

(CMG)

4. Study Centres & Colleges

Tier –5: Counsellors/Teachers Guided by IOCG and Augmented by CMG

Support

Students &

teachers 24X7

access

1.SLMs,RVLs, MM Content, Open Web

Instruction Management

Cycles

Content Management

Cycles

3. IGNOU Open Course Guide

(IOCG)

IOCG (Back)

SMS Alerts &M-Learn support

for Students, CMG, & Instruction Team

eGyankosh & Multimedia Content onDemand

Education &IT Services

(EITS)

Discussion Forums, LMS

& Collaboration

Regional ServicesSupport for

Study Centres

Towards ‘Smart’ IOCG from ACIIL

Web Resources Support

IOCG (Front)

IGNOU Educational Technology and Information Services (EITS) as ‘Back Office’

Teachers & Students in the subject

Course Management Group

Capacity Building & Linkages to

R&D, Communities &

Industry

Subject related Library, e-Journals and open access publicationsETIS

IOCG anchored Course Community

ETIS is operated under ACIIL at IGNOU – Delhi by integrating IGNOU’s existing core services.

Education Technology and Information Services (ETIS)

TV & Webinar Sessions

IGNOU Online Study Guide (IOSG)

Community Radio Sessions

Discussion Forums, Online Calendar and Alert Systems

TV & Webinar Sessions Community Radio Sessions

TV & Webinar Sessions Community Radio SessionsFile/Assignments U/D Query Management System

Online Library and Multimedia Publishing System

Counsellors Support & Web Mentoring System

Regional/Study Centres Support System

Rejith R., Sukant Kole and Divya Raj provide core support for ETIS. ETIS is et up under the ACIIL with K. Subramanian as its Director. Supervised by: Sanjay Mishra and K.R. Srivathsan Supported by Computer Division, IUC and STRIDE. Madhu Prahar, Vijay Srivastava, Ramanujam associated with the

support systems, learning support and services. Ms. G. Mythili assisting in developing the training program. An IGNOU Education Grid development facility is being set up in

Room 20, Block 7 and existing IUC facilities.

Likely to start the ‘Developmental Informatics and Web Resources Lab’ under ACIIL in a suitable location to develop and support several advanced ICT systems and services for the IEG and convergence.

On the Team and ETIS

IOCG supports Integrated Multi-modal Engagement of Learners in ODTEL

IOSG& ETIS Internet

IGNOU Schools &

Centres

Agriculture, Health, …

State’s Colleges

Institutions

F E

D

C

BA

3

4

1

2

5

7

6

89

TV

Learners Anywhere

Internet Accessed Services

Access

Kiosk/CSC access

(((

PhoneCall Centre

Primary Objective: Faculty Members from each school to prepare IOCG main page for at least One Course of their school.

IOCG is set over a Mediawiki platform the same as that powers the Wikipedia.

Mediawiki has suitably extended to add Audio, Indic Fonts, Video playing, etc.

Skill sets related to managing the wiki pages, file/assignment upload, linking, etc. will be practiced.

Using Open Office to develop wiki content pages, will be learnt.

Use of Google docs to save course content. Developments here will be continued after the

workshop with ATIS support for all participants.

IOCG Workshop Objectives

“ The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and the ability of its people.

The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence

with those who can use it.”

- Andrew Carnegie

19th Century

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First to IIITM-K for the years spent experimenting with diverse systems of eLearning, the Education Grid, KISSAN-

Kerala and others.

Second to all those colleagues at IIITM-K, specifically Dr. Venkatesh, Shri

Radhakrishnan, Shri Ajith Kumar, Shri Pradeep Kumar, Dr. Dinesh, Shri Arvind Mohan, Shri

David Mathews, and several others.

Third to Vice Chancellor and Board of IGNOU and now Shri Sukant Kole, Ms. Divya Raj, Shri

Rejith. R, Dr. Sanjay Mishra, Dr. VSP Srivastava and others for supporting the

ongoing initiatives.

TT OGETHEROGETHER

EE VERYONEVERYONE

AA CHIEVESCHIEVES

MM OREORE

Thank You