National Mission on Education through ICT Open Source … · National Mission on Education through ICT Open Source ... National Mission on Education through ICT ... 13.Development

National Mission on Education through ICTOpen Source Mission

Kannan M. MoudgalyaIndian Institute of Technology, Bombay

http://[email protected]

Scilabtech’091 July 2009

Kannan Moudgalya Open source software mission 1/30

National Mission on Education through ICT

I Launched by the Ministry of Human Resources Development(MHRD), Government of India

I Objective: to raise the levels of education in India

I Outlay: $ 1 billion over three years

I 40% for content generationI 60% for bandwidth

I To give 1 GBPS bandwidth to everyone of 30,000 collegesI Out of these, 3,000 are engineering colleges: 5% government

run, rest private

I The amount per Indian is not much

I Nevertheless, substantial amount for India








run, rest private










run, rest private








I 40% for content generation

I 60% for bandwidthI To give 1 GBPS bandwidth to everyone of 30,000 collegesI Out of these, 3,000 are engineering colleges: 5% government

run, rest private










run, rest private










run, rest private










run, rest private




Content generation: Line items

1. NPTEL phase II / III

2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes

4. Video content digitization, conversion, chunking and dubbingCEC / IGNOU / NCERT / SIET / OTHERS

5. Provision of e-books and e-journals free to the learners

6. Standardisation of quality assurance of contents &certification / automation of certification

7. Developing suitable pedagogical methods for various classes,intellectual calibers and research in e-learning

8. Development of language converter and translation tool kit

9. Development and realization of Virtual Reality Laboratoriesand supporting facilities for e-learning

10. Development of Certification & Testing Modules for VirtualTechnological Universities & creation of VTU, multi mediaresearch and international programmes




2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes











2. PG Classes

3. UG Classes









Content generation: Line items - continued

11. Experimentation and Development of ultra low cost accessdevices for wider coverage of learners & their field trials

12. Talk to a teacher to provide a substitute for coaching for theeconomically poor students

13. Development of software controlled hardware programming forrobotics & other crucial areas

14. Adaptation & deployment of open source simulation packagesequivalent to MATLAB, ORCAD etc.

15. Development of unified ERP system for EducationalInstitutions

16. Publicity & training of motivators & trainers to ensure fullutilization of the systems by institutions & students. TeacherEmpowerment ’B’

17. Conversion of available content in various regional languages

18. Development of Vocational Educational modules and use ofhaptic devices for education & training








































































Minimum requirement for funding

Necessary conditions for a project to be funded by this mission:

I It should be related to education - for research, other fundingsources are available

I It should be inter-institutional

I Any material developed through this mission has to bedelivered as open source

I It should belong to one of the 18 line items mentioned earlier























IIT Bombay

I Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are leading engineeringeducational institutions in India

I Until recently, there were 7 IITs

I About ten more are in the process of getting established

I Together, they admit about 0.025-0.05% of the age group andprovide them with undergraduate education

I Admission rate: 1% of the applicants get selected

I Role of IIT Bombay to be discussed


IIT Bombay








IIT Bombay








IIT Bombay








IIT Bombay








IIT Bombay








Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme(CDEEP)

I IIT Bombay gives degree to a small percentage of population

I Have difficulty in expanding this number

I No difficulty in sharing the information, howeverI CDEEP was formed to make available IIT Bombay’s

I CoursesI Educational methodologies

to the outside world












I No difficulty in sharing the information, however

I CDEEP was formed to make available IIT Bombay’sI CoursesI Educational methodologies










Course Dissemination Methodology

I Teach the courses in studios

I IIT Bombay students attend these lectures

I Instruction gets recorded, edited, made available through livetransmission

I Free video on demand serviceI Already available within IIT BombayI Proposed to be made available to outside students as well




















EDUSAT: Free transmission of IIT Bombay’s courses

I EDUSAT is satellite dedicated to educational content,launched by ISRO

I Through EDUSAT, we transmit IIT Bombay’s courses to 70centres around the country

I Two way audio-video connectivity through dedicated EDUSATcentres

I 1 and 0.5 Mbps guaranteed bandwidthI Free of costI Transmission is unencryptedI Can be received all over India and in neighbouring countries

I 20 more remote centres are in the pipeline




















I 1 and 0.5 Mbps guaranteed bandwidth

I Free of costI Transmission is unencryptedI Can be received all over India and in neighbouring countries







