Quality Enhancement in Higher Education through ICT

In this era of globalization and hyper-competition, the concept of teaching has under gone sea change. Learning and dissemination of information are becoming more important. Internet based education and e-learning are the trends of the day.
Abstract
Changes in the economic and social fundamentals call for transformation in the skills, capabilities and attitudes of the masses. This requires a shift in the delivery and pedagogy used in the current education system. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) increases the flexibility of delivery of education so that learners can access knowledge anytime and from anywhere. It can influence the way students are taught and how they learn as now the processes are learner driven and not by teachers. This in turn would better prepare the learners for lifelong learning as well as to contribute to the industry. It can improve the quality of learning and thus contribute to the economy. Especially in developing countries like India, effective use of ICT for the purpose of education has the potential to bridge the ‘digital divide’.
Introduction
India, like any other knowledge economy, depends on the development of its educational sector. Higher education drives the competitiveness and employment generation in India. However, research findings have shown that the overall state of higher education is dismal in the country. There is a severe constraint on the availability of skilled labor. There exist socio-economic, cultural, time and geographical barriers for people who wish to pursue higher education (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). Innovative use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can potentially solve this problem. Education is the driving force of economic and social development in any country. Considering this, it is necessary to find ways to make education of good quality, accessible and affordable to all, using the latest technology available.
The last two decades have witnessed a revolution caused by the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT has changed the dynamics of various industries as well as influenced the way people interact and work in the society.
The challenges before the education system in India can be said to be of the following nature:
Access to education- There exist infrastructure, socio- economic, linguistic and physical barriers in India for people who wish to access education (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007).
Quality of education- This includes infrastructure, teacher and the processes quality. For any nation, the level and quality of education is one of the most significant parameters of development. In India, the total literacy has gone up over the years but the quality needs tremendous improvement. Now, as India strives to compete in a globalised economy in areas that require highly trained professionals, the quality of higher education becomes increasingly important.
Resources allocated- Central and State Governments reserve about 3.5% of GDP for education as compared to the 6% that has been aimed (MHRD, 2007).
There exist drawbacks in general education in India as well as all over the world like lack of learning materials, teachers, remoteness of education facilities, high dropout rate etc (UNESCO,
2002).
ICT enabled Education
The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer, and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning . When such technologies are used for educational purposes, namely to support and improve the learning of students and to develop learning environments, ICT can be considered as a subfield of Educational Technology. ICTs in higher education are being used for developing course material; delivering content and sharing content; communication between learners, teachers and the outside world; creation and delivery of presentations and lectures; academic research; administrative support, student enrolment etc.
In the current Information society, there is an emergence of lifelong learners as the shelf life of knowledge and information decreases. People have to access knowledge via ICT to keep pace with the latest developments. In such a scenario, education, which always plays a critical role in any economic and social growth of a country, becomes even more important. Education not only increases the productive skills of the individual but also his earning power. It gives him a sense of well being as well as capacity to absorb new ideas, increases his social interaction, gives access to improved health and provides several more intangible benefits. The various kinds of ICT products available and having relevance to education, such as teleconferencing, email, audio conferencing, television lessons, radio broadcasts, interactive radio counseling, interactive voice response system, audiocassettes and CD ROMs etc have been used in education for different purposes (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007).
The four main rationales for introducing ICT in education
Social: Perceived role that technology now plays in society and the need for familiarizing students with technology.
Vocational: Preparing students for jobs that require skills in technology.
Catalytic: Utility of technology to improve performance and effectiveness in teaching, management and many other social activities.
Pedagogical: To utilize technology in enhancing learning, flexibility and efficiency in curriculum delivery

ICT can be used as a tool in the process of education in the following ways:
Informative tool: It provides vast amount of data in various formats such as audio, video, documents.
Situational tool: It creates situations, which the student experiences in real life. Thus, simulation and virtual reality is possible.
Constructive tool: To manipulate the data and generate analysis.
Communicative tool: It can be used to remove communication barriers such as that of space and time.

