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A computer centre in Chiplun, Ratnagiri district: Four students
sit in a classroom, each pursuing a different course online—Computer
basics, C programming, Introduction to Visual Basic, and Fundamentals
of C++.
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A young girl is deeply engrossed in a Web-based lesson on Office
XP—sitting in a cyber cafe in Murtujapur, Akola district.
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Children fiddle with the mouse as they try to grasp an interactive
CBT lesson with voice-over guidance, at a state government-run
Marathi medium school in rural Maharashtra.
Sceptics
might have a lot to say about the far-fetched concept of popularising
e-learning in the country, but the truth remains that there are
many who believe it is the most effective mode of bridging the digital
divide in mofussil townships and rural areas. An effort in this
direction has been made by the Maharashtra Industrial and Technical
Consultancy Services (MITCON), which is introducing computer courses
through e-learning at its 530 centres in interior locales of the
state. Students have to just register themselves at any of the e-school
centres and can take lessons either at the centres, cyber cafes
or at home. With course fees starting as low as Rs 500, it might
well be a cost-effective strategic option for the hard-hit training
industry, which is still grappling with the ways and means to stay
alive.
MITCON
had in fact started its training initiatives about two years back,
at a time the training industry first faced the initial downswing.
A low-cost approach not only helped the training division survive
the tumultuous times but also emerge profitable. Being in the interior
locales of the state, where quality faculty is obviously a constraint,
they hit upon the idea of introducing e-learning courses at substantially
reduced rates to popularise IT training. The e-learning courses,
being offered through Gurukulonline Learning Solutions (GOLS), are
simultaneous with the regular programmes at the e-school centres.
Their researchers traversed across the state, from Vidharbha to
Konkan, to study the market and found it very receptive.
“We
are essentially faced with two challenges—changing the attitude
of students who are used to instructor-led training and lack of
PC penetration. Being a semi-government organisation we have reach
in rural Maharashtra and that is why we can spearhead this effort
to take quality computer education to far-flung areas,” says
Rajeev Kumar, vice president, MITCON. The obvious advantages, he
points out, are many—standardised format of teaching; dramatic
reduction of costs; flexibility; and the best solution to counter
faculty problems. “The fee ranges from Rs 300 to Rs 8,000,
depending on the course. Our effort is to make it affordable for
everyone,” says Nilesh Loyalekar, business head, retail sales
operation, GOLS. Gurukulonline has an in-house contact centre for
dealing with student queries.
Targeting
a student base of 5,000 in the initial phase, coupons of course
hours (starting from Rs 100) are being sold at the e-schools, bookshops
and cyber cafes. Students have to just buy these pre-paid education
cards and take lessons. From registration to the tests everything
can be done online. Significantly, they do not have to even pay
for use of Net at cyber cafes. To popularise the concept, not only
were seminars and awareness programmes organised, but e-learning
coupons were given as Diwali gifts in places like Aurangabad, while
in Nasik district these were distributed with Diwali cards. “This
apart, in rural vicinities like Sindhudurg in Konkan, where we are
operating information kiosks (about government schemes), people
can come and do these courses. On its own such information kiosks
cannot be useful, unless it is integrated with another useful concept,”
adds Kumar. He points out that connectivity is also not a major
issue since all the major talukas are linked with the Internet and
the number of users being low, the speed is relatively high. “As
far as language problem is concerned most of the people who join
these courses would have some working knowledge of English,”
adds Kumar. Mitcon has also launched e-Vidya in Marathi at schools
across the state. This CBT course implemented under the CLIPS (Computer
Learning Integrated Programme for Schools) programme, is targeted
to benefit more than 75,000 students in this academic year. The
next plan is expansion of e-schools to Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh
and Gujarat. “E-learning cannot be achieved unless we have
reached the masses,” asserts Loyalekar.
Success
of such initiatives is only possible in a state if it is driven
from the top. “From the chief minister to state administrators
(bureaucracy), district education officers and finally principals
of the schools. There should be education exercises conducted at
the panchayat level so that the parents of the students also see
the benefits. In rural areas e-learning being instructor independent,
will ensure that students get access to information that is normally
available in cities. The only caution is that e-learning should
be facilitated through a physical instructor,” says Rahul Thapan,
head-education services division, Tata Infotech. The company has
created an e-learning module for school children with a voice-over
in local language and dialect. This has been successfully implemented
in government schools in Haryana.
Dismissing
the perception that such efforts are premature, Thapan however asserts
that the benefits must accrue to the maximum number of students
and should have the biggest spread in terms of coverage. The handicaps
are two-fold:—inability of the students to accept this mode
of instruction, and the inability of local instructors to facilitate
such training. The latter might also perceive it to be a treat to
their jobs. “The way to address this issue is to roll out through
a few model schools and making it a success. Then replicating the
model at other places. I also believe that colleges and higher education
authorities should adopt this as well. Like any other project the
critical success factors need to be identified and the implementation/rollout
should address this issue,” explains Thapan.
Maurice
Haeems, president and CEO, Mentorix Learning Technologies believes
that the ideal strategy for such e-learning initiatives is that
it should be tailor-made to the requirement of the rural audience.
“There needs to be multiple access points with easy pay-off
options. The channels should be multiple, like cyber cafes, local
community centres, e-learning centres, etc. The need is to provide
training to the local people who can get education at a convenient
venue and time instead of leaving their work and travelling hundreds
of miles in search of the same,” he adds. The efforts that
need to be made to enable e-learning in far-flung sectors are: creation
of relevant courseware; development of infrastructure; and trained
manpower for tutorial support.
The
ability to deliver learning material in the local language of the
people is a critical factor for success. In today’s times language
is however not a handicap. Haeems explains why: “All over the
world we have examples of various localised content being used for
e-learning, specially in the European context. India is no different,
we already have regional language websites and Indian fonts (software
for writing script) are already developed...hence we do not see
any issue providing e-learning courses in the regional languages.”
A staunch believer in the fact that e-learning is the most vital
tool in bridging the digital divide, he affirms, “The future
of e-learning will continue to be evolutionary, even though sometimes
it might seem revolutionary.”
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