I 1 and 0.5 Mbps guaranteed bandwidthI Free of cost

I Transmission is unencryptedI Can be received all over India and in neighbouring countries







I 1 and 0.5 Mbps guaranteed bandwidthI Free of costI Transmission is unencrypted

I Can be received all over India and in neighbouring countries

















Graphical representation of transmission through EDUSAT

Remote Centre 1IIT Bombay

Remote Centre 90

Remote Centre 2 Remote Centre 89


Webcast

I Webcast started to reach out to a larger number of people

I Absolutely free of cost

I Only 100 Kbps bandwidth required, keeping in mind the lowbandwidth available to our college students

I Received by students around the country and world

I About 60 courses transmitted over the past one year

I 30 courses will be transmitted next year


Webcast








Webcast








Webcast








Webcast








Webcast








Some statistics on CDEEP

I Simultaneous transmission from four studios

I CDEEP has 40 full time employees

I 100 video courses have been created so far - about 4,000hours of lectures recorded












National Mission on Education has funded IIT Bombay

I Open source software effort

I Empowerment of students and teachers through synchronouseducation

I Students - through our regular coursesI Empowerment of teachers - next slide

I Robot enhanced teaching of subjects in engineering collegesI AT Mega 16 controller - interested in using Scilab for real time

control

I Virtual labsI Interested in embedding Scilab in Labview

I National programme on technology enhanced learning(NPTEL)



I Open source software effortI Empowerment of students and teachers through synchronous

educationI Students - through our regular coursesI Empowerment of teachers - next slide


control








control








control








control




Empowerment of teachers

College 2

IIT BombayRemote Centre 90

Remote Centre 2 Remote Centre 89

Remote Centre 1

College 1

I A lot of teachers can be trained (say, on Scilab)simultaneously


IIT Bombay’s open source mission

I Scilab

I PythonI Both numerical and symbolic

I BlenderI 3-D animation, relevant to science and engineering



I ScilabI Python

I Both numerical and symbolic




I ScilabI Python

I Both numerical and symbolic



Difficulties experienced with Matlab

I IIT Bombay discontinued the purchase of Matlab after version6, as it was becoming expensive

I Limited number of seats created problems

I Network licensing created other problems

I Now, some departments have bought licenses




















Main objects of open source mission at IIT Bombay

I Creating educational content around existing open sourcesoftware

I Creating documentation, books and courses in the area ofopen source software

I Taking necessary steps to include open source software in thesyllabi of various universities

I Promoting the use of open source software through workshops

I Promoting the use of open source software in audio/videocourses and virtual labs, the other thrust areas of this mission.






























Promoting Scilab in India

I Organised a national workshop on Scilab - INRIA team werethe experts

I Gave introductory talks on Scilab at local colleges

I Now Scilab is included by name in the syllabus of MumbaiUniversity and Pune University

I Ported Matlab code that accompanies the book DigitalControl to Scilab for low cost Indian edition




















First workshop on Scilab on 4th July

I Organised for teachers of colleges in Pune

I Scilab is included in their syllabus

I Most teachers have not seen or used Scilab

I It is a four day workshop

I Organised jointly by IIT Bombay and BhaskaracharyaPratishtana

I Funding is coming from the National Mission on Education










































Spoken tutorials

I It is also known as screencast

I Spoken tutorial refers to explaining a computer based activity,along with a live demonstration of it in parallel.

I The tutorial captures the changes in the screen in the form ofa movie, along with a running commentary of it by an expert.

I The spoken tutorial can be used to explain the steps involvedin carrying out an activity, such as using some software.

I The spoken tutorial is light weight: it requires about onemega byte per minute of recording. Recently, successful with0.5 mega byte as well.

I This is much smaller than video recording, which requires tentimes more storage space for mpeg1 format.


Spoken tutorials








Spoken tutorials








Spoken tutorials








Spoken tutorials








Spoken tutorials








Procedure to create spoken tutorials

I The software that one wants to explain through the tutorial

I Construction of one or more examples or cases that will helpdemonstrate the above software

I A script that pins down the sequence of activities and theaccompanying explanation

I A software that captures the activities on the screen in theform of a video with an ability to record the accompanyingvoice input

I Finally, optionally, an editing program that can be used totrim and polish up the video file obtained in the previous step

I Only some basic aspects of a software, enough to start usingit, need to be taught through spoken tutorials.

