Transforming and empowering higher education through Open and Distance Learning in India

4.1 Demographic dividend

India has a rich demographic dividend, because the country has 54 per cent of population below the age of 25, and 66 per cent people under the age of 35 (Census of India, 2011). It means that the young population, the number of school-going persons within that age group, and the level of work force within that group, are considered assets for the entire country. If proper skill-based education could be given to this population, they could contribute immensely to the enhancement of the positive social transformation. Therefore, it is the right time to provide skill-based learning opportunity to all, and make them productive citizens in a futuristic educational environment. In this context, I am reminded of the convocation lecture that Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, delivered in Jiwaji University, Guwalior on 10 August 2004, where he stated:

India has a population of one billion people. Out of this one billion, 540 million people are below the age of 25 years, which is our national strength. We have natural resources. In addition, we have a roadmap for transforming India into a developed nation by the year 2020. Ignited minds of 540 million youth will definitely transform India into a developed country by the year 2020.

Therefore, in today’s contexts, keeping this demographic dividend as the priority, higher education in India should not be only confined to an individual’s physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual developments, it should strive for equipping him/her with necessary skills for their own wellbeing as well as for the well-being of the country in which he/she lives.

4.2 The challenge of producing human capital

Human capital plays an important role in the development of a nation. It is the quality of the human beings of a country, which helps in accelerating the pace of development. However, the fact is that human capital can be ensured through proper education only. Educated people are generally more productive workers because they can use the capital more effectively, can adopt new technologies, and learn from previous mistakes. Thus, the concept of human capital is linked with the growth and development of a nation, and education should play an important role in producing the human capital for both the present and the future developments.

4.3 Inclusive growth

The notion of inclusive growth encompasses equality – equality of opportunity in accessing education, in accessing health services, in accessing protection in market and employment transitions and so on. Thus, the Indian Government has set a definite target to ensure equality of opportunity in terms of access in the economic field, in the educational field, in social and cultural norms, in health sector, in the unbiased regulatory environment for business and individuals and so on. Therefore, in order to ensure the inclusive growth, there is the demand of establishing access, equality, quality, and expansion of higher education so that each citizen of the country can lead a meaningful life or is at least able to ensure a decent standard of living.

4.4 Demands for sustainable development goals

On 25 September 2015, the heads of state and central government, and high-level representatives from various countries met at the UN Headquarters in New York and approved the document titled “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopting a new set of global Sustainable Development Goals”, whichis hoped to transform the world in the next 15 years. There are 17 goals to be achieved by 2030 for sustainable development. Goal 4 targets to achieve the inclusive and equitable quality education, and to promote life-long learning opportunities for all. Another objective of the Goal is to focus on the acquisition of foundational and higher order skills, greater and more equitable access to higher, technical, and vocational education and training. In this Goal, as has been reported, until 2013, there were about 757 million adults (aged 15 and above) unable to read and write, and out of them, two thirds were women. This data also shows the urgent need for imparting education to millions of people living in this world.

6.1 ODL and its relevance

The primary objective of the ODL is to provide knowledge and skills to those who did not have access to learning. The basic purpose of the open universities is to provide instruction to the learners at their doorsteps through various media and technology (UNESCO, 2002). The basic motto of ODL is to establish equity in the education system through various modes of education (both the correspondence and on-line learning). This system provides great opportunity to those learners who are denied access to education in traditional institutions due to various factors such as poor economic condition of the family, parent’s illiteracy, staying away from home for income generation etc. and to those who require updating their knowledge and skills through education. The mode of ODL is also called as “Independent Learning”, “Flexible Learning” as well as “Self-Learning”. It can help to empower the learners by enabling them to take charge of their own learning and enabling them in having greater control and ownership on their own learning at a minimal cost. Therefore, this system of learning can be called as “fed by own” not “fed by others”. Besides, in terms of flexibility, the Open University has the autonomy to adapt different approaches for the development of course materials as well as learner’s support services. The utilisation of on-line learning in distance and open learning makes it in a true sense open or global learning.

