ISSN (Print): 2328-3734, ISSN (Online): 2328-3696, ISSN (CD-ROM): 2328-3688
Research in Humanities, Arts
and Social Sciences
AIJRHASS is a refereed, indexed, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and open access journal published by International Association of Scientific Innovation and Research (IASIR), USA
(An Association Unifying the Sciences, Engineering, and Applied Research)
Hybrid Technology Induced Platform: An Answer to E-Learning Solution
Conundrum for Elementary, Higher and Professional Trainings
Divya Sethi1
1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, INDIA.
Mahim Sagar2
2Professor, Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, INDIA.
Corresponding Author: 1Divya Sethi, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies C/o Dr. Mahim Sagar’s Office, 5th Floor, Vishwakarma Bhavan, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi
110016, INDIA
I. Introduction
A. Education and its types
The word education originates from a Latin word - education, meaning “A breeding, a bringing-up, a rearing”. It is a social process facilitating learning and acquiring knowledge, beliefs and values- “a process of living and not a preparation for future living” (John Dewey1916). It is acquired through either one of the methods of teaching, training, research, and discussions or a combination of those. Philosophers and Scholars have emphasized enough on the importance of the good education on the character, attitude, believes and values of the Individuals and thus on the Society (Martin Luther King Jr., Plato, Naleson Mandela).It has become a basic need alike: food, shelter and clothing. It impacts the mankind distinctively in every walk of life. Higher literacy rates drives higher prosperity and peace since an educated human can secure a job and eradicate poverty, is respectful, intelligent, informed and wise, is able to judge between a good and a bad, and builds ethical values. (Fromm 1969; Williams 2008; Smith & Smith 2008).A peaceful society can be built with educated human beings only. Hence, education is the most focused and high priority agenda globally. It has been emphasized that education is the process of learning which starts with birth and should go on till death. The three main types of education are described as: (a) Formal education, (b) Informal education, and (c) Non-Formal education (Zubair Akhtar, 2017).
Formal education is a disciplined process with defined set of rules, hierarchies and is facilitated through a
Teacher-Abstract: The objective of this research is to analyze and evaluate various digital learning tools for delivering quality and ubiquitous learning for education & training, and it’s perception as an effective and affordable medium across various segments. Literature review reflects possible discrepancies regarding the effectiveness of e-learning tools for imparting quality learning experience and issues related to clarification of best fit solution for Elementary, Higher and Professional Learning. Data collected through a structured questionnaire from a sample of 360 learners is analyzed. Three distinct user clusters- “Basic learning”, “Advance learning” and “Skill up-gradation” are identified. An analysis of existing technologies is undertaken by a 7 member industry expert panel for discovering the broader solution categories and the respective sweat spots using FGD (Focus Group Discussion).Two technology platforms- Synchronous and Asynchronous, and three delivery mediums – Mobile devices, Desktop and Digital class-rooms are identified. A “Digital Learning Product- Segment Value Mix” is developed with help from expert panel using Delphi Technique. The study concludes with several recommendations for future research regarding learner’s perception towards e-learning solutions, digital platform decision tree and role of the institutions in this domain. In this research paper an attempt has been made to prioritize, channelized and inculcate the hybrid technology for digital learning platforms for implementing cost effective and approachable solutions.
Key Words: e-learning, formal and informal training, decision tree for e-learning, e-learning segment-value mix
Student instruction format. It has following stages: i) basic education which starts when a child enters into a primary school for elementary education and follows through to higher and secondary schooling. ii) The academic education is imparted to a student in a college or a university resulting into a formal degree or certificate which enables him/her to secure a job, it may also be described as trade or skill development learning. A 10% rise in students attaining basic literacy results in 0.3% rise in annual growth rate of that country (Akkhtar 2017; Hanushek & Wooesman 2009). Informal Education is beyond a formal set-up and could happen at any place, does not follow any hierarchy or a rule or a process. It could be as simple as a daughter learning a recipe from her grandmother or somebody reading a book or an article at any time or a place. Exposure through social media interactions and Google search for more knowledge gain, are a few other examples. on-Formal Education is generally about adult literacy or serving a need of a homogeneous group in a customizable yet systematic manner, and could be like delivered at home learning, individual instruction or through distance learning, computer assisted learning methods. It is to develop a particular skill or imparting a specific knowledge to the learner and is beyond a formal school or a college/university program.
B. Issues & Challenges with Education
Formal education and within that, basic education is the most emphasized subject globally, since it serves as the basic foundation of the learning journey, and therefore, needs to be nursed and cared well.
