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Vol. 01 No. 03 September 2015

In this issue

Guest Column 02

Spotlight On 06

CEMCA News 07

Case Study 14

Book Review 17

Technology Tracking 18

SMART Tips 20

Forthcoming Events 24

From Director’s Desk

With best wishes,Ramesh C. Sharma

Dear Readers,

We are happy to bring youthe third issue of CEMCANewsletter which alsohappens to be our year-end issue. It is packed

with news, views and updates on CEMCA’sactivities in the region, plus a host of usefuleducational information.

The highlights of the issue include an article byProf. Dênia Falcão de Bittencourt where sheshares her experiences of research aimed atanalysing the implementation of Institutional Self-Evaluation Methodology (ISEM), - a set ofsystematized procedures, in the pedagogicalmanagement of distance education projects.Distance education institutions would surelybenefit from ISEM.

Recently I was reading the 2015 edition of theHays Global Skills Index (http://www.hays-index.com/) published in collaboration withOxford Economics, on the challenge of locatingskilled workers organisations need to operate andsucceed in their businesses. The report indicatesthat the “BRICs markets, once the engine ofglobal growth, are facing an economic slowdownwhich is slackening the demand for skilledworkers in those respective countries.” Hays’Chief Executive, Alistair Cox suggests,“Education and training schemes need to bebetter aligned and tailored to produce sufficientlevels of the skilled resources businesses need.”Highlighting the increasing demand for educationand lifelong learning needs, Dr. Luciano Sathler, inhis timely article, reflects on access to tertiaryeducation in Brazil and how distance learningcould cater to the need of innovative approaches,new skills and abilities, in line with the digital ageand the increasing demands for higher education.

In the SMART Tips section, Zaid A. Alsagoffshares an interesting format of online learning

through a Nano Open Online Course (NOOC),created to empower learners. It helps learnersexplore, learn and be assessed (certified) on theessentials of one competency, skill or area ofknowledge at a time, within 12 learning hours orless. The core of a NOOC is a Nano LearningExperience (NLE) which can be experienced online(e.g. in a NOOC), or in a face-to-face (F2F) learningenvironment. Zaid says that for a NLE, the learningexperience must include learning content,activities, assessment and a completion-point(certification or badge).

A number of initiatives are being set in motion forOpen Educational Resources (OER) to provideteachers and learners access to all open resourcesavailable, ensuring their quality, though, is a bigconcern for many of us. CEMCA has developed aset of comprehensive guidelines for QualityAssurance of OER in a TIPS Framework. AkashAgarwal has created a MediaWiki Extension forquality assurances which can be integrated to anOER you create (or add) on a wiki with theextension (freely available under CC licence)installed, and get feedback on the quality of thecreated OER from colleagues, friends, andeducators. This MediaWiki Extension can also beused for self-evaluation of OER quality, using theframework and improve upon it.

MOOCs are being created and implemented byinstitutions, supported by governments. The issueyou are holding in your hand carries a review ofthe book, ‘MOOCs and Open Education: Aroundthe World’ edited by Bonk, Lee, Reeves, &Reynolds, and a special feature on the NanyangTechnological University, a rising star in highereducation.

We also bring you the latest news and updates onCEMCA activities in the region, in the last fewmonths.

We hope you enjoy reading the issue and find thearticles useful. We look forward to your feedback.

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Guest Column...

Institutional Self-Evaluation is a currentand relevant issue in the context of HigherEducation in Brazil and worldwide; it hasacquired significance as a tool forrendering accounts to society, and forsocial research. Alkin (2004, p. 12 and 13),in his effort to synthesize, compares theEvaluation Theory to a metaphor in theshape of a tree. Its trunk is rooted on adouble basis that forms one root throughsocial accountability, and another forsocial research. With such a structuralbasis the institutional Evaluation acquiressignificance as a tool capable ofstimulating actions that make it possibleto measure quality, the continuousimprovement of academic performance,and the planning of educationalmanagement based on the identification ofits own needs.

Self-Evaluation as a Tool for DistanceEducation

Prof. Dênia Falcão de Bittencourt

In this paper, the result of a doctoraldissertation, a research is presented thataims at analyzing the contribution of the

institutional self-evaluationmethodology (ISEM) in the Pedagogical

Management of Distance EducationProjects. The ISEM is described, along

with its results, and its use in a concretesituation, in the Course of

Administration. The objective is toevaluate the potential of the ISEM as atool for continuous improvement and

innovation of the pedagogicalmanagement of DE projects.

Know thyself and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe.

- Socrates

The institutional evaluation can beemployed as a tool that helps highereducation institutions at a distance toachieve a qualified professional formationin their courses; a formation that can fill inhuman expectations, and which ensuresthe formation of citizenship. In order tooffer an integral formation, highereducation institutions at a distance mustensure the access, the continuity and theoffering of a qualified education.

Based on such a belief the doctoraldissertation in Education “Construir eContribuir. A Metodologia daAutoavaliação Institucional - MAAI - naGestão Pedagógica em Educação aDistância,” was presented at theFaculdade de Educação at theUniversidade de São Paulo, in São Paulo,Brazil, in 2012.

The necessary search for improvement inpedagogical management in DistanceEducation (DE) demands the use ofmethodologies that enable one to reflecton the processes and procedures ofdecision making, which are continuouslychanging, depending on the specificitiesand the technological and educationalcontext of the projects at issue. Thestarting point of the investigation was theunderstanding that DE institutions arepermanently in search for procedures toimprove pedagogical management. TheInstitutional Self-EvaluationMethodology– ISEM – feeds the process ofmanagement and receives feedback fromit. The ISEM offers contributions forpedagogical management of DE projects.

The thesis supported in that researchsuggested that there is a dialecticmovement of building and contributing inthe relations between the ISEM andpedagogical management in DE. TheISEM was defined as a set ofsystematized procedures that are turnedto the analysis and development ofpedagogical management in the DEproject.

The Institutional Self-EvaluationMethodology

Essentially, the Institutional Self-Evaluation Methodology – ISEM – is atool for pedagogical management. Itsaction through the agents of the project(coordinators, teachers, students,technicians) in DE must be used topromote self-knowledge and thecontinuous improvement of theeducational service.

Thus, the ISEM is defined as acontinuous process through which theinstitution builds knowledge about itsown reality, in search for theunderstanding of the meanings of itsactivities as a whole in order to improveeducational quality, and to achieve agreater social relevance. For that itsystematizes information, analyzes

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collectively the meaning of itsaccomplishments, discovers forms oforganization, management and action,and identifies weak points, as well as itsstrong points and potential, whileestablishing strategies to solve theproblems.

Thinking from inside the process (Figure1), the generic model was proposed infour stages of development: planning,design, production, and educationalservices, suggesting that the closure ofthe last stage would be an evaluation toobtain certain information, and tofeedback and improve the process everytime the DE project is offered again. Theproposed evaluation process, as it givesfeedback from all previous stages,reveals its significance in theconstitution of the whole system.

Thus the figure represents how the ISEMwas born already integrated to thedeveloping stages of DE projects. Themodel proposes that the evaluation mustinvolve dynamic processes, whichinteract in search for the best adaptationto the existing context, and that, at theend of each cycle, it can point tonecessary adjustments andrecommendations for improvement in thenext time that educational project isoffered.

So it is at the Planning stage, afterstudying the context, the needs of theproject, of the students, of the technologyto be used, and during the developmentof the pedagogical managementmethodology, that the objectives andmarkers are defined. The performancemarkers shall be determined at the Design

stage in a DEproject, whiletaking inconsideration theinput and thepedagogical,academic andtechnologicalstrategies.

The markers anditems ofperformanceselected must bedirectly related tothe reason ofteaching. Sincethe educationalservice is theproduction ofknowledge,evaluation musttake into accountthat in the sameway learning is acontinuousprocess, theeducationalprocess also is.The ISEM, by itsnature, is

expected to be an efficient form ofchecking the fulfillment of patterns, ofidentification of problems, and ofproactive action, in order to make thenecessary innovations in the educationalmodality in which it works. It is based onthe idea that reaching the goals in a DEproject is related to the production ofknowledge by people and, since thatcannot be measured directly, it isnecessary to develop, during its planning,models with markers and criteria to makeevaluation possible.

To make possible the dialogue betweeninternal and external agents onepresupposes that the DE project foreseesperformance markers and items, which canoffer indexes for recognition of, andadaptation to the given reality, and whichstate an identity, the characteristics andvalues to be promoted, so to establishevaluative patterns, and to make clearwhat are the representations for thequality of the educational service offered.It is necessary to identify thecharacteristics of quality that areimportant for students and teachers; it isnecessary to ask to the user of theeducational service (student), since he orshe is the one in a better position to showwhat is important for his or hersatisfaction.

The development of a quality level refersto those activities included in theeducational service, or by the planning ofthe DE project. The planned quality, thesatisfaction of the students, will bereached or not depending on the ability toproduce synergy among the involvedprocesses, agents and components.

The methodology of the pedagogicalmanagement of a DE project is astructured and sequenced set ofcombined actions, or sequential stagesthat shape and offer the educationalservice at a distance. The methodologyapplied in the DE project studied in thisresearch thus coincides with the method

1 - The place of the ISEM in Pedagogical Projects in DESource: Adapted from Bittencourt (1999).

