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Editor’s Note: This paper offers a useful, practical and astute analysis of problems facing valid and cogent implementation of Distance Learning in India.
Internet –A Technological Channel for
better Distance Higher Education in India
Upasana Singh
India
Indian distance higher education is largely print-based with some audio-visual support for learners. Use of internet-based technologies in distance learning is still in its juvenile stage. Until recently the planners, administrators and academicians were skeptical about the potential effectiveness of internet-based technologies in the existing pattern of teaching and learning. This was more so because easy internet access was restricted to big towns and cities only. But with the coming of broadband and increase in awareness among the masses, internet access has spread throughout the country. With the rise in the IT sector, terms like e-business, e-banking and e-learning have become popular. Use of internet in education, in general and distance education in particular, has come in the limelight. Hence, it is important to throw light on the potentialities of internet technologies and study the present situation of distance higher education in India suggesting the guidelines to make improvement in education via improvement in design and expanded use of internet based technologies. It is in these contexts that the authors have presented this paper.
Key words: Learner friendly content, hyperlinks, flexibility, control, productive learning, limited bandwidth, slow modems, School of Computer and Information sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Introduction
Distance education, since its inception in India, has been subject to technological innovations. Whenever a new technology came up, it was tried in the field of distance education but always as an adjunct to print medium. The result is that the basic structure of distance education in
Educational needs of distance learners and internet
The basic difference between regular and distance mode of learning is that in the latter the main onus of learning is on individual learners since they get little chance of interaction with their tutors as well as their fellow learners. It is well established that the content and the social environment of the learners play important roles in facilitating learning. The learners learn best when the content as well as the social environment is learner friendly. It is important to discuss the role of both these in detail.
Role of content
When it is said that the content is learner friendly, it means that the content is relevant to the life and work place of the learners. It is well accepted that quality learning outcomes are more likely to occur when learners adopt a deep approach to learning (Ramsden, 2003) and learners’ perception of the learning context is a strong determinant over which academics have influence (Freeman et al, 2005). This context relevant learning cannot take place in present days when huge amount of information is pouring in at a very fast speed unless the content is continuously modified to meet the ever changing needs. Here comes the role of internet. The traditional study material offered to distance learners is a pre-produced, structured linear text with few graphics, assignments and references to other related studies sometimes with some external audio and video support common to all the learners.
When content is developed using internet resources, the text is somewhat less structured and contains a number of hyper links including video clips, audio clips and other relevant text based resources which the learners can access according to their needs and interest. Thus students do not have to follow the same path in learning as others. The entire course content is not a pre-produced package but a basic platform for the learners wherefrom they can move in a direction that suits their requirements. This is in favour of a majority of learners as they need not go to study centres or wait for postal delivery for their study materials. They can access up-to-date learning materials with added benefits of flexibility of time, place and pace in learning and get ample opportunities to actively involve in the learning process.
Role of social environment
When it is said that the social environment is learner friendly, it means that the learners are able to relate to the environment during the learning process. They have a feeling of belongingness to the institution where they are studying, are able to discuss their doubts and difficulties with their tutors and fellow learners in class and after class and are able to use the learning resources of their institution efficiently and effectively to facilitate their learning. All this is available to distance learners also but in a limited manner. Their interaction with their tutors and fellow learners are restricted mainly to the counseling sessions at the study centres. These study centres are generally situated in other educational institutions to which the learners do not belong. Even the teaching faculty is not of their institution and is hence not directly responsible to them. So being students of one institution and attending classes in another institution sometimes prevents them from developing a feeling of identity with their institution. This may sometimes result in feelings of frustration and isolation. Internet is a very good solution of this problem.
An important feature of internet is that it takes interaction with the tutors and fellow learners outside the boundaries of classroom where the meeting times are limited. It has certain tools that can foster development of a virtual community of learners outside the real community. The students and teachers of a distance learning institution can interact with each other synchronously and asynchronously and discuss the course content and related doubts and difficulties. This is suitable even for the shy and introvert students who hesitate to participate in face-to-face discussions because of fear of peer ridicule and therefore fail to become a part of the learning community in spite of their physical presence. They get a chance to interact in these virtual communities due to gained anonymity and if they make some efforts in the beginning they may eventually transform themselves into active participants.