Unfortunately, there is a wide gap between the High-Income and Low-Income Countries for Formal-Basic education methodologies. At one end, schools in USA are contemplating use of advance technologies like: 1-to-1 computing, e-rate program, fully on-line schools with help from FCC program & NGOs such as: Bill & Millinda Gates Foundation, The Michale & Susen Dell Foundation and educate for enabling adaptive and personalized learning for the students. Whereas, on the other end, Low-Income countries had been struggling to impart the basic education to their children on account of lack of schools, lack of quality of teachers, infrastructure and poverty.
Hence, imparting basic education to the growing children of the Low-Income countries has been a strongly driven agenda since year 2000. World leaders affirmed their commitment to EFA’s millennium goal of bridging the education divide in poor countries by 2015 (World Economic Forum, United Nations Summit 2000). An annual spend of 15Billion USD had been committed by various government bodies and donors to ensure a full cycle of primary education to all boys & girls across the globe by 2015(UNESCO 2010a).As a result, though the number of schools have increased in countries like India, where there is now a school in the vicinity of 1 Kilometer of a child, Right to education became a Law in 2010 , schemes like text books provisioning by the school , mid-day meals, scholarships for girl and minority communities have been launched. It is resulted in higher number of enrolments but with high first year drop-out percentage. It stands at staggering 9% and 13% for sub-African and West and South Asian countries respectively. The top two reasons for high dropout percentage are: Cost and Poor Quality of Schooling (UNESCO 2010a; World Bank 2007; Crounch, 2005; NPC Nigeria & ORC Macro; Hanushak and Lavy 1994).
Quality of schooling is affected by factors such as: quality of teachers, higher number of teacher vacancies, and quality of infrastructure in school and at home, availability and quality of text book (ASER, 2005).It gets complicated with large scale and wide spread of schools, for example India has over 5.5Millionsteachers spread across more than 1.0 Million schools with around 4550 teacher training institutions. There is huge disparity of competence noticed between rural and urban children with more than half of the rural children are three grades behind the level they should be, with lower level of competencies in math and reading ability in comparison to their legitimate peers in urban India (NCF 2005; NCTE 2005 Annual report 2004-05; ASER 2010). Therefore, it explains the need of right technology interventions for quality education for Students and Teachers.
In the Non-Formal education domain, Federal institutions specifically in developing countries have deep interest in developing skilled workers at a mass scale and high speed for employment generation and entrepreneurship development as a national agenda. Such initiatives are dependent on Technologies like distance education and on-line platforms to complement the class room learning (Skill development program of India, other countries) for success. Industry/Employers also need to train their employees on new products, technologies, processes and policies through class-room, on-job and on-line trainings. Employers leverage on-line and remote class rooms for advancing the training cycles, reduce the costs yet maintaining the quality.
C. Role of Technology in Education
Technology and digital channels have been adopted by High-Income and Low-Income Countries equally for lifting-up the quality of the basic education. Technologies like Learning Management Systems, Video Conferencing Systems, Student Information Management Systems, and Computer assisted and mediated learning, Mobile learning options are evaluated. Role of Distance education, e-Learning in delivering the objectives of learning has been hotly debated for decades now.
Bates (2005) in second edition of his book: Technology, E-learning and Distance education, proposed three generations of Distance Education based on use of Technology. First Generation involved only a single use of technology: “print”, Second Generation involved “print+ broadcast (by a third party)” and Third Generation is about
“having a two way communication between student and teacher using internet or videoconferencing”. He also evaluated the economics of various delivery channels of Distance Education. He proposed E-learning as a part of Distance Education with various types based on technology used. The continuum of technology based learning (Bates & Pool, 2003) suggests a variety of learning types from face-to-face with no e-learning to mixed media (class room + e-learning) to fully e-learning.
e-Learning can be considered as a medium of delivering education digitally through any one or combinations of any of these: intranet, intranets, extranets, CD-ROM, Interactive or non-Interactive Television Channels, Satellite broadcast and is synonymous with terms like Web Based Learning (WBL), Internet Based Learning (IBL), Web Based Instructions (WBI), On Line Learning (OL), advanced distributed learning (ADL), Mobile Learning etc. (Urdan & Weggen, 2000, Khan 2001).
Various researchers (Papp 2000, Benigno & Trentin 2000, Volley & Lord 2000) studied and proposed various Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for e-Learning ranging from macro prospective to course contentment, e-learning program design, e-learning platform, student-student interaction, information technology, e-learning environment, student characteristics, support available and for e-learning selection & success measures based on various researches, surveys and experiments largely in University Environment.
Helmi (2002), Govindasamy (2002), and Baylor & Ritchie (2002) suggested three driving forces to learning, 7 e-learning quality benchmarks, and impact of 7 independent factors related to education technology on five dependent measures respectively. Salim (2007) suggested four CSF categories (1) instructor (2) student (3) information technology and (4) university support and detailed factors for each category using confirmatory factor model and SEM. An e-Learning CFM instrument is proposed addressing all these categories and attributes for Higher/Academic Education.
