Innovations in Distance Education

Innovation has become a buzz word in all walks of life, and Distance Education is not far from it. Probably, the Asian Association Open Universities (AAOU) Conference in Teheran in 1995 was first such occasion to devote full fledged discussion on innovations in distance learning. But, if we closely look at the deliberations there and elsewhere in distance education literature about what is innovation, it would be much clear that there is much to be desired. While some would consider the use of an existing technology in a new context as innovation, others would consider a new teaching learning programme an innovation. Broadly, innovation is the act of starting something new. It could be a new idea, a new product or a new process. Two important concepts are related to innovations – creativity and change. Innovation is a creative process, and it advocates change in the current practice. The change could be radical or incremental. However, it is different from invention. Innovation is ideas applied in practice. As such, distance education itself is an innovation in the field of education!

We can all be creative and innovative, but contrary to popular belief innovations are not always appreciated. Remember, Alexander Graham Bell, who invented telephone was turned down by Western Union telling it as a “useless toy”. Scott Berkun, author of the Myths of Innovation, states “Every great idea in history has the fat red stamp of rejection on its face”. Does that mean, we should stop thinking and innovating? No. The real innovators sustain and persist. There may be rejection due to ego, pride, politics, priority, fear, greed, etc, but innovators survive due to their convictions and belief in what they have strived to create. Fortunately, history shows that when institutions do not recognize innovations, it results in entrepreneurship. But, this is also a sign of institutional failure to accept innovations internally, experiment and institutionalize ideas, because it may come from a person in low hierarchy. Fortunately for distance education in India, and for the Indira Gandhi National Open University, we have the National Centre for Innovations in Distance Education (NCIDE), which has various schemes for recognizing innovations within the institution and the system in the country.

For distance education, innovation is an imperative. It is not something that we may do, but it is something that we must do. For example, cost-effectiveness is one of the strong pillars of distance education. If we do not constantly think and innovate how can we maintain cost-effectiveness? One programme may not be cost-effective, but the system as a whole should be cost effective to justify its existence as an alternative mode to provide quality educational access to large number of people. So, we need to innovate new programmes that cater to the needs of the market. We need to use new instructional and learning design principles to develop programmes that are suitable to the needs of the learners. We need to use appropriate technology to make the programme more interactive and useful to the learners. In all the activities, we need to think about the philosophy of open learning, and innovate appropriate distance education programmes that provide access to more people at less cost. Innovations in distance education therefore should follow a system-wide perspective, and IGNOU being a pioneer in distance education, it is the responsibility of teachers and administrators to think about the system as a whole. Particularly, as a national university we are accountable to the nation to show that the system is what it is meant for, and therefore, we should constantly innovate in curriculum design, instructional design, learning material preparation, ICT enabled programme delivery, new programmes, and new technologies in education.

Published in ennovate: NCIDE eNewsletter published on 21 May 2010.

Experiences of Online Learning

I have been involved in some form of online learning for quite sometime as learner, trainer, designers, and coordinator. I am currently teaching/facilitating/coordinating the Post Graduate Diploma in E-Learning (PGDEL) offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). In the Refresher Programme in Distance Education organized by STRIDE in March-April 2010, I made a short presentation in a panel discussion to share my own experiences to share lessons learned over the years. Some points are as follows:

1. Learners join online programme with different expectations and abilities. Some do not even have ICT skills, while some others expect the e-learning programme to be classroom type where teacher should teach/instruct. It is important that to make online learning successful, pre-admission counselling and appropriate screening of the learners are essential.
2. There is no “the model of e-learning”. Different programmes have different needs due to the nature of the learners and the discipline to be taught. So, the technologies used should be different depending on the nature of the programme its requirements.
3. It is possible to use ‘open source’ technologies sand ‘open content’ learning material to offer online programmes. Focus should be given more on teaching and learning, giving more interaction opportunity to the learners rather than development of materials alone.
4. Faculty training and understanding about e-learning in crucial. In this context, teachers should be trained on technology, pedagogy, and use of both for specific content area.
5. Workload of the faculty should be appropriately assessed. Online tutors should be engaged to provide more interaction.
6. Assessment in online learning should be considered through innovative lenses. It should be beyond the pen and paper test. So, use of objective type test, e-portfolio, term paper, etc should be considered. Presentation in virtual conferences are useful to authenticate learners.
7. At the design stage, the issues related to assessment should be addressed. So, clarity on this is there in the beginning itself. The learners know about the criteria of assessment, including the rubrics for each assessment tasks.
8. The more synchronous and tutor-assessed components are there in an online programme, the less it is possible to scale up. However, it is possible to have more interactivity without synchronous activities by involving the learners in collaboration and peer assessment activities.
9. Student cheating in online programme is a problem. Particularly unintentional plagiarism is a major concern, and the learners should be oriented about plagiarism, and referencing style.
10. Online library support is crucial to the learner development. Leaving students to depend on Google search alone in not useful. Institutions should provide access to online databases and digital library of their own through individual user id and password.

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