The Hindu Business Line : E-doing an MBA programme

HughesNet Global Education has created the infrastructure to bring real life, interactive education over a satellite connection from the educational institute to a student located anywhere in the country. - S. Mahinsha

As we begin our interview, Srikant Acharya smiles and declares that this meeting is a novel experience for him. For Acharya, who is Vice-President of HughesNet Global Education, is in a studio in Gurgaon near New Delhi while I am in one of the company's state-of-the-art classrooms in Thiruvananthapuram, over three thousand kilometres away. Yet, we can see and hear each other, almost as if we are in the same room, sitting across a table.

This high level of interactivity is possible because we are using a satellite-based interactive technology platform that HughesNet Global Education (HNGE) uses to run a range of education and training programmes.

Formerly known as Direcway Global Education, HNGE is a division of Hughes Communication India Ltd and entered the satellite-based distance learning space in 2002-03. The company has entered into partnerships with several premier management institutions across the country. While the first such tie-up was with the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K), HNGE now has alliances with several other institutions including the IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, XLRI-Jamshedpur, Mudra Institute of Communication-Ahmedabad and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).

In these tie-ups, HNGE acts as a technology and process partner, while each educational institution designs its own courses, determines the entrance procedures and ultimately awards certificates to students who successfully complete the course, says Acharya. Besides facilitating the conduct of classes, HNGE also helps each institution conduct the entrance examinations and interviews required to obtain admission to various courses, he adds.

"We have created the infrastructure to bring real life, interactive education over a satellite connection from the educational institute to a student located anywhere in India," Acharya explains. "We call it interactive onsite learning," he adds.

At the heart of HNGE's system is a satellite-based technology platform that links studios in several cities with around 50 learning centres or classrooms across the country. Teachers from various educational institutions come to a studio and take a class just like they do back in their regular classrooms. Teachers can write on the whiteboard, make presentations and can even ask questions. The live video and audio content of each session is then carried over a satellite network to classrooms across India.

Students can attend classes at HNGE's learning centres across the country. On their computer screen, students can see and hear the teacher. They can interact with the teacher and ask questions any time they wish, and can also interact with classmates using a private messaging system. The process has all the elements of a regular classroom with assignments, presentations and surprise tests, Acharya points out.

Other elements of the academic process have also been integrated in the system. So a special learning management system makes it possible for teachers to conduct online tests or quizzes and even check attendance in each session. Students also receive textbooks and other learning material that enables them to prepare for each class. And those who miss a class can also access a recording of the entire session.

In most programmes, online classes are supplemented by an offline component where students are required to attend short, intensive on-campus sessions, explains Acharya. And while some examinations are conducted online, others are done in the regular manner using a pen and paper, he adds.

It does take people — both students and teachers — a little time to get used to this method of learning, but the initial barriers are swiftly overcome. According to T. Jayaprakash, a Thiruvananthapuram-based entrepreneur who has enrolled for the E-MBA of MAHE, classes in this programme are just like they are in a regular class. "We are able to see the teachers and interact with them and also with other students," he points out. Keyoor Purani, Assistant Professor-Marketing Area, IIM-K and Chairperson of the Institute's interactive distance learning centre adds that members of the IIM-K faculty experimented with a "wide range of pedagogical tools to identify means for effective teaching on this platform".

Purani says that the biggest benefit of interactive distance learning "is that it allows participants to learn while they work, without having to leave their places of work for a long time". For instance, Abhishek Menon who works with a financial services company says he needed to do an MBA, but could not afford to take time off to do a full-time programme while a correspondence course was not an option. The E-MBA offered by MAHE turned out to be the perfect solution for him, he adds.

Similarly, the courses offered by HNGE make it possible for premier B-schools to overcome physical infrastructure constraints and take their educational programmes to a larger number of people, says HNGE's Acharya. The technology used has also reduced the cost of deployment of these educational programmes, he points out. And if students are travelling out of their city, they can attend classes in any of HNGE's learning centres, he adds.

With a limited number of seats in good B-schools and a growing number of applicants, the demand for such interactive online learning programmes in management will grow rapidly over the next few years, Acharya believes. HNGE, on its part, is set to tap this growing market and is also exploring new segments such as offering its distance learning technology platform to companies that want to conduct training programmes for sales people or distributors across the country. The company is also looking at establishing classrooms in the offices of large companies and offering specially developed distance education programmes for the employees of these companies, he adds.