NATIONAL PROGRAMME ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL)

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NATIONAL PROGRAMME ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED
LEARNING (NPTEL)

• National Knowledge Commission
• New Delhi, August 18, 2006

Dr. K. Mangala Sunder Professor, Department of
Chemistry Indian Institute of Technology
Madras Chennai 600036
mangal_at_iitm.ac.in mangala_sunderk_at_yahoo.com
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Devise and guide reforms that will transform
India into a strong and vibrant knowledge
economy in coming years
Focus areas of interest for the project in
several phases Higher Education Professional
Education Distance Education Continuous Learning
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Objectives (in 2003)

• 100 Web based Courses Supplements
• 100 Video Courses (40 hours duration for each
  course)
• in five major branches of engineering at the
  
• undergraduate level.

Deliverables (in 2006)

• 120 Web based Courses Supplements
• 115 Video Courses
• in core sciences, Civil, Computer Science,
  electrical,
• electronics and mechanical engineering (40-50
  hours
• duration for each course)

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DISTANCE EDUCATION

• Clear and easily documented need 450000 seats
  35000 reasonable ones demand increasing
  exponentially!
• India has no choice even to maintain the current
  levels a new major university needed every week!
• Massive online education is an important emerging
  market and therefore a business opportunity.

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NPTEL AN OPPORTUNITY

• Technology already available and will only
  improve. Communications band-width and computer
  power per unit cost will continue to increase
• NPTEL offers an opportunity to provide reach as
  well as exciting improvement in quality

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NPTELs PREMISES

• Today's students prefer to plunge in and learn
  through participation and experimentation in a
  media-rich environment
• Faculty members should become facilitators and
  designers of learning experiences, processes, and
  environments
• Intelligent software agents that can browse far
  and wide through robust knowledge networks
  effortlessly may replace specialists.
• Role of the library will be more that of a
  knowledge navigator, a facilitator of retrieval
  and dissemination

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Details of the Programme
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Courses by discipline
Core Sciences Web (14) Video (16)
Civil Engineering Web (27) Video (22)
Comp. Sc. and Engg. Web (18) Video (19)
Electrical Engineering Web (18) Video (18)
Electronics and Comm. Engg. Web (20) Video (19)
Mechanical Engg. Web (23) Video (21)
Total 120 115
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Courses by Institute
IIT Bombay Web (17) Video (13)
IIT Delhi Web (12) Video (18)
IIT Guwahati Web (15) Video (6)
IIT Kanpur Web (14) Video (19)
IIT Kharagpur Web (19) Video (18)
IIT Madras Web (19) Video (20)
IIT Roorkee Web (7) Video (13)
IISc Bangalore Web (17) Video (8)
Total
Video (115)
Web (120)
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ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

• Design Team made up of the IITs/IISc
• Organization Synergy - more than just a division
• of labor between eight institutions
• Continued support from Government
• Long-range effectiveness will depend on the
• strength of the relationship between the IITs
  and
• the user organizations

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Creation of a hierarchy of faculty for
Implementation
National Programme Committee
Programme Implementation Committee
TEL Coord IITB
TEL Coord IITD
TEL Coord IITG
TEL Coord IITKgp
TEL Coord IITK
TEL Coord IITM
TEL Coord IITR
TEL Coord IISc
Contents Review Committee
Core courses
Civil Engg
E C Engg
Mech Engg
Faculty coordinators for each course from
Partner Institutions and Associate Partner
Institutions
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DESIGN ISSUES

• Target audience initially professors in the user
  institutions finally students
• Selecting and building the courses around the
  demand in user organizations
• Modules as units of change in education -
  flexibility
• Role of exams in creating value for the user
  organizations
• All the modules developed to be used in IITs for
  teaching the courses. Other Institutions can use
  the relevant ones for every course.

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IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

• Large number vs smaller number of courses of a
  higher quality in the first year
• A mix of standard lecture videos and more
  innovative interventions
• Incentives to generate, to re-calibrate the
  materials, to remove poor materials
• Getting the college Principals on board increases
  to help introduce changes in the system.

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Web Courses --Objectives
Summary of the programme for web supplements

• Localization of examples
• Elaboration of key concepts and theorems to
• facilitate clearer understanding
• Case studies to provide more comprehensive
• design experience
• Examples that require the use of different
• categories of engineering knowledge under
• different sets of assumptions.
• Question banks to assist instructors to design
  
• good test and examinations

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• Additional reading material for under-
• performing students, especially those with
• difficulties with English.
• Additional reading material for over-achievers
• Historical information and anecdotes related to
  
• specific topics
• Creation of the e-learning material in those
• formats which ensure that the content creation
• and course management platforms are
• decoupled.

