India Learning

The CBT Systems seminar in Los Angeles, October 1999, witnessed the
revelation of the term, e-learning. However, its origin could be traced back a
few decades.

During World War II, the US faced immense instructional problem as thousands
of recruits had to be trained on sophisticated weapons, which demanded training
manuals to be effective and time saving. Going with the old gnome, Necessity is
the mother of invention, a new mode of instruction was tailored to suit the
training needs based on Frederic Skinners theory of operant conditioning. This
came to be known as ISD or instructional system design that aimed to optimize
the learning experiencethe precursor to todays e-learnings.

The Great Indian Adaptation

Indian market too has adapted to the need of imparting effective training
and fulfilling educational goals. With growing Internet access, educational
institutions and the corporate sector are moving towards e-learning modules
because of their portability and cost-effectiveness. It is important to note
that a considerable percentage of Indian population comprises students and young
professionals who need to be taught and trained.

For these sections, e-learning provides a cutting-edge solution that
transcends the time-place barrier and at the same time provides a learning
environment that does not require them to attend regular classes. For example,
Gurukul Online Learning Solutions not only provides vocational education
courses, but also offers live virtual classroom connectivity across the nation.
Institutes like Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology,
and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade are presently offering e-learning courses.
Not only education, but the corporate sector as well has been amalgamating
e-learning with their knowledge management system and greater business
strategies to improve performance.

In 2004 e-learning was the dominant form of employee training method. 50% of
employees predicted that e-learning would become the standard method of training
within the organization by 2010. We can conclude that more than 30% of the
people predicted that their organization would also focus on the creation of
e-learning content in the following years.

E-learning companies in India, majorly inclined towards custom courseware
development, are part of the offshoring industry worth $341 mn, by the end of
2008. In contrast to the recession impacting the growth of different industries,
it is being estimated that the Indian e-learning offshoring industry will grow
at a 15% CAGR till 2012. It is estimated that the market size will touch $603 mn
by the end of calendar year 2012. According to Vipul Rastogi, head, enterprise
solutions, India and VP, NIIT, "Recession has propelled the corporate sector to
consider cost-effective and interesting training methods that have robust
engaging modules followed by a feedback mechanism." The outsourcing industry
involves content development, technology and services. Outsourcing diversifies
into third party providers, offshore delivery centers of international
e-learning providers and consulting firms.

People look at e-learning for increasing productivity, faster time to competence and process optimization Rajesh Jumani, chief marketing officer, Tata Interactive Systems	Recession has propelled the corporate sector to consider cost-effective and interesting training methods followed by a feedback mechanism Vipul Rastogi, head, enterprise solutions, India and VP, NIIT

Verticals and Players

Apart from e-learning firms, IT, BPO, and publishing sectors have also
ventured into the e-learning market. Studies reveal that e-learning not only
caters to academia and the corporate sector, but also to defense, aviation,
government institutions, healthcare, telecom, and retail. It can be forecasted
from the graph that in the years to come organizations will adopt e-learning as
their predominant delivery method followed by instructor led training and
multimedia. One can also interpret that e-learning will not remain merely
confined to training purposes, but will be applied with a holistic business
benefit in mind.

The top players in the Indian e-learning gamut are Brainvisa, Maximize
Learning, Tata Interactive Systems, NIIT, Genpact, Learning Mate, Lionbridge,
Sify, Helix Technology Solutions, and Deloitte. All these e-learning companies
have been significantly contributing to the evolving e-learning 2.0 market by
collaborating with the leading tool vendors such as Captivate 4, Articulate,
Lectora, and Camtasia or by working on an in-house developed authoring tool.

E-learning 2.0

The traditional e-learning revolves around courses, timetables and testing.
In contrast, e-learning 2.0, a term coined by Stephen Downes, amalgamates
different tools and web services such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, audio-video
streaming, chat rooms and takes learning to a different level altogether.
Rastogi adds, "India is very much open to e-learning 2.0. The current trend is
to transform static content into an interactive one with elements such as mentor
support, online question and answering capabilities. This would make e-learning
far more flexible and interesting."

Drawing from web 2.0, e-learning 2.0 aims to reduce dependency on centralized
systems such as Learning Management System (LMS), and employ creative ways to
content development using free and open source software (FoSS). Edublogs.org and
wikispaces.com are blog and wiki resources for e-learning that demonstrate what
can be called as e-learning 2.0. This genre of as e-learning based on networking
is similar to Twitter, Facebook, Vox, and Multiply.

Rajesh Jumani, chief marketing officer, Tata Interactive Systems says, "From
catering to training needs only, e-learning in India has come a long way. Now,
people look at e-learning for increasing productivity, faster time to competence
and process optimization. CXOs view e-learning not just as a training solution,
but as a tool to help achieve organization initiatives." India has always been
at the forefront of technology, and is quickly adopting interactive learning
that incorporates features of web 2.0. Page turner e-learning courses are no
longer the mantra. Business simulations, game based learning, story based
learning, mobile learning and learning portals are the buzzwords.

Henceforth, one can conclude that working around e-learning 2.0 represents a
cultural shift for e-learning organizations in India because the modules would
not only serve for informal learning, but would also provide performance
support.

Atreyee Datta

atreyeed@cybermedia.co.in