EduBrite

July 9, 2010

Higher Education – Competition at doorstep : Part I Macro Impacts

Filed under: Higher Education — Tags: , , , , , , , , — mguptaedu @ 3:04 am

Foreign Institutes are knocking at our doorsteps. The Foreign Educational Institutions Bill was approved by the India’s cabinet in Mar-10. It is pending for Parliament approval. Observers expect that the bill will be passed by the parliament as is or with minor changes.

India sends around 100,000 students per year to US for higher education. Per V. Rangaraj President of Indo-American Society. “There is another almost four times the number of students who want to study in the US. Thus, there lies a huge opportunity for US educational institutions to access these students by bringing their brand of education into India”.

On the heels of this bill, Indo-American Society, is celebrating the golden jubilee with focus on higher education. This event will be inaugurated by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on July 30. The event is expected to create collaborations between educational institutions, and exchange programs involving students, faculty and researchers from both India and the US. Prominent personalities from US education sector are participating in this event. Looking around the news and blogs, one thing is highly visible that administrators and chancellors of renowned universities of US are visiting India to meet with government officials, local universities to explore opportunities.

Macro Impacts
Based on the information available so far, it is expected that 150 – 200 foreign institutions are looking foward to put up their brick and mortar footprints in India. The new dynamics will create a macro impact in the education sector – governing bodies, governing laws (reservations etc.), overall market, education service provider (Institutions) and education receiver (Students). In this blog, I am going to discuss the first three. Other two will be discussed in part 2.

Governing Bodies
Kapil and his Human Resources Development (HRD) team has called to abolish existing governing bodies like University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) etc. Professor Yash Pal’s report recommends the same and he is vocal about this. It is supposedly replaced by the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), which is recommended as a core and central body to govern all the disciplines including Medical Council of India, Dental Council, and Pharmacy Council. Negotiations between HRD and ministry of Law and Health underway to bring all governing bodies under NCHER.

While Ministry HRD (MHRD) is rallying hard behind one single exam for all India entrances, it will be interesting to see how this process will be impacted because of the new entrants. Like US entrance exams SAT/ACT, GRE/GMAT, India will have single central exam (at least for non state governed colleges), which will be governed by NCHER. Institutes will be more objective while giving the admission (refer to my last blog – http://blog.edubrite.com/2010/06/27/) to students. Arrival of foreign institutes in the market may act as a catalyst.

Governing laws
According to this bill Quota laws will not be applicable to foreign institutions. The reaction of the groups impacted is yet to be seen.

Overall Market
There are two categories of students which will have the wider option of going for advance studies. First, those who wants to go abroad for further studies but don’t get opportunities. Second. those who doesn’t consider higher education as an option. I highly doubt that there will be any decrease in the cash outflow, which Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) is expecting due to brain-drain of Indian students worldwide. In my opinion some of the key reasons students go abroad are – (i) True international exposure; (ii) Taking advantage of research and great educational opportunities; (iii) Taking advantage of scholarships; (iv) Looking to settle abroad; (v) Status in the society. Most of these factors will impact very few students. Small percentage of the impacted will be replaced by the students next in line. However, the true opportunity is that over a period, India can turn into a regional “Educational Hub”. It will attract students from Mid West Asia, South East Asia and Far East Countries. This will subsidize the cash outflow.

Another area, which will be interesting to watch is the overall curriculum, learning and development of students in the classroom and outside. Most of the higher education institutes focus more on theory rather than training newcomers in the practical aspects of starting work in – corporate, government, public sector, non-profit sectors etc. Most freshers go through on-the-job training before being exposed to the real action. This change if and when happens will definitely impact the job market positively in my opinion. It’s too early to comment more on this. Your comments are welcome.
The bill calls for keeping the money in corpus fund and the surplus needs to be invested back in the development of the education sector. This could prove vital in creating the infrastructure – which fosters innovation.

The bill does not allow distance learning programs by foreign institutes which I see as a good opportunity for local institutes (discuss later). Bill also does not allow twinning programs so it will be interesting to watch if foreign institutes start from ground-up or find loop holes to acquire an existing local institute and turn it into their own brand.

Few open ended questions are:
1. Will foreign faculties also be hired?
2. What will be the value of these degrees/certificates in the foreign job market?
3. What are the schemes provided for students to get global exposure?
4. What will be the impact on the cost of the education in India?

India has a huge appetite for quality higher education. As long as institutes don’t run in the bandwagon of giving degrees/certificates just for the sake of making money instead focus on – (a) Developing core qualitative processes with customer friendly services; (b) Design and create an atmosphere that nurtures real life exposures, fostering an innovative culture. India alone has a huge talent pool. Adding regional talents will cultivate more entrepreneurism. Nurturing changes does not happen overnight. It’s a building block approach and this bill brings us one step closer. I believe that in the long run this competition will change the face of our society – An Innovative India, we all have eagerly been waiting for.