I After one achieves a familiarity with the software, one will beable to study the advanced topics from the manuals.
























































Pedagogical benefits of spoken tutorials

1. Listening to a person experienced in using a software is betterthan going through the written instructions. It is as if theexpert himself is talking to the listener on a one to one basis,with suitable intonations, repetitions and warnings.

2. In a spoken tutorial, the student sees the cursor movementaccompanied by the spoken explanation. The combination ofthese two makes the students understand the steps quickly.The resulting change in the display is pictorial. The benefitsof a picture over words is well known.

3. The student can pause, rewind and play again to understandnew and difficult concepts.

4. All steps involved in a process get automatically explained, asthe spoken tutorial is the transcript of an actual session. So,there is no question of leaving out any step.




















Pedagogical benefits of spoken tutorials - continued

1. One of the main requirements of a spoken tutorial is a smallsize of the resulting video file. One benefit of this is that weend up producing tutorials with a clear focus.

2. The student can try the target software in parallel, as shelistens to the spoken tutorial. This allows the student toparticipate in the training, as opposed to being a passiveobserver.


Pedagogical benefits of spoken tutorials - continued

1. One of the main requirements of a spoken tutorial is a smallsize of the resulting video file. One benefit of this is that weend up producing tutorials with a clear focus.

2. The student can try the target software in parallel, as shelistens to the spoken tutorial. This allows the student toparticipate in the training, as opposed to being a passiveobserver.


Socioeconomic benefits of spoken tutorials

1. The main advantage of a spoken tutorial over a videorecording is the size of the file: the former generates at mostone tenth the size of the file created by the latter. This resultsin a large number of benefits: small storage, small bandwidthfor streaming, etc.

2. The infrastructure required to create a spoken tutorial isinexpensive. Only a head phone with audio input is theadditional hardware that is required. We have found that eveninexpensive head phones, costing about three euro giveexcellent results.

3. There are many screen capture software systems available asfree or as shareware, costing about 10 euro. As a matter offact, it is possible to find free screen capture software forevery one of windows, linux and Mac OS X operating systems.












Socioeconomic benefits of spoken tutorials - continued

1. Because the required infrastructure is trivial, almost everyonecan participate in creation of spoken tutorials. In theory,anyone who has learnt to use some features of a software cancreate a spoken tutorial. As a matter of fact, even schoolchildren can create these tutorials.

2. Because a large number of people can create these tutorials, itlends to collaborative effort. If we have proper administrativeinfrastructure, it is possible to create learning aids for themost complicated programs through community effort.


Socioeconomic benefits of spoken tutorials - continued

1. Because the required infrastructure is trivial, almost everyonecan participate in creation of spoken tutorials. In theory,anyone who has learnt to use some features of a software cancreate a spoken tutorial. As a matter of fact, even schoolchildren can create these tutorials.

2. Because a large number of people can create these tutorials, itlends to collaborative effort. If we have proper administrativeinfrastructure, it is possible to create learning aids for themost complicated programs through community effort.


Socioeconomic benefits of spoken tutorials - otherlanguages

1. The spoken tutorials may be delivered in languages other thanEnglish, even if all the communication on the computer screentake place in English: the running commentary can be in alocal language.

2. It has a capability to empower many people, includingstudents in villages, to participate in content development.

3. These could be original content creation or translation of agood tutorial from some other language.

4. Thus, this has the potential to reduce the digital dividebetween people who live in the country side and the residentsof cities.




















Areas of collaboration

I Documentation

I Content generation

I Back-end work

I More discussion is required



I Documentation


I Back-end work




I Documentation


I Back-end work




I Documentation


I Back-end work



Work force from India

I 700,000 engineering students, every year

I 3% of the age group

I Projects can be given to the students through Ekalavya project

I Mission10X of Wipro has shown interest in taking the spokentutorial to their teacher training programmes




















Spoken tutorial effort

I Procedure to identify areas

I Example generation

I Script writing

I Create one tutorial

I Voice overlay

I How to accommodate more speech?

I Review, accept





I Script writing


I Voice overlay


I Review, accept





I Script writing


I Voice overlay


I Review, accept





I Script writing


I Voice overlay


I Review, accept





I Script writing


I Voice overlay


I Review, accept





I Script writing


I Voice overlay


I Review, accept





I Script writing


I Voice overlay


I Review, accept


Thank you


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