E-learning a Media for Conventional and Open &
Distance Learning
Background
 TU a huge public university with 60 constituent and 832 affiliated
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campuses through out the nation.
Centralized system – everything regulated by the central level.
Science & technical,medical, engineering , agriculture as
technical and science and other Humanities & social sciences,
management, & education programmes in TU. 13.44% in
science and techno, where as in faculties(humanities and
social sciences, management, education, and law) is 86.56%
About 389,460 students ( 2011/12) in TUwhere 40.93% study in
constituent campuses and other 59.07% in affiliated campuses
Teaching and learning is mostly traditional in many cases – face
to face lecturing and note taking prominent
No good library access and even less qualified teachers in
campuses outside Kathmandu and the other major cities.
Students pass rate 24% in Master’s Level and a little bit higher in
Bachelor degree – waste of resources.
Contd.
TU going to be a dual mode(planning
stage)
 E-learning Conceptualized as
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 online learning, web-base learning in
interactive mode interactions with
multimedia materials and/or instructors are
mediated through all electronic media,
including the Internet and other computer
networks (Chang & Chen,2009; Chiu &
Wang, 2008; Basioudis & Lange, 2009;
Duan et al., 2010).
Central Office and University
Campus at a Glance
Distribution of Campuses of TU
5
3
Far
Western
Region
63
69
5
Constituent
Affiliated
MidWestern
Region
11
69
Western
Region
28
163
central
Region
407
13
Eastern
Region
130
Graduation Ceremony, TU
Need of e-Learning
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To address the growing number of higher education
aspirants (e-learning in ODL mode).
Recently FOE, TU has got the responsibility to
upgrade qualification of 13000 working teachers of
schools from the government (agreement of FOE
and NCED, MoE).
To improve quality of education in conventional
mode blending e-learning as access to learning and
learning materials.
E-learning as a way of getting international
exposure to and standards in higher education for
the students.
Collaborative teaching & research in higher
education engaging Universities Denmark for
quality improvement (possibility of having classes of
foreign universities, projects, assignment and
Contd.
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E-learning for "private students” ,(a type of ODL)
support.
The working migrants are increasing and they can
pursue their higher education through ODL(using elearning).
The last 10 years conflicts caused many youths
deprived from education, ODL can be an alternative
for them. E-learning could be a way.
Promotion of ODL in school education, significant
numbers of students are still out of secondary
education and technical & vocational education.
E-friendly students increasing, love e-media rather
than print in learning – need to target this group of
students,
Is e-learning possible?
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Technological and power base
 Nepal Telecommunication has been
planning to reach all 4000 VDCs of the
country with its wifi system by 2015.
Currently it has reached 50%VDCs.
 It is estimated that about 70% people have
access to mobile phone.
 Solar power distributed in subsidized price in
remote areas – an alternative for power
source.
Contd.
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Institutional commitment
 Budget allocation started and a decision is
made in Executive Council of TU
 Ministry of Education has felt the need to
support in ODL
Attraction to M.Phil and Ph.D both in
conventional and distance mode(willingly
pay for the education)
 Free software and bandwidth for
conducting e-learning(eg cloud computing
technology – google aps, wiki, blackboard,
etc)
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Strategies
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Plan, act and lesson learn before implementing in mass
scale (a piloting in a small sector/some course).
Acceptance from all: Government and users positive
attitude (i.e. popularization)
HR development:Training to the faculties in e-learning
pedagogy.
Institutional set up: ICT use as media of instruction, set up
multi-media laboratory for producing the programme and
circulating them
Strict in enrollment: Limit the size of enrollment in
constituent campuses according to the availability of
human resource, educational and physical facilities
available
Change of curriculum: block/modular curriculum focusing
on problem base learning (semester system is needed)
Contd.
Begin ODL from Faculty of Education TU and
some other university/ies of BSU partner as
pilot project and expand to other.
 Allocating annual budget to e-learning
management from this fiscal year.
 Policy of collaborative funding in shared
modality of investment for sustainability of
the programme.
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Challenges
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Fitting E-learning, a developed world’s
phenomena, into developing countries
 High speed internet and uninterrupted power
supply
 Well-trained faculties in IT and pedagogies
 Culturally a belief of being learner and tutor
together for learning
Cost-effectiveness in ODL questionable
 Print media and contact session only –
cheaper than conventional
 Including other media like e-learning could
be expensive(fixed cost and variable cost
may increase).
Contd.
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Meet the demand of disadvantaged section an
irony
 Human resources as well as ICT access
problem
 Learner support
Necessary financial resource management.
 TU has allocated budget for constructing
buildings and e-library(computers are given)
 Software as well as other media-lab equipments
management?
Student support(about 40% dropout cases in Sri
Lanka)
 Learning(different level of tutors, their training,
and remuneration costlier)
 Materials( learning materials differs, HR are not
prepared)
Contd.
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Social recognition of ODL degree/e-learning
 Employment opportunity
 Reluctant to employ
Difficult to put fixed students number(the
present scenario)
Human resource development: Most of the
faculties as well as other resource persons
unfriendly( to e-learning pedagogies and
materials preparation).
Competitive to other universities
Contd.
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Discrimination of ODL students( a matter of
flexibility): may raise voice same credit, working
hours can be covered as conventional mode
students do.
Lab related courses issue: e-learning supplementary
for conventional but problem for ODL
Language issue: can use materials prepared by
other universities but need to be proficient in English
for using them.
Learners’ quality/nature/morale
Faculties quality/nature/morale
Localization of content and Attitudes on e-learning.
How e-learning Relate to PSDR
E-learning can support to PhD, and Small Scale
Research researchers (grants awarded by
PSDR in themes related to it). A provision of
joint supervision from UD and TU
 Increases opportunity of Rights to
Education(employed, women, disadvantaged
section etc).
 Help to increase educated people /critical mass,
ultimately a help for a democratically living
society.
 New cross-cutting areas/subjects that are
necessary for developing countries can be
introduced.
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Expectation from BSU
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Human resource development support
Planning e-learning for ODL and quality insurance (on
the basis of the experiences)
Some lessons from universities Denmark and/or
developed countries in ODL and even in conventional
classes using e-learning (blended learning)
Joint academic programme for some years based on elearning in undergraduate and graduate courses (like
Mphil and Ph.D).
 Different departments in TU has given value to Mphil,
better to have support for such programm, it is the
contemporary need.
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Collaborative supervision in student's research and
collaborative academic research among the faculties.
Exchange of faculties for sharing and learning
technology and researches as well as modalities of
university education.
Changing the mind set of higher authority through visit
of the successful e-learning programmes/PBL.
Impact on Institutional Capacity
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Within 5 years, big number of senior professors are
being retired, will be compensated by this
programme.
Improve in quality standards with shared
experiences.(e-learning, PBL will be introduced).
Improve university management in general learning
best practices.
The conferences and seminars based on researches
of different platform themes can provide opportunity
of understanding the social problems, see the
prospects and act for the development.
Enhance quality in PhD supervision with joint
supervision and some workshops.