In similar concerns, the Stanford University Center for Research on education in USA revealed “over whelming negative impact of the technology” on the students of fully funded, full time on-line schools. USA has around 200 such schools with more than 200,000 students across the state in USA. Whereas, distance education technology is widely used in developing countries. EDUSAT is a widely spread out program in India with coverage of 55,000 Schools and Universities with a combination of One-Way and Two-Way Interactive class-rooms (Amrendra 2005). Private Institutions like NIIT have launched Hole-In-The-Wall (Mitra, 2005) technology for bridging the digital divide in India and other SAARC countries. Other private distance education service providers like Hughes, Environ have set-up multiple hundreds of distance education centers for Advance Education and certification courses for students and working professionals. EDUCOMP on the other hand revolutionized the concept of class-room to Smart Class rooms by using advance technologies. Many Universities such as VIT, Anna University even Kolkatta, IIM-Kozhikode etc. have launched distance education department for offering under graduate and post graduate programs as applicable by leveraging the distance education technologies by setting-up smart class-rooms in the affiliated colleges themselves or in collaboration with the partners, setting-up offshore campuses and leveraging immersive technologies. (Website: NIIT, HUGHES, EDUCOMP, Environ, ISB).Similarly other studies in USA, UK and developing countries have evaluated the concept of computers in education. They offered free computers to the students at home and schools and did not find any great improvement on the student’s performance (Fairlie & Robinson, 2013; Barrera- Osorio and Linden et al., 2009). Whereas, other studies found the positive impact of ICT in education. Structured Computer aided RCT programs reflected positive impact on student’s performance even in a subject like mathematics along with the positive influence of normal ICT interventions on English and Science in UK (Machin et al. 2006; Barrow et al. 2009). Higher or Secondary level students require complementary training to build their opinions using on-line courses / tutorials and in preparing for competitive exams. Various commercial institutes or off-line academies have developed on-line portals as well for addressing such needs and to complement the class room training (Coursera, Khan academy).
At the same time, Impact of mobile phones on student education is deeply studied across the Globe. Most of the studies reflect negative influence of mobile phone use in the class rooms because of distraction caused by texting, twitter, chatting, and reduced efficiency of task completion and learning during multi-tasking. Even the psychological literature also reaffirms the same. (Fryer2012; Jeffry et al. 2015; Levine et al. 2013; Lee et al. 2014), while on the other end, a few studies reflected positive improvement in the test results of the students in UK, whose parents were texted the details of home assignments (Bergman,2012).
The genesis of these research papers and experiments indicate that mere adoption of any type of technology, does not contribute to the quality of the education. However, carefully selected technology which is well-embedded within the curriculum makes a huge difference for that user segment.
D. The Solution Conundrum
Management System (LMS) and Video Conferencing Solution providers, and application developers, (b) The System Integrators: IT and Specialized firms offering end to end solutions, and (c) The Distance education service providers. The Industry has risen in scale and volume offering variety of solutions to choose from for example: Digital content development in US alone is USD 3Billions, LMS industry is over USD 8Bnper annum with some 500 players globally, Video Conferencing Industry also relishes the growth in Immersive technology with more than 10 OEMs and solution providers, and an aggregation of System Integrators and Distance Education Service Providers. With cut-throat competition and high stakes to claim, alike any other industry, many of the organizations have turned out to be highly commercialized and business oriented leading to, heavy marketing, lengthy and time consuming technology evaluations, and investments in proof of concepts, making the choice of right technology an incredibly challenging task.
To summarize, literature review and study of various experiments indicate that different user segments have different requirements and expectations from digital learning platforms for instance: Federal system wants to bridge the illiteracy divide between rural and urban geographies with quality and ubiquitous basic education to all boys and girls, at lowest cost, and train the teachers to improve the quality of schooling. Whereas, higher and secondary students would want smart classes for building concept opinions, on-line tutorials for practicing and preparation for cracking the competitive examinations. In addition, under-graduation and post-graduation students would like expert lectures, and collaborative and Immersive learning environment. They would also like to have the flexibility of place and time. Similarly, the Corporates want their employees to consistently upgrade their skills for higher productivity and efficiency in a flexible and convenient manner but without compromising Quality. Therefore, it is essential to identify the user perception factors, key user segments and the need gap. A framework which could help in identifying the right technology for the user segment, based on segment needs and solution sweat spots, will help in choosing the right technology for the users for the maximum benefits.
II. Material & Methodology
A. Design of Sample
Research Type: Study, Qualitative Research (DIs & FGDs)
Sampling Method: Non-probability sampling technique is used. A Judgment sample of professionals and faculty
involved in e-learning programs is selected basis on researcher’s judgment. Sample consists of the end-users who had attended at least one e-learning program. Sample has equal representation of different type of users from school, universities and corporate employees.