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used in the organization of a DE system.In that sense, the methodology has thefunction of allowing the planning andorganization; it guides the making of a DEproject. And if it can help to plan andorganize, it can also be used to guide inthe evaluation of a DE project, includingall of its processes, agents andcomponents.

The items of performance are suited forevaluating the degree of the students’satisfaction; they are applied in thequestionnaire of the Institutional Self-Evaluation Research, in the form ofquestions. The questions in thequestionnaire are mostly elaborated asobjective questions and, to a lesserdegree, there are also some subjectivequestions. They are made for eachgrouping of performance items, whichreflect a process in the offeredpedagogical methodology: didacticmaterials, tutorial and communicationsystems, evaluation systems,collaborative and autonomous studiesand general evaluation of the project. Thesubjective questions aim at qualitativehints on objective evaluations, since theyask the students to freely comment aboutthe evaluated items, in order to allow adeeper understanding of specificquestions (The analysis in this researchuses such subjective questions).

The idea proposed in the ISEM is that byanalyzing the satisfaction obtained fromeach component and agent (item ofperformance) that constitutes theeducational service, together with thesuggestions and comments, the analystshall be able to keep a systemic view forfollowing the needs of management bothin the answers of “one” or of “many”,thus considering their level ofrepresentation and significance. And alsothat by developing the ability tounderstand the whole, the analyst willimprove his or her ability to manage theDE project.

Analysis of the Contributionsfrom the ISEM

The ISEM and the pedagogicalmanagement at the Campus of UnisulVirtual (UV) evolved at the same time. Thefollowing up of the evolution of the ISEMmakes evident how much its contributionscan be positive for the pedagogicalmanagement in DE. Since the beginningthat comprehensive view conveyed bymeans of reports and meetings was ableto contribute with suggestions andrecommendations for the distinctprocesses and agents. The result of theactions carried out is evaluated incontrast with the next results from theISEM.

In the research of the dissertation theISEM was analyzed within a concreteexperience of management and evaluationof the Course of Administration at adistance, with the aim of assessing thepotential of such a tool for continuousimprovement and innovation of thepedagogical management of DE projects.The research employed a qualitativeapproach for the analysis of contents andof the critical-dialectical method.

On Chart 1 it is possible to follow theresults along the different periods by

means of the set of quantitative items ofperformance in the institutional self-evaluation researches, translated into oneonly index. The Chart shows theevolution of the indexes obtained by theCourse of Administration in contrast withthe evolution of the medium indexesobtained by the rest of the courses at UV.

On the Chart one can follow visually asignificative evolution in the generalindexes obtained by the Course ofAdministration.

The evolution of the general index of thecourse can indicate that, arguably, thesuccessive application of the ISEM –giving information about satisfaction, oroffering suggestions for the educationalservice – produced interventions carriedout with the agents and generated newactions in the pedagogical management ofthe Course of Administration at UV –which contributed for the continuousimprovement of the course.

For the categorization and analysis of thecomments and suggestions made by thestudents from the Course ofAdministration in the institutional self-evaluation researches three dimensions ofthe pedagogical management weredefined: resources, teachers and

Graphic 1 – Evolution of the general index of the Course of Administration in relation to the meanresult from all undergraduate courses at UV

Source: Banco de dados relatórios UV, 2007.2 a 2011.1.

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students. In the dimension of resources,which stresses the relation betweeneducation and technology, it was possibleto see, for instance, a growing demand formore interactive didactic elements, for theimprovement of multimedia. From theanalysis of the data one can also notewhere the materials need adjustment orthe perfecting of the contents, and thecorrection of orthographical errors. In thedimension of the teachers, one can see,among other issues, the growing demandfor an interactive experience with theteacher. The teacher had to improve hisevaluation and feedback tools. Theanalysis of the data also showed whataspects need to be improved for theteacher to be better prepared for theeducational service. And in the dimensionof the students issues were analyzed,which involved the methods employed inorder to favor learning by the students ata distance, and how to make that learningmore significative, practical and efficient.For example, to increase those learningactivities meant to favor learning and toallow the students to study with greaterautonomy.

The research thus showed the relationsbetween the ISEM and DE pedagogicalmanagement. It made evident how the DEproject can be improved when the ISEM isapplied.

Considerations and perspectives

By focusing on the Institutional Self-Evaluation Methodology – ISEM, theresearch presented as its general goal toanalyze the contributions from such amethodology for the pedagogicalmanagement in DE projects. It shows howthe ISEM can be an important tool forinformation, which can result inappropriate action plans, capable ofdeveloping competences in the didacticsof learning, and in the pedagogicalmanagement of DE as a whole.

The research confirms and identifies thebuilding and contribution of the

Institutional Self-EvaluationMethodology – ISEM – of thePedagogical Management in DE. Thefollowing Figure presents how thatmovement occurs in a spiral.

As the ISEM gives a feedback to thepedagogical management in DE, it helpsthe people involved to better understandwhat are the necessary innovations andadjustments in the educational projects. Itgives access to information for theplanning, execution, following up, control,and self-regulation for the pedagogicalmanagement in DE, all necessarycomponents.

After been completed, this researchallows one to claim that there is a dialecticmovement of building up and contributionin the existing relations between the ISEM

and the Pedagogical Management in DE.

Finally, considering that the ISEM wasanalyzed in the context of a specificproject, in order to validated it for anyother project in DE I suggest that itshould be replicated in future researchprojects for other institutions andeducational processes at a distance.

Prof. Dênia is a Professor, researcher and DE consultant. Having a PhD in Education,her area of expertise are Didactics, teaching theories and school practices, Methodologyof Institutional Self-Evaluation - ISEM - in Pedagogical Management in DistanceEducation. She can be reached at denia[dot]falcao[at]gmail[dot]com

References

Alkin, M. Evaluation roots: tracingtheorist’s views and influences.London: Sage, 2004.

Bittencourt, D. F. Construir e contribuir.A metodologia da autoavaliaçãoinstitucional na gestão pedagógicaem educação a distância. TesisDoctoral, Faculdade de Educação,Universidade de São Paulo, SãoPaulo. 2012. Recuperado 2013-03-28,de http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/48/48134/tde-12062012-151617/

Bittencourt, D.F. A construção de ummodelo de curso lato sensu viaInternet: a experiência com o Cursode Especialização para Gestores deInstituições de Ensino Técnico doSistema SENAI. Dissertação deMestrado, Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia deProdução, Universidade Federal deSanta Catarina, Florianópolis. 1999.Recuperado 2013-03-28, de http://www.eps.ufsc.br/disserta99/denia /

Bittencourt, D.F.; Lezana, A.G.R.Avaliação do ensino a distância:utilizando a visão de Processo e doTQC. In: Conferência De Ciências DaEducação. Anais... Cuba:Universidade de Camaguey, 4., [S.l.],Nov. 1997.

Figure 2- The ISEM and DE

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Spotlight On...

Nanyang Technological University:A rising star in Higher Education

Dr. Aman Vats, Ms. Reshma Wadhwani and Ms. Alka Singh

Universiti Teknologi Nanyang as called inMalay and famously known as NTUSingapore, by the world; is one of thelargest public and autonomous universitiesin Singapore. The university’s main campusis a 200-ha residential, garden campuslocated in the south-western part ofSingapore.

“Lyon the lion” symbolises the University’svalues of strength, courage andfearlessness. As the embodiment of theNTU spirit; designed by an NTU student, itmade its debut in August 2013.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) wasinaugurated in 1991, when its predecessor institution, theNanyang Technological Institute (NTI) merged with the NationalInstitute of Education (NIE). NTU Singapore has since grown tobecome a full-fledged comprehensive and research-intensiveuniversity, with over 32,500 undergraduate andpostgraduate students in the four colleges of engineering,business, science, and humanities, arts and social sciences.NTU Singapore is also home to world-class autonomous entitiessuch as the National Institute of Education, InterdisciplinaryGraduate School, S Rajaratnam School of InternationalStudies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centreon Environmental Life Sciences Engineering. The latest additionto the university, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, isset-up jointly with Imperial College London, and opened itsdoors in 2013.

NTU continues the innovative and leading edge educationalapproaches by actively designing, developing and implementingan increasing number of online/blended learning courses in theUniversity. NTU recognises that to bring forth the NTUEducation goal of producing students with Character, Creativity,Competence, Communication and Civic-Mindedness, thelearning and teaching at the University needs to inculcate activeand socially collaborative approaches to learning. Specifically,the focus has been on the flipped classroom approach wheredeeper learning and discussions take place in face-to-facesessions.

Online/blended learning courses facilitatethe flipped classroom approach by allowingfundamental, core content elements to bedelivered online before students come toclass. To achieve this, NTU has set up asupport system and learning designexpertise within the Centre for IT Services(CITS) to help faculty, schools and collegesto embark on designing online courses.This includes the MOOC (Massive Open

Online Courses) @NTUproject, which has so fardelivered two courses onthe Coursera platform. The first, a course entitled‘Beauty Form andFunction: An Explorationof Symmetry’ had its firstrun from 17 February to14 April, 2014 with morethan 18,000 participantsfrom around the worldand more than 600 NTUundergraduates takingthe course’s Signature

Track. NTU is the world’s first university that allows credits oracademic units from MOOC courses hosted on Coursera to be usedto fulfil a student’s degree requirements at NTU.

