Little Joys

Little Joys in every day Life

What all is required from a good Learning Assistance System?

An optimum learning can be reached if the Right Blend of a Teacher led Teaching is infused in correct balance with new technological innovations like communication devices, higher Internet access and new software innovations.

Internet is reach in India is increasin at a rapid speed. Also, the accessibility of mobile devices powered with Internet.

Advance software innovations available today can be leveraged to achieve a complete Learning Assistance System which primarily should be able to offer tools for:

• Productivity Tools
• Administration Tools
• Communications Tools
• Student Involvement Tools
• Course Content Delivery Tools
• Curriculum Design Tools

In the coming posts we will try to explore what are these tools and how we can use these tools to impart optimum learning experience. 

 

Beat the challenges of e-learning in India

How to beat the challenges of e-Learning?

Today’s technology along with ever increasing internet accessibility has opened of new avenues for learning and teaching. The learning with the aid of these newly evolved medium is largely known as e-Learning. The meaning of this term is also evolving with new innovations in technology as well the educational content creation.

Many people see many cons or pitfalls in e-Learning.

People cite many challenges for adapting e-Learning:

1. Lack of structure
2. Technological awareness and know-how
3. Lack of social interaction.

We will try to take look at how many of these challenges are still relevant in Digital India of 2015.

Challenge
Lack of Structure: This is number one challenge posed by critics of e-Learning. Lack of structure and motivation may make learner disinterested is primary concern of critics of e-Learning.

Solution
A well designed, planned and engaging course mitigates this challenge to a larger extent. It’s primary responsibility of course facilitator/trainer to design course in such a way that it keeps learners interested. To keep up the motivation many instructors offer in course rewards, badge system, which keep students not just engaged but drives them to give extra to the course.

Challenge
Technological awareness and know-how: Many critics feel that to create an e-learning environment needs lots of technical nitty-gritties both and Learner and Instructor end.

Solution
With today’s technology this has to been true, now a days’ advance learning assistance system makes creating e-learning course and participating in it easy as breeze. Once setup these courses sometimes become easier than actually attending the class at physical location.

Challenge
Lack of Social Interaction: Critics many times cite this problem where a learner engaged in e-learning does not get enough of social interaction.

Solution
In the age of facebook, twitter and whatsapp our medium of communication has drastically changed. He youth today is more aware of social politico changes, is more vocal and expressive about them although the channels they use for it are these new age messaging, social networking mediums. E-Learning offers learners to Learn, Teach and Share their knowledge through the medium they understand best. An e-learner can share their learning, get their doubts cleared and offer answers using these new age messaging systems quiet easily.

Towards the end, we all know a self discipline and motivation is any time better than the forced in field of education. e-Learning in India today effectively promotes the same and hence is one of the best available modes of imparting education.

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Usage of smartphone among youth in India

A comparison between smartphone usage among youth in Tier-1 and Tier-2 Cities in India

Post under the series "Youth and eLearning in Digital India"

The Classification of Indian cities comprises a ranking system used by the Government of India. The earlier classification of cities was changed from A-1 to X, A, B-1 and B-2 to Y and C and unclassified cities to Z. X, Y and Z are more commonly known as Tier-1, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities respectively.

Tier-1 Cities or Metros as we call them are Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

Tier-2 or Mini metro class cities are Agra, Ajmer, Aligarh, Allahabad, Amravati, Amritsar, Asansol, Aurangabad, Bareilly, Belgaum, Bhavnagar, Bhiwandi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Bikaner, Bokaro Steel City, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Cuttack, Dehradun, Dhanbad, Durg-Bhilai Nagar, Durgapur, Erode, Faridabad, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Gulbarga, Guntur, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hubli-Dharwad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jammu, Jamnagar, Jamshedpur, Jhansi, Jodhpur, Kannur, Kanpur, Kakinada, Kochi, Kolhapur, Kollam, Kota, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Madurai, Malappuram, Malegaon, Mangalore, Meerut, Moradabad, Mysore, Nagpur, Nanded-Waghala, Nashik, Nellore, Noida, Patna, Pondicherry, Raipur, Rajkot, Rajahmundry, Ranchi, Rourkela, Salem, Sangli, Siliguri, Solapur, Srinagar, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli, Tiruppur, Tirupati, Ujjain, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vasai-Virar City, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Warangal.

According to a survey done by TCS in the cities mentioned above, in year 2014-15, a whopping 72 percent of high school and above students own smartphones (compared to just 40 percent in 2011-12).

Out of these youth in metros has been using smartphones from quite a sometime and had formed a habit of using mobile based apps apart from the regular social networking and communication apps. Hence time they spend on the mobile is already occupied.

The youth in mini metros, on other hand, has newly acquired the smart phones and is rapidly forming habit of these apps, it’s easier to introduce more productive apps and mobile based e-learning to this demography as the time they spend on the mobile is largely unoccupied currently.

An interactive, engaging e-learning activity is more adaptable to this group of youths. The most vital requirement for such app which can deliver e-learning is it should capture students attention in fun way along with imparting knowledge and value add to their mobile usage.