Sample Selection: 79 students across 1 metro and 1 urban town is selected across the school, university and a corporate for a fair representation of different type of users. Equal representations of male and female learners were chosen to avoid gender bias. 7 Faculty members across 3 Schools and 2 each from UG/PG courses were included in the study. An industry panel of 7 members comprising of 2 product managers, 3 solution architects and 3 faculty members were chosen across different towns, companies and genders to avoid geographic, gender and organization biases.
Sampling method and selection criterion is summarized in the table 1. Table 1: Sampling 1. Sample : Category Spread
User Segments Description
1. Students Total 64 Students from Senior Secondary and UG/PG 2. Working Professionals Total 15 Working Professionals from Two large companies
3. Faculty members Total 7 from School Teachers & University Professors 4. Product/ Solution Architects Total 5 from OEM, Solution Provider, Service Provider
2. Sample : Geography Spread Sample Mix
Metro Town Class-B Town
Direct Interviews
FGDs (Industry
Experts) Direct Interviews
1. Students 40 2 24 2. Working Professionals 10 5 3. HR Admin 1 1 4.Faculty 5 2 Total 36 2 18
B. Questionnaire Design
Focused Group Discussion was carried out with the 7 member expert panel comprising of 5 industry experts and 2 faculty members. Moderator introduced and opened the discussion to understand various aspects of Digital Learning solutions. Discussion was moderated on different learning methods, delivery mediums and technology used by different type of Institutions for bridging the digital divide. Record of the discussion was created for further analysis. Structured Questionnaire was developed to validate the various key factors for e-learning solutions, derived from Literature review, Industry Panel inputs and previous experiments. Questions were developed to understand the use case for e-learning, choices evaluated for e-learning programs and the reasons for selection of a particular program, over-all experience during the e-learning, key concerns, challenges. 15 Close-ended questions were included in the Questionnaire. Lastly, an open ended question on suggestions or recommendations was added to understand the user expectations and inputs for future research.
Respondents were asked to rate their learning experience on quality of content, continuity and smooth conduct of sessions, effectiveness and quality of Interactions, ease of collaboration , convenience and flexibility of content and session access, cost of the program, value for money, overall satisfaction on a Likert Scale of 1-7.2 sample direct interviews were conducted. The text and approach was modified for easier understanding of the questions and a filter of minimum 2 e-learning courses added as a qualifier for the working professionals to avoid platform biases.
III. Analysis and Results
FGDs with experts resulted in huge data points regarding the e-learning technologies, solutions currently deployed by various institutions and sub-themes. Delphi Technique has been used for categorizing the filtered responses through the expert panel independently. The response was aggregated and was again shared with the experts for validation. Outcome proposes different types of learning methodologies, technologies and delivery mediums, and decision factors for different user categories. Each type of the solution and the technology was then studied to arrive at the sweat spot of the technology which was again referred back to the panel for validation.
Interviews with students, professionals and faculty involved with e-learning provided enough data for deriving the key perception factors for Digital Learning platforms.
A. Key Perception Factors
Key user perception factors from the factor analysis of the DATA from the interviews is outlined in table 2 below. These factors indicate the user expectations from the e-learning solutions for a Live Training Session and a Recorded Session respectively.
Table 2: User Perception Factors
Digital Learning Platforms- Key Perception Factors
Live Classes Recorded Sessions
Live Teacher Session Hand raising feature for doubt raising and permission grant at Teacher's Interaction
Collaborative working on projects, data sheets
Recorded sessions Session archiving
Student -Teacher Interaction through SMS/
High Quality / Un-Interrupted sessions
Real Life experience for Collaborative working, Long duration sessions
Help for off-line sessions through email/SMS/call
Session rating for user feedback Student-Teacher
Interaction through voice or video call
Simultaneous access to multiple class rooms
(Broadcast)
Access from Handset Content Management of off-line sessions- pause, forward, revisit, recording/down load,
Low bandwidth adoptability Attendance Management Simultaneous sessions
(Multicast)
Access from Multimedia PC at
Home
Content Sharing Secure and authorized access Quiz/ On-Line Test &
Certification
Collaborative working on projects, data sheets
Access from Smart Classrooms
Attendance Management Any Device (Handset) compatibility Lecture mode Session recording Tests and Certification Multimedia PC access-
Internet/Intranet Presentation sharing Interoperability : with other
technologies & public platforms
Integration with Enterprise Applications-HRMS/EMAIL
for single sign-on
B. User Segments and Need-Map
Key user segments and the need gap from the interviews are explained in table3 below. Three Key user segments: (a) Basic Education, (b) Advance Education (Formal Education), and (c) Skill Development (Informal Education) for Corporates, Teachers and Federal system are identified. Key characteristics and Key Needs of the User Segments are derived using Cluster Analysis to arrive at a User Need Gap. The common needs across the segments are summarized as: Quality of Student-Teacher Interactions, Un-Interrupted Session flow, Cost, Flexibility to access (anytime, anywhere, any device), On-Demand Help, Attendance, Testing & Certifications.