Research findings show that technology can support pedagogical, curricular, and assessment reforms, which intend to support the process of knowledge creation. Students and teachers plan their learning activities and build on each other’s ideas to create new knowledge. It also facilitates monitoring of their progress in understanding and preparation for lifelong learning and participation in the information society (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007).
Use of ICT in education develops higher order skills such as collaborating across time and place and solving complex real world problems. It improves the perception and understanding of the world of the student. Thus, ICT can be used to prepare the workforce for the information society and the new global economy.

In view of ICT, education can be classified in three main categories-
§ E-Learning
§ Blended Learning, and
§ Distance Learning.

E-Learning
Electronic learning or e-learning is a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning. It is commonly associated with the field of advanced learning technology (ALT), which deals with both the technologies and associated methodologies in learning using networked and/or multimedia technologies. It is also known as online learning. Distance education provided the base for e-learning's development. E-learning can be "on demand". It overcomes timing, attendance and travel difficulties.
E-learning allows delivery, dialogue and feedback over the Internet. It allows mass customization in terms of content and exams. E-education can provide access to the best gurus and the best practices or knowledge available (UNESCO, 2002). It is possible to leverage the online environment to facilitate teaching techniques like role-play across time and distance. It can also facilitate the development of scenarios, which can be rarely witnessed in practice. ICT can play a valuable role to monitor and log the progress of the students across time, place and varied activities.
E learning allows higher participation and greater interaction. It challenges the concept that face-to-face traditional education is superior to it (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). The web and the Internet is the core ICTs to spread education through e-learning. The components include e-portfolios, cyber infrastructures, digital libraries and online learning object repositories. All the above components create a digital identity of the student and connect all the stakeholders in the education.
E-Learning has the following advantages:
Eliminating time and geographical barriers in education for learners as well as teachers
Enhanced group collaboration made possible via ICT
New educational approaches can be used
It can provide speedy dissemination of education to target disadvantaged groups
It offers the combination of education while balancing family and work life
It enhances the international dimension of educational services.
Blended Learning
Blended Learning is the combination of multiple approaches to learning. It is usually used to define a situation where different delivery methods are combined together to deliver a particular course. These methods may include a mixture of face-to-face learning, self-paced learning and online classrooms.
Face to face learning refers to learning that occurs in a traditional classroom setting where a faculty member delivers instruction to a group of learners. This could include lectures, workshops, presentations, tutoring, conference and much more.
Self paced learning provides the flexibility to learn according to the availability of learners’ own time and pace, it occurs in a variety of ways such as: reading specific chapters from text book, studying course material presented through web-based or CD-based course, attending prerecorded classes or sessions, reading articles referred by faculty member, working on assignments & projects, and searching & browsing the internet.
Online Collaborative Learning Online collaboration involves interaction between learners and faculty members through the web; this interaction can occur in one of the following modes:
• Synchronous interaction
• Asynchronous interaction
Synchronous, means "at the same time", it involves interacting with a faculty member and other learners via the Web in real time using technologies such as virtual classrooms and/ or chat rooms. On the other hand, Asynchronous means "not at the same time"; it enables learners to interact with their colleagues and faculty member at their own convenience; such as interacting through email.
Distance Learning