Under the Nanyang Technological University’s five-year strategicplan, NTU 2015, to make its mark internationally in five areas –sustainability, healthcare, new media, the best of the East and West,and innovation.

President of NTU, Prof. Andersson says, “With our top-notchfaculty and unique programmes that allow students to design theirstudies based on their strengths and interests, we have alreadyseen a phenomenal 60 per cent increase in the number of top A-level students coming to NTU, compared to 2011.”

Nanyang Technological University’s global reputation attractsfaculty, students and partnerships from Asia, North America,Europe and beyond. Working with local and global organisations,NTU actively explores cross-disciplinary solutions for the future.

Dr. Vats is an Associate Professor, Amity School ofCommunication, NOIDA and he can be reached atavats[at]amity[dot]edu;Ms. Wadhwani is a Research Scholar, IASE, Jamia Millia Islamia,New Delhi and she can be reached atreshmavats[at]gmail[dot]com; andMs. Singh is a Research Associate in IDRC Project, CEMCA,NewDelhi and she can be reachedatedu[dot]alkasingh[at]gmail[dot]com.

View of the University campus

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CEMCA News

Meeting of ViceChancellors of StateOpen Universities onOpen EducationResources(OER)Policy, Creation,Sharing andImplementationIssuesA meeting of Vice Chancellors of StateOpen Universities on Open EducationResource Policy was held on 4thSeptember 2015 at Chennai, India byCommonwealth Educational Media Centre

for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi incollaboration with Ministry of HumanResource Development, Government ofIndia, New Delhi. Theobjectives of the meetingwere to deliberate uponUse, Creation andAdoption of OpenEducation Resources(OER) for improvingQuality, Access andInnovation; andFormulation of a Nationaland Institutional OERPolicy. Some of therecommendations of thedeliberations were:

• There is a need for an OER policy anda separate OER department at each OUfor the purpose of implementing OER

Development of ICTPolicy of ChaudharyCharan SinghUniversity (CCSU),MeerutCommonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi assistedthe Chaudhary Charan Singh University(CCSU), Meerut towards developing ICTPolicy of CCS University. To finalise it a

meeting was held on 30th July 2015 at theUniversity. Honourable Vice ChancellorSh. Vikram Chandra Goel of CCSUniversity emphatically stated thattransparency, fairness and impartialitywould be facilitated by ICT. He alsomentioned that after struggle of threeyears, admission process has becometransparent in the university. He focussedon the relevance of ICT in the presentcontext. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi,Programme Officer, CEMCA assured fullsupport and technical assistance to CCS

University indeveloping andimplementing ICTPolicy, and heacquainted audiencewith the key featuresof policy developmentand procedures. Hediscussed the policydevelopment templatewith the audience.

After deliberations, it was decided that anumber of policy statements will beprepared based on each of these areasand on the basis of these statements adraft policy will be prepared. Which willthen be circulated among universitystakeholders for wider consultation.Afterwards, a committee constitutingexperts from University, CEMCA, andother Universities/National organizationswill evaluate the draft policy to give it afinal shape. Prof. H. S. Singh, Pro-viceChancellor, CCS University called uponthe faculty members to focus on ICTdevelopment as well human development.The members present in the meeting were-Prof. Archana Sharma, Prof. P. K. Sharma,Prof. Aradhana, Dr. Jamal Siddiqui, Prof.Atveer Singh, Dr. Soti Shivendra Chand,Dr. J. S. Bhardwaj, Dr. Garima Singh, Dr.Vijay Jaiswal, Dr. Pradeep Chaudhary.Besides students of Pre PhD course workand M.Ed. have also given their inputsfor formulation of ICT policy.

and training the faculty how todevelop OER.

• Each OU should select a particulararea and develop OER in thatparticular area so as to avoidduplication of efforts. All programmes

and courses should be placed in aCentralized Repository.

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Community Radio Consultationorganised in Islamabad

Allama IqbalOpenUniversity(AIOU),Islamabad incollaborationwith CEMCA,New Delhiand PakistanCommunityMediaNetworkorganised the‘National

Consultation on Community Radio for Learning’ in Islamabad,Pakistan on May 25, 2015.

Vice Chancellor, AIOU Prof. Shahid Siddiqui while chairing thepreliminary session of the consultation announced that theUniversity will strengthen its media support for its studentsthrough enhanced FM radio network. The media, he said, hasemerged as most powerful social institutions and the AIOUwishes to take full benefit of it.

There were more than 45 academicians, media experts, socialworkers and broadcasters participated in the consultation

Allama Iqbal Open Universitydeveloped Flexible Curricula forSkill TrainingAllama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad developed thecurricula on 12 new skilled-based vocational courses in thediscipline of media, electronics and agricultural sciences. In thisconnection, four-dayworkshop (26-29 May, 2015)was held at the Universitypremises to develop thecurricula of these courses incollaboration withCommonwealth EducationalMedia Centre for Asia(CEMCA), New Delhi.

Presiding over theworkshop, Vice ChancellorProf. Shahid Siddiqui saidthat the University would

gradually switch over to online courses in order to facilitate themaximum number of students by taking full advantage of newtechnology. He thanked the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) andCEMCA for their support in strengthening distance-learningsystem in the country. He announced that the University wouldsoon set up a Research and Innovation Centre to promoteresearch-based activities. The CEMCA’s representative Dr.Ankuran Dutta took part in the workshop from New Delhi through

video conferencing andassured full support andtechnical assistance toAIOU in introducingprofessional and skillbased courses for thebenefit of women, youthand common masses ofthe country.

According to the Directorof the office, Dr. ZahidMajeed, “In Pakistan morethan 60% population is

representing different organisations like Radio Pakistan, ChinaRadio International, Community Media Pakistan, FM-100Islamabad, DIL FM, Health Communication Resources (HCR),UNESCO, UNICEF, DFID, British Council, EducationalBroadcasters’ Forum (EBF) Pakistan etc.

Dr. Ankuran Dutta, Programme Officer, CEMCA shared hisexperiences on the role of community radio for societaldevelopment from New Delhi through video conferencing. Theconsultation was also addressed by Dr. Syed Abdul Siraj,Chairman, Department of Mass Communication; Dr. MukhtarHussain Tarlpur, Director, Institute of Educational Technology, Mr.Masoodul Hasan Akhtar, Executive Director, Pakistan CommunityMedia Network. Mr. Akhtar, in his address said, “I am personallyand on behalf of Community Media Network thankful to CEMCAfor their technical support which make it possible to take initiativeon community media in Pakistan on small scale.”

Mr. Zahid Majeed, Director, International Collaboration &Exchange Office, AIOU, Pakistan said, “Community Radio is a newconcept in Pakistan, thanks to CEMCA, New Delhi for introducingit in AIOU and among stakeholders of Radio Community. It was myhonor to coordinate the event and pleased to say that a goodnumber of radio community stakeholders participated in the‘National Consultation on Community Radio’ arranged by AIOU in-collaboration with CEMCA. The Government of Pakistan and theAIOU attached great importance to promotion of Community Radiofor education, health, peace, religious harmony as well as toprotect our culture, traditions and values. Hope this collaborationwill go a long for achieving such targets”.

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CEMCA andUNESCOCommemorateCRVC (communityradio videochallenge) 2015Awards CeremonyCommunity Radio is said to be a medium forthe people, of the people and by the people.Although, the term radio depicts it as an audiomedium but what if you present an audiomedium with the help of a video. Howconfusing it may sound but CEMCA not onlysuccessfully organised this unusual challengein association with UNESCO and ApeejayInstitute of Mass Communication (AIMC), butalso received some marvellous entries thatwere awarded and presented in an awardceremony attended by more than 100audiences at the India International Center,New Delhi on June 30, 2015.

The awards were distributed to the winners bya panel of eminent guests who congratulatedand lauded the organisers for its efforts andthe students for their creativity. Mr. BhaskarGhose, former Secretary of the Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting and theMinistry of Culture, Government of India gavevaluable insights on the importance ofcommunity radio in the development of thegrassroots people. RJ Raunak from 93.5 RedFM who graced the show and entertainedpeople with his hilarious gigs.

Marking his presence in the event, Mr.SunitTondon, Director General of IndianInstitute of Mass Communication (IIMC)spoke about the importance and relevance ofcommunity radio and appreciated theorganisers for its initiative. “CEMCA has beendoing several works in spreading the messageand keeping the flame alive” he further addedwhile addressing the audience.

The award ceremony started with the welcomeaddress by Dr. Ramesh Sharma, Director,CEMCA and the session opened with remarksfrom Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi, Director andUNESCO Representative to Bhutan, India,Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Prof. Ashok Ogra,Director, AIMC explained the Jury process ofthe video challenge. A member of the Jury, Dr.Manoj Patairiya, Additional Director General,Prasar Bharati was also present along with therepresentatives from different organisations.Ms. Nidhi Ralhan of UNESCO announced theresults of the CRVC 2015. Mr. R. Thyagarajanand Ms. Monica Sharma of CEMCA gave theconcluding remarks and proposed vote ofthanks respectively. This ceremony wascoordinated by Dr. Ankuran Dutta, ProgrammeOfficer, CEMCA.

