The Coming Tsunami in Education

Summary:

With the adoption of technology in education there is a revolution in the making. The changes it will bring about will be so extensive, that we would be hard pressed to imagine the changes that will unfold. Learning occurs in the students head and the traditional approach of imparting knowledge through "Brick and Mortar" methods by discourses that occur in a classroom, in higher education, will be literally turned on its head! Instead of students going to college, we will see colleges going to students. The space and time continuum of teacher and student being at the same place at the same time will be obliterated. Recorded lectures, and automated courses, that includes testing, enables deliver once, reuse many times, any time, anywhere, by anyone.

Accompanying this revolution are immense and unprecedented opportunities for India's IITs to improve and reduce the cost of imparting education as well as reach out to students who wanted to but did not score an admission to this haloed institute of learning.

IIT-Bombay’s Eklavya Project spearheaded by Prof. D.B. Phatak is aimed at taking IIT-Bombay outside the confines of the Powai campus and improve the Quality of Education all across the country. The IIT-B Spoken Tutorial Project is another such initiative that provides an overview of Free Open Source Software.

The IITs are unique in that they can evolve into a consortium of inter-connected universities that leverage each others strengths.  There is no other institution of this sort in the world today that is dedicated solely to technology education and research.

The Upcoming Paradigm Shift:

Traditional classroom based education will still be the case for school going children. And vocational courses will continue with the requisite hands on site training. Also the importance of labs will not be diminished. But once the student graduates high school the vista open to them will only be limited to the capacity of the student to absorb knowledge obtained from a well spring of sources that emanate from anywhere in the world. The paradigm of a student going to college will change to the college reaching out to the student. Extended education (that includes distance learning, automated learning, access to lectures etc.) is a very fast growing segment in education. Google “Online Degree” and you will get an idea of what is in store.

This won't diminish the importance of students congregating in a common place called a college. Social interaction would still be important and necessary for the evolution of the student. The importance of labs and research facilities for majors that require such facilities will continue to be important. The impact of this revolution will mostly be felt in the theoretical imparting of knowledge.

The Vista of eLearning:

As mentioned earlier, learning occurs in the students head. The established delivery mechanism today is transferring knowledge in the class room. The objective remains the same, with technology changing the delivery mechanism. How technology will revolutionize education like we have never envisaged doesn't stop with interactive learning. There could very well be knowledge transference that could occur through a man-machine interface! Who knows, there may come a time when a student puts on a helmet, goes to sleep and wakes up a genius. But let’s stick with the near future for now.

IIT-Bombay’s Eklavya Portal:

The phenomenal rise in the number of engineering colleges has not been matched by the requisite infrastructure and resources, leave alone dedicated and competent teaching faculty. The Eklavaya Project spearheaded by Prof. D. B. Phatak, Subrao Nilekani Chair Professor, of Department Of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Bombay, aims to fill this gap with the Eklavya Portal.

IIT-Bombay’s Spoken Tutorial Project:

IIT-Bombay is offering a “Spoken Tutorial” program that provides an overview of Open Source products such as Linux, OpenSQL, PHP etc. complete with tests and certification.

The Udacity Project:

Udacity was founded by three roboticists associated with Stanford University, who believed much of the educational value of their university classes could be offered online. A few weeks later, over 160,000 students in more than 190 countries enrolled in their first class, "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence."  The online students will not get Stanford grades or credit, but they will be ranked in comparison to the work of other online students and will receive a “statement of accomplishment.” This underscores the reach of, and interest in courses offered on-line. 

MIT Automated Curriculum:

MIT (Massachusetts, not Manipur, Manipal or Madras) has initiated a fully automated accredited course that can be taken for free by any student anywhere. While this is being offered on an experimental basis for one subject, it is quite likely that it will be expanded to an entire major. Currently, the student is awarded a certificate after completing the course and after having taken tests provided on-line. By offering an “automated curriculum” MIT has taken eLearning one step further. Let us extrapolate what MIT could offer and why? In doing so the momentum shifts from students going to Universities to the University going to students. Let us assume that it would be possible for a student to enroll remotely and obtain a “certificate” from MIT, that may or may not involve a semester or two at the institute, Yes it will result in a "caste" system that differentiates those who got a Degree by attending the institute from those who got a Certificate from attending remotely.

Why would MIT do so? For starters, it will not "cannibalize" enrollment for MIT. This initiative goes after students worldwide, who couldn't attend in person for some reason or the other. It would instead take away students from other Universities. If industry values a certificate from MIT, preferable to a degree from a lesser known college, then students who are faced with a choice, may opt for MIT. Furthermore, one does not expect MIT doing this for altruistic reasons. There is an opportunity to “monetize” as well. MIT can franchise centers that will be responsible for exam setting just like SAT, GMAT etc. You go to the center to take the test. If you are talking about millions of students paying to take a test, that adds up to a significant amount of revenue. These centers can offer enhanced services like real labs at a fraction of the cost. The net result is that the cost of delivery is reduced with some of the savings passed on to the students. Cheaper, better and recognized by a premier University, would be hard to pass up for students.