It is a type of education, where students work on their own at home or at the office and communicate with faculty and other students via e-mail, electronic forums, videoconferencing, chat rooms, instant messaging and other forms of computer-based communication. It is also known as open learning. Most distance learning programs include a computer based training (CBT) system and communications tools to produce a virtual classroom. Because the Internet and World Wide Web are accessible from virtually all computer platforms, they serve as the foundation for many distance learning systems.
ICTs also allow for the creation of digital resources like digital libraries where the students, teachers and professionals can access research material and course material from any place at any time. Such facilities allow the networking of academics and researchers and hence sharing of scholarly material and leads to quality enhancement in teaching and learning.
In the absence of ICT, most of the responsibility of teaching and learning lies on the teachers. However, with the help of ICT one can transfer the responsibilities to the students so that they can self manage. It helps to individualize the teaching or guidance method as per the student’s need. It also boosts the confidence level and the self-esteem of the students who acquire the ICT skills through the process of being exposed to such kind of learning. ICT-based registration, evaluation, and administration help to link different levels of information and facilitate an overall view of the whole educational setup. It facilitates the evaluation and examination of the learning process and results by the students and the parents in a flexible and convenient way.
The globalization process has also created a large market of offshore students. To reach them, information technology is the only convenient medium, which can offer education as a service. It creates competition among the institutions for providing education and hence improves the quality (Cross and Adam, 2007).
The experience of many teachers, who are early innovators, is that the use of ICT is motivating for the students as well as for the teachers themselves (Plomp, Pelgrum & Law, 2007). The use of ICT can improve performance, teaching, administration, and develop relevant skills in the disadvantaged communities. It also improves the quality of education by facilitating learning by doing, real time conversation, delayed time conversation, directed instruction, self-learning, problem solving, information seeking and analysis, and critical thinking, as well as the ability to communicate, collaborate and learn. The possibility of real time interaction in all the different aspects of the education system like teaching, collaboration, debates etc hold great promise for the future.
ICT – Indian Way
India is making use of powerful combination of ICTs such as open source software, satellite technology, local language interfaces, easy to use human-computer interfaces, digital libraries, etc. with a long-term plan to reach the remotest of the villages. Community service centers have been started to promote e-learning throughout the country (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). Notable initiatives of use of ICT in education in India include:
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) uses radio, television, and Internet technologies.
National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning: a concept similar to the open courseware initiative of MIT. It uses Internet and television technologies.
Eklavya initiative: Uses Internet and television to promote distance learning.
IIT-Kanpur has developed ‘Brihaspati’, an open source e-learning platform (Virtual Class Room).
Premier institutions like IIM-Calcutta have entered into a strategic alliance with NIIT for providing programmes through virtual classrooms.
Jadavpur University is using a mobile-learning centre.
IIT-Bombay has started the program of CDEEP (Centre for Distance Engineering Education Program) as emulated classroom interaction through the use of real time interactive satellite technology.
ERNET & EDUSAT (GSAT-3) systems - to provide support to Tele-education system of Distance learning to reach the un-reached people of India in every nook and corner.
INFONET and CEC (Consortium for Educational Communication) services of University Grants Commission supporting E-content, E-learning and E-course systems.
Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre is an Autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of University Grants Commission (UGC) involved in creating infrastructure for sharing of library and information resources and services among Academic and Research Institutions.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in Maharashtra etc.

