Download Shaping Quality Higher Education via EDUSAT: A new entittive of

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Shaping Quality Higher Education via EDUSAT: A new initiative of
Govt of Haryana
Anil Kumar, IAS
Commissioner, Higher Education
Govt. of Haryana
Chandigarh, India
Abstract:
Education system is moving towards development of knowledge workers, knowledge based
society and knowledge bank etc. In this paper, importance of E-learning and technological possibilities of
Edusat are highlighted. The realizations of the higher education Department of Haryana about these
highlights are presented by the initiative taken to shape the higher education system of the state to cope up
with the challenges. Systematic Strategies of the department to become a global partner in knowledge
generation are presented. Realization and implementation of quality satellite based higher education is
discussed.
Introduction:
With rapid technological advancements, effective application of Information communication
technology (ICT) in the field of education were bound to happen sooner or later. The wide spectrum of
technological pathways can be pivotal to enhancing the quality of education. Today’s information and
communication technologies offer educators in developing countries an unparalleled opportunity to rethink on
the ways in which education is developed and delivered to learners, both in formal and informal sectors.
Results are growing interest on on-line education and appearance of many virtual university world wide. ICT
enabled and enhanced education become a path way for learner pull education system. Today’s co-existence
of brick & click universities will lead to tomorrow’s effective click universities to remove the geographical
barriers to realize the global village of knowledge. Knowledge networking, knowledge workers and
knowledge-based societies are going to be reality. Doorstep quality education any where, any time and for
any body is no longer going to be a dream. Higher education is a booming industry. In developed country, in
today’s scenario, it is an effective source of revenue generation. However, country like us, where we have
only 06 R&D scientist per thousand population compare to 120 of Japan or produces only 5000 Ph.Ds per
year compare to 25000 of USA, has to go a long way. The scope is enormous. The education industry is in its
primitive stage of development. This has attracted many private entrepreneurs to become shareholders in the
development process. In addition to these private entrepreneurs, foreign universities are invasing India in a
major way. The circumstances has forced the controlling body i.e. the Government to re-look on quality of
education and the polices and exploring all possibilities to meet to-day’s and tomorrow’s needs.
EDUSAT: A satellite technological possibilities
Edusat is a timely step of Govt. of India in its policy to offer quality education to all & every
part of the country. The satellite supports 5 regional beams and one national beam to meet the challenges in
number and quality through (i) Providing access to quality resource persons. (ii) Strengthening the scheme of
distance education. (iii) Taking education to every nook and corner of the country, (iv) Providing greater
community participations and (v) Providing access to new technologies.
Edusat (GSAT-3) supports two frequency bands, viz: Ku Band (International Band) &
extended C-Band. The regional beams are in KU band (54dBW, G/T 7dB/ Dig K) and the national beam is
also in Ku band(50dBN, GIT 3dB/Dig k). The extended C band is 37dBW. Hub which is a centralized network
control, Sub-Hub which is a teaching end, ROTs: Receive only terminal which is a passive classroom and
SITs: Satellite Interactive Terminal (Active class) are the basis elements of Satellite based network.
However, the Hub facilitates live interaction (Audio-video, video conference) between Hub &
SITS, live interaction between SITs & SITs and off line accessing (LMS, VOD, Library, Admission,
examination etc.) from Hub by SITs. The transmission possibilities are multicasting and unicasting with 384
Kbps for video conferencing. Three modes bandwidth assignment are followed viz: constant (dedicated) rate
per sub Hub, volume/rate based for live interaction and free capacity based for off line interaction. DVB-RCS
an open standard is followed for two way enabling which supports 45 Mbps forward link and 2 Mbps return
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link. The network topology is star while access technology is TDM/MF-TDMA and video streaming is 512
Kbps with compression H.264. With DVB-RCS the satellite is also tailored for Internet access over GSO.