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• Simple course management packages that
• provide features like e-mail queries by
• students, bulletin board and frequently
• Asked Questions (FAQ).
• Many modules are being prepared preferably
• by a team of faculty.
• The material will be suitably organized to
• create CDs to meet the needs of students of
• different universities.
• The same material can be suitably
• restructured for printing.

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Video Courses --Objectives
The programme for video lectures
The course will consist of around 40 video
lectures. Each video lecture will be of one hour
duration To enhance the longevity of the video
lectures. Video lectures are confined to core
concepts. Its contents are distinct from text
book and web support material
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Video Courses --Objectives

• The video lectures utilize the facilities of
  the
• video medium and are expected to contain
• interactions with professionals from industry
  as
• appropriate.
• The lectures will emphasize the relations of
• theory to industrial practice as appropriate
• Creation of video lecture units is not tied
  with
• the scheduling of regular courses in the
• Institution.

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Deployment and follow-up Services
The following possibilities are being examined
regarding dissemination of web content

• Host the e-content on a web site that students
  can log on to.
• E-contents be made available in the form of
  CDs.
• Colleges be encouraged to host these materials
  on one
• of their servers and allow students to access.
  
• E-content converted into print form and then
  distributed
• at a low cost.
• Navigational flexibility of e-material, not
  possible in print
• format.

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Several workshops in IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur,
IISc Bangalore and IIT Bombay. Review of
E-support material by various faculty outside of
the PIs in progress. Generation of E-Support
Material for the video All the courses to be
broadcast through Eklavya, or, are in the queue
for broadcast in the coming months
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• Course syllabi drafted for every course based
  on AICTE
• model curriculum
• Syllabi adopted by major affiliating
  Universities such as
• Anna University, Tamil Nadu, Jawaharlal Nehru
  Technical
• University, Andhra Pradesh and Viswesvaraiah
  Technical
• University, Karnataka.
• The total number of faculty involved in content
  creation is
• well over 300 from all IITs and IISc.
• Syllabi posted in the NPTEL website in
  detailmodule-wise
• and/or lecture-wise wherever provided by the
  faculty.

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IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur working
together in the development of a standard
internet template for hosting web contents
NPTEL WebSite available for updating the contents
at IIT Madras, the Coordinating Institute. The
site address http//nptel.iitm.ac.in
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Deployment/Transmission of video courses

• Current transmission is through Eklavya
  Channel which
• footprints all of India
• Several institutions have antenna to receive
  Eklavya
• Individual users access through cable
• MHRD to work with Prasar Bharati to carry this
  channel on
• the DTH

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ASSESSMENT

• Specifying levels of analysis (i.e., program/
  target level/ specific course level/ module level
  within a course)
• Articulating outcomes early in the design process
• Spelling out clearly the kind of skills students
  are expected to acquire and be able to
  demonstrate
• factoring in time when specifying outcomes

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ASSESSMENT AND DESIGN

• Stating overall objectives in an operational way
• highly interdependent activities
• assessment criteria should precede design
• iterative process of doing assessment and
  redesigning assessment

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IIT Madras Infrastructure as a coordinating
institute and its own web course content creation
programme
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Integrate the institute facilities--- software,
hardware, human resource and training for the new
technology into one walk-in centre for
faculty and students. Web and video
Studio Centre for Continuing Education.
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Facilities-Hardware

• 50 Pentiums and 10 Macs running several operating
  systemsWindows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X.
• Digital scanners, high quality laser color
  printers
• A number of low and medium end servers
• Two fully integrated video recording studios
• A non-linear video editing studio with the movie
  editing capabilities

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Facilities-Hardware

• SunFire 15K Enterpise Server with complete Sun
  Microsystems software package (Solaris 9/10)
• Storage Rack (4 TB)
• Apple X Serve for QuickTime streaming (Proposed
  hardware)
• Electronic classroom with 100 nodes (proposed
  facility)

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Software

• Web design, content creation, dynamic and static,
  
• interactive Macromedia Suite (Dreamweaver,
  Flash,
• Authorware, Director, Freehand and
  Fireworks)
• Adobe suite and Acrobat Writer
• MSDN on site license
• Mathtype, Tex for windows
• Any other as proposed by faculty from time to
  time.
• Corel (Draw, word perfect)
• 3D Studio Max
• 3D Maya (currently being added)

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Human Resource

• Current -- 25 project associates/
  assistants/technicians/ attendants
• (qualifications M. C. A., M. Sc., B. E. /B.
  Tech., M. B. A.)
• In-house development of software skills.
• Work with individual faculty.

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Sun Server for e-learning and digital library 1.
Sun Server for e-learning and digital library 2.
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Thank you