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) purposefully stated that, “Open and distance education enabled and delivered through information and communication technology (ICT) holds the promise to address the questions of access, and provide new, alternative forms of capacity building.” (NKC, 2009, page 4) Considering the wide scope of the ODL system in providing flexible access to higher education general, professional and vocational, since 1980s, the central and state governments of India have given due emphasis, on the expansion of quality higher education through the ODL mode. This has resulted in the establishment of one National Open University (IGNOU), 14 state open universities, and more than 112 Directorate of Distance Education attached to conventional Universities spread across India. In fact, ODL accounts for about 12 per cent of the total enrolment in the segment of higher education, and has contributed substantially towards the rise of the GER of India, which is 24.5 per cent. The most significant contribution of ODL in higher education is that it provides the wider opportunity to the female learners for educating themselves and having a dignified life in the society. For instance, the women enrolment in higher education through distance mode is 46.03 per cent whereas in regular mode, women share is 45 per cent only (AISHE, 2015-2016).

Again, if we make an analysis of the enrollment trend in different ODL institutions across India, we find that the number has grown at a very fast rate, as we can surmise from Table IV.

The trend of enrolment in distance education is graphically represented below in Figure 1, where it is found that the trend of enrolment in distance education is able to motivate the learners and provide them with the scope to access higher education at anytime, anywhere and for anyone.

As stated above, the fast growing enrolment trend in ODL has provided unprecedented scope to bring education to the doorstep of the unreached, which is one of the most important philosophical aspects of ODL in general. Moreover, the emergence of Online Learning and E-Learning systems have enhanced the functionality of ODL not only by providing various educational opportunities to those hitherto been deprived of education, but also by inviting thousands of fresh learners towards this mode by inculcating the philosophy of life-long learning.

In this regard, the NKC, 2006 rightly stated that the appropriate application of knowledge in an area like agriculture can play a major role in boosting the agrarian economy and giving the Indian farming a competitive edge in the global market, and ODL institutes can play the pioneering role.

Thus, the ODL mode of education, because of its flexibility and low cost, has the potential to create the knowledge-movement in every aspect of human life in society, which can lead to sustainable as well as dignified living among the concerned stakeholders, and which can further transform and mould the society in the intended direction.

6.2 Initiatives to be taken by the ODL institutions

For ensuring mobilisation and transformation in society, various initiatives can be undertaken by the ODL institutions. As the vision and mission of a university or an educational institution are focussed on the needs of the locality and on fulfilling the needs and desire of the stakeholders, the university authorities should ensure some special contributions to the society and the country, besides trying to maintain the status and reputation of the university in the competitive age. In this regards, due to the nature of flexibility and its openness, Open Universities and ODL institutions play the role of people’s university by harnessing the needs and demands of the common masses. This means that the education received even from a open university should gear up the living standard of the people so that they can lead a dignified life. Nobody can deny the possibility and prospects of sustainable education that would ameliorate the living standard of the people at present and near future. Skill-based education could bring viability to the institutions as well as to the people in terms of ensuring their sustainability and generating employment opportunities in the present world. Therefore, an open university or an ODL institution should develop need-based and skill-based courses, which have the direct link with industrial and vocational recruitments.

Again, in order to maintain academic reputation, an open university should design such courses that would bring special credit and recognition to the university itself. Before launching the course, the faculty members of the university should be sent to field works, or to different exchange programmes for understanding the validity, reliability, and authenticity of the courses in a practical way. Once they return with some experience, the university should assign on them the duty to prepare the course content and subsequently launch the programme. This process can help the university to identify the shortage and paucity of manpower in the society in various fields, and then, supply future manpower by launching the need-based courses. Besides, the content of the syllabus must be up-to-date, regularly monitored, and revised by an internal or external Quality Assurance Unit. Again, there should be some provisions in the university to become self-sustaining by generating its own revenues or by generating its own income through student’s fees, own agriculture and farming products and so on. However, some other important initiatives can be taken to successfully run an educational institution particularly through the ODL mode. These are as the following:

• Use of ICT in the ODL institutions: in the present technology-based era, each higher educational institution, most specifically the open universities and ODL institutions, should be comfortable with the use of technology, and the teachers should design various academic and ICT-based modules for the benefit of the learners in a wider context. The application of National Knowledge Network (NKN), National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), National Mission for Education through Information and Communication Technology, SIRD linked with Satellite hub for with Satellite Interactive Terminal (SIT), are some of the online programmes, which can bring in a marked difference in the functioning of the educational institutes of this country with an objective to bring together all the stakeholders in the field of science and technology, higher education, research and development, governance, and so on (Bordoloi and Das, 2012). Although this mission of NPTEL is intended to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by providing free online courseware, the open universities and ODL institutions can also tie up with these providers, so that all students can utilise the resources.

