Distance Education In India Research Articles

An Understanding Of The Legal Framework For Distance Education In India

An Understanding Of The Legal Framework For Distance Education In India

Recent trends of research in open and distance education in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to analyse the research trends on the Indian Open and Distance Education (ODE) system as reflected in the articles published in the prominent journals of distance education across the world.Design/methodology/approachA study was undertaken to review the research articles on ODE in India published in 11 prominent peer-reviewed journals of distance education during the period 2010–2019. Content analysis was done to find out areas of research undertaken in the ODE of India based on a validated classification of research areas; types of research studies conducted; and authorship and publication patterns.FindingsOut of a total of 2,571 articles published in 11 selected journals, only 191 (7.42%) pertained to ODE in India. The majority of these 191 articles (68.42%) were published in Indian journals. The Indian and Asian journals together accounted for 93.55% of total articles. Globally, the share of articles on the Indian ODE system was significantly low ranging between 4.27 and a maximum of 10.77%, which was much below expectations from a country having the maximum number of ODE learners in the world. Results further revealed that 63% of the contributors to research on ODE in India were affiliated to Indira Gandhi National Open University.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of this study was only analysing the research articles published in journals of distance education and other types of articles, namely, book reviews, editorials, field notes and workshop reports were excluded from the analysis.Practical implicationsThe study is intended to help researchers, policymakers, and open and distance education institutions to draw a roadmap for the promotion and conduct of system-based research, which would be vital for strengthening the system.Social implicationsThe quantum of research is not proportionate to the number of faculty members working in the ODE system of India and the large number of learners that it serves, which is a matter of concern. For any system to grow its periodic systemic review is essential. The research outcomes need to be ploughed back into the system for its betterment.Originality/valueThe study is original. There is no such study undertaken till date. This study will be extremely useful to researchers, as the gaps in distance education research which are yet to be addressed, have been identified by the authors.

Social Work Education through Open and Distance Learning: An Indian Perspective

The paper traces the historical perspectives of open and distance education in India. It also discusses the various modalities and standards followed by various universities in offering social work education through open and distance learning (ODL) mode. It also highlights the achievements and challenges of social work education through ODL mode in India. The article will be extremely helpful to the academicians and policy makers in understanding the various dimensions of social work education through ODL mode in Indian context. The study recommends that Indira Gandhi National Open University model is one of the successful models of offering social work education through ODL mode.

Open and Distance Education in India

The goal of this article is to look into the effectiveness of ODL on the level of economic development across fifteen major states in India, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal by constructing an ODL Effectiveness Index (ODLEI). The variables considered here are — 1) number of ODL institutes in the state concerned, 2) number of students enrolled in such institutes, 3) logarithmic value of per-capita GSDP and 4) state-wise literacy rates. The index construction method employs Principal Component Analysis (PCA) given the high-degree of multicollinearity among the variables. Comparison of the value of ODLEI in 2015 with the value of ODLEI in 2010 is also something that this article talks about. Also, using a simple regression model, this article attempts to underline the nexus between growth, measured by means of change in the GDP growth with the level of enrolment in distance education in India.

Growth and development of distance education in India and China: a study on policy perspectives

India and China are two fast growing economies of the world and need large skill based manpower to sustain the economic growth. The existing formal higher educational system in these countries will not be able to meet the demand of the economy. The paper will try (i) to compare the development of economy and distance education in India and China with reference to policy perspectives; (ii) to examine the course design, development and delivery of distance education programmes in national open universities of India and China i.e. Indira Gandhi National Open University of India (IGNOU) and Open University of China (OUC); (iii) to analyze the trend of enrollment in IGNOU and OUC; and (iv) to compare the recognition /accreditation and quality control process of distance learning in both these countries. The paper highlights the policy strategies of two countries towards quality control mechanism as par with conventional system.