Professional Development OnlineCourse on “OER-based e-Learning”- Certificate Awards CeremonyThe Certificate Awards Ceremony of the Professional DevelopmentOnline Course, “OER-based e-Learning” adapted and developed byOUSL in collaboration with CEMCA, was held on 11th June, 2015, atthe Faculty of Education, OUSL. Dr. Vijitha Nanayakkara, Vice-Chancellor of OUSL, attended as the Chief Guest of the Ceremony. Theacademic staff members of OUSL who successfully completed all fivemodules of this fully online course of six months duration received“Certificates of Completion” at this occasion.

young and willing to contribute innational development. Educationalopportunities are not enough andemployment for educated class isvery nominal/limited. In thisscenario Vocational/Skill traininghelps them to overcome theproblem of jobs, thanks to CEMCAits support in development of‘Flexible Curricula for Skill Trainingin Pakistan’. Both CEMCA andAIOU have agreed to develop 10curricula for skill training; I ampleased to mention here thatparticipants were so enthusiasticthat at the end of the workshopthey developed 12 courses. These12 courses will be offered to AIOUstudents and people of Pakistanequipping them with necessaryskills in different professionaltrades. We are thankful to Dr.Ramesh Sharma and Dr. AnkuranDutta for guidance and support tomake this initiative verysuccessful. In future AIOU andCEMCA will develop detailedcontents of two courses fromthese 12 courses.” The ViceChancellor Dr. Shahid Siddiqui iscommitted to enhance the AIOU’srole in promoting skill-basededucation through ODL system.He has already instructed all thedepartments to take necessarysteps to this direction.

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Netaji Subhas OpenUniversity upgraded12 VocationalCurricula to NSQF

CEMCA organised a curriculadevelopment programme in collaborationwith Netaji Subhas Open University(NSOU) in Kolkata, West Bengal fromJune 3-5, 2015. In this programme, theexperts of the School of VocationalStudies of the University upgraded the

existing curricula of 12 vocational coursesto National Skills Qualification Framework(NSQF).

Professor SubhaSankar Sarkar, ViceChancellor of the University explained theinitiatives on the vocational and skilldevelopment programmes of theUniversity. Professor Sarkar appreciatedthe initiative of CEMCA for upgrading theexisting curricula to NSQF in a scientificprocess and thanked CEMCA/COL forthe cooperation and support towardsmaintaining skills training through thisendeavour. Sri Ashokendu Sengupta,Chairperson, State Commission forProtection of Child Rights, Govt. of WestBengal inaugurated the programme.

While enumerating the importance ofNSQF and alignment of the existingcurricula into NSQF, Dr. Ankuran Dutta of

Review andFinalisation of theDraft LearningMaterials of Skillsbased Vocational

finalisation and training on developmentof Self-learning Materials for theprogramme Nursing Assistance andGeriatric Care Assistance on April 29-30,2015. Another workshop was alsoorganised for review and finalisation ofthe draft learning materials from June 8-10,2015 at the KOS Campus at Mysore. Dr. K.M. Veeraiah, Director, KOS, Mysoreexplained the status of the draft lessonsfor this programme. In his inauguraladdress Mr. Chidre Shankarayya Swamy,Director, JSS Mahavidyapeetha, Mysorehighlighted the importance of technical

Programme forNursing Assistanceand Geriatric CareAssistanceCEMCA has been supporting the memberinstitutions towards the development ofopen and distance learning courses incompliance with the National SkillsQualifications Framework. Towards this,CEMCA developed a modular programmeentitled Nursing Assistance and GeriatricCare Assistance in collaboration withKarnataka Open School (KOS), Mysore.This Certificate Programme for NursingAssistance and Geriatric Care Assistancewill be available for anyone who hasGrade 10 qualification. In this regard theKOS organized a workshop for Curriculum

and vocational skill developmentinitiatives not only in India but also in theworld. Further he appreciated theinitiatives of CEMCA in the field ofeducation and for giving this opportunityto KOS. Prof. C. K. Renukarya, Director,Pooja Bhagavat Memorial Mahajana PostGraduate Centre, Mysore and Dr. ManasRanjan Panigrahi, Programme Officer fromCEMCA facilitated the workshop.Eighteen experts (Seven male and elevenfemale) participated in the workshop toprovide their valuable inputs to theprogramme.

11

National Capacity Building ofODL Professionals on OERQualityCEMCA is engaged in reviewing & improving quality of OpenDistance Learning (ODL) and Open Educational Resources(OER). CEMCA has developed the Quality AssuranceGuidelines for OER: TIPS Framework for use by individuals andinstitutions engaged in OER production. In order to make theTIPS framework used in the online/offline environment, CEMCAorganised a National Capacity Building programme from 27-29May, 2015 on OER Quality at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar OpenUniversity (BRAOU), Hyderabad for ODL professionals. ODLprofessionals from State Open Universities of India participatedin this capacity building programme. The objectives of theprogramme were to develop capacities of Open Universityteachers and BRAOU faculties on OER andQuality Assurance Guidelines for OER: TIPSFrame work.

The workshop was inaugurated by Prof. V. S.Prasad, Former Director NAAC, who explainedvarious critical issues pertaining to OER andemphasized the philosophical foundation ofOER. While recalling the OER Quality issues heput three Ps i.e. Perception: philosophy of OER,Passion: attitudes towards OER, Pride: feeling indoing. Finally he stressed upon the need tointegrate sectorial policy to the National Policyfor OER in India. Dr. B. K. Bhadri, AssistantEducational Advisor, MHRD, New Delhiexplained the various policy initiatives ofMHRD viz. integrating skill development inhigher education, promoting open and distancelearning, etc. He also appreciated the CEMCA’s

initiatives in India for the development of learning. Prof. V.Venkaiah, Former VC of Krishna University spoke about 2012-UNESCO Paris Declaration, the need and importance of the OER inpresent context. He also suggested to all open universities of Indiato have OER policy on priority basis. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi,Programme Officer (CEMCA), highlighted the agenda of the threedays programme and proposed vote of thanks.

The workshop was facilitated by Prof. Paul Kawachi from Japan,Prof. V Venkaiah and Mr. Akash Agarwal from India. The three-daycapacity building programme involved: Concepts of OpenEducational Resources; The CEMCA’s TIPS Quality AssuranceFramework; Design issues related to OER Quality and Media Wiki;Creating OER using CEMCA’s MediaWiki; and TeacherProfessional Development and OER Quality. The participantscreated content specific OER using CEMCA’s MediaWiki in groupand presented their plans and OER to the whole group for feedbackand reflection.

CEMCA said, “For skill development andto impart vocational education there is adire need to develop enough Openeducational resources in various skillsectors. Open Educational Resources canplay an important role in realizing thedream of skilling India. CEMCA has beenworking continuously in creatingawareness on OER for skill developmentand assisting different organisations todevelop vocational courses.” Prof. VinaySwarup Mehrotra, Professor and Head,Curriculum Development and Evaluation

Centre, NSQF delivered the keynoteaddress on the National SkillsQualification Framework.

In the three days programme, the expertsfrom different vocational trades upgradedthe curricula of 12 vocational courses toNSQF on - Tailoring and Dress Designing,Nature Therapy, Sports and CompetitiveYoga, Fitness management, Pre-PrimaryTeachers’ Education-Montessori,Automobile Repairing & Maintenance,Electrical Technician, Refrigerator & AC

Machine, Beautician, Disaster RiskManagement, Soft skills, DTP andNetworking. After completion of theactivity, the participants mentioned thatthe entire process of upgradation wasvery much interesting and they couldunderstand the differences between thecurriculum and syllabus. The participantsthanked the University for providing themthe opportunity to upgrade the curriculaand CEMCA for providing the technicalsupport and assistance in buildingcapacity.

12

Regional ConsultativeMeeting on TeacherEducation UsingOpen and DistanceLearning (ODL) inAsiaCommonwealth of Learning (COL) andCommonwealth of Educational MediaCentre for Asia (CEMCA) are mandated tohelp governments, institutionsand organizations expand thescale, efficiency and quality oflearning by using appropriateopen, distance and technology-enabled learning. To effectivelyprepare for the next strategicplan (2015-2021), a baselinesurvey on the status of teachereducation using Open andDistance Learning (ODL) inAsia was commissioned under

of CEMCA for teacher educationinitiatives in the Commonwealth Asianregion. Dr. Jessica Aguti, EducationalSpecialist, COL explained the objectivesof the meeting. Deliberating theCommonwealth Asia perspective, Prof.Mohan Menon (Deputy Vice ChancellorAcademic) of Wawasan Open University,Penang, Malaysia highlighted the BestPractices in Teacher Education in Asia &Teacher Training for the 21st Century.Prof. Chandra Gunawardena, OpenUniversity of Sri Lanka presented the

Status of Teacher Education asbased on the ODL Baselinesurvey report. Further todiscussions on the baselinesurvey, recommendations weremade to identify projects to beimplemented over the next threeyears 2015/16 – 2017/18. By theend of this consultative meetingeight project proposals wereformulated to be implementedfor the next three years.

