Revision Digital Initiatives in Higher Education - Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Notes

Introduction

• The digital revolution in India in recent times have evolved every sphere of life, and higher education is also not untouched by it. The government has taken various initiatives, specifically by the ministry of human resource and development (MHRD) to promote and spread digital education.
• The primary aim is to increase the gross enrolment ratio (GER) to 30 by 2022. The initiatives like SWAYAM, Swayam Prabha, National Digital library (that contains around 7 million books), The National Academic Depository (containing and storing all the academic records of any individual) etc. are few of the recent initiatives by the government.
• The technological development has many benefits, most important being surpassing the brick and mortar structure and the need for the teacher to be physically present with the students at the same time making quality education reach the masses.
• The use of technology is imperative due to many reasons, few among them are:-
  • High quality
  • Affordable
  • Quicker access
  • Wide reach
  • Bridging the rural-urban divide
  • Ending the gender bias
  • Use of internet

Below are the few important initiatives in recent times that focus on digital education and the twin principles of accessibility and affordability are:-

• National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL): It is a mission by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology ( Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Madras, Guwahati and Roorkee) and IISc in 2003. The primary objective of this mission was to develop courses for core subjects in engineering. At present, we have Phase II of NPTEL running ( 2009-2014). It now has more than 600 video courses with 471+ million views.
• National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology(NMEICT): It is a centrally sponsored scheme which was launched to realise the potential of ICT in research.
  • The T10kT project at IIT Bombay permits thousands of teachers to benefit from this program. The use of online and blended approach allows participants to complete a significant part of their training online, thus reducing the time which is usually spent on face-to-face interaction.
  • A-View software has been developed under the program for teacher's training. The universities have been provided with 1 Gbps connectivity and colleges have been connected through VPN.
  • There is an N-list program of INFLIBNET, that provide lakhs of e-books and high quality paid e-journals to the colleges and research institutes. The main aim is to inculcate research culture in the students.
• SWAYAM:
  • It is a programme initiated by the Government of India and designed to achieve the three aims of the Education Policy that are, access, equity and quality.
  • The objective of this effort is to take the best available teaching-learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for the students who are untouched by the digital revolution. There are four important parts of Swayam namely video lectures, specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed, self-assessment tests through tests and questionnaires and finally an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts of the students.
• E- Kalpa: this is the digital learning environment for Design in India. A full-fledged digital design resource database has been created under it for crafts along with the social networking and collaborative learning space for design.
• National Academic Depository: it is an MHRD initiative for keeping, issuing and accessing of the academic awards issued by the academic institutions. It is an initiative toward the government aim of " Digital India". It removes the need to physically carry academic records like degree, certificates and diplomas. The employer can access the documents when and where required with due permissions.
• e- Shodh Sindhu: Under this initiative, International electronic journals and e-books are made available to all the higher education institutions. The concept of equality and accessibility to quality resources is the main aim here.
• SWAYAM Prabha: This is a subcategory of the SWAYAM portal which consists of 34 educational DTH channels. Several high-quality education programs are telecasted 24*7 through this channel. It is transferred through GSAT-15 satellite. There is a new content generated every day of 4- hours and which is repeated five times a day.
• 8. e- Yantra: This comes under the NMEICT with the aim to include Robotics into the engineering curriculum. It creates projects to train teachers and require good knowledge of mathematical knowledge.
• Talk to a teacher: It is an initiative by IIT Bombay, which is funded by MHRD. It provided free access to many graduates and postgraduate courses. The collaboration tool is developed by the Amrita University for virtual classrooms across the country.
• National Digital Library (NDL): This program deals with the building and integrating of all the libraries across India, to build a national asset. It is developed by IIT- Kharagpur under NMEICT by MHRD. More than 72 lakh digital books are available through the NDL.
• e- Acharya: called " Integrated e-content portal of NMEICT, is the official repository of all the content produced and is put under the Repository platform at INFLIBNET centre Gandhinagar.

These are some of the initiatives under the digital programs launched by the government of India. The aim of all of these it to provide quality education to everyone in the country without any barrier of place, age or finance.