cover story been distributed to universities in bandwidth-constrained regions. Records show that over 100,000 Indian students are accessing MIT’s OCW, and benefiting from it. And MIT is just one among the many players in the Open Knowledge Movement, and as it says, “Quite happy to be losing market-share”. Today, as part of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, nearly 200 universities together have created materials for 10,000 courses. Outside the Consortium too, many players are making available their resources openly. Of course, there are questions about sustainability. After all, how long can anything thrive on “intellectual philan-
“What an expert in robotics sitting in Japan will know cannot be known by a teacher sitting in Chhattisgarh. The teacher should just contextualise it, and assign it” —Sam pitroda Former Chairperson, National Knowledge Commission
Open EDUCATION VS Distance Learning OPEN LEARNING
DISTANCE EDUCATION
Open learning is an approach to learning that allows learners flexibility and choice over what, when, at what pace, where, and how they learn
Distance education is a formalised approach to education, delivered remotely to the learner. It is characterised by separation of geographic distance and time
It is free
It is usually paid
Users are anyone, anytime
Those with scheduling or distance problems are usual users
Drivers are usually institutions that It’s a sustainable model for institutions looking have a mandate to improve educa- to increase their range and offering of courses tional access for all as virtual delivery costs less compared to putting up physical infrastructure Uses all the tools of distance educa- Distance learning technologies include: tion, besides proprietary tools like n Voice-centered technology, such as CD or MP3 recordings or webcasts EduCommons n Video technology, such as instructional videos, DVDs, and interactive videoconferencing n Computer-centered technology delivered over the Internet or corporate intranet n Satellite-based (television channels like Gyan Bharati etc.) No exams no certifications
Exams and certification method available
thropy” as MIT’s efforts have been dubbed? There are other challenges and limitations, as well— technological glitches to be ironed out, policy hurdles to be crossed. But more on those later. Let’s first track how the Open journey began, its evolution and growth.
A Radical Idea Professor M. S. Vijay Kumar, senior associate dean and director at MIT’s Office of Educational Innovation and Technology describes how in the fall of 1999, MIT’s President and Provost, Charles Vest charged the MIT Council on Educational Technology with determining two things: How is the Internet going to impact education, and what should MIT do about it? At that time, many colleges in the US had launched e-learning initiatives with a view to using the Internet to cash in on their intellectual property. But, after a year of research, the MIT Council saw no
economic reason for offering educational materials on the Web. Instead, they suggested opting for a higher goal— sharing their educational resources with the rest of the world over the Internet. This went hand in hand with MIT’s faculty’s passion for teaching. Once MIT had put 500 courses on the Net, it began to get enquiries from other institutes interested in creating their own OpenCourseWare — and not just colleges in the US, but in Japan, China and Europe. The UK Open University, the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) of Carnegie Mellon were some of the other significant open initiatives. Soon an exciting stage came when collaborations were formed. In 2002, the rapidly growing phenomenon of sharing educational resources freely on the Web was given a new term “Open Educational Resources” (OER) at a UNESCO conference. OERs, as Vijay Kumar defines, January 2010 Edu Tech
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