Online Open and Flexible Higher Education for the future we want

Session 3

Dr. Hemlata ChariDeputy Director- AcademicIDOL, University of Mumbai

INDIA

EQUITY

ACCESS

QUALITY

EQUITY, ACCESS & QUALITY

• Equity: Beyond access to ensure inclusion for the unreached at the graduate and post graduate levels in higher education.• Access: It implies that educational institutions need to provide entry into their education system without bias (access to all)• Quality: It is the outcome of the individual students aspirations and future perspectives, keeping the community and the nation in mind, it is holistic development and integration of teaching

- UNESCO

Areas Identified under Equity, Access and Quality for Teachers, Students & Stakeholders

Conventional mode and online mode of teaching. Language as a medium Location. Communication Capacity building Delivery and Assessment Cost

Not one size fits all

Tailor made teaching for each individual

Individualized training – Inclusion

Economic development of diverse people

Global citizenship for all

Three legged stool

EQUITY

COST ?ACCESS

Reclining chair

AQ

E

TRANSITION FROM THREE LEGGED STOOL TO RECLINING CHAIR

Concerns: How can faculty have a lead in creating the future higher education that we want?

Faculty issues- recalcitrance, not comfortable with pedagogical technology based teaching.

Lack of proper commitment, initiative

Prefer face to face (comfort zone)

Quality – Institutional management not very conducive- Only NAAC –National Authority Accreditation Council, Internal Quality Assurance Cell and governed by teachers’ Academic Performance Indicator scores

Principals, Heads , State Gov. and National level Gov. – implementation of policies not adequate – for 3Ls- Language, Learning and Localization

Concern: How will the work of higher education contribute to promoting equity, access and quality

learning outcomes In framing the curriculum and syllabus there are biases- often

experts are not involved in framing curriculum and no training or capacity building for course materials.

The teachers need to adopt blended learning for student learning autonomy, outreach to large numbers that characterize this country like India.

There is absence of quality study material and very little use of OERs.

The existing Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going all out to provide facilities for ODL and capacity building of Indians, but the system lags in adoption of open education, open access and open data

Roles and collaboration of partners.

Four Pillars-EAQ (Chari H. & Haughey M. 2006)

Sustainability Organization

Learner SupportQuality

SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability refers to the organizations ability to

continue to survive through maintaining a balance between its activities an the surrounding environment.

Faculty recruitment and retention Mission statement of any institution/organization: social

development goals of the university first, universalization and equity of educational opportunities for all, in particular, the disadvantaged in society through an emphasis of programs offered in the local language

The challenge is to sustain –Equity, Access and Quality in Higher Education

• Sustainability is a positive concept in distance education context it means the “ elements and ingredients considered to operate in an efficient manner” ( Broekhuis & Vos,2003) Penfield and Larson(1996) concluded that the factors for sustainability in distance education two aspects were essential: a coordinated infrastructure and an enthusiastic and committed faculty

Quality

• Quality needs to be safeguarded through effective evaluation systems.

• There need to be a balance between external accountability and internal improvement. One strategy is to use benchmarks but avoid a single blue print approach.

• For a quality assurance system to be effective it must involve those affected in the identification of the indicators and they should see how they could use the data they generate to improve their own performance.

• Powar (2002) believes that “ massification” of higher education has lowered the quality of higher education in the average institution. He agrees that India has meritorious institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management, these co exist with other more mediocre institutions.

• The metaphor he uses them as “ islands of excellence within a sea of mediocrity” (p.57)

• Thus with quality being regarded as a prime requisite in the “knowledge era” universities are being encouraged to balance access and equity with quality. (Chari & Haughey,2006)

Learner Support Systems

• To ensure student success as independent learners, more training should be provided to the teacher counsellors to run sessions so that students enjoy and participate in discussions.

• In highly competitive global world students are no longer confined to their classrooms, with the advances in technology , they look forward to highly interactive and creative ways of learning.

Organization

• Decentralization• Open to new ideas, focus on development• Clear communication- site- based

management.• University should explore partnerships and

streamline processes that encourage better communication among their departments, regional and local study centres.

ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION-ODL

• Open Access and modular system• Open access allows students who did not complete

their high school (grade 10th) or received weak standard have access to further education.

• Multiple entry and multiple exit with well planned vertical mobility –

• i) allows student to be able to afford courses, • ii) maintain a balance with work, family and study, and• Iii) more recently for graduates expand their

employment opportunities

QUALITY• Quality refers to the extent to which organizations

meet their client’s or customer’s needs. • In educational organization this includes not only

the learners but also their employers-institutions and the university at large.