National Consultation for Promotion ofVir tual Open Schooling in IndiaCEMCA in collaboration with NationalInstitute of Open Schooling, Govt. ofIndia, organised a National Consultationfor the promotion of Virtual OpenSchooling in India at NIOS, Noida on 15May, 2015. The participants from StateOpen Schools (SOS), National Council forEducational Research and Training(NCERT), Central Institute of EducationalTechnology (CIET) and NIOS participatedin this consultation. The objectives of thisnational consultative workshop were to:promote Virtual Open Schooling in thecountry; provide an overview andconcept of NIOS-Virtual Open Schooling;provide technical knowledge and skill touse online technologies to theparticipants; provide technical experienceof MediaWiki and Learning ManagementSystem (Moodle) for development ofopen courses.

In his welcome address Prof.C. B. Sharma, Chairman, NIOSoutlined the importance ofVirtual Open Schoolingthrough ODL. Dr. RameshSharma, Director, CEMCAhighlighted the backgrounddevelopment and features of VOS andassured CEMCA’s support to NIOS. TheInaugural address was delivered by thechief guest Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui,Former Chairman, National Council forTeacher Education (NCTE), Govt. of India.He said that the learners are the core ofthe teaching learning system and theyshould always be motivated. He also saidthat educational ICT is now seen as anopportunity to study anywhere at anytime and VOS is an effective addition to it.Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal introduced theparticipants to Virtual Open Schooling

the Teacher Education initiative at COL. Inthis regard a consultative meeting wasorganised on 11-12 May 2015 at NewDelhi to share the findings of baselinesurvey and the COL-CEMCA’s 2015 –2021 Teacher Education Strategic Plan.

The meeting with 11 teacher educatorsfrom Bangladesh, India, Malaysia,Maldives, and Sri Lanka began with anintroductory by Dr. Manas RanjanPanigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCA.Dr. Ramesh Sharma, Director, CEMCA inhis opening remarks explained the activity

and explained the objectives of theworkshop. Mr. S. K. Prasad (SAP, NIOS)presented a technical report on VirtualOpen Schooling platform and its practicalmechanisms. The participants weredivided into groups on three themes-Registration/Admission Issues, Deliverymode and Evaluation and brainstormedon the challenges, opportunities andthreats in these areas of Virtual OpenSchooling. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi,Programme officer (Education), CEMCAmoderated the group presentation anddiscussion.

13

Workshop on Dissemination ofOutcomes of Research onCommunity Radio Sustainability

Ideosync MediaCombineorganized aworkshop incollaborationwith CEMCAand UNESCO,New Delhi on the‘Disseminationof Research

Outcomes on Community Radio Sustainability’ at the IndiaHabitat Centre, New Delhi on May 6, 2015.

The workshop began with an introductory speech by Mr. N.Ramakrishnan of Ideosync Media Combine. Dr. Ramesh Sharma(Director, CEMCA) in his opening remarks explained the role ofCEMCA in promoting Community Media and Learning in the

Commonwealth Asian region. Dr. Ankuran Dutta (ProgrammeOfficer, CEMCA) spoke about the importance of sustainability forthe community radio stations of South Asia.

Deliberating the international perspective, Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi(Director and UNESCO Representative to India, Bhutan, Maldivesand Sri Lanka) highlighted the role, use and importance ofcommunity radio in developing countries. He further expressedconcerns towards the recent earthquakes in Nepal and stressedon the role of community radio in helping in times of Disaster.

Ms. Venu Arora and Ms. Leonea Fernandez presented themethodology adopted for this participatory research and theresearch outcomes. The representatives of various communityradio stations such as Saiyarre Jo Radio and Waqt Ki Awaaz,India; Radio Bikrampur, Bangladesh; Radio Menchhyayem, Nepalspoke about how the research has helped their radio teams tolook at sustainability of their respective stations. In addition tothe representatives from participating community radio stations,Prof. Vinod Pavarala (UNESCO Chair on Community Media); Mr.Ashish Sen (AMARC); Ms. D. Rukmini Vemraju, Ms. JayalakshmiChittor, Mr. Anirban Sarma (UNESCO) also contributed to theworkshop.

CEMCA Certificatein Community RadioTechnologyThe Certificate in Community RadioTechnology course developed byCEMCA in collaboration with BroadcastEngineering Consultant India Ltd (BECIL)has been adopted and launched by TamilNadu Open University (TNOU) andUttarakhand OpenUniversity (UOU) fromthe academic session2015-16. CEMCAorganised twoprogrammes onCounselling of the CCRTCounsellors at TamilNadu Open University,Chennai on June 15-18,2015 and at UttarakhandOpen University,Haldwani on June 23-26,2015. A total of 55counsellors were trainedin both the counsellingprogrammes.

CEMCA also developed a question bankof multiple choice questions which wouldbe used to evaluate the progress /achievement of students enrolled inCertificate in Community RadioTechnology (CCRT) course and broadlyto test the technical knowledge of theenthusiasts of community radio. Based onthese questions, CEMCA developed anAnroid based mobile aoolication called“CR Tech Quiz” and an IVR system. The

newly designed IVR (Interactive VoiceResponse) Assessment tool has beenimplemented for providing telephonebased self-assessment platform toenhance the knowledge on communityradio technology for the CR stations andCertificate in Community RadioTechnology (CCRT) course learners.CEMCA in collaboration with Gram Vaanistarted the IVR assessment tools duringthe early march 2015 and it became

functional from June 2015.Once the caller dialed theprovided number, which is09211789369, the server willautomatically disconnectthe call; however, theparticipants willimmediately get a call backfrom another number. Oncethe participant received thecall, the server will interactwith the caller pronouncingcertain instructions tofollow as per one’s choiceonly after going throughthe registration.

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Case Study

Distance Learning in Brazil, Access andEquity Demanding New Skills andInnovation

Dr. Luciano Sathler

Brazil has experienced strongsocioeconomic changes in recent years,including the reduction of poverty, therise of a new middle class and higherproportions of elderly people. One of themain demands that accompanies anddrives this movement is expanding accessto higher education and the growth oflifelong learning needs.

As it happens in other emergingeconomies, the middle class is growing,pushing more demand for highereducation. Access to tertiary educationincreases social development, citizenshipand can be transformative for individuallife chances and national economicgrowth.

However, in Brazil, public tertiaryeducation institutions have not been ableto keep pace with the rapid growth ofdemand for education, leading to ashortage of tertiary education seats.Demand for tertiary education issupporting the development of a privateeducation sector – for profit and non-profit organizations - as changes toGovernment regulation enable privateinstitutions to expand and complementthe public systems. The entry of privateinstitutions has enabled more students toaccess education, driven innovation ineducation systems, and helped fill urgentlabor market gaps.

Unfortunately, private tertiary educationis still unaffordable for many families. Inlight of capacity issues in public systemsand the urgent need to widen education

access beyond the elite, newapproaches to financing education are anecessity.

On the other hand, distance learning isgrowing dramatically in Brazil in the last13 years, somehow accompanying andcollaborating with the social andeconomic changes that Brazilian society isexperiencing. The numbers of undergraduate distance learning entrants

in the period between 2004 and 2008 grewalways equal to or greater than 40% peryear, reaching a peak of more than onemillion and two hundred thousandsenrollments in 2013.

The percentage of students in distancelearning among all higher educationenrollments emerged from the level of1.4% in 2002 to 16% in 2009, peaking at19.8% in 2008, falling to 15.3% in 2013,due to some changes in nationallegislation. Almost one out of six studentsenrolled in undergraduate studies in Brazil

enters into a distance learning program.

There is an expectation that the numberof distance learning enrollmentsincreases thrice and reach 3.1 million overthe next eight years. This expansion willoccur mainly because of a group of about25 million people, aged between 25 and 49years, who graduated from high schoolbut not enrolled in college.

Proponents of distance learning noticethat the results of the nationalassessment program of higher educationcourses by the Ministry of Education aregood for both on campus and distancelearning.

Only in recent decades illiteracy wasseriously faced in Brazil. However,television is present in the vast majorityof Brazilian homes for over 40 years. Thesame for cell phones in the last 10 years.This means that in many places,especially in the countryside, it iscommon that television has become theprimary means used to inform thepopulation and learn about the realityaround them. Perhaps Brazilians, who lookas have less resistance in this regard, canidentify it as a factor that facilitates theadoption of TIC.

Another important factor that drives theadoption of distance learning andeducational technologies, including forchildren and teenager’s schools, is the

Another important factor that

drives the adoption of distance

learning and educational

technologies, including for

children and teenager’s schools,

is the ease with which digital

natives adapt to this new world

and begin to show impatience

with the traditional teaching

models.

15

ease with which digital natives adapt tothis new world and begin to showimpatience with the traditional teachingmodels.

However, if we consider the Informal and Non-Formal Education, a recentsurvey showed that 11% of InternetBrazilian users go to the computer forsome distance learning course.

Student profile: female andmature1

The predominance of women amongstudents in distance learning courses ineducational institutions is hardly news,even when compared to on-site courses.They are the majority in almost all cuts,with over 56% of the total, a percentagevery similar to that already observed inthe previous 2010, 2011 and 2012 BrazilianCensuses for Distance Learning.