• At present in India, Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), has been introduced by the Ministry of HRD, GOI, where teachers from institutions like the IITs, IIMs, and central universities have been offering online courses to the citizens of India. In order to ensure the quality of the contents produced and delivered through SWAYAM, seven National Coordinators have been appointed. They are NPTEL for engineering, UGC for post-graduation education, Consortium for Educational Communication for under-graduate education, NCERT and NIOS for school education, IGNOU for out of the school students, and IIMB for management studies. In the first phase, courses in areas of engineering education, social science, energy, management, basic sciences are being offered, and at least one crore students are expected to benefit in 2-3 years through this initiative. Besides, it has been stated that at least 20 per cent materials from the total number of courses by an Indian University should be released in the form of MOOCs for the fast mobilisation and dissemination of knowledge and information among the masses. Another recommendation is that all universities should develop the learning management system and release their open educational resource (OER) materials as MOOCs in the SWAYAM platform as soon as possible for making education more vibrant and sustainable.

• OERs: for the greater interest of the public or the stakeholders, the use of OERs has presented itself as the most viable option to disseminate educational benefits to the whole of India. The historical and functional definition of OER, as has been pointed out by UNESCO in 2002, is: “Technology-enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes…typically made freely available over the Web or the Interne” (Kawachi, 2013). In India, where higher education usually benefits only a small section of the people, because of its being a very costly affair, OERs have provided ocean of opportunities to enjoy the benefits of education even without going to an educational institute. In today’s world, OERs have emerged as the resources to be used for sharing, adapting and reusing in order to educate the whole masses. In India, MOOCs may push the OER-movement to a significant height. With the help of the different Community Information Centres, NGOs and other Social and Government Organisations located at different parts of the country, educational institutions may use OERs that can enlarge teaching-learning experiences, expand the reach of education, and make learning possible through participation and from multiple sources at the same time. Of late in India, following the National Knowledge Network Project, various courses have been launched in the form of OERs and MOOCs, particularly by the ODL institutions, which became instrumental in training people mostly in the field of agriculture and small-scale industries for a better socio-economic growth of India.

  Thus, OERs can be seen as an evolving pedagogy in the context of present-day India and other countries of the world. Gajaraj Dhanarajan and David Porter (2013) tried to portray in their book about the perspectives on OER in the Asian countries like China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and so on. Besides, it also provided some information regarding some important case studies conducted in some Asian Open Universities and the discussions of which provide many important ideas regarding the use and practices of OERs in the context of Asia. The experiences gained through the findings in this book will help many new universities to conduct the OER practices in their Region in extensive ways. Similarly, Paul Kawachi (CEMCA, 2013) in his book has provided some meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of ICT-enabled OERs to serve the educational and training needs of the Commonwealth member states of Asia. By consulting these resources and models, the Indian universities and institutions can also design its SLMs as part of Open Access applicable in the their regions.

• Skill development through ODL mode: for producing a skill-enabled population in India, in December 2013, the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India, notified National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF), which is being facilitated by the National Skill Development Agency. This policy can easily be adopted by the ODL universities and institutions for its flexible nature. The NSQF provides the outcome based approach, which is very much essential for assessing the acquired knowledge of the people in immediate way. Again, it is also helpful to each institution, student and employer to get themselves a self-assessment regarding the progression pathways in terms of their competency level i.e. what they can do and cannot do after taking the course under NSQF. Besides these, this is the only framework through which uniformity in terms of course duration, curriculum, entry requirements as well as title or degree to be awarded across the country can be established. The most interesting benefit of this course is that it facilitates the Recognition of Prior Learning through which people irrespective of their age, sex, and geographical distance can get formal recognition of their traditional skills. The NSQF also helps in the alignment of the Indian qualifications to international qualifications in accordance with relevant bilateral and multilateral agreement. Thus, each Indian Open University should adopt such recognised skilled-based courses in order to develop the national and international mobility among the people across the nation.

• Mobile Learning: in the context of the twenty-first century, Mobile learning is yet another educational avenue that can easily transform the arena of higher education by disseminating knowledge and information at a cheaper cost. It was Bangladesh Open University, which for the first time used M (Mobile) Learning for transforming the rural population in Bangladesh among the South Asian Countries of the world. Even, UNESCO and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees celebrate some events like Mobile Learning Week where the basic agenda is to promote education in emergencies and crises situation. The open universities and ODL institutions in India can use mobile learning in a significant way for strengthening Inclusion in education and preserving the continuity of learning during the time of conflict and disaster.