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Management Of Refereed Content Generation and utilization for formal Higher Education, by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan, Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K.

As universities, colleges and premier institutions are getting increasingly connected and with network services improving, a key issue is how to add educational services of value to the vast number of students and teachers. The challenge is to generate quality content in large scale and in hundreds of courses, with associated facilitation of the university and college system. This paper outlines the approach centred around a refereed and quality assured development of rich content. We show how this scheme addresses the diverse components of the pedagogic processes involving all the stakeholders in higher education

A three phase approach for staging the development and launching of e-courseware in the colleges, by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan, Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K.

The development of E-Courseware for subjects taught in the colleges needs considerable enthusiasm, time, teamwork, and a systematic approach by the concerned Course Expert Group and the authoring team. There is the need to keep the universities and colleges consulted during the process, so that the final output has quality and enthusiastic acceptance on the part of teachers and the university system.

Do IT Yourself Document Series chapter 1 - Colleges to establish and benefit from education grid services, by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K

This document serial no. 2k3-2 together with an earlier one [1] gives an introduction to the vision, mission and approach of the Kerala Education Grid [KEG] and its role in enhancing the quality of education provided in the colleges supported by the higher education system. The parameters at the core of quality education are delineated in some detail. An overview of the infrastructure requirements and the associated cost for each college are indicated. It recommends the setting up of a college level Education Grid Management team. The document also indicates what kind of information its benefits the KEG will bring to the colleges.

Education Grid - A Distributed learning environment and management framework across institutions,by Prof K. R. Srivathsan, Manjul Sahai and Abhay Singhal

A Web-based networked information and collaboration architecture is hereby presented as Information and Knowledge Grids. This architecture is made possible by a new generation of advanced web-servers called as Aggregation Grid Servers (AGS) based on a concept called Info-Space Operating System (iSOS). Using iSOS, a class of Education Servers have been developed that configure themselves as Education Grid. The Education Grid supports multiple independent course-specific collaborative information and knowledge networks across distributed servers over the Internet. These are in the process of getting deployed in the colleges of Kerala in India for improving the quality of higher education. The Education Grid provides affordable and pedagogically effective online assisted learning environment for the colleges in any subject. The paper describes in some details of the architecture of iSOS based AGS, the Education Grid and the processes of courses management over it.

Kerala Education Grid - a practical approach to bring in quality online assisted learning in Higher Education over a web-enabled environment., by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K.

Today, the Internet and web-technologies have become commonplace and are rapidly decreasing in cost to such an extent that technologies such as Application Servers and Enterprise Portals are fast becoming products and commodities of tomorrow. Web enabling any information access and interaction - from Enterprise Portals, Education to E-Governance or for Healthcare, and every thing that one can imagine - is fast becoming all pervasive to such an extent that almost everyone one the world is affected by it, or contributing something in it.

The 'I' in IT - A Pancha kosha view, by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K.

Present approach of pushing more technology in the form of Enterprise Applications Integration [EAI] has to be integrated with processes that sustain effective knowledge management and culture of learning organization. In this paper we bring out that the ancient Indian Vedic view of Pancha Kosha, i.e. the five-layers view of conscious human existence, together with a 'Knowledge Plant' management model to provide some deep insight into how we holistically integrate people, process and technology with capacity to drive the information space in ways that sustain knowledge enabled wealth creation by organizations working in focused activities.

Future ICT infrastructure for education, by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K.

Presently Information-Communication Technologies, or ICT, is used in education mainly for Internet access, email and limited e-journals access facilities. In a limited way, some form of distance classroom options are used by IGNOU or a few elite institutions. Recently MHRD and some states have taken a few significant initiatives to make better uses of the capabilities provided by IT for education. Notable among these are the NPTEL, INDEST and the Infonet/AICTE/ERNET connectivity programs.

Proposal for industry induction training program for graduates of engineering and postgraduates in sciences under VISTA, by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Coordinator - Education Grid And Director IIITM-K.

This proposal is submitted in response to the concerns expressed in a meeting of key Government officials, Vice Chancellors, representative experts of the academia and members of the GTech / CXOs of IT industry in Trivandrum. The proposal targets at training of graduates chosen by the Technopark and Kerala based IT industries. The broad training outline is given in this document. The training will have substantial practice orientation in soft skills, written and spoken communications, software engineering and IT industry processes.