However, the only exception, which is thegroup related to corporate courses,indicates an inversion of the

predominance of men in key positions ofcompanies, those that generally require aninvestment in training. In this type ofcourse, men are 54.5% of the students. Asfor the students’ age, although someyounger age groups begin to show agood presence among students indistance learning courses, their averageage is still around 30 years or more. Inregulated full distance courses(undergraduate and graduate, excludingopen non-corporate and corporate), forexample, 60% of all institutions surveyedindicated that the predominant age groupof their students is from 31 to 40 years,while only about a third of them (32%)indicated as predominant the age groupfrom 21 to 30 years.

The exception is for vocational courses,since they are directed to youngerstudents who are still starting theircareers. The age group of over 40 years isalso a pattern for the modalities ofblended courses and distance learningdisciplines. It should be noted that open

non-corporate courses hold theyoungest students, with 39% ofinstitutions indicating theaverage age from 21 to 30 years.Now, in open corporate courses,the prevalent age range is from31 to 40 years (63%). This matureage will reflect on theprofessional occupation ofdistance learning students, sincethe vast majority of them arealready in the labor market.Among students who takeregulated full distance courses(note that this category excludesopen and corporate courses), forexample, those who work arealmost the totality (94%).

In general, in all forms, includingblended or open courses or onlydistance learning disciplines,

there is a percentage of about 90% in the“study and work” occupational situation.Thus, the great inclusiveness of distancelearning is emphasized, allowing peoplewho already entered the labor market toreturn to school or to invest in theircareer, even after the most appropriatetime for studying has passed. In the twotables below, it is possible to evaluate thisfairly typical age and occupational profileof distance learning students, accordingto the types of courses and educationallevel.

New skills and innovation

Distance learning is an educationalprocess, essentially meaning that theeducational values occupy leadingposition among the different evaluativecategories that make up the humanprocesses. The relationship between themis not configured as economic whereeducators assume the role of providersand learners of consumers or customersof information. It is a partnership in whichthe student improvement necessarilygoes together with the educatorimprovement.1 BRAZILIAN ASSOCIATION FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION. 2013 Brazilian Census for Distance

Learning. Curitiba: Ibpex, 2013. Available in <http://goo.gl/9RWuhr>

16

Distance learning is an educationalmodality that demands expertise in amultidisciplinary context, meaning thatone has to get by more than justpedagogical knowledge. This means thatnot just the domain of pedagogicalknowledge. The pedagogical mediationand communication happens throughdifferent teaching resources. Mediation iseducational because it isbased on aconception of education and theteaching-learning process purposes. It isbecause it involves differentcommunication channels and modes ofrelationship between teachers andstudents, for example, synchronous orasynchronous, unidirectional ormultidirectional; receptive or interactive,individualized and socialized amongothers. It implies different kinds ofcompetencies, namely Communicational,pedagogical, technological andmanagement.

In an educational perspective, theprocess of planning, production andimplementation of a distance learninginitiative is characterized as a class action,dialogically built and collaborative way.Different skills are integrated to buildalternatives to this educational modality.From the simplest self-paced course tillthe most complex system composed ofmany elements and a number of variables,teamwork is a condition for a successfuloutcome.

The skills in distance education, bothgeneral and specific, refer to learn toknow, learning to do, how to be andknowing how to live and aim to provide aframe of reference for the development ofactions, as well as the contents that favorthe acquisition or development.

Distance learning actions have skills ofdifferent natures. One dimension refers tothe teaching, the structuring of teachingand the expectations that one hastowards learning. Is associated withpedagogical content or theme with theinformation that will be part of the

Dr. Luciano is Director of Brazilian Association for Distance Education(http://abed.org.br); Director of Distance Education at Methodist University of SaoPaulo (http://metodista.br) and he can be reached atluciano[dot]sathler[dot]ead[at]gmail[dot]com

process. The content of the selectionshould be meaningful and should providethe domain, the application of informationand the possibility of updating,expanding, deepening and enrichment.

Another dimension refers to the form ofcommunication in distance education thatcould materializes through a text of alecture by videoconference, a thematicvideo or by the interaction of the teacherwith the student or among students. Ifcommunication is essential in education in

general, it is also so special in distancelearning. Indeed, communication ismediated and requires the treatment ofcontent and resources to the public inorder to be effective.

In the technological dimension, thedistance learning action encompassescommunication capabilities, processingand transmission of information. The fieldof communication and informationtechnologies should favor the selection ofmeans and adequate support to thestudent to ensure their access and theirpermanence in the educational process.

The management perspective in distancelearning regards to decision making onthe relevance of the projects developed,the links between the various agents inthe process - human and material

resources - aiming at an integrated andharmonious operation focusing on thestudent. Mediate conflicts betweendimensions, providing solutions thatimprove the quality of actions,commitments are management, which helpto ensure a good educational work.

Distance learning initiatives, from thesimplest to the most complex, alwaysinvolve action planning, production,validation, evaluation, and deployment.

The planning of distance learningshares, is structured based on apedagogical project and includes theanalysis of the problem, the target,defining where and how to get there, andthe evaluation of results.

Production refers to the development ofall necessary resources provided for ineducational planning, regarding thecharacteristics of the public to which theProject is intended and theappropriateness of the selectedlanguages means for its realization.

The implementation is the realization, inthe field, of everything that was plannedand produced and the achievement ofeducational intent by implementing thedistance learning action by people whowere aimed previously, or even to asignificant sample of this for validation ofthe obtained product.

The validation and evaluation of ODLaction involve the analysis of results andimprovement decisions in the educationalprocess.

Distance learning calls for innovativeapproaches, new skills and abilities, aswell as different forms of financing toachieve the fullness of its democraticcapacity, in line with the digital age andthe increasing demands for HigherEducation.

Distance learning calls for

innovative approaches, new

skills and abilities, as well as

different forms of financing to

achieve the fullness of its

democratic cap acity , in line

with the digital age and the

increasing demands for Higher

Education.

17

Book Review

MOOCs and Open Education Ar ound theWorld

Edited by - Curtis J. Bonk, Mimi M. Lee, Thomas C. Reeves, ThomasH. Reynolds; First published 2015 by Routledge, pp.358, ISBN 978-1-138-80740-2.

Dr. Lorne Oke and Dr. Christopher J. Devers

The pace of innovation forlearning delivery systems inpost-secondary education doesnot appear to be subsiding. Aswe move from face-to-facedelivery, to online, to hybridapproaches, and now to MOOCs,the learning landscape iscontinually evolving.Whileneither the idea of MOOCs noropen education are new, theyboth seem to have become moreprominent as digital capacities toaccess and deliver contentincrease. MOOCs have nowreached millions of students andprofessionals globally. In spite oftheir documented successhowever, the exact form andfunction of MOOCs in the futureis still rather unclear.

In this edited volume, Bonk, Lee,Reeves, and Reynolds (2015)offer one of the most pragmatic,comprehensive, and balanced views ofMOOCs and open education. Thechapters provide readers both the breadthand depth needed to fully understand thehistory, current state, and possible futureof MOOCs. Three distinct elements in thebook include, (1) international examples ofMOOC execution, (2) tools for MOOCevaluation, and (3) strategies for MOOCdesign.Yong Zhao states, “[The book is]a most authoritative examination of

Reference

Bonk, C. J., Lee, M. M., Reeves, T. C., &Reynolds, T. H. (2015). MOOCs andopen education around the world. NewYork, NY: Routledge. (Note: additionalinformation at: http://moocsbook.com/)

Dr. Lorne and Dr. Christopher work atIndiana Wesleyan University, Marion,Indiana and they can be reached atLorne[dot]Oke[at]indwes[dot]edu andChristopher[dot]Devers[at]indwes[dot]edu

MOOCs and their implications foreducation in the world from some of thefinest leading voices in the field”(p. inside cover).

To set the foundation for theconversation, the editors offer a variety ofperspectives and provide a clearunderstanding of MOOCs and openeducation. Then, a wide range of chaptersby peers from diverse learning

environments take the reader through aninternational commentary with realworking experience. As a specific example,Chapter 10 of the volume explains anexceptional tool for characterizing thepedagogical approaches of MOOCsreferred to as the AMP method.

While there are criticisms of practice inthe book, most come from within theMOOC community, which could be aconcern. Perhaps some voices outside thecommunity could be enlightening; neverthe less, the authors certainly do not tryto present MOOCs as the next silverbullet for education in spite of theabsence of external criticism.

One of the primary reasons Bonk et al. setout to compile this work was to balancethe hype of 2012 with the hate of 2013related to MOOCs.They wanted toreplace hasty conclusions with “extendedanalysis, global discussions, andthoughtful report” (p. xxix).Missionaccomplished! Interestingly, in theprocess, two collective conclusions alsoemerged. First, learning in anyenvironment takes concerted effort, andsecond, human engagement iscomplicated because environmental andcultural variables have an impact onlearning - it is not the delivery modalitythat matters most (i.e., face-to-face, onlinehybrid, etc.), but rather the pedagogicaltechniques and thoughtful culturalawareness that facilitate learning.