June 27, 2010

Combined exam of AIEEE and AIPMT – Top questions to be answered…

Filed under: AIEEE, AIPMT, CBSE, Competitive Exams, Education Boards, Education Reforms — Tags: , , , — mguptaedu @ 4:39 pm

Another decision to streamline the “Status quo” of the entrance test system by Kapil Sibal and HRD team. This definitely is a natural migration towards HRD’s focus of having one common entrance test for all students after their class XII. We have overburdened our kids with the number of exams for various schools. Few months back, I was speaking to my niece/nephew both in the class XII and was surprised to learn that they both were appearing in around eight examinations for their engineering entrance.

This whole movement can be compared to the current status of the two of the main US college entrance exams – SAT and ACT has laid out standard process for competing in the entrance exams. Most colleges accept results of either or both exams. These exams are designed to evaluate students overall educational development and his/her ability to complete college-level work. Other than the results of these exams most college value the extracurricular activities outside of the classroom such as sports, arts, science etc. for the admission process. Entrance exams have gone through the era of evolutions in US in attempt to keep the objectivity of the exams and Harvard educated Kapil’s initiatives are geared towards similar thought process.

It definitely appears a practical decision, which makes the process simple and creates an opportunity to compare students’ competitive parity at the same time. This decision makes the logistics very simple for all the participants in this process – CBSE, Students, Parents, Colleges who accepts. It may help (yet to see) student appearing for all papers pay lower fee compare to paying fee for two exams and reduces metal burden of appearing in Physics and Chemistry test twice within few weeks.

A debatable question is how many students remains indecisive about their career choices- Engineering vs. Medical. Who are they? What background are they coming from and what’s required to create awareness among themselves so that they can make informed decision? Are these students coming from  underprivileged backgrounds? I welcome your comments/inputs on this point. A strong argument can be presented that Right to Education (RTE) should prepare underprivileged student to compete for the entry at college level. The impact of Right to Education (RTE) will be known only in upcoming years.

How would tutoring sector (schools, coachings etc.) be impacted as a result of this decision? In general physics or chemistry questions for AIPMT are slightly non mathematics base while same for AIEEE have more mathematics base. Will this decision create a new level of physics and chemistry paper? The answer is easy with three options – (1) either it would go AIEEE way, or (2) it would go AIPMT way, or (3) it will be in between. I hope CBSE clarifies this soon enough so that it gives ample time and opportunities to tutoring sector and students to tune themselves and prepare for common exam.

Another interesting question is – Can a student choose medical line after selecting mathematics being primary subject in higher secondary school or similar question goes to engineering line and biology being primary subject? The eligibility criteria of AIEEE says that for B.E./ B. Tech Physics & Mathematics are compulsory subjects, per the guidelines from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Though states generally have opposed the idea of having one common entrance exams across states and center but they are expected to follow suit on this initiative and combine their state level engineering and medical exams. How soon, let’s wait and watch!

April 5, 2010

AutoQuiz, a tool for Test Prep

Filed under: EduBrite Solution, TenPlusTwo Feature — Tags: , , , , — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 10:19 pm

Exam season is at its peak and we thought about what could be the most lightweight online tool to do revision of syllabus, and the answer we came up with was an auto quizzer, which can pick questions from the question bank of past papers and throw at you randomly. We released this tool “Auto Quiz” as part of EduBrite platform as well as a Facebook integrated version. You can try it on www.tenplustwo.com (if you have account already, if not getting started is fairly quick (may be about 30 sec), going to Create->AutoQuiz from the top menubar. Or if you are on facebook, then you can try from this URL – http://apps.facebook.com/autoquiz/

This app allows you to pick an exam and subject and start quizzing. You can set the timer to a value which can challenge your speed. The session’s correct, incorrect & skipped counters are displayed along…

April 2, 2010

Video Assignments

Filed under: Uncategorized — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 11:33 pm

EduBrite LMS just released yet another new feature in LMS – Video Assignments. The use of Video assignments can be found in streams which are more interactive in nature, e.g. communication skills improvement courses, language courses. These courses require assignments which are not read or written or taken rather which are spoken or acted. This motivated us to combine audio video into assignment flow which allows instructors to record themselves while giving assignment using webcam. Students just watch the video and then for assignment submission, record there own videos. All is done using built in support in EduBrite LMS to record the videos. All submissions are then viewed by the instructor and get graded as usual.

The product demo site “demo.edubrite.com” can be used to try this feature. Also a completely personalized microsite can be created (accounts.edubrite.com) by anyone to start free 60 day trial.

