Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004 |
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eWorld
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IT Training Industry & Economy - Education Making it easy Ambar Singh Roy
AS a child in Bangladesh's Chittagong, Badrul H. Khan had a dream. He dreamed of having access to learning resources that was available only to fellow children in developed countries. The advent of the World Wide Web in the 1990s facilitated the fruition of the dream. Access to quality learning resources became a reality. Through his teachings and publications, the Associate Professor and Director of Education Technology Leadership Graduate Cohort Programme at George Washington University has created a framework for Web-based instruction, training and learning. Dr Khan has authored several books on e-learning as well. Dr Khan is firm in his opinion that India has the capacity to become the educational hub of the world with its IT prowess and strong educational system. However, in this regard, it would be imperative to adopt e-learning early. Dr Khan feels e-learning will eventually free the learning process from the confines of classrooms, as it is an open, flexible and distributed learning process . The available IT skills can be deployed for content design and content development, he says, and adds that India has the potential to develop e-learning modules that can be adopted by other countries as well. In his framework for e-learning, Dr Khan has focussed on eight dimensions, such as pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resources support, ethical considerations and the institutional dimension. The pedagogical dimension of e-learning refers to teaching and learning and addresses issues veering round content analysis, audience analysis, goal analysis, medium analysis, design approach and organisations, methods and strategies of e-learning environments. The technological dimension of the e-learning framework examines issues of technology infrastructure in the e-learning environment. It also includes infrastructure planning and hardware. The interface design refers to the overall look and feel of e-learning programmes. The interface design dimension encompasses page and site design, content design and navigation and usability testing. Dr Khan's e-learning framework includes the assessment of learners as well as the evaluation of the instruction and e-learning environment. The management of e-learning refers to the maintenance of learning environments and distribution of information. The resource support dimension examines the online support and resources that are required to foster meaningful learning environments. The ethical consideration of e-learning relates to social and political influence, cultural diversity, bias, geographical diversity, learner diversity and information accessibility. Finally, the institutional dimension deals with administrative affairs, academic affairs and student services related to e-learning. According to Dr Khan the system requires thoughtful analysis and insight of how to use the resources of the Net and digital technology in concert with instructional design principles and issues important to various dimensions of online learning environments. Dr Khan's e-learning framework was reviewed by scholars and practitioners from across the globe, including those in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Turkey, South Africa, China and Korea. Dr Khan's e-learning framework, it has been acknowledged, has the potential to provide guidance in planning and designing e-learning materials, organising resources for an e-learning environment and designing distributed learning systems, corporate universities, virtual universities, cyber schools. Besides, the framework can help evaluate e-learning programmes and courses, designing and evaluating blended-learning environments and in evaluating e-learning authoring tools and systems. Picture by K.R. Deepak
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