Table 3: Segment Need-Gap
Mapping of the key issues from the need map, on the intensity scale represents the opportunity areas for the institutions and industry players. Quality, Continuity, Over-all Experience, and Cost Top the Chart. Flexibility and Convenience are the next ranked Issues followed by Help and Content control for recorded sessions. Opportunity matrix for Digital Learning Platforms is shown in the table 4 as below.
Table 4: Opportunity Matrix
C. Digital Learning Methods &Technologies
Industry panel FGD and Literature reviews suggest a Digital Learning Model as shown in figure 1. It comprises of three broad stages starting with Learning Methods followed by Learning Technology followed by a Delivery
Basic Education (Schools) Advance Education (College / University) Skill Development (Corporates) Teacher Training Need Gap The quality of training
sessions is dependent on the network availability, server ability. If any of those go down then the session fails. At times the reverse interaction is
not effective.
Difficult to collaborate for group work. Dependency
on network availability. Long hour sessions are tiring. Heavy data/video
file sharing for case studies, project reports etc. Live Sessions limited
to campus class-rooms.
Multiple sign-on for session participation. Difficulty in managing the content. Not able to share the content. Session breakdown because
of buffering/bandwidth on handset. Restricted/Limited
help on sessions.
Content should be downloadable. Sessions should be available off line
as well. Consultation post sessions if required
Key Needs Quality of the Session, Quality of Student-Teacher Interaction, Continuity, Latency
Real Life Experience, High Collaboration Needs, High Quality
Student-Faculty Interactions, Heavy File/
Video Usage. Access Flexibility
Session quality, Integration with company applications,
Help through SMS/E-Mail/Call.
Flexibility of Timing, On-Demand Quality Interactions, Quality of
Channels. These stages and the decision factors are described in the following section based on Industry panel inputs.
Figure 1: Digital Learning Model
C.1. Learning Methods
Researchers define distance education as a formal education process in which the faculty and the students are geographically separated. Students are highly benefitted because they can experience the same learning at a location which is conveniently placed for them. At the same time, Institutes are able to expand their reach to more number of students and impart same quality education through either Synchronous Learning or Asynchronous Learning.
In Synchronous learning method, both teaching and learning happens at the same time (real time) using: (i) audio/video collaboration (ii) online lectures (iii) and a stable and reliable network for two-way interaction as described in figure 2. Student –Teacher two-way interactions can be enabled through multiple options such as a voice/ video call, via text messages, through emails or a combination of all or any two at an application layer. Additional features like attendance management, assessment, raising or addressing a query, white-board integration, feedback mechanism, launching a quiz etc. enables a class-room like environment to the participants at the higher end of the solution options. However, a hybrid of one-way broadcast of lecture using a Satellite/ TV channel and return through PSTN/ Internet is also prevalent but with limited features and interactivity though, at a lower cost as compared to a fully integrated and loaded option. Reliable network serves as a key factor for Synchronous Learning for ensuring a real-time interaction between the teacher and the learner. Both the above mentioned models have been used by many projects and solutions in India like: EDUSAT, Hughes, EDUCOMP etc. and professional training institutions like: Indian Nursing Council, Indian School of Business, Havard/Standford for extended campuses.
Figure 2: Synchronous Learning
Asynchronous Learning: In asynchronous learning there is a time delay between the teaching and learning. Self-paced courses available on Internet, stored audio/visuals or presentations, videotaped classes are accessed by the learners as described in figure 3. It does not offer class-room like environment but learners can leave the query through an email or a text message to the expert, who can revert to the query on his convenience later. Learners assess the content through Internet and the content providers store the content on cloud. Assessment or course certification is provided through an on-line test.
This mode of digital learning is prevalent in corporates for the employee training, higher secondary students for on-line tutorials and Federal systems for Skill development (Khan Chacha, NIIT etc.).
Figure 3: Asynchronous Learning
C.2 Learning Technologies
Researchers have acknowledged the contribution of Learning Management Systems (LMS), Videoconferencing and ICT technologies in the development of distance learning solutions. These technologies are core to any digital learning solution.
(i) Learning Management Systems (LMS) serve as a backbone of any distance education industry. LMS essentially is the Software, required for facilitating the class-room environment and communication between teacher & students. It is the sharing platform for on-line audio & video services. It provides collaboration services for sharing of files, PowerPoint presentation, flash files and many more, using various support tools available in the software. Remote users access the central server through a client and avail the e-learning services.