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Technology Tracking

OER Sharing/Creating using a MediaWikiand the CEMCA Quality AssuranceExtension

Mr. Akash Agarwal

Using various technologies becamepossible due to the advent of the Internet,we have moved a long way fromtraditional teacher student basedclassroom learning to acquiringknowledge and skills from the bestteachers in the world in their field. Aneducator now has the potential to reachstudents all over the world and not only ahandful few of them in a classroom. Thisphenomenon has been greatly enhancedwith the creation of Distance learningTechnologies like freely available onlineOpen Educational Resources (OER) andMOOCs.

There are several technologies availablenow for facilitating OER like wiki andvirtual whiteboards for OER creation andideation, tools like Moodle, Turnitin andSafe Assign for digitally evaluating astudents work, collaboration tools that letus have conduct virtual meetings and aidin project tracking and management, andalso simple tools like Email, IM, SocialNetworking, etc. While these tools giveseducators several options to enhancelearning using technology and makes itpossible to have personalized learning,collaboration in all phases of theteaching-learning process andwidespread availability of high qualitycontent, they may not be sure whatexactly will help them reach more studentand improve their teaching. Also, thesemay be complex to learn and it may bedifficult to provide the technologicalinfrastructure to facilitate these tools.

Due to the above challenges, many OER

professionals, especially in developingcountries like India, are not able to reachworldwide audiences. A very simplesolution to overcome this is to use a wiki.Wiki’ s are a single platform that can servemost technological needs for an OERprofessional. A wiki can be used as a toolfor creating OER and as a contentmanagement system. There can also befully fledged online open courses on a wiki.They have a robust version tracking andalso a platform for discussion. To top it all,it’s very easy to setup and maintain it andno technological expertise is required forusing it. Using a wiki, OER can be sharedover the internet very easily.

We all probably use Wikipedia every day. Itis the world’s largest encyclopaedia andalso the largest wiki on the planet.Wikipedia is powered using a wiki calledMediawiki. Not only Mediawiki is veryrobust and designed in such a way that anextremely high traffic website likeWikipedia can be served. It is very simpleto setup and use by individual OERprofessionals and institutions. Someexamples of such portals are http://wiki.cemca.org.in/ and http://wikieducator.org. You canprobably ask a computerscience professor orstudent at your institutionto set up a similar one foryou. Also, Mediawiki isOpen-source andmaintained by hundreds of developers allover the world, and can be readilytranslated into hundreds of languages.

Thus, at CEMCA, we built the OERquality assurance extension as aMediawiki extension, so that it can beused by everyone in any wiki.

Today, educators can create OER usingtheir expertise and students at even theremotest places in the world can haveaccess to them. It is thus very importantto make sure that the quality of such OERis impeccable. The CEMCA TIPSFramework is a set of comprehensiveguidelines for Quality Assurance of OERwhich can be used for the purpose. Thisframework can now be used effortlesslyusing the CEMCA Quality AssuranceMediawiki Extension. Just create (or add)your OER on a wiki which has theextension installed and you can ask yourcolleagues, friends, other educators, etc.for feedback on the quality of the createdOER. You can also self-evaluate it for itsquality using the framework and improveupon it. The extension is available freelyunder the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The CEMCA Quality AssuranceMediawiki Extension is a Mediawikiextension for judging the quality of OERbased on a subset of the TIPS framework2.0. The extension allows one to enable acomprehensive review for the quality ofan OER (it can be present on a wiki pageitself or the wiki page can be used onlyfor QA with a link to the OER) by adding asimple tag to the page. The extension isvery simple to use and consists of a basicset of Quality Assessments ratings to befilled. All the underlying complexities ofthe extension are hidden from the enduser.

Usage: Simply add the tag:<qa></qa>tothe wiki page where the content of theOER is present.

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To submit an assessment the user needsto click on the Make a quality assessmentof this article button. Once this is done avery simple form like the one shownbelow appears. Once filled, bothconsolidated and individual assessmentsare displayed.

Additionally there is a “Show DetailedAssessments” button to view allassessments submitted for an article.

This will show the list of everyone whohas made an assessment and the TIPSscore of each. Clicking on any of them(Detailed Assessments) will show allresponses of that particular user for thespecific article.

It has been a great privilege for me towork on this with CEMCA. I was alsopresented with a unique opportunity tointeract with educators from all over Indiaduring an OER Quality workshoporganised by CEMCA and BRAOU atHyderabad during May 2015. We hadintroduced the extension for the first timeat the workshop and have since improvedupon it. One of the major achievement forus at the workshop for to inspire someOER professionals from different parts of

India to start using a wiki attheir institutions.

For support on using theextension and/or deploying awiki at your institution pleasefeel free to contact CEMCA.

Mr. Agarwal is a student of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)Hyderabad, India. He can be reached at akashslg [at]gmail[dot]com

20

SMART Tips

Nano Open Online Courses (NOOCs)

Zaid Ali Alsagoff

“The minute I dropped out I could stop taking therequired classes that didn’t interest me, and beginDROPPING IN on the ones that looked interesting.”

– Steve Jobs

Nano Open Online Courses (NOOCs)

NOOCs will empower learners toexplore, learn and be assessed

(certified) on the essentials of onecompetency, skill or area of knowledge

at a time within 12 learning hours orless. Each NOOC can be facilitated by

one or more facilitators, dependingupon one’s preferences and ability.

Originally, NOOCs was code-named N-MOOCs (or Nano MOOCs), but DaveCormier (who also coined the ‘MOOC’acronym) suggested to take out the

‘M’ from its original acronym during atweet conversation. And since then N-MOOCs has become NOOCs, which is

a more appropriate.

WHY NOOCs?“Looking back at my personal MOOCexperiences since 2008, I realize that Ihave yet to be inspired to complete asingle one. I have probably exploredmore than a hundred MOOCs over theyears, but none have interested meenough to swoosh through, do theassignments/quizzes, and achieve thecertificate.

MOOCs offered around the world topeople like Steve Jobs and Zaid AliAlsagoff.

• Learners

Instead of having to do the wholecourse, I can now focus on the juice (Iwant), get assessed, and be certified(or Badged) on it. Yes, a NOOC is moregranular, chunked, digestible,meaningful (evidence) and juicy!Awesome!

• Facilitators

I want to facilitate a MOOC, but whereI am going to find the time, manpoweror resources to do it? NOOCit instead!You only need to sacrifice one week forNOOCing, and perhaps 1-2 weekspreparing for it (as you should alreadybe an expert in what you want toNOOC). Also, since ‘M’ for Massive isditched, you don’t have to have thatpressure that it must achieveMassiveHOOD! Massive or Small, I amcool. Say no more!

• Learning Design

The NOOC way to design learningexperiences provide a more flexiblecourse design model (can range within12 learning hours or less) compare tothe credit hour system. Think ofdesigning a NOOC, like buildingsomething with LEGO. Better yet, onecan always combine the LEGO piecesto fulfill 1, 2, 3 or 4 credit hours. Morediscussed later in this document.

Source: Reich, 2014

For me, the main reason is that when Iregister for a particular MOOC, I amusually only interested to really explorein-depth around 5-10% of it. The most Ihave explored in a MOOC is around 80%without doing the assignments….”

- Zaid Ali Alsagoff

Interestingly, based on the ‘MOOCCompletion Rates’ project (2015), thecurrent average completion rate forMOOCs is approximately 15%. Anotherstudy (Jordan, 2014) found that theaverage MOOC completion rate to be aslow as 6.5%. The latest analysis basedupon enrolment and completion datacollected for a total of 221 MOOCs, showsthat MOOC completion rates vary from0.7% to 52.1%, with a median value of12.6% (Jordan, 2015). Interestingly, it wasfound (Reich, 2014) that 22 percent ofstudents who intended tocomplete a course earned acertificate (Harvard X courses),compared with 6 percent ofstudents who intended to browsea course.

Although, there are many reasonsfor not completing a MOOC,these statistics do reveal that thecurrent MOOC learning formatsdo not appeal, or is appropriatefor all kind of learners.

Let’s now explore why NOOCingcould be more appealing than

21

Defining a NOOC

A Nano Open Online Course (NOOC)empowers learners to explore, learn andbe assessed (certified) on the essentialsof one competency, skill or area ofknowledge at a time within 12 learninghours or less.

NOOC is a format for experiencinglearning online. The essence or nucleusof a NOOC is a Nano LearningExperience (NLE). A NLE can beexperienced online (e.g. in a NOOC), or ina face-to-face (F2F) learning environment.For it to be a NLE, the learning experiencemust include learning content, activities,assessment and a completion-point(certification or badge).

Let’s now explore deeper the meaning foreach letter in the ‘NOOC’.

NANO

In Malaysian Qualifications Framework(MQF) for Higher Education, student’sacademic efforts are measured by usingthe credit system based on the totalnumber of students hours that arerequired to achieve the learningoutcomes. 40 hours of notional StudentLearning Time (SLT) is valued as onecredit.

Meaning, in atypical three credit(hour) course,students arerequired to spendon at least 120hours (40 x 3credit) SLT, which

include attending lectures, tutorials,seminars, research, laboratory/field works, doingassignments/projects andquizzes, and exploringassigned learning resources.

As the NOOC idea isenvisioned to transform alltypes of education, includingcorporate learning, SLT will bereferred to from now onwards

as (Learner’s) Learning Hours (LH) .

