Given the vast numbers of students and challenges of delivery, the Indian education landscape is attempting to adopt technology-enabled learning. With 673 million (60 per cent) of the population below 30 years of age (median age: 25 years), the sector has immense potential. I’ve been reading some articles about eLearning in India, looking for ideas that might have relevance to our work here in Canada. Here are some of the interesting points and questions raised:

• Nearly 10 million students have logged into online classrooms
• India e-learning moving from outward-looking to servicing India
• eLearning and IT development driven by private sector education business
• Scaling up and dealing with diverse population the major challenges
• NGOs offering online skills training to youth living in urban slums & rural areas
• Executive education programs banking on mobile learning
• American schools delivering online programs to Indians

• Q: Is the quality of online teachers better than F2F?
• Q: Is online tutoring cheaper than F2F tutoring?

Some References (please send others if you have them):

Harvard brings e-learns for Indian managers by Namrata Singh: The Times of India, 05/07/2011
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-07/india-business/29519768_1_e-learning-mobile-devices-indian-managers

In a class of its own by T.E. RAJA SIMHAN: The Hindu Business Line; July 17, 2011
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/eworld/article2233628.ece

Finally E-learning Begins in India – with a Bang!
http://e-learnindia.blogspot.com/2011/05/finally-e-learning-begins-in-india-with.html

Mishra, S. (2009). E-Learning in India. International Journal on E-Learning, 8(4), 549-560. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
http://www.editlib.org/?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=30508

digitalLEARNING INDIA 2010 report on plenary sessions. (September 2010 )
http://www.digitallearning.in/articles/article-details.asp?articleid=2657
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The Measuring Information Service Outcomes (MISO) Survey supplies standardized, highly comparable performance measures for both IT and library decision makers without regard to organizational structure. The MISO Survey is a web-based quantitative survey designed to measure how faculty, students, and staff view library and computing services in higher education.

There are several analyses of the MISO survey now available, including:

• The main MISO website: http://www.misosurvey.org/
• MISO Staff Benchmarks: http://www.misosurvey.org/2011/07/2011-staff-benchmarks-trends/
• Educause ECAR Bulletin: Evaluating IT and Library Services with the MISO Survey: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/EvaluatingITandLibraryServices/232855  (Educause.edu account required; may be available from your library collection as well)

Some interesting highlights from the ECAR report:

“In terms of satisfaction, both faculty and students report high satisfaction (3.5 and higher) with the majority of services… This is good news for library and IT organizations, as it indicates that, with the possible exception of wireless performance, where the demand is growing more quickly than we can keep up, priorities are understood and generally well supported.” (p. 4)

“Infrastructure items like campus computing labs and especially wireless network stability and speed are dropping in student satisfaction over time (p. 9) While the rate is slow, the majority of services declining in faculty satisfaction are among the core library services.” (p. 8 )

And from the MISO Staff Benchmarks document:

“The services most important to staff are the core IT functions required to support efficient work.  E-mail, networking, computer support and phone services are the basic services upon which other services are built.  None of the services staff consider most important are focused on teaching and learning as a primary attribute.  Library services and remote access to campus resources, while important to staff, are not as highly valued.” (Fifth paragraph)
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