The key decision factors for LMS are: a) type of learning, b) type of platform, and c) integration capability. a) Learning Type:
LMS deliver the digital learning in on-line and Off-line mode.
Online mode: Online Mode simulates the actual class-room set-up. Teacher’s lecture/session is multi-casted/broadcasted on a network with the help of available files & tools. The students are able to interact with the teacher using audio/video/text tools available and is relevant for Synchronous Learning.
Offline mode: In this mode, the lectures will be stored in central server and students can access this any time of day. They can take this lecture, quiz, tests associated to get evaluated on their understanding etc. It is suitable for Asynchronous Learning.
b) Platform Type:
LMS platforms can be divided in two broader categories: Open source and Proprietary platforms.
Open Source: Open Source platforms are platforms available on-line. Moodle is a typical and popular Open Source LMS Platform.
Proprietary: These platforms offer less flexibility and are found more costly as compared to Open Source platforms. However, they offer more features, customization possibilities and reliability given that they operate in a controlled environment.
c) Integration capability:
The other important decision factor is the Integration capability of the LMS platform with other applications platforms (HRMS/ Sales Force etc.) for corporate use, Mobile OS compatibility and with other technologies such as: Video conferencing solutions (H.323 codecs) or other public collaboration platforms such as: Skype, Blue Jeans, MS Office 365, Google Hangout, Webex etc.
A typical LMS layout is articulated in the figure 4 below. The upper part (A) displays an instructor explaining the OSI Layers concepts to the IT students from two different types of the class rooms (B). One with a common large screen with a tool with each student and the other is designed with a dedicated multimedia desktop for each student. The middle layer (C) displays the content shared by the Instructor onside and (D) displays the interactivity options on the other side. In the off-line/ asynchronous mode, it turns into a recorded session without Live Instructor Window and Interactivity options.
(ii)Video Conferencing technology: Video conferencing technology is the second most prevalent technology used in distance education platforms for higher studies. Saliem (2005) suggested a VCMI video conferencing mediated instruction (VCMI) model which studied the impact and effectiveness of the VCMI on the students and in delivering the learning objectives. It provides special features suitable for e-learning such as Lecture mode, File sharing, Screen sharing, High definition audio and video, Surround sound , Multiple types of cameras & integration options making it highly collaborative. In addition, it can provide highly immersive experience suitable for long hour sessions through large screens. It offers various types of options, starting from Mobile compatible clients to a Desktop version to a HD Class Room with multiple types of configurations to highly Immersive Telepresence Studios.
Leading OEMs like Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, Vidyo and MS Link along with their System Integration (SI) partners and Value Added Resellers (VARs) help in stitching an end-to-end e-learning platform across different mediums. It has the options of recording but is most commonly used in Synchronous learning environments. These platforms offer extensive choices for a wide range of HD collaboration from a Handset to a Classroom to an Immersive learning experience centers. Easier Integration possibilities with the other OEMs (within VC Industry) and with other public platforms is another distinct advantage of the Video Conferencing Technology as compared to LMS. Users looking for immersive and collaborative learning experiences find this technology better than any other technology. However, the higher set-up cost does not fits in all budgets. Podcast, Wikipedia, Blogs and Social media are also researched as alternative and effective learning tools across the globe.
The two other important Learning Technology elements are Content Management and Networks. Key decision factors of these elements are explained below:
Content: Content is another key element of a digital learning platform. It is developed by converting normal content to into a digital format such as: MS presentation, Flash file with 2D/3D graphics, Visio etc. The key decision factor is to choose if it has to be stored in collocated data server or in Cloud for user access. It is used by the Instructor in a Live Class or is accessed by the students in an Off-Line Session. Customized Content is developed through the digital content developers.
Networks for Digital Learning: Experience of Digital Sessions is highly dependent on the type of the network used. Three types of the networks are used for e-Learning. (a) Satellite (VSAT) Networks, (b) High Speed Broadband (IP) Networks and (c) Mobile Networks.
VSAT networks are used to connect high number (Hundreds and Thousands) of SMART Classrooms spread across a large geography with a requirement to run multiple types of classes simultaneously or at different schedules from a Single class room. It offers tremendous flexibility for such requirements at a very low running cost and High up-time, though initial set-up cost is high. These networks are best suited for connecting remote Schools for Basic Education and for connecting remote class room of a remote college of an affiliated university. High Speed Broadband networks (Fiber) are preferred by the Colleges, Universities and Home Users equally for attending the Webcast of a live session or for archiving a stored content. However, it is most commonly used by Home users on a Multimedia PC. Many Universities and Schools use High Speed Internet (with QoS features) for the SMART Class Rooms as well, however it is constrained by the limited feasibility of High speed fiber. Terrestrial networks are also used as backhaul to connect the Remote studios (if any), DATA Centers (as the case may be) for content access to the central studio or master control center (for necessary control and management features) for smooth operations. Lastly, 4G Mobile Networks have been used by the users for Digital Learning as these networks also promise high speed and low latency. These networks are used by the learners for flexibility of time and place and for Off-Line (Asynchronous) Learning.