A NLE is at least 10 times shorter than a 3credit (hour) course (120 LH / 10) = 12 LH.An learning experience that is 12 hours orless is defined as a NLE. If the learningexperience is more than 12 hours and lessthan one credit hour (40 LH) it should bedefined as a Micro Learning Experience.Anything above 40 LH is defined as anyconventional course learning experience(1, 2, 3, 4 or more credit hours).

OPEN

NOOCs should obviously be open andFREE OF CHARGE for anyone interestedtaking them.

All content (developed, reused, mashed-up, etc.) used in aNOOC should be usinga Creative Commonsor Public Domainlicense. If Copyrightmaterials are used, itcan still be claimed tobe a NOOC, but from acontent-point-of-viewit is really a NCOC

(First ‘C’ = Copyrighted and Commercial),or just a NOC (Nano Online Course).

If the NOOC is offered for free (includinga basic certification), it is still considereda NOOC if it has additional learning tracksfor dedicated support and institutional/company recognized certification(s).

ONLINE

The NOOC should empower the learnersto experience engaging with or listeningto the facilitator (expert) online live atleast once during a webinar (real-timeonline interaction). It can automaticallybecome a self-paced NOOC (if wanted).

NOOCs will be more appropriate thanmost MOOCs for Blended Learning,Flipped Classroom or Flipped Learning, asthey are more granular to reuse, remix,adapt, and contextualize for the learningoutcome(s). Better yet, a Flipped Learningfacilitator can simply ask learners to becertified (or Badged) through the relevantNOOC as a pre-class learning activity.

COURSES

Designing a course for credit hours (2, 3,4, etc.) is like writing a book that mustbe 200, 300, or 400 pages no matterwhat, according to a fixed requirement.NOOCs reverse this to focus on whatreally matters, and then filter out thenon-essentials. Its not stuck with afixed learning experience formula,which basically forces coursedesigners often to integrate additionalnon-essential learning resources andactivities to fulfill the credit hourrequirements.

The NOOC way to design learningexperiences provide a more flexible coursedesign model (can range within 12learning hours or less). Think ofdesigning a NOOC, like buildingsomething with LEGO. Better yet, one canalways combine the LEGO pieces to fulfill1, 2, 3 or 4 credit Hours (if that is still thefuture standard).

Albert Einstein’s quote below, defines themindset for developing a NOOC:

Source (Slide 17): Social Media for Researchat SNDT Women’s University

22

NOOC Recipe(s)NOOCs include (stillexploring):

No. Features Required Optional1. Promo-Video (1-3 min) for each NOOC. *2. Live and Recorded Webinar (1-2 sessions) *3. 1-5 minute Multimedia/Video Tutorials *4. Presentation Slides/Notes *5. Q&A Forum *6. Chat *7. Online Resources (Reuse/Supplementary/Mashup) *8. Social Media (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, more) *9. Individual Assignment (to demonstrate and/or reflect learning) *10. Group Assignment *11. Peer Assessment *12. Quiz (Check your understanding) *13. Gamification (gamifying the NLE) *14. Final Exam (Online assessment) *15. Badges *

16. Certification *

“Everything should be made as simpleas possible, but not simpler.”

- Albert Einstein

Even cooler, you could even transform aMOOC into multiple NOOCs that areclustered together into 2, 3 or 4 credithours. The key to converting a MOOCinto multiple NOOCs, is that each NOOCmust be a full NLE that has learningcontent, activities, assessment and acompletion-point (certification and/orbadge).

In other words, you could register for aMOOC, and decide to do say 2-3 NOOCswithin a MOOC, and be certified for justthat. This again would be fantastic forlearning analytics and getting a clearerpicture of why people are taking a course,and what they really want from it. Inshort, everyone will get a chance to learnand be assessed on what they want,whether it is the MOOC or NOOC way.

Also, corporate and higher educationcould be unified with a common learningmeasurement system in the form ofLearning Hours (LH) rather than CreditHours (40 LH), which is too long-windedto appeal to more granular and focused

training offered by corporations. Learnerscould for example take a number of LHdoing corporate NOOCs, which could beadded to their other LH done through theUniversity courses. Once the learner hasachieved a certain number of LH, s/he canbe awarded with a badge, certificate,diploma, under/post graduate degree, orthe right to sit for a major exam.

To sum up, the current MOOC and Credit

References

Alsagoff, Z.A. (2015, July 24) Join the Nano Open Online Courses (NOOCs) Adventure![Blogpost]. Retrieved from http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2015/07/join-nano-open-online-courses-noocs.html

Jordan, K. (2015). Massive open online course completion rates revisited: Assessment, lengthand attrition. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning,16(3).Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2112

Jordan, K. (2014). Initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open onlinecourses.The International Review Of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 15(1).Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1651MOOC Completion Rates: The Data (2015) [Project website]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

Reich, J. (2014) MOOC completion and retention in the context of student intent.EducauseReview. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/mooc-completion-and-retention-context-student-intent

Hour systems are too bulky and outdatedfor the present and future learners. Thenew formula combining LH, NLE andNOOCs is the future of online, blendedand F2F learning. Imagine having thefreedom and flexibility to customize yourown 4,800 LH (40 x 120 Credit hours)degree programme, rather than today’soutdated 120-credit hour undergraduateprogram.

Dr. Zaid works with International Medical University (IMU), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.He can be reached at zaid[dot]alsagoff[at]gmail[dot]com

23

NOOC Learning Flow (Sample)

*LO = Learning Outcome(s) *TM = Tool/Method(s) *ASM = Assessment Method(s)*LH = (Learner’s) Learning Hours

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CEMCA, a Regional Office of theCommonwealth of Learning (COL)Vancouver, Canada, is an international

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CEMCA’s mission is to promote the

meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of

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NOOC Learning FlowNo Learning Activities LO TM ASM LH

Intro-Video (Promo)The facilitator introduce him/herself andwhat he/she will be exploring in theNOOC.

Ice BreakerLearners introduce themselves and sharewhat they want to learn about_ (e.g.Super Memory).

1.

2.

Video

PadletForum

-

-

-

-

5 min

15 min

No Learning Activities LO TM ASM LH

Social MediaTo connect, communicate, collaborate andinitiate a community of practice, considerusing various social media tools toempower this. Examples: FacebookGroup, Linkedin Group, TwitterHashtag..170+ Learning Tools.

Tutorials (Reuse, Remix or Create)Short video tutorials, infographics, web-resources, notes, articles, etc. about __.

Online Forum(s)Discuss anythingregarding the __ (e.g. Q&A).

Online Webinar (1 or 2)Thefacilitator(s) discusses live with thelearners about the area of focus. Learnersparticipate in the discussion via the chat-box in the web-conferencing tool used. Ifa 2nd Webinar session is facilitated, it isrecommended to have a panel discussion,or invited expert speaker.

Online AssignmentAssignment to assesswhether learners have achieved theNOOC’s learning outcome(s). Examples:1) 200 - 500 word reflection submittedusing the Assignment feature 2) Write areflective blog post 3) Record a video todemonstrate what has been learned(upload to YouTube and then share thelink).

Final Quiz (for Certification) 10-20MCQ or any closed-ended questions toassess the learner’s understanding of theNOOC topic.

Summing UpThe Facilitator(s) produce a5-10 minute video discussing andsummarizing briefly what has beendiscovered and learned during the NOOClearning week.

Total

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Instagram

BlendSpace

170+ Tools

VideoInfographic

Article

Online Forum

Web-Conferencing

Assignmentsubmission

Quiz

Video

-

LO01

LO02

LO01

LO02

LO01LO02

LO01LO02

LO01LO02

-

Mini-Quiz

Formative

-

OnlineAssignment

Rubric

OnlineQuiz

-

Minutes

-

15 min

30 min

60 min

30 min

15 min

10 min

180

24

Forthcoming Events

The 26th ICDE World Conferenceon Growing Capacities forSustainable Distance e-learningProvision

Venue: Sun City, South AfricaDate:October14-16, 2015

For more information visit:http://www.unisa.ac.za/ICDE2015/

8th Annual InternationalConference of Education,Research and Innovation

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Seventh World InnovationSummit for Education

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6thInternational Conference onTeaching, Education andLearning

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The 2015 Asia-Pacific ServicesComputing Conference

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Two –Day InternationalConference onDisciplinaryDiscourses in Use of Technology

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Sincere AcknowledgementBrief Note on Resource Materials of CEMCA

Commonwealth Educational Media Centrefor Asia (CEMCA) established by theCOL in New Delhi to provide support foreffective media utilisation in DistanceEducation system in the Asiatic regionserves as a model for enriching academiclife in the ODL system of HigherEducation. The Resource materials ofCEMCA are enriching the knowledge andattitude towards several innovativethoughts in the reading minds to pursuesomething nuance to the research in ODL

system. The new teaching and learning developments in thehighly developed countries surely have its impact on the Indiandistance learning and teaching system.

The resource materials particularly on Teacher’s development,OER, MOOC, Online learning and Media influence on HigherEducation system are highly useful and innovative to cherish thereaders’ knowledge.

I am immensely thankful for providing these wonderful resourcematerials and deeply express my sincere gratitude to CEMCA.

With high gratitude,

Dr. Rupali SrivastavaAsst. Regional Director,

IGNOU Regional Centre, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India