Creating Human Resources for Information Technology - A Systemic Study (Version 2.0) Submitted to NASSCOM IT workforce Development Group, by R. Narayanan and S. Neethi January 2005.

Information Technology has emerged as a key dominant sector of the Indian economy. Various agencies have studied the issue of developing Human Resources for the IT sector. The quantitative need is sought to be filled by opening more and more engineering colleges - a short-sighted measure. The issue of human resources development for IT cannot be handled through a linear Cause - Effect model. In this report we analyze the needs and constraints of various stakeholders affected by the issue through a Systems Approach. We derive viable design interventions that would balance the needs and constraints. We attempt to map the knowledge and skill components for different educational streams against taxonomy of IT careers.

Proposal for conducting Courses for engineering colleges Through broadcast mode Under Kerala Education Grid / VISTA, by Prof. K.R.Srivathsan Coordinator - Education Grid and Director IIITM-K.

Although many activities have been going on under the Kerala Education Grid Project, they do not directly address the immediate concern of supporting the colleges for overcoming the acute shortage of quality teachers. This proposal provides a refreshingly different attempt to provide quality instruction in the professional subjects of the engineering curricula by involving the Education Grid and the NPTEL group of IITs and IISc. The approach is delineated in Section 3. Before that we briefly review related initiatives and activities that are taking place in the country to address this problem.

Integrated master plan to establish EDUSAT services for education and knowledge empowerment --- A project report of the Government of Kerala, by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Coordinator – Education Grid and Member EDUSAT Task Force, Kerala

This proposal presents a unified master plan to exploit the many opportunities provided by Edusat to enhance the quality of education, training and related services provided under different sectors. All training, education and empowerment services provided by organizations under the purview of different government departments are to benefit from the unified approach to Edusat services.

Localised agrisnet facilitated services with integrated mass media and education support for knowledge driven extension services --- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

The improvement of services to the farming community through the use of ICT, and not the services per se, are to be considered for funding under AGRISNET. Such services are to be facilitated by the integrated information exchanges along the lines of G2G, G2B and G2C across all the relevant stakeholders in the agriculture and allied activities.

Five laws of information science as basis for architecting knowledge infrastructure in education and enterprise --- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

Information Systems of tomorrow need to integrate seamlessly the organization of different kinds of information for the users. One part of it will be the Digital Library that organizes the classification, acquisition, management and archival of generic library objects for the users. On the other part, institutions and organizations are increasingly deploying Enterprise Integration Portals accessible over the Web.

Concurrent instructional services over nptel content for quality education in the colleges --- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K & Coordinator, Education Grid

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is a major initiative of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to develop content in more than 200 courses for the undergraduate studies in the engineering colleges. In this paper we look at several issues and approaches related to deploying and using such content in the colleges so that the intended objective of enhancing the quality of instruction in the engineering colleges is realized.

Proposal to Launch Kerala Mission For Quality Higher Education
Note submitted to the Government of Kerala and the Board of Directors, IIITM-K.
--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K & Coordinator, Education Grid

This proposal presents a public-private partnership to deploy Kerala Education Grid services for supporting what we call as Concurrent Instructional Services (CIS) using NPTEL content for providing high quality of instruction in the different courses that are offered in the Engineering Colleges.

Draft Proposal for Education Grid Consortium
--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K & Coordinator, Education Grid

The Education Grid Consortium is hereby formed by the coming together of the colleges who are signatory to its Open Quality Education Objectives as given in Section 1 of this document. The Consortium Proposal indicates the functional methodology of how this consortium will be financed, regulated and managed to achieve its avowed objectives.

End Of Tour Report--Government of India Sponsored Delegation to select Universities in Canada and USA --- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K & Coordinator, Education Grid

The Department of Electronics (DOE), Government of India has undertaken a major initiative to train a large number of personnel in the area of Information Technology. As per GOI estimates, if the current software exports of the order of US$ 3 bn. is to be increased to about US$ 50 bn. per year over the next decade, the number of skilled persons in software needs to be pushed to about one million in the next several years.

A Concept Paper for a Virtual Institute of Technology --- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K & Coordinator, Education Grid.

Besides taking steps to double their students' intake, IITs are studying alternate ways of further increasing the total students' intake. Considering the revolutionary progress in telecom, networking and computers, this paper study outlines the possibility of adopting unconventional methods based on the setting-up of virtual institutions.

