E-LEARNING FOR TU: PROSPECTS, ISSUES

AND CHALLENGES

E-learning a Media for Conventional and Open & Distance Learning

Background TU a huge public university with 60 constituent and 832 affiliated

campuses through out the nation. Centralized system – everything regulated by the central level. Science & technical,medical, engineering , agriculture as technical

and science and other Humanities & social sciences, management, & education programmes in TU. 13.44% in science and techno, where as in faculties(humanities and social sciences, management, education, and law) is 86.56%

About 389,460 students ( 2011/12) in TUwhere 40.93% study in constituent campuses and other 59.07% in affiliated campuses

Teaching and learning is mostly traditional in many cases – face to face lecturing and note taking prominent

No good library access and even less qualified teachers in campuses outside Kathmandu and the other major cities.

Students pass rate 24% in Master’s Level and a little bit higher in Bachelor degree – waste of resources.

Contd.

TU going to be a dual mode(planning stage)

E-learning Conceptualized as online learning, web-base learning in

interactive mode interactions with multimedia materials and/or instructors are mediated through all electronic media, including the Internet and other computer networks (Chang & Chen,2009; Chiu & Wang, 2008; Basioudis & Lange, 2009; Duan et al., 2010).

Central Office and University Campus at a Glance

Distribution of Campuses of TU

3

Far Western Region

63

5

11

28

13

Mid-Western Region

Western Region

central Region

Eastern Region

69

163

407

130

5

69

Constituent

Affiliated

Graduation Ceremony, TU

Need of e-Learning

To address the growing number of higher education aspirants (e-learning in ODL mode).

Recently FOE, TU has got the responsibility to upgrade qualification of 13000 working teachers of schools from the government (agreement of FOE and NCED, MoE).

To improve quality of education in conventional mode blending e-learning as access to learning and learning materials.

E-learning as a way of getting international exposure to and standards in higher education for the students.

Collaborative teaching & research in higher education engaging Universities Denmark for quality improvement (possibility of having classes of foreign universities, projects, assignment and learning materials).

Contd. E-learning for "private students” ,(a type of ODL)

support. The working migrants are increasing and they can

pursue their higher education through ODL(using e-learning).

The last 10 years conflicts caused many youths deprived from education, ODL can be an alternative for them. E-learning could be a way.

Promotion of ODL in school education, significant numbers of students are still out of secondary education and technical & vocational education.

E-friendly students increasing, love e-media rather than print in learning – need to target this group of students,

Is e-learning possible?

Technological and power baseNepal Telecommunication has been

planning to reach all 4000 VDCs of the country with its wifi system by 2015. Currently it has reached 50%VDCs.

It is estimated that about 70% people have access to mobile phone.

Solar power distributed in subsidized price in remote areas – an alternative for power source.

Contd. Institutional commitment

Budget allocation started and a decision is made in Executive Council of TU

Ministry of Education has felt the need to support in ODL

Attraction to M.Phil and Ph.D both in conventional and distance mode(willingly pay for the education)

Free software and bandwidth for conducting e-learning(eg cloud computing technology – google aps, wiki, blackboard, etc)

Strategies

Plan, act and lesson learn before implementing in mass scale (a piloting in a small sector/some course).

Acceptance from all: Government and users positive attitude (i.e. popularization)

HR development:Training to the faculties in e-learning pedagogy.

Institutional set up: ICT use as media of instruction, set up multi-media laboratory for producing the programme and circulating them

Strict in enrollment: Limit the size of enrollment in constituent campuses according to the availability of human resource, educational and physical facilities available

Change of curriculum: block/modular curriculum focusing on problem base learning (semester system is needed)

Contd.

Begin ODL from Faculty of Education TU and some other university/ies of BSU partner as pilot project and expand to other.

Allocating annual budget to e-learning management from this fiscal year.

Policy of collaborative funding in shared modality of investment for sustainability of the programme.

Challenges Fitting E-learning, a developed world’s phenomena,

into developing countriesHigh speed internet and uninterrupted power

supplyWell-trained faculties in IT and pedagogiesCulturally a belief of being learner and tutor

together for learning Cost-effectiveness in ODL questionable

Print media and contact session only –cheaper than conventional

Including other media like e-learning could be expensive(fixed cost and variable cost may increase).

Contd. Meet the demand of disadvantaged section an irony

Human resources as well as ICT access problemLearner support

Necessary financial resource management.TU has allocated budget for constructing buildings

and e-library(computers are given)Software as well as other media-lab equipments

management? Student support(about 40% dropout cases in Sri

Lanka)Learning(different level of tutors, their training, and

remuneration costlier)Materials( learning materials differs, HR are not

prepared)

Contd. Social recognition of ODL degree/e-learning

Employment opportunityReluctant to employ

Difficult to put fixed students number(the present scenario)

Human resource development: Most of the faculties as well as other resource persons unfriendly( to e-learning pedagogies and materials preparation).

Competitive to other universities

Contd. Discrimination of ODL students( a matter of

flexibility): may raise voice same credit, working hours can be covered as conventional mode students do.

Lab related courses issue: e-learning supplementary for conventional but problem for ODL

Language issue: can use materials prepared by other universities but need to be proficient in English for using them.

Learners’ quality/nature/morale Faculties quality/nature/morale Localization of content and Attitudes on e-learning.

How e-learning Relate to PSDR E-learning can support to PhD, and Small Scale

Research researchers (grants awarded by PSDR in themes related to it). A provision of joint supervision from UD and TU

Increases opportunity of Rights to Education(employed, women, disadvantaged section etc).

Help to increase educated people /critical mass, ultimately a help for a democratically living society.

New cross-cutting areas/subjects that are necessary for developing countries can be introduced.

Expectation from BSU

Human resource development support Planning e-learning for ODL and quality insurance (on the

basis of the experiences) Some lessons from universities Denmark and/or developed

countries in ODL and even in conventional classes using e-learning (blended learning)

Joint academic programme for some years based on e-learning in undergraduate and graduate courses (like Mphil and Ph.D).Different departments in TU has given value to Mphil, better to

have support for such programm, it is the contemporary need. Collaborative supervision in student's research and

collaborative academic research among the faculties. Exchange of faculties for sharing and learning technology and

researches as well as modalities of university education. Changing the mind set of higher authority through visit of the

successful e-learning programmes/PBL.

Impact on Institutional Capacity

Within 5 years, big number of senior professors are being retired, will be compensated by this programme.

Improve in quality standards with shared experiences.(e-learning, PBL will be introduced).

Improve university management in general learning best practices.

The conferences and seminars based on researches of different platform themes can provide opportunity of understanding the social problems, see the prospects and act for the development.

Enhance quality in PhD supervision with joint supervision and some workshops.