Tele-Education System
It is the application of space technology in education. An integrated network system comprising of EDUSAT, Broadband and V-SAT networks helps in bringing virtual class rooms in a multi class environment with seamless two-way interaction between the teachers and students in a collaborative environment. This system should not only enable the lecture delivered from the studio at the University to reach any remote corner but also enable a good teacher in the remote area to provide multicast information to other participants of the programme.

Virtual Learning Campus (VLC)
Virtual Learning Campus or VLC is an approach that divides the responsibility of building, commissioning and running the different systems and Information Infrastructure for education like Broadband, EDUSAT and ERNET services, Synchronous class room environment, Asynchronous knowledge interaction environment, Servers and Portals, E-learning & Digital library, ERP management solutions etc. under centers of specializations in different Institutions in different disciplines. Students in any college may access the services over the web. The college itself needs to maintain basic e-learning and library portals for convenience. Such IT and Knowledge infrastructure in the college is readily standardized and used with reasonable broadband access to the VLC. In Indian context, every region having about 100 to 200 colleges may be brought under one regional VLC. All these VLCs may be connected over a national backbone network that may be formed by integrating different national networks like the ERNET and State Wide Area Network (SWAN) initiatives of the IT department.

Virtual University
Our former president, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam suggests the establishment of a Virtual University in India through networking of all the Universities and other educational institutions for imparting universal tele-education. Virtual university will have the following tasks:
· Act as a central hub of all Universities, which are networked.
· Co-ordinate, organize, schedule and broadcast the lecture of specialists at a mutually convenient time to all participants.
· Digitize all the university libraries and make it available for seamless access by all the universities.
Virtual Universities are learner centric universities, which provide a common platform for teaching in Schools, Colleges and Universities and even vocational courses.

Benefits of ICT in Education
Student
§ Increased access
Flexibility of content and delivery
Combination of work and education
Learner-centered approach
Higher quality of education and new ways of interaction.

Employers
High quality, cost effective professional development in the workplace
§ Upgrading of employee skills, increased productivity
Development of a new learning culture,
Sharing of costs and of training time with the employees
Increased portability of training
Governments
Increase the capacity and cost effectiveness of education and training systems
To reach target groups with limited access to conventional education and training
To support and enhance the quality and relevance of existing educational structures
To ensure the connection of educational institutions and curricula to the emerging networks and information resources
To promote innovation and opportunities for lifelong learning.

Although ICT offers a whole lot of benefits there are some risks of using ICT in education which have to be mitigated through proper mechanisms. They are:
1. It may create a digital divide within class as students who are more familiar with ICT will reap more benefits and learn faster than those who are not as technology savvy.
2. It may shift the attention from the primary goal of the learning process to developing ICT skills, which is the secondary goal.
3. It can affect the bonding process between the teacher and the student as ICT becomes a communication tool rather than face to face conversation and thus the transactional distance is increased.
4. Also since not all teachers are experts with ICT they may be lax in updating the course content online which can slow down the learning among students.
5. The potential of plagiarism is high as student can copy information rather than learning and developing their own skills.
6. There is a need for training all stakeholders in ICT.
7. The cost of hardware and software can be very high.

Conclusion
Presently our university education system is contributing 3 million graduates and post graduates every year and the students seeking employment after completion of 10th class and 10+2 class are around 7 million per year. Thus nearly 10 million youth are injected into the employment market every year. In the 21st century, India needs a large number of talented youth with higher education for the task of knowledge acquisition, knowledge acquisition, knowledge imparting, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. At present India has five hundred and forty million youth under the age of 25 which will continuously growing till the year 2050. Keeping this resource in mind, the Universities and educational systems should improve quality of education to create global cadre of skilled youth.
The increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has brought changes to teaching and learning at all levels of higher education systems (HES) leading to quality enhancements. Traditional forms of teaching and learning are increasingly being converted to online and virtual environments. There are endless possibilities with the integration of ICT in the education system. The use of ICT in education not only improves classroom teaching learning process, but also provides the facility of e-learning. ICT has enhanced distance learning. The teaching community is able to reach remote areas and learners are able to access qualitative learning environment from anywhere and at anytime. It is important that teachers or trainers should be made to adopt technology in their teaching styles to provide pedagogical and educational gains to the learners.



References:
Bhattacharya, I. & Sharma, K. (2007), 'India in the knowledge economy – an electronic paradigm', International Journal of Educational Management Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 543-568.
Cross, M. & Adam, F. (2007), 'ICT Policies and Strategies in Higher Education in South Africa: ‘National and Institutional Pathways', Higher Education Policy 20(1), 73-95
UNESCO, (2002), 'Open and Distance Learning Trends, Policy and Strategy Considerations', UNESCO.
Plomp, T.; Pelgrum, W. J. & Law, N. (2007), 'SITES2006—International comparative survey of pedagogical practices and ICT in education', Education and Information Technologies 12(2), 83-92.
http://education.nic.in/higedu.asp/