virtual open schooling: the road ahead for india
DESCRIPTION
Keynote presentation at International Conference "Education for All" organised by National Institute of Open Schooling on 15th March 2013TRANSCRIPT
Virtual Open Schooling:
the Road Ahead for India
15 March 2013
Ramesh C. Sharma
International Conference Education for All: Role of Open Schooling
National Institute of Open Schooling
After our Independence in 1947…
• Concerns of The Government of India
• To look for an alternative system of education
(to the formal education)
• Provisions in First Five Year Plan (1951-56)
• Need to address the increasing demand for
education.
What is being done…
• Primary
• Upper Primary
• Secondary and
• Higher Secondary
• Different initiatives: UEE, USE, RMSA
• Still measures inadequate
Mid Term Appraisal of the 11th Five
Year Plan (2007-2012)
• Strengthening 44,000 existing secondary
schools
• Opening 11,188 additional secondary schools
(through up-gradation of upper primary
schools)
• Appointing 1,79,000 additional teachers and
• Constructing 80,500 additional classrooms.
Open schooling
• an alternative to the main stream educational
channels
• educational opportunities (courses and
programmes) are provided at primary or
secondary level
• through distance education mechanisms
OPEN SCHOOLING IN INDIA
• National Open School (NOS) established in 1989 and renamed as the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in July 2002
• Open Schools (SOS) in 17 states of India, viz., Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Jammu &Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar
ICTs and Open Schooling
providing educational opportunities to large
masses up to pre-degree level courses
Alternatives to…
Exclusive face to face
learning models
• Internet - enabling
learning anytime,
anyplace
• Online / Hybrid /
Blended Learning
Models
Virtual (or online) Schools
Where students can learn and carry out tasks online as they would have done them in a regular classroom
Empower students
to learn at their
own pace, time and
place convenient to
them
http://www.connectionsacademy.com/blog/posts/2010-11-29/Is-Using-an-Online-School-at-Home-Right-for-Me.aspx
ConnectionsAcademy
https://www.facebook.com/ConnectionsAcademy
virtual schools model
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Benefits of Virtual Schools
• Personalized, tailored content: suited to individual learning
• Flexibility: Anywhere Anytime access, students can enrich their skills in learning a new subject or take up a course or class normally not available at their schools
• Lower costs: Saves on permanent infrastructure costs
• Access to high quality education: Access to quality teachers and peers, increases collaboration
Skills they learned through a virtual school experience
My fellow classmates, we’ve all made it through online high school.
Along the way, we became independent and self-motivated students. Our teachers taught us how to write a research paper, apply the scientific method, and use the Pythagorean theorem. What I believe they taught us the most was to think creatively, have confidence in ourselves, be responsible individuals, have goals, and have the fortitude to achieve those goals. When our social studies teachers were teaching us about the past, they were opening our eyes to what our future could hold.
- Aaron Ridenour, Graduation Speech, 2010
http://www.connectionsacademy.com/blog/posts.aspx?BlogTagID=c2e61174-ffa3-46eb-8144-6927317fceeb
Cases of virtual schools
around the world
The African Virtual School
To help students pass exams in West Africa . It does this by
helping them revise using quizzes and videos online
The Korean Air & Correspondence
High School
Serves the nation’s youth and adults who couldn’t get a diploma because they were
forced to work in the factories to support their families or because they could not
afford to pay for high school (students pay to go to most high schools in Korea)
Open High School Turkey
Three dimensional approach to learning materials:
• Printed educational materials
• Education through the media
• Face-to-face teaching
Grampians Virtual School, Victoria,
Australia
Consortium of schools which provides virtual education in specific strands such as
Physics, Psychology, Mathematical Methods, Chemistry and Physical Education, to
remote students who can follow a face-to-face class in a school through video
conferencing
Florida Virtual School, USA
USA's first state-wide Internet-based public high school, offers more than 120
courses. Enrollment is free and open to public, private, and home school
students in the state of Florida. Students outside Florida enroll on a tuition
basis.
Open High School of Utah, USA
Best examples of providing "one-to-one tutoring for every
student in every subject". It is a tuition-free public charter
school. The School does not charge any fee for attendance,
other than some nominal fee at the beginning of the year.
Virtual School British Columbia,
Canada
The students have a variety of goals. Some want to complete high school. Others are
graduates who want to satisfy the prerequisites for a college or university programme.
Still others want to better their English skills before they move on.
Features of Virtual Schools
• Facilitate individualised learning
• Use innovative technology
• Offer tailor made flexible curriculum
• May be free or charging fee
• Provide a variety of content material to the learners like textbooks, study guides, science kits, and electronic gadgets depending upon needs of curriculum
• Flexible in allowing students to decide the study schedule as per their convenience and pace
Management of Virtual Schools
Operations wise virtual schools may be:
• State owned
• College or university based,
• Consortium based,
• Public charter schools,
• Local education agency based,
• Private virtual schools, and
• For-profit virtual schools etc.
Virtual Education
Emerging Trends In Technology Use In
Education
New Education Systems
edX
Udacity
Free courses designed
specifically for interactive
study via the web,
provided by MIT, Harvard
and Berkeley.
Udacity was born out of a Stanford
University experiment in which
Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig
offered their "Introduction to
Artificial Intelligence" course online
to anyone, for free. Over 160,000
students in more than 190 countries
enrolled and not much later, Udacity
was born.
21st Century Indian Learners
• Net Generation
• Millennials
• Digital Natives
• Multi-taskers
Internet Usage in India
A snapshot of digital India
http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/india/2012/05/a_snapshot_of_digital_india_12.php#more
Road ahead…
Game Changers: Education and
Information Technologies
Today’s knowledge revolution isn’t about how much information is available.
It’s about how fast knowledge can travel through vast, connected networks of people—and how it can grow exponentially.
Game Changers: Education and Information Technologies © 2012 EDUCAUSE
Aakash hopes to end the “digital divide”
in education between the rich and poor
http://www.springwise.com/education/india-internet-access-poorer-students-low-cost-tablet/
Transforming
Lives
Shaping the
future…
Institutional Transformation
Cognitive Transformation
Technological Transformation
Physical Transformation
Virtual Open Schooling: Indian Model
Virtual Open Schooling
An educational practice that
provides opportunity to
learners to study a formal
school-based course online
and gain credit for
certification purpose.
Learners can study using
asynchronously or
synchronously technologies.
National Consortium for Open
Schooling (NCOS)
Virtual Open Schooling:
Structural Model
VOS Platform
Online
Registration
Wiki based
Open Courses
Web
Conferencing (BigBlueButton)
Open Source
LMS (Moodle)
Online
Examination
Virtual Open Schooling:
Support Services
Image source:
http://www.mindlogicx.com/mindspace.html
Virtual Open Schooling:
Teaching Learning System
Virtual Open Schooling:
Funding Mechanisms
• Subsidised by NIOS
• Fee Sharing
• Each Member Open School contributes
Technologies:
Instructional Delivery
Virtual Open Schooling:
Course Development
Virtual Open Schooling:
Assessment and Evaluation
Considerations…
•Personnel
•Instruction
•Technology
•Training for professional development
•Quality assurance
•Reporting / data analytics
•Marketing
•Other expenses (travel, health, insurance…)