E-mails are very good means of one to one interaction with tutors and also for timely feedbacks which can be very effective for learners. Discussion boards and synchronous chats serve as excellent media where learners can speak and hear i.e., Share with Peers Electronically their Acquired Knowledge and Have Electronic Access to their Responses. Not only this they can also discuss their tentative understandings, clear up misunderstandings and construct their meanings of the content. Thus there is a shift from repetitive to productive learning and results in individual students acquiring a sound knowledge base.
Thus it can be said that internet is a boon for distance learners as it provides them:
Easy access to most recent study materials
More flexibility of time, place and pace in learning
More interaction with content, tutors and fellow learners on one to one basis as well as a community
Opportunity for learners to control their learning
The difference between distance education without and with internet access can be clearly understood with the help of the following figures:
Figure 1: Traditional distance learning
Figure 2: Internet based distance learning
Considerations in Internet usage
The Internet seems to be a lucrative idea in distance education. However, mere use of technology is not sufficient. Before bringing internet in practice in distance learning there are certain issues which have to be taken under consideration:
Is the Internet a better way to learn? Will learners learn more or faster using internet?
Will it reach of the majority of the learners in terms of available courses, access and cost?
Will organizational aims be achieved; these aims can be economic, political and social?
What is the preferred mode of learning – independent study or tutor facilitated study – for the majority of the learners?
Do learners possess the necessary technical skills, motivation, self discipline, time management skills, ability to work alone, and ability solve technical problems needed to effectively use the Internet?
Are the teachers trained and ready to adapt their teaching skills and pedagogy for Internet learning?
Technology should never override education or be used just to bring novelty in pedagogy. It has the power to improve the actual process of learning and reach students who, for a multitude of reasons, cannot attend on-campus classes. The number of learners served is growing much faster than on-campus learning programs.
The use of internet in most of the courses in India and even outside India is simply that the courses are digitalized, placed on the institution/university’s website and downloaded by bonafide students. This is quite suitable for students who are set in a structured pattern of learning. They pick up the study material from internet, go through it, attend counseling sessions at the study centres according to their needs, complete exams and get degrees. It is similar to the conventional methods with a major difference; students can access the study materials from wherever they want. Distance learning is advantageous for learners whose schedule, work and family responsibilities do not permit them to attend classes on campus. Also higher education, whether by regular or distance mode, should operate beyond knowledge and understanding, it should be thought provoking and take students to higher levels of learning. Internet and associated technologies have the potential to bring about radical changes in the learning patterns of all types of learners, so efforts should be made to use internet technologies to produce the desired results.
Internet in distance higher education in India
In India, internet in education is a recent phenomenon. Until recently limited bandwidth and slow modems which hampered the delivery of sound, video and graphics, high cost of personal computers and internet connection, low awareness and technical skills in computer and internet operations had stood in the path of large scale internet usage in the field of education. However from time to time, initiatives have been taken in this direction especially in the field of distance learning but only as peripheral activities. With the upsurge in demand for a computer-skilled workforce in the market, inflow of information from all directions, coming of broadband and lowering of cost of personal computers, awareness has increased among the masses. In a survey on the students of School of Computer and Information Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) enrolled during the period 2002 to 2005, the authors found that of the 267 usable responses to the questionnaire which was mailed to 1200 students, more than 50% of the students reported no problem in accessing internet in general and the website of IGNOU in particular as shown in Table 1. Though it is not possible to draw any definite conclusion from such small sample, it definitely suggests that the use of technology is improving all the time. Another finding of the survey was that the computer skills and the frequency of using internet depended on the course of study of the distance learners as shown in Table 2.