C.3 Delivery Channels
Digital channels serve as the last mile for delivering a training session to an end user. Live Sessions are conducted from a studio. Instructor controls and manages the class spread across many and different type of class rooms. However, a studio might not be required for an Off-Line training. The other important aspect of the delivery channel for Digital Learning is the remote class room from where the Learner or a Student accesses the session irrespective of its type. Key elements of a typical Studio and Remote class rooms are explained further.
Studio: Teacher operates form a Studio for conducting the classes. At one end, the simplest configuration of a studio is based on a high end multimedia PC with a handy-cam with the right kind of technology. Whereas, on the other end, it will be a professional studio with proper lighting, acoustics, multiple type of cameras, audio and video mixers, document scanner, and integrated white board among other tools. There may be multiple studios in a network depending upon the requirement of simultaneous sessions or convenience of the Trainer.
Remote Class Room: Remote User access is enabled through a remote class room. Three categories of remote class rooms are: Digital Class Room, Desktop based class room or Mobile based class room.
These three prominent delivery channels are explained as below:
(i) Digital Class-Room based learning: Classrooms enabled with connected computers and multimedia devices deliver the distance education to remote schools and universities. It has been adopted by Schools, Universities, and Distance education service providers. A typical professional class room layout is expressed in figure 5.
Figure 5: A Typical Professional e-Learning Class Room
(ii) Desktop based learning: Connected multimedia desktops enabled with right e-learning technology (Video conferencing or LMS or even simple access to podcast, blog, wiki) serves as a window to the learning world for the end users. It can either be within a campus or at home. In addition, Laptops with multimedia configurations and ever increasing footprint of wired/wireless and WiFi network footprints enable flexibility to the users for accessing lectures from anywhere.
(iii)Mobile based learning: Smart phone penetration has increased to higher then 70% in the country/ globally. Mobile networks have also graduated to 4G technologies which offer high speed wireless broadband access to the consumers. Researchers are deliberating on compatibility of these devices as effective distance learning medium given the small screen size and distraction possibilities, however the affordability and availability factors can’t be ignored. Additionally, with increasing popularity of applications and integration possibilities with HRMS of a corporate, Smartphone based access has gained tremendous popularity among employees for skill up-gradation.
A Typical Integrated Digital Learning Platform for all Types of Learning Methods, Access and Types of Networks is explained in figure 6. The VSAT based learning class room is suitable for Basic Education in Schools and for distance education programs of a University. The central studio is configured with the e-Learning Technology (LMS in this case) and connected to the Central HUB (A VSAT Service provider) though a Terrestrial Link for broadcasting the live class to the remote class rooms. The content is stored in the Servers co-hosted at the Studio site in this case. Whereas, a Digital Platform using Terrestrial networks-Internet/ Leased Line is used for Advance Learning or for Skill development using Webcast in an Internet Class room. High Definition or Tele presence can be used alternatively for Professional studies and Campus extension. Individual users can archive the content or attend the webcast sessions on Internet from any type of device (Desktop/Smart Phone/Tablet).
A Decision Tree approved by Industry Expert Panel reflecting the Key factors for selection of Learning Methods, Learning Technologies and Delivery Channels is presented in figure 7. Level of hierarchy is based on the Inter-linkages between the various elements
Figure 7: Decision Tree
Digital Learning Product – Segment Value Mix
The segment need-gaps (based on the perception factors from student interviews) is mapped with the USPs or Sweat Spots of different Learning methods, Technologies and Delivery Channels. The findings were shared with the Industry panel experts individually, using Delphi Technique for developing a Product-Segment Value Mix as described in table 4.
Table 4: Digital Learning Product- Segment Value Mix IV. Discussions & Conclusion
Limitations: The aim of the study was to analyze digital technologies for e-learning for different user segments, understanding their need gap, and develop a model for selecting the best technology for basic, advance and skill development learning from an institution (provider) and learner prospective. Based on inputs from literature review and other global experiments, students, faculty and industry experts were interviewed to understand their perceptions on these issues. However, it may be noted that the findings are based on limited number of users with some experience of e-learning from three towns only. User inputs may be limited to their experience from only one type of e-learning technology. It may vary if they had wider experience of multiple technologies. A larger sample size, spread over a larger geography may reflect some variations. The study conducted is based on the
FGD and DIs of the faculty, teachers and students spread across Class- A, B, C towns. Students view for Basic Education are represented through the Teachers. Additionally, the aspects of Quality of Teacher, Ability of the Teacher in managing the Technology, Quality of Content itself are not considered in the study. Study is based on Qualitative techniques therefore restricted to a limited number of Direct Interviews.
