A systems approach to satellite delivered learning. Some Indian experiences

Abstract

The advent, in the mid-1970's, of direct broadcasting service (DBS) via satellite opened up new opportunities to take high-quality education to remote and rural areas. The first large-scale effort at utilising this possibility was India's Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), carried out for a year in 1975-76 using the United States ATS-6 spacecraft. The very extensive evaluation of SITE provided valuable insights and information with regard to the use of a satellite for delivering education to rural audiences. These findings and experiences have had their impact in the planning, design and execution of the educational component of India's operational satellite system, INSAT. This paper describes efforts related to education in the SITE and INSAT projects, summarises the experiences and findings of the evaluation of SITE, and analyses the implications of these from an overall “systems” point of view. It concludes with some recommendations, many of which may be of relevance to other countries also - especially to those developing nations who are involved in the planning or execution of satellite-delivered learning systems.