Table 1
Computer Skills of selected students in different courses of IGNOU
Course | Computer Skill | Percent | Cumulative Percent |
BIT | Beginner Intermediate Expert | 0.00 20.69 79.31 | 0.00 20.69 100.0 |
ADIT | Beginner Intermediate Expert | 0.00 24.00 76.00 | 0.00 24.00 100.0 |
MCA | Beginner Intermediate Expert | 1.33 53.34 45.33 | 1.33 54.67 100.00 |
BCA | Beginner Intermediate Expert | 13.46 76.92 9.62 | 13.46 90.38 100.00 |
CIC | Beginner Intermediate Expert | 75.00 25.00 0.00 | 75.00 100.00 100.00 |
Table 2
Frequency of Internet Access in different courses of IGNOU
Course | Frequency of Internet Access | Percent | Cumulative Percent |
BIT | Rarely Occasionally Frequently | 0.00 24.14 75.86 | 0.00 24.14 100.00 |
ADIT | Rarely Occasionally Frequently | 0.00 28.00 72.00 | 0.00 28.00 100.00 |
MCA | Rarely Occasionally Frequently | 10.66 46.67 42.67 | 10.66 57.33 100.00 |
BCA | Rarely Occasionally Frequently | 17.31 63.46 19.23 | 17.31 80.77 100.00 |
CIC | Rarely Occasionally Frequently | 62.50 21.88 15.62 | 62.50 84.38 100.00 |
Thus it can be interpreted that it is computer literacy coupled with the requirement of internet access in the respective course that is the real determinant of internet access for students in present days distance higher education in India. Only a few students access internet out of interest and motivation to do something different. However, further studies on much larger samples are required to substantiate these findings. If internet access is woven in the course material and learners are provided proper training and guidance at appropriate places, then definitely internet would draw and sustain the interest of learners throughout the learning process.
Guidelines in internet usage in distance education
For proper planning and implementation of internet technologies at different stages in distance higher education, certain guidelines proposed by different authors have to be considered.
Before starting any internet based course a sort of mental preparation of students is necessary. They should be oriented regarding what internet based learning is. The skills that are expected of them in the virtual learning environments should be explained to them and interested but less confident students should be given a short training so that they will not feel intimidated anywhere. The roles of the students as well as the tutors in the learning environment should be clarified in the beginning itself. The students should be made aware of the internet based tools and other support available to them during the learning process.
Providing hyperlinks to various resources in the study content does not necessarily support learning. Learners may get lost in cyber space resulting in demotivation, overload, isolation and eventual attrition. Moreover, learners need structure in learning content. Absence of structure can frustrate them. The huge amount of information available on the internet should be streamed with easily accessible hyperlinks to provide purposeful and thematic access and sequence to relevant study materials.
Participation in online discussions requires learners to have typing skills. In the absence of non- verbal cues, small doubts and confusion may impede learning. The initiative of tutors is especially important in this context. They have to play the role of moderators and guide and intervene in the discussions wherever distractions and misconceptions occur. Precision and concision should always be maintained on the part of the tutors or instructors. Furthermore, the tutors have to see that the discussions are not dominated by only a few students.
Though such discussions are reflective, they are time consuming especially for employed learners. Such learners may not want to interact with fellow learners. They value their interaction with their tutors only. Keeping in mind the academic needs especially of such learners, the tutors should open a separate e-mail account for students’ queries so that they are not mixed with other e-mails and get deleted by mistake. They should always reply to the students’ queries as soon as possible and also provide them timely feedback on a one-to-one basis. A Frequently Asked Questions database should be prepared and continuously updated for all courses separately on the institution/university’s website to avoid repetition of same queries and lighten the work load of tutors.
A very big challenge to internet based learning is the absence of physical existence, the facial and hand gestures which provide important cues to the meaning and feelings of others. This area of communication is very difficult to obtain in an online environment especially in the starting phases and requires a lot of patience on the parts of both tutors and learners and high level of academic and technical support services. If the concerned authorities think that just by providing services their duties are over, then this may result in disaster. It has to be ensured at all levels that the services are properly implemented and any omission and/or lack of response should be taken care of immediately.
Conclusion
While implementing any technology it is very important on the parts of both the providers and the receivers that they take a positive stance. If we keep talking about the impediments and get intimidated by the new technology in question, there cannot be any major development. There are a number of review-based studies on Internet and a lot has been said about it as a promoter of distance learning but now it is necessary to test its pedagogical efficacy in real situations. A number of empirical studies have to be carried out on various aspects of internet based distance education and criteria for effective learning have to be developed to maintain quality standards of distance learning programmes. Initially all this may seem to be costly, but eventually, through sustained efforts of researchers, administrators, tutors and learners, it may result in radical change in distance learning that tryly bringing education to the doorstep in a very real sense.
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About the Author
Upasana Singh is a Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Banaras Hindu University, Kamachha, Varanasi-221010, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Email: upasanaatbhu@gmail.com