January 19, 2010

eLearning in 21st Century

Filed under: eLearning — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 12:10 am

EduBrite is releasing exciting new features which will allow creating advanced courses which can combine audio/video/rich presentations/testing (quizzes) as a single course package. Lessons in the form of PDF, PowePoint, HTML or audio/video (SWF/FLV) can be used in courses and course creators can also record them using built in recorder tool. The benefit of combining presentation with recorded videos is tremendous, as teachers can explain the presentation which is played on screen in their own voice and faces. Visit http://demo.edubrite.com to try the demo.

December 17, 2009

Top 4 Challenges for Education in India

Filed under: Uncategorized — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 8:54 pm

India is the largest democracy with remarkable diversity among its population of 1.2 billion which makes up about 17% of the world’s population. Almost 70% of Indian population is rural. The adult literacy rate stands at about 60% and this is significantly lower in women and minorities. Education in India comprises of government, government aided and private institutions of which nearly 40% are government. With the population growth rate of 1.5%, there is tremendous pressure on the education system to provide quality education at affordable price and improve the literacy rate.

Education in India faces following primary challenges:

Quality

Maintaining standard of education in more than a million schools nationwide, offering training programs to teachers, and keeping good balance with education system worldwide is a big challenge. Schools vary in size and resources and are forced compromise in the all round development opportunities they must provide to students.

Access

Having infrastructural constraints and social issues, it becomes harder to make education accessible to all segments of the society (women, minorities, poor).

Cost

The cost of education is very high even for the people and places where it is accessible. E.g. the competitive pressure on students & parents forces them to opt for private tuitions & trainings to supplement the school education.

Social & Cultural

The ethnic diversity in India poses challenges to implement consistent education nationwide. There are more than 300 languages spoken in the country and makes it difficult to offer education tailored to specific social segment. Educating women in some societies is a big issue. Children of poor families are forced to work and miss out the learning opportunities. Illiterate adults have very limited opportunities to get educated at later age in their lives.

Online Education System’s Advantages

An educational system augmented by online components presents unique opportunity to solve multitude of challenges in quick time at affordable budget. Here is an overview of advantages of an online system.

Improve Quality of Education

  • Computer aided adaptive testing
  • Encourage collaboration among students, teachers, parents, alumni, activists & institutions
  • A consistent grading system to measure and rank Students, Teachers, Schools & Universities
  • Reward all round development of students
  • Promote alternate education & ideas
  • Continuous improvement by statistical feedback

Improve Accessibility

  • Online & open information portal accessible anytime from anywhere to everyone
  • Bring the books & other resource (videos of lectures, speakers) online
  • Promote distant learning initiatives to spread the education in rural areas
  • Provide online courses to students with special needs.
  • 24×7 schooling for those who cannot attend regular schools during daytime

Reduce the cost of education

  • Services at lower cost via online solutions
  • Encourage “learn yourself” and “community learning” via online system, promote volunteers by providing common infrastructure at lower price
  • Tools for teachers, schools & exam boards to offer courses and conduct examinations & assessment
  • Measurement of returns and guidance on future spending

Social

  • Online system creates anytime, anywhere engagement model
  • Online Learning from home opens the doors for girls to get education if social & cultural reasons are preventing them.
  • Promote vocational courses and self paced learning for adults
  • Bring culturally diverse India on a common learning platform which is offered in all languages

Challenges in implementing Online System

  • Planning and implementation experience
  • Short term cost overheads (online & offline must run in parallel)
  • Electricity & Communication infrastructure
  • Social issues (to some extent)
  • Logistical challenges like training of educators & students
  • Technology constraints

November 15, 2009

Share your Scores via Embeddable Score Stickers

Filed under: Uncategorized — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 8:04 am

EduBrite CAT series 1 finishes today and we launched another social learning feature “Embeddable Score Stickers”. These stickers can be added by students in their own blogs or websites and display realtime information about their score. Sharing scores with friends and parents becomes easy and realtime this way. Here is an example how it appears on my blog http://tenplustwo-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/personalized-score-sticker.html…

To add the Score Sticker, just signin and copy the Embed Tag displayed on the Home page next to the score widget, and paste in your webpage code or blog (by opening the source view.. the steps would be different depending on the blog you are using, but look for how to embed flash in any blog you are using)

ScoreSticker

November 11, 2009

Online exams in social learning network

Filed under: EduBrite Solution — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 8:42 am

EduBrite’s CAT Mock tests event is a new experiment to conduct open online exams in social learning network. A social learning network allows multiple learning communities to coexist on the single platform and users collaborate online for learning needs. Online learning activities are typically supported in the form of “forum”, “notes”, “ask a doubt” or “share a lesson”.