Myths and Realities: Distance Education in India

Myths and Realities: Distance Education in India

Enhancing the quality of health education through distance education

Distance education in India is making it easier to close the educational gap between rural and urban areas. By making educational opportunities easily available to everyone, distance education is opening up career options for the less privileged segments of Indian population. An experimental study was conducted to enhance the quality of health education through distance education with the objective to assess the knowledge of rural school dropout girls and women at pre and post stage of the distance education. The sample consisted 120 respondents who were selected from four villages namely Harobelawadi, Uppinbetageri, Mansur, Garag of Dharwad taluka. Village wise knowledge of respondents after the education revealed that majority (88%) of the respondents gave correct answer about family sanitation, followed by personal hygiene (85%), community sanitation (83.34%), environmental sanitation (82.50%) and additional useful information for rural sanitation (75%). The knowledge about family sanitation shows that high majority of the respondents answered rightly for importance of proper light and aeration at home, followed by place for washing of pesticide equipments and material used in the gobar gas plant. Cent per cent of the respondents gave correct answer for colostrum feeding and proper washing of hands after toilet. Majority of the respondents answered with respect to spraying of DDT powder to drainage and stagnant water to control mosquitoes, which are the causes of malaria. More than 80 per cent of the respondents were able to answer about methods to burry dead rats and pets, place to keep the milch animals in the house and source of solar cooker. Similarly, majority of the respondents answered rightly about astra chullaha/ or smokeless chullaha and department in-charge to distribute solar cooker.

Efficacy of Innovative Technological Approach Ensuring Quality Assurance in Teaching Learning Process in Open and Distance Learning

The present study discusses innovative approach ensuring quality assurance taking into account two important aspects namely: pedagogy and evaluation strategies integrating the effective use of technology. Open and distance learning system plays a key role in enhancing the enrollment ratio in higher education. Therefore, sustaining quality assurance is essentially pivotal in the current digital era. Considering these issues, the paper work illustrates one of the effective ways of evaluation strategies. The study is focused on the undergraduate teacher education program (B. Ed) offered mostly through open and distance education in India. As this course attracts students from urban, rural, with or without technology acquaintance, it should be assessed with transparency by the effective use of technology. The teaching and evaluation procedure used for the students enrolled for the B. Ed degree course includes group discussions integrating brain storming sessions followed by on line tests during their contact classes conducted in the university affiliated institutions. During the evaluation the student’s identification should be made authentic by installing software program which detects malpractice. For e.g. if a student logs in to take up online test his/her identification could be detected by the verification of pre-installed photograph. This strategy works out effectively by having proper co-ordination between the Host University and affiliated institution. Maintaining student’s authenticity strategy suggested in the present study prevents malpractices during evaluation and enhances student’s involvement as it provides transparency without any bias developing faith amongst students enrolled in distance learning.

Impact of Computer Based Online Entrepreneurship Distance Education in India.

The success of Indian enterprises and professionals in the computer and information technology (CIT) domain during the twenty year has been spectacular. Entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and technocrats are now advancing views about how India can ride CIT bandwagon and leapfrog into a knowledge-based economy in the area of entrepreneurship distance education on-line. Isolated instances of remotely located villagers sending and receiving email messages, effective application of mobile communications and surfing the Internet are being promoted as examples of how the nation can achieve this transformation, while vanquishing socio-economic challenges such as illiteracy, high growth of population, poverty, and the digital divide along the way. Likewise, even while a small fraction of the urban population in India has access to computers and the Internet, e-governance is being projected as the way of the future. There is no dearth of fascinating stories about CIT enabled changes, yet there is little discussion about whether such changes are effective and sustainable in the absence of the basic infrastructure that is accessible to the citizens of more advanced economies. When used appropriately, different CITs are said to help expand access to entrepreneurship distance education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise technical and managerial educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. This research paper investigates on the impact of computer based online entrepreneurship distance education in India.