Conclusions: Following conclusions can be drawn from the study: Data analysis clearly reflects that the user perceptions and expectations from digital learning platforms are complex and are benchmarked with traditional class rooms. However, irrespective of the challenges and issues, Digital Learning adoption is growing rapidly (Machin et al. 2006; Barrow et al. 2009) among the institutions for the Basic Education, Universities and Students for the Advance education and among the professionals for Skill development. Consideration should be given to the specific needs and expectations of the user segments from the Digital Learning Platforms. As a matter of fact, effectiveness of the e-Learning would enhance tremendously by selecting the right product which delivers a great value to the User from the Product-Value Mix based on cost and benefits.
Choices made among the Learning Methods- asynchronous and synchronous, among the Learning Technologies: LMS, VC, Content type, Networks, and between various Delivery Channels: Smart Class Rooms, Internet Class
Sweat Spot Issues Ideal User Segment
1. Learning Methods
Synchronous Live student teacher interactions
High cost, High network dependency
Basic Learning, Advance Learning, Skill
Development Asynchronous
Convenience of use, Scalable, Low Cost
Lack of interactivity, assessment
& control mechanisms Skill Development 2. Learning Technologies
LMS
Compatible with Synchronous and
Asynchronous learning, Low Cost, Feature
rich, Compatible with multiple delivery channels
Customization, Integration with business apps like HRMs,
Interoperability with other systems and public platforms
Basic Learning, Advance Learning, Skill
Development
Video conferencing
High Quality Teacher-Student interaction, Highly
collaborative & Immersive experience, Standards based,
Interoperability with other technologies
High cost, High network dependency,
Lack of location flexibility Advance Learning 3. Delivery Channels
Digital Class Rooms
Multiple options for Student-teacher Interactions, Simultaneous Sessions within a Class Room or across class
rooms through VSAT+LMS technology, High quality collaboration & Immersive experience, Multiple configuration
types
High network dependency, Lack of location flexibility, High cost
Basic Learning, Advance Learning, (Synchronous
learning) Desktop Class Room
Highly Scalable because high
adoption of multimedia PCs/ Laptops, Low cost
High network dependency, PC configuration, Limited
immersive experience
Skill Development (Asynchronous)
Mobile Class Room
Highly scalable with increasing
adoption of smart phones/tablets , Low cost, Highly
flexible, High on convenience
Low immersive experience because of small size of device
screen, High dependence on network & device
configuration for interaction quality
Skill Development (Asynchronous Learning)
Rooms and Personal class rooms based on mobile devices cannot be ignored, Since majority of the users clearly related their learning experience and cost to the benefits offered by these choices.
Industry experts suggest a hierarchy of decision tree to arrive at the right combination of the options chosen across the three layers (Learning Methods, Technology and Delivery Channels) from the end user point of view since respondents highlighted Quality, Smooth Conduct, Flexibility, Convenience, Level of Interactivity and Finally the cost of the learning program. There is a direct inter linkage or relation between the choices made in the previous stages to the next stage elements of the decision tree. For example: If the Synchronous Learning method is chosen for a MBA program by an University for its extended campus, affiliated college’s class room, then Video Conferencing could be the learning technology choice supplemented with a dedicated wired network to ensure a smooth conduct of the class through a smart class rooms to enable highly collaborative and immersive learning as it may involve group learning or team projects. Thus the starting point of the Decision Tree is the Type of the User Segment and the expectations from the platform. Similarly , if a solution for the skill development of an organization is to be designed, then asynchronous learning method leading to a LMS technology with cloud content made accessible through an Internet connection for a Mobile based personal class-room access may be built to offer convenience and flexibility at lowest cost. Immersive experience, degree of collaboration with other participants score lower in the need map for this segment and thus the choice of Technology elements and Type of Class room has changed as compared to the advance learning design.
These examples lead to the point that great emphasis on detailing the solution design, selection of right decision tree elements based on deep understanding of the end user expectations is required for building or selecting a relevant and useful digital learning platform. The Impact of quality of content, the role and quality of local assistance on the e-learning is not covered in the study. Future research can be focused on understanding the impact of these aspects on the decision tree elements and its hierarchy. A formal framework depicting the degree of relativity between different decision elements based on a scientific study would help the industry and the learners equally.
Funding Not Applicable
Availability of data and materials
The data will not be shared because this data is from the industries sources that are currently being implemented. Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions
All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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