Tutored Video Instruction Based Open Certification And Advanced Technology Appreciation Courses For Taechers In Engineering Colleges Using NPTEL And Other Content--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

Tutored Video Instruction, or, TVI is a well established methodology that allows for innovative adaptations to impart quality instruction using video recorded lectures augmented by appropriate tutored mediation and interaction processes.

E-Readiness For Launching Institute Open Courses--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

IIITM-K is now in an advanced state of readiness to launch web-assisted open courses for a variety of target learner-groups. Unlike classroom teaching that has rich informal processes, the open supported, web-assisted pedagogy is supported, delivered and managed by collaborative teams. Hence, a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the different teams are essential.

Project Proposal To Establish AICTE-NPTEL Education Grid Portal For Deployment Of NPTEL Content And Support Services For Enhancing Quality Of Education In Engineering Colleges--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

To facilitate content deployment, open supplementary content generation and capacity building of teachers and colleges for effective practice of Technology Enhanced Learning. Project to be executed by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management in association with NPTEL and ERNET India.The long-term approach is to build and offer the relevant services through a Course Interaction Portal imbedded in the master Education Grid Portal (www.edugird.in) for each formally released NPTEL course.

Certificate Of Proficiency, Certified Iinstructor And Postgraduate Diploma In Technology Enhanced Learning--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

Under the Education Grid, IIITM-K has developed several systems and processes relating to Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT). Some of these are accessible through the Education Grid Portal (www.iiitmk.ac.in). The institute has also been a close partner in the MHRD funded National Program on Technology Enhnaced Learning (NPTEL) project under which more than 300 Professors from the IITs and IISc have developed e-Content in the form of systematically Recorded Video Lectures (RVL) and/or web-content in over 200 courses broadly conforming to the AICTE syllabi and for use in the engineering colleges. Further, the institute has set up a number of facilities for effective e-content development, management, distribution and establishing TELT in desiring colleges.

Project Proposal To Establish ERNET - Education Grid Servces For NPTEL For Enhancing Quality Of Education In Engineering Colleges Through Deployment And Effective Utilization Of NPTEL Content--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

The project aims to establish a system of NPTEL content dissemination and hosting of respective Course Portals for the different technical/affiliating/deemed universities. These course portals will help align the NPTEL and other open content in a given subject with the corresponding course conducted in the colleges under the concerned university. Further, the project aims at capacity building in the teachers of the colleges, in building college Education Grid Gateway Systems (EGGS) and thereby establish the hi-tech infrastructure to deploy and practice e-learning. The colleges will also benefit very substantially in introducing the critical technology enhanced learning and teaching processes and the quality of education offered to their students and generating good teachers in the process.

Proposal Submitted to Universities/Colleges offering Engineering Education --- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management - Kerala (hereinafter referred to as IIITM-K, visit www.iiitmk.ac.in), an autonomous premier non-profit institution of excellence established by the Government of Kerala makes this offer to any interested University or college (hereinafter referred to as the UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE) to provide the necessary technical and academic consulting services for establishing systems, software and facilitations for effective 'Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching', or, TELT in their courses. The objective of the offer is to equip and enable the UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE to support its upcoming engineering education program by establishing Education Grid Systems and Services, assist in deploying NPTEL and other open content and thereby help enhance the quality of engineering education offered therein.

EDUCATION GRID GLOBAL ALLIANCE OF ACADEMIA – INDUSTRY – GOVERNMENT--- by Prof. K.R. Srivathsan, Director IIITM-K

Education Grid Global Alliance (EGG Alliance) is to establish a collaborative forum of academia, industry and government to provide a major national thrust in improving the quality of education offered in all our universities, colleges and institutions through effective deployment, management and open support for technology enhanced learning and teaching taking advantage of the emerging, connectivity, content, systems and IT enabled services in the higher educational institutions, universities and colleges. Every one of us appreciates the potential of IT to transform the reach and quality of education is also aware that effective use of IT or ICT in education is almost non-existent in the Indian higher education system. The industry is also acutely aware that much of the advanced applications of ICT in industry and for socio-economic development are unlikely to fructify unless the education sector itself becomes a smart user and developer of ICT. EGG Alliance is targeted to promote such applications and development of ICT for enhancing the quality of education and research.