Identifying Factors for the Enrollment of Students towards Distance Education for Master’s Course: A Student’s Perspective

Learning is the beginning of a need for perfection. In the knowledge era there is a need for change in learning and their mechanisms. There has been an increase on the thrust for higher education across the nations for better employment and quality of life. With an increase in the number of distance education institutes and increasing demand for the distance education in India, we explore in this paper the factors that are considered important for enrolling into master’s course under distance education from the student’s perspective. The study has identified nine factors that are affecting the enrollment of students towards distance education – programme-associated, reputation, personal development, practical issues, personal concerns, competition and personal objectives, personal motivators, institutional status and personal satisfaction. These factors need to be examined by the educational institutes to better understand the requirements of the student community.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTIVES IN DISTANCE EDUCATION IN INDIA IN THE 21st CENTURY

This research paper attempts to introduce the problems and prospective in Distance Education System in India. This paper begins with the definition of distance learning and then proceeds to tell about the types of distance learning. It discusses and analyses the synchronous and asynchronous of distance education delivery system and emphasizes that the asynchronous method is more flexible than synchronous instruction. It also emphasizes that the instructional design, technology and support are the elements which are of paramount importance to any successful distance education program. The history of distance learning narrates the development of distance learning and discusses how it found an alternative method to the then existing effective system which brought the students together to one place and one time to learn from one of the masters. It reveals how the pioneers of distance education used the best technology of their days to open educational opportunities to people who were unable to attend the regular conventional institutions. It also lists and discusses the problems such as lack of student’s co-ordination, conducting examinations, publishing results and other related problems. Further, it attempts to converse on the origin, salient features, and the technologies used in distance education in India. It also brings out the four themes of distance education system and their prospective. Finally, it summarizes and suggests solutions for the problems faced in distance education and also widens the scope of any researcher to further research on the problems and prospective in distance education and to improve the values in distance education system of learning in India. Key words: distance education, definition and types, technology, problems and prospective.

The Use of Media and Technology in Distance Education – Indian Context

This paper focuses on the use of media and technology for distance education in India. India being one of the most populous nations of the world has adopted the distance education to cater for its numerous citizens' crave for formal education. This paper, therefore, discusses distance education and the history of media and technology in India with particular reference to the state of Andhra Pradesh. The study found out that despite the growth in the use of media and technology in India, the students in the remote areas were not reached as a result of lack of awareness and adaptability of these modern technology of educating. Useful suggestions were made to educational planners to create awareness on the adaptability of the new technology in distance education in India. African Research Review Vol. 1 (2) 2007: pp. 49-73

Is Globalisation Reshaping Distance Education in India?

The phenomenon of globalisation is having a profound effect on distance education in India. During the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the US in July 2005, several US universities and three international corporations made an agreement to join with Indian institutions to enhance science and engineering education in India over a new satellite e-learning network. A host of other such programmes, including the offering of MBAs and graduate programmes in varied fields through satellite technologies are also on the rise in India. Interactive technologies have an enormous potential for complementing the distance-learning environment in India where the conventional modes of teaching are outmoded. This paper examines the role of higher education in the globalisation process; globalisation of distance education, especially through foreign partnerships; and the digital technologies that are transforming the paradigm of distance learning in India.

Higher Education at a Distance and National Development: Reflections on the Indian experience

Following initial scepticism, the growth and developments within distance education in India have been tremendous. This paper records those developments in one of the largest distance education systems in the world with regard to its contribution to national development. The paper also examines curricular programmes, access and equity, media and technology, funding and costing, quality and accreditation, collaboration and networking, internationalization, and outcomes and benefits. The paper argues that higher education at a distance has significantly contributed to Indian national development on various counts, including innovative programmes for niche markets as well as community development; nation‐wide training programmes for the workforce and community and the empowerment of women; information and communications technology (ICT) networking and sharing of resources; massive human resource development for IT; management; school teaching; and development in new sectors of the workforce. Nevertheless, the areas of quality of instructional processes, access and equity, and effective deployment and use of ICT have been highlighted as accelerators to the system in its future expansion.