• Quality is a global issue, but the way quality is perceived differs. (Quality to Quantity-enrollments)

• Need to introduce Licensing of teachers in their profession to uphold Quality – NET( National Eligibility Test for Teachers) is not enough to ensure quality

• Quality assessment in higher education in India began with independence and has continued since.

• Stella (2004) points out that accountability and self improvement are likely purposes for quality assurance and relates that from the National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC) perspective the self study document aimed at self improvement is the backbone of the framework.

• Besides, generic frameworks for open and distance learning, other authors have identified quality assurance processes for specific areas of distance education such as learner assessment (Koul,2004), learner support services (Venkaih,2004), multimedia learning system (Mukhopadhyay,2004) or governance (Powar,2004)

Recommendations for EAQ

1. What concrete and SPECIFIC ACTONS can be taken to ensure that increased access to higher education can be achieved while at the same time ensuring quality in both the design and delivery of learning and the student experience as well as promoting the role of higher education, especially online, open, and flexible learning, as making a difference to society?

2. What are the big barriers to EQUITY in higher education and what SPECIFIC ACTIONS, particularly those related to online, open, and flexible learning, can be taken to overcome these barriers?

Access to Higher Education

• Increasing catchment and holding the enrolled to higher education by making it relevant to their economic sustenance, life centeredness, encouraging women enrollment into higher education.

• Give English as well as regional language education at all levels

• Promote learner autonomy and improve assessment in education, shift from one jacket fits all to quality education & assessment for individualized education

• Learning design using technology will be participatory, constructive, collaborative and relevant to the economic development of the learner.

• Delivery of learning will be online and blended learning, using platforms provided by Indian Government like National Repository of OER(NROER), Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) , National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) – focus on life centered, research based education for innovations.

Recommendations -Barrier to Equity in HE

• Barriers to equity are the dominance of language of higher education- very little study materials are available in regional languages.

• Not much quality efforts are made to learn English in school as well as college education.

• Inadequate efforts in teaching academic writing and self thought communications, leading to plagiarism and lack of communication of original ideas.

Specific roles of technology play in enabling EQUITY, risks and limitations

• Technology has a major role to play for far off geographic distances to bring under higher education especially women and the adults for lifelong learning too

• Provide online learning in English and regional languages. Use educational content to fight discrimination, reduce poverty by being life centered, focus on economic development and vocational education ,provide environmental education for sustainable development.

• Encourage research from data on improving online and blended learning

Risks and limitations• Use of technology is misused as a tool for restrictive ,

fixed and uniform minimal education• The focus on life centeredness , health, economic

development, participatory has to be endorsed• The assessment in education defeats all good

intentions of education by poor or inappropriate tools and design of testing.

• In a country like India we are dealing in large numbers, hence decentralization is required but honesty and upholding quality must be upheld by every education system.

Data from eclipse.mu.ac.in

Feedback from eclipse.mu.ac.in

websites

• www.mu.ac.in/idol• https://ww.eclipse.mu.ac.in

References

• Broechuis, M. & Vos,F.J. (2004). Improving organizational sustainability using a qualityy perspective. Paper published by University of Groningnen, Research Institute SOM. Retreived june 4th 2015 from http://ideas.repec.org/p/drg/rugsom/03a43.html

• Daniel. J. (1996). Mega Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology strategies for higher education. New York: Kogan Page.

• Koul ,B. (1996) Quality assurance practices and principles. The case of Indian Distance Education. In A.Tait (1997), perspectives on distance education-quality assurance in Higher education: selected case studies. Vancouver, Canada: The Commonwealth of Learning.

• Mukhopadhyay,M.(2004). Quality Management in multi channel learning system. Paper presented at The National workshop on: “ Quality Assurance in Flexible Higher Education: Approaches and Strategies” YCMOU, Nashik, July 13th-15th 2004.

• Powar, K.B. (2004). Quality in governance: Key to a cost effective open and distance learning system. Paper presented at The National workshop on: “ Quality Assurance in Flexible Higher Education: Approaches and Strategies” YCMOU, Nashik, July 13th-15th 2004.

• Stella,A. (2004). Performance indicators for effective institutional self –appraisal in the ODL system. Paper presented at The National workshop on: “ Quality Assurance in Flexible Higher Education: Approaches and Strategies” YCMOU, Nashik, July 13th-15th 2004.