More recently, social learning platforms (e.g. edu2.0, learnhub) started providing online testing integrated with social learning which allows community members to contribute and share online tests. The tests  (also called quizzes in some systems) in these systems not only a dead html or pdf (which is how it exist in most web sites today), but they are interactive forms which allow students to take tests online, and are integrated with backend learning management systems to generate instant assessment of the student’s performance. Students can share their test attempts with community and compare ranks with each other.

EduBrite is providing what could be seen as natural progression of this online testing in social learning environment by allowing educators to conduct realtime online exams. The difference between an exam and online tests mentioned before is primarily the event’ness associated with the exam and the element of competition. An exam has a specific begin and end date and is taken by all students concurrently.

Online exam comprises of tests which are contributed by community. Exams are subscribed by the students using common subscription mechanism on the web such as invite. The subscription management depends on the kind of exam being conducted.

The current CAT Mock Tests event on mba.edubrite.com comprises three tests and offered as free subscription model. Students just need to login to the site and subscribe to the event which is running at that time. Once subscribed they can appear in the tests anytime they want from any place they can have internet access. They could take the test from a cyber cafe or from their home and if needed can pause the test and resume when convenient. Naturally this format is very convenient for the students as well as well ideally suited for conducting mock exams before the real exam (similar to opinion polls before the real polls in elections). Mock exams in a social network can provide ranking and percentile feedback to students among a wider base than what any specific school or training institute can provide. And naturally the comparison aspect in this format is closer to the real exam,

So where is the catch…

Let’s look at some of the challenges in conducting online exams in social learning network:

1. Unproctored environment, so is prone to abuse

2. Unknown and variety of operating environments under which test takers may appear in the exams (browsers, operation systems, hardware such as notebook, PDA, smart phones), so difficult to provide consistent user experience to all test takers

3. Challenge in running the exam for a fixed duration due to various technological reasons which could cause outage in specific geographical regions

It is obvious that technological constraint today will not allow conducting formal exams (in their current format) in social network environment. But despite those constraints I see a lot of promise here, especially when it comes to providing realtime, actionable and much more accurate feedback to students and help them prepare for the final exam. It is even better if the final exam is also conducted online by the specific exam board as students can practice their online test taking skills upfront. It may even be possible to review some exam formats and design them to suite the delivery via unproctored social network environment using new methods of test delivery and combination of various security and privacy advancements in future.

Check out mba.edubrite.com to experience this online exam happening somewhere in the cloud today.

Event Announcement

November 8, 2009

CAT 2009 Online Mock Test Event by EduBrite

Filed under: Uncategorized — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 10:42 am

CAT is just around the corner and this year it is looking quite uncertain to students due to complete online format of the exam. IIM has published a few tutorials but students will agree that having mock tests is the best way to bell the CAT.

EduBrite launched its new online social learning network mba.edubrite.com with the online mock test series to help students get free access to mock tests and online exam experience. Signup is completely free and single user account can be used to access all community sites or microsites on EduBrite’s network which also includes TenPlusTwo community for schools and colleges (www.tenplustwo.com).

 

The online test series offers three tests available in an online exam format which will run for about a week. Students can take these tests in any sequence anytime during the event. Tests can be paused in between to allow break (note that real exam would not allow any breaks).

EduBrite would be conducting two events (each running for a week) to provide maximum benefit to large community of CAT aspirants. Two events will allow students from all over India to plan when they would like to appear for the tests before the exam (as CAT final exam is scheduled over a week starting end of Nov). Students can appear for both events (if they like) to see their progress week over week. Detailed analysis of each test will be available to students once they finish the test showing section and question wise feedback. At the end of each event, rankings and percentile scores will be available. Nothing can come close to this to get ready for final D Day which could be anytime Nov 28 – Dec 7th (details available on IIM website http://www.catiim.in/)

mba.edubrite.com is powered by EduBrite’s collaborative learning platform (which also runs TenPlusTwo, a social learning network for Schools and Colleges), where all the community features like groups, forums, polls, events and messaging are available to all members.

CAT Mock Tests Series

April 27, 2009

New Appearance

Filed under: TenPlusTwo Feature — Ajay Upadhyaya @ 5:26 am

Today we are releasing tenplustwo.com with new UI. Along with the significant changes in the colors, layout and navigation menus; what we have also done is changed the Home page a lot. Users can now get their messages, friends, recent tests, comparative performance index on the home page, along with indication of how much effort they are putting in each subject.

The comparative performance index is calculated on weekly basis, and is dependent upon the percentile in last few weeks. Students should strive to keep this number in the higher ranges.

home-new

HomePage

Messages, Friends, Updates

Messages, Friends, Updates

Older Posts »

Blog at WordPress.com.