The Impact of eLearning:

The student will have a choice of “accessing” the best lectures and the onus to learn will be on the student. The excuse that it was a bad lecturer/professor will no longer hold. The “Academy of You” - Udemy is offering both paid and free courses. An existing college might decide to sign up with another college or form a consortium with other colleges or affiliate itself with another University like MIT. This would reduce its need for “teaching” faculty or eliminate the teaching faculty all together and have teaching facilitators instead. In doing so, it will enable the college to deliver education at a reduced cost. The impact of eLearning will threaten the very existence of smaller colleges. Some colleges might close their doors all together or become the extension of the University they are affiliated with by providing space for students to gather, mingle and do their group projects and lab work.

While these initiatives are in their nascent stages, it is being fought tooth and nail in some Universities, by the entrenched and tenured faculty, who see this as a threat to their very existence. The extent by which eLearning impacts a college or university would be determined by the policies adopted by the colleges.

The opportunity for IITs:

The Undergraduate program is the Jewel in IITs crown. It is the UG alumni that has brought name and fame to IIT, for the most part. By getting on the eLearning band wagon expeditiously will enable the IITs to improve the UG experience and also enable the faculty to focus on research and interaction with industry.

Technology presents an opportunity for the IITs to look at themselves as a distributed and hyper-connected learning institution that leverages the strengths of each other and also reach out to students who didn't score an admission. The IITs can establish extension facilities situated in existing colleges, that students attend and obtain a degree or diploma issued by the affiliated IIT.

For instance at IIT, take a core course such as Fluid Mechanics 101:

1. Why can't it be taught by the very best say five professors, regardless of where they are and have students from all IITs, and other affiliated colleges as well, attend these lectures real time or on their own time?
2. Doing so will reduce the burden of recruiting teaching faculty which is a big challenge currently and that will not change. Doing so will also avail the students of the Best of the Best Professors.
3. Tutorials and group discussions could take place with a local or remote tutor. In the US, post-graduate students, working towards their Master's Degree are awarded scholarships to serve as Teaching Assistants to conduct Tutorials and Labs.
4. Why not set one exam paper and have all the students take it at the same time. 

Each IIT could focus on a specific area that is unique to it and leverage the other IITs for the overlapping curriculum. For instance IIT-Kharagpur offers degrees in Architecture and Agricultural Engineering. This would result in optimal use of funding and resources.

Additionally, each IIT can forge relationships with selected Universities overseas and in doing so feed into the inter-connected consortium of IITs on the one hand and feed out to other colleges on the other, to form an extensive hyper-connected technology educational web.

Universities are going to expand their reach by either affiliating or merging with other Universities and this is where the IITs, due to the nature and structure have a unique competitive advantage that gives them a significant lead over other Universities. The biggest being an established feeder system that ensures an abundant supply of bright minds that constitute the best of the best.

Conclusions:

The only thing standing in the way of the above is resistance due to skepticism, human frailty and insecurity. As an activist in the field of education said, liberalization unleashed Lakshmi, now we need to unleash Saraswati, in reference to the stranglehold India’s government has on Colleges and Universities. With the aid of technology, Saraswati will unleash herself, and there is no stopping her.

On-Line Lectures and CourseWare Sites:

IIT-B Eklavya: http://ekalavya.it.iitb.ac.in/ekalavyaHome.do

IIT-B Spoken Tutorials: http://spoken-tutorial.org

MIT: http://mitx.mit.edu/, http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Yale: http://oyc.yale.edu/

UC Berkeley: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

Udacity: http://www.udacity.com/

Online Courseware Portal: https://www.coursera.org/landing/hub.php

Udemy: www.udemy.com

Articles:

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3650305.ece?homepage=true

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/ted-offers-free-video-lessons-for-high-school-and-college-students/2012/03/09/gIQAuw5O6R_story.html?hpid=z4

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/colleges-looking-beyond-the-lecture/2012/02/03/gIQA7iUaGR_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-buzz/post/the-college-lecture-send-us-your-favorite-videos/2012/02/15/gIQAfBOnGR_blog.html

MIT launches automated course. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has revealed its first fully automated, accredited course which can be studied with out charge:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/education-17012968

Stanford offers more free online classes for the world. In an ongoing experiment to leverage new educational technologies, the university is launching five free online classes this month.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/march/online-courses-mitchell-030612.html