Engineering Education in India
Since the early 1990s, India has seen an explosion in the
private provision of engineering education. This started in the southern states
of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, but has now spread across the
country. I am not sure what the exact number of seats is on offer, but some
estimates point to more than a million. Any student who aspires to study in an
engineering college today can do so. Even money is not a constraint with
organizations like Foundation for Excellence (FFE) giving scholarships, and
programmes like Udaan run by my friend Sanjay Jain trying to make sure that
unfilled seats don’t go to waste (Disclosure: I am associated with FFE).
But, as is well known, this explosion in quantity has not
been matched by quality. In its report of a decade ago, the UR Rao Committee on
Engineering Education identified serious gaps in the availability of qualified
faculty to teach in engineering courses. Those gaps remain unfilled. Even when
faculty are available, they are often graduates from the same college who turn
to teaching soon after they complete their course.
NPTEL: A Creative Solution
The rainbow in this cloudy picture is provided by the
National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a
government-sponsored initiative that was spearheaded by the older IITs and the
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) starting in 1999. (Professor MS Ananth,
former Director of IIT Madras, and one of the pioneers of NPTEL is in the
picture below).
NPTEL has created videos of lectures by top professors at
the IITs and IISc on a wide variety of engineering topics in tune with the
curriculum of the largest technical universities in India like Anna University
and Karnataka’s VTU. It is not as well known or glamorous as the Khan Academy,
and was started on a modest budget of Rs. 15 crores. But, today it is a great
resource for the serious student.
NPTEL has several important features. Firstly, all videos
are made in broadcast quality, in professional studios. They are then converted
into alternate formats such as MPEG and FLV. Each participating IIT has three
studios. Secondly, there is wide availability and access. All content is
streamed on Youtube and from a server at IIT Madras. If a college lacks
adequate internet bandwidth, they can obtain the video lessons on CDs from the
NPTEL office. Thirdly, all content is peer-reviewed and lessons follow a
standard format agreed upon between the participating institutions. This
ensures quality.
Over time, NPTEL covers basic engineering courses in all the
engineering disciplines. Foundational science courses, and some courses in
management are also a part of the course portfolio. Some specialized courses
and postgraduate electives have also been included in the last few years.
Courses in humanities and social sciences are the next frontier for NPTEL.
NPTEL’s Impact
The numbers are impressive. NPTEL covers 260 courses and has
18,000 videos. 1,000 colleges are using NPTEL videos in their curriculum in
some form or the other. 1,200 faculty have been involved in creating content.
There have been an estimated 100 million channel views.
According to Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras, a
recent committee reviewing India’s National Institutes of Technology (NITs) has
found that many of the toppers in the NITs use NPTEL. Clearly, the NPTEL
resource is very valuable to the motivated student. However, the average
student uses NPTEL for much shorter durations, as low as 1-2 hours. Another
government-appointed committee on Quality Enhancement in Engineering Education
is recommending that colleges use NPTEL content for about one-third of the
class time, with the remaining time used by college faculty – this is to make
sure that the college faculty does not feel disempowered (this is important – I
remember hearing from some VTU faculty a few years ago that many faculty did
not like using NPTEL content in their regular courses because it showed them in
a bad light).
NPTEL: What next?
All the NPTEL material is now being transcribed and pdf
files created so that students can refer to the material easily. This will also
help the creation of subtitles to help students cope with the wide spectrum of
accents used by Indian professors. NPTEL content is in English. There is demand
for the content in local languages. This will enhance access and may increase
student interest. Once the content transcription is completed, translation and
dubbing will become easier to do, so that this need can be fulfilled.
NPTEL was created as a support for existing colleges, hence
there is so far no independent certification based on using the NPTEL content.
But with such a rich content base, independent certification for viewers who
use the content and pass some prescribed tests is a distinct future option.
MOOCs already offer this, though the number of participants who complete a
course on a typical MOOC is less than 5%. (See my earlier post on MOOCs).
A third issue is pedagogy. NPTEL content is mainly in
standard lecture format. It is not realtime. Some videos are of actual
classroom content, but that still does not make it interactive for students
viewing the video. Offline interaction exists for some of the courses –
students can send questions and these are then answered by professors. Web-based
courses are slated to start in February 2014.
But, it could be argued that NPTEL is not completely
exploiting the power of the internet in terms of pedagogy. The fact that NPTEL
is not “sticky” for the average student suggests that this is an important area
for future work. I remember seeing a film on the Khan Academy which underlined
that it made learning more interesting by making learning fun – this could be
an important focus area for NPTEL in the future.
Other Government Initiatives
Credit has to be given to the IITs and the government for
backing NPTEL. Buoyed by this success, the Government of India has impressive
plans to improve the quality and access of higher education using Information
and Communication Technology.
Under the NMEICT, government has approved Rs, 10,000 crores
funding. One of the first goals of this effort is to provide 1GBPS connectivity
to 400 universities and 10MBPS connectivity to 22,500 colleges (both public and
private) across India. Virtual laboratories, remote access to laboratories in
leading technical institutions, low-cost access devices (such as an enhanced
version of Aakash), a DTH channel for every subject, a virtual technical open
university, and a India-centric MOOCs platform are some of the new initiatives
on the cards. As always, there are considerable implementation challenges, and
legitimate questions can be raised as to how all this will be integrated together,
but the government can’t be faulted for a lack of intent or aspiration.
(The information on NPTEL used in this blog is based on a presentation made by Dr. Mangala Sunderkrishnan, IIT Madras, at a meeting at MHRD. I am responsible for any errors. The views expressed here are the personal views of the
author.)
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