Wherever you go, your classroom follows

From all the things that technology can bring, I love this
concept of learning anywhere, anytime. It gives people the freedom to study at
their convenience. It can, over a period of time, cut the cost of education,
ensure globalization and even cut the learning time by as much as 40%, as per
some studies.

Welcome to the world of online education, or e-learning, as it
is more commonly known as.

Online education can be classified into corporate and
non-corporate initiatives. The former includes learning systems installed by
companies to train their sales force, shop floor engineers, induction programs
attendees, and more. Those attending online graduate and post-graduate courses,
continuing education, adult education, skills-learning programs fall in the
latter category. The common thread is the high initial cost of investment of
both hardware and software. Primarily for this reason, this potentially
multi-billion dollar industry is growing at a slower rate than the promise it
had originally shown. However, things are on an upswing now.

Businesses around the world are showing more enthusiasm in
implementing online corporate training. Factors causing this growth include
global workforces, convenience of time and access, logistical simplicity and
lower delivery costs. The flip side is the high initial cost of setting an
online learning system.

On the education side, electronic campuses are evolving. They
try to duplicate the working of familiar offline colleges and universities. They
welcome new students online with messages from the academic staff, offer
financial aid, course moderators, assessment tests at regular intervals, career
counseling, and also help with placements.

Teachers in electronic classrooms deliver lectures with the help
of notes, videos and websites, group discussions and group projects, 24x7 live
mentoring, virtual labs or study environments. Videoconferences allow students
to see, hear, and interact with faculty and other students worldwide. Online
libraries offer multimedia of resources such as searchable catalogs, website
links and online tutoring centers.

India is also taking a few tentative steps in this direction. An
IDC estimate predicts the worldwide e-learning market at $23 bn by end 2005. In
India, it is estimated between $10—15 mn, with a high growth potential. There
are numerous pilot projects but the spread is low.

Online education is gaining momentum among high salaried
professionals for management and skill-enhancement courses-either offered by
top-notch B-schools of India or
from the international universities offering online courses. 

One such initiative is the DirecWay Global Education (DWGE) platform that
delivers broadband satellite-based education. Developed by Hughes Escorts
Communications, it works on the concept of interactive onsite learning (IOL)
linking students in different parts of the country through live audio, video,
and data. The initiative is being used, or explored, by premier management and
technology schools of India like IIM Banglore/Calcutta/Kohizokode, IIT Delhi,
XLRI Jamshedpur, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, and quite a few others. It
attempts to provide all the goodness of online education-no loss of
productivity, time savings, flexibility of location-while retaining the
interactivity of classroom training. There are many others also who are active
in this area. Indian corporates are
also trying to set up knowledge banks that can be used for information sharing
purposes, and experimenting with providing online training.

But online courses have yet to find a foothold in the arena of
school and college education. Reasons abound. Primary being the low cost of
education in government-aided schools, colleges and professional institutes.
Second, high-cost of courses. Third, low number of students due to low internet
penetration. Fourth, low technology penetration. Fifth, high connectivity cost.
Sixth, low bandwidth, an important element for downloading multimedia content
and setting up videoconferencing. And, seventh, lack of regional-language
courses. This is from where volumes can come and defray the cost of development.

Yet the potential is high. How soon will it be tapped?

Shyam Malhotra