Some thought starters on how to deploy an de-learning ecosystem.

1. April ‘20
E-learning
:some thoughts & ideas:

2. E-learningvstraditionallearning
• Learning happens in a context and for a purpose
• It takes different forms depending on its goal
• But the end goal is always to get a more educated student
• Designing an effective e-learning ecosystem will depend on understanding the
underlying ecosystem and its goals
It’s not very different

3. Whatkindoflearningdowewanttotackle
Some scenarios
Mass eduction for primary/
secondary students
Training people on the job
for a specific skill
Specialised skills for
motivated adults
Self study for general
learning

4. Whatmodesoflearningdoweuse?
And do we need to test ?
No testing
Self-testing
Formal testing
Certification
Self-study
Lecturing
Tutoring
Learning Mode Testing Mode

5. So where does e-learning fit ?
It depends.

6. Scenario1
• Students are likely to be distributed
• So access to course work is an issue
• The coursework is regimented and specific
• So the courses must be very structured
• Motivation levels are low
• Specially in poorer communities, there has to be a strong element of supervision
• Monitoring needs are high
• Unless strict testing in done at a mass scale, there is no real way to determine progress
Mass education for grades 8-12

7. Scenario2
• Motivation levels are relatively high
• People have to sign-up for these course, they are not automatically recruited like
in mass primary education
• Passive supervision would be sufficient
• The course material is likely highly technical
• High interactivity for understanding
• There is already a standardised test that learners can take
• No testing needed - learners will take the routine certification exam
Specific skills for a certification exam like B-tech

8. Let’sdigintoscenario1
• Large volumes - virtually all children need to be enrolled
• Need a scalable solution
• Dispersed students
• Need access
• Low motivation, low participation, high dropout rate
• Still need human interaction and followup
• Mass / regular / consistent testing needed to monitor progress
And see if e-learning can help

9. Elementsforagoode-learningdesign
For Basic / high school scenaio
Online Course
material
2
• Course material needs to be tailored to online presentation
• Condensed, bite-sized, one session at a time
• Use online opportunity to add video / audio content
Online Interactive
practise material
3
• Self-paced quiz material with progress tracking
• Motivated students can go the extra mile to practice
• Unmotivated students can be assigned and queried
Access to online
1
• Goes without saying that internet access is a pre-condition
• Tablets / devices at low cost
• But lack of access can be mitigated through directed classrooms where fewer devices
can be shared and projected

10. Supervised as well
as un-supervised
4
• In areas with good school infrastructure, local teachers can be trained to adapt to e-
learning
• In area of low access, volunteers can be recruited and trained to set up ad-hoc
learning centres, their role would be more of proctors
Centralised /
Realtime Monitoring
5
• The enrolment, progress monitoring, attendance, etc of each student can be centrally
reported in near-realtime
• Location data / video-feeds / biometric verifications etc. be used to avoid fraud /
ghosts-school phenomena
• This affords powerful opportunities for interventions and course-corrections
Centralised online
testing
6
• There is no point in having massive on-line teaching if student still have to cram into
exam centres (which might not even be locally available) for final exams
• Designing an online exam system which is free from cheating is a technical challenge
• A hybrid system - teacher / proctor supervision coupled with online exams would
probably be best
• The goal should be to get to a point where matric / FSc exams can be conducted
reliably in this manner - indeed this should be made mandatory at public level

11. Recap
• These are just some ideas on how to set up an effective e-learning system
• There are many other variables and formats that can be tried - the good thing about
digital ecosystems is that they allow experimentation
• But the main idea is to
• Tailor the solution to the scenario
• Use hybrid systems with (re)trained teachers as well as technology
• Focus on making the course content fit for a digital medium
• Utilise connectivity ‘both-ways’, i.e. not just to send content but to collect metrics and
create processes around these metrics

12. farid98@gmail.com
Thanks!