Selecting Research Areas and Research Design Approaches in Distance Education: Process Issues

<P>The purpose of this paper is to study the process used for selecting research areas and methodological approaches in distance education in India. Experts from the field of distance education in India were interviewed at length, with the aim of collecting qualitative data on opinions on process-issues for selecting areas for research, research design, and appropriate methodological approaches in distance education. Data collected from these interviews were subjected to content analysis; triangulation and peer consultation techniques were used for cross-checking and data verification. While the findings and recommendations of this study have limited application in that they can only be used in the specific context outlined in this paper, respondents in this study nonetheless revealed the pressing need for more process-oriented research in examining media and technology, learners and learning, and distance learning evaluation processes. Our research, which yielded interesting empirical findings, also determined that a mixed approach – one that involves both quantitative and qualitative methods – is more appropriate for conducting research in distance education in India. Qualitative evidence from our research also indicates that respondents interviewed felt that emphasis should be placed on interdisciplinary and systemic research, over that of traditional disciplinary research. Research methods such as student self-reporting, extensive and highly targeted interviews, conversation and discourse analysis, were determined to as useful for data collection for this study.</P>

Scope and Limitations of Information Technology in Distance Education

The term ‘distance education’ has traditionally been used to refer to education in which teachers and learners are separated by time and space. As technologies used for distance education have become more learner-centred, providing learners with more control over their learning, the term has also come to imply this process. This paper deals with the status of distance education in India and the scope and limitations of IT applications in enhancing the teaching and learning processes in Indian distance education. The author discusses certain key strategies to promote the use of information technology in distance education and the paper concludes with policy recommendations for overcoming the constraints to IT adoption.

Librarians' Changing Role in Distance Education

Distance education is a learner-centered system of education. The librarians engage in developing and delivery of services in distance education relevant to both content and process. Librarians need to recognize the role of modern information technologies as learning resources in students' learning pursuits. This represents a major shift from a conventional model of the library-centered didactic style to a more learner-centered and task-based facilitating style. This change needs effective training of the professionals engaged in distance librari-anship. The paper analyzes the present day role of librarians in distance education in India; discusses the rationale for the training of librarians involved in distance education; and finds out the areas of training, and methods and strategies that are to be adopted in the distance education institutions in the country.

Library and Information Services for Distance Learners

With the establishment of open universities and correspondence institutions all over the world, a large segment of the population is pursuing its studies through distance education systems. Their needs for library and information services, like their counterparts in conventional universities, can neither be disputed nor denied. This paper discusses the development of distance education in India since 1962 and examines the present role, structure, and functions of libraries in distance teaching institutions. The discussion confines itself to thc acquisition, management, and provision of information services to adult learners. Also, it enumerates the various problems faced by the libraries, plcads that all types of libraries must focus their attention towards fulfilling the requirements of independent learners by exploiting the modem information technologies including networking of libraries, and concludes by emphasizing the imperative need to sharc rcsources such as collections, manpower, finances, infrast...

Distance Education in India

In this article, Professor Natarajan assesses the value and feasibility of distance education in degree-level and continuing education programmes in engineering and technology. Focusing on its applicability in India, he reviews experiences in other countries, describes the particular problems faced by developing countries, and summarizes the special characteristics which professional engineers need. He then sets out strengths and weaknesses of the single and dual modes of distance education, and considers its compatibility with continuing engineering education. Finally, Professor Natarajan discusses a range of current issues relating to engineering and distance education and looks at recent initiatives.

The Role for Distance Education in India

The development of higher education is of crucial significance to economic growth and social progress. Conventional education systems in India are constrained, in the face of rapidly increasing demand for education and qualifications, economically and geographically. Distance learning offers a low-cost, equitable, and efficient alternative. In this article, M.M. Ansari provides a financial comparison of conventional and distance education and considers the relative ‘quality’ of each. He then highlights a number of policy issues, including the importance of ploughing back revenue generated by distance learning programmes into distance learning schemes, rather than diverting it to subsidize conventional education; the matching of tuition to actual costs; and the need for a greater degree of networking and cooperation between educational institutions to effect economies of scale.