Challenges:
The technological possibilities of the satellite are enormous. But the limitations are also
equally strong. The optimal and effective utilization of the satellite is limited mainly due to
 Quality digital course wares
 Trained Human resources
 Infrastructure
 Acceptance by masses
 Strong policies for implementation
Education via satellite is economically optimal when it runs all the time and reaches masses
i.e. flexible mode and large users are attended to. As on today one of the major challenges of the higher
education is curriculum based digital course ware to transmit via satellite. The requirement is huge and the
availability is merger. The course wares available in free sites of Internet does not meet the quality and
curriculum requirement to fullest extent. Generation of e-contents based on curriculum in a very short span is
a major challenge in front of any agency. Looking in to life of satellite, this particular area needs immediate
cohesive attention to achieve the goal in a record time. Integration of human resources i.e. subject experts,
multi-media experts etc. is a tough job in front of all the departments.
For the organizations into e-learning through Edusat multiskill human resources is a
requirement of the time. But looking into the immediate Edusat needs; integration of skills in complementary
fashion is more preferred. However, futures at multi-skill experts to run the technology driven teaching learning process. Infrastructure in terms of satellite equipments, display, audio & video equipments, power,
management software, animation & graphics software etc. need a plan and target oriented action to get
installed in teaching as well as in class room ends.
As the system is having its foundation on a very old and proven brick university or teachers
pushed environment, it will take time for the masses to accept the clock university at once. A systematic
planned awareness programmes highlighting the predominant factors will help the masses or society to
accept the concept in forces the implementation of virtual learning. More so the policies that inforces the
implementation of virtual learning. There are policies & procedure defined for different education system. But
the same is yet to come out for virtual learning. Policies on development implementation and university and
industry acceptance of virtual learning needs an immediate attention. Benchmarking on global standard is an
essential requirement, as the knowledge worker will not have any geographical barrier.
Initiatives of Department of Higher Education Haryana
State of Haryana is a leading state in the country. The vision of the state for quality education
is indeed technology oriented and as per the global need. The state poise to become a important global
partners in higher education. To exploit the technological possibilities of the Edusat, the department of higher
education is all set to avail all possible benefit of the satellite to impart quality higher education its masses.
Sincere efforts were made to realize the gaps and timely filling. While acknowledging the need
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infrastructure development, it was realized that the major efforts/attentions must be given to training of the
human resources and to the digital courseware generation. In its endeavors to achieve the objectives, the
Commissioner explored the possibilities of training and courseware development with those organizations
and agencies who are having experience, expertise and infrastructure to support the department’s
requirement. The multi window based video embedded approach to develop digital courseware of National
Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training & Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh was selected.
In its first ever such training programme, the department sponsored 27 candidates for 5 days
training at NITTTR, Chandigarh. The training strategy is not only to get the subject experts exposed to the
video production environment but also to generate digital course wares during training. In 1 st phase three
video embedded lectures were generated. The three-window video based lecture with option of speaker
dominance/animation and graphics dominance/text dominance is a new format of video embedded lectures
which is adopted by the department. Parallel efforts are being made to cope up with the mounting pressures
of digital courseware generation. Resource centers are being contacted. Priority based subjects have been
identified. Pull of subjects experts have been identified to prepare quality script with sufficient animation and
graphics inputs to meet the international quality in higher education teaching-learning. Periodic meeting of the
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Edusat Committee of the department ensures the speedy and timely implementation of the plan and policies
to achieve the objectives in the target time.
Conclusion:
Exploiting the technological possibilities, the department of higher education is all set to
provide quality higher learning to all its masses. Impressive Learning with support of video embedded
lectures with shape the 21st Century higher education of the State. The trained human resources digital
coursewares shall be knowledge worker and knowledge bank respectively to compete in global scenario. The
products of the system i.e. our students shall be the knowledge forces having world work acceptance. Their
up grooming
will in a EMI (Entertainment-Motivation-Inspiration) based education environment. The
department is poised to become a mentor for virtual learning via Edusat.
Address:
H.No. 6,
Sector-23-A
Chandigarh
Phone-91-172-2707662
E-Mail- [email protected]