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Abstract:
The development of e-courseware for subjects taught
in the colleges needs considerable enthusiasm,
time, teamwork and a systematic approach from
the concerned Course Expert Group [CEG] and/or
the authoring team. During the process of development,
there is a need to keep the universities and colleges
consulted. So that the final output has high quality
and enthusiastic acceptance on the part of students,
teachers and the university system. An e-courseware
available from elsewhere will have only an informal
reference value unless it is put through an Expert
Group driven by Content Quality Metric processes.
Unlike the individual professor-centric courseware
development, Education Grid attempts to put in
place a formal group effort that has wider acceptability.
The effort here, is also to maintain high standards
in the educational processes suited for our Indian
university systems.
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| Kerala Education Grid [KEG]
introduces a downloadable template to assist e-courseware
development. Interested members who are keen to
develop e-courseware can download the same from
the KEG website. Faculty members using this template
are requested to acknowledge the Kerala Education
Grid by retaining the background image and the footer
in the pages. There are two parts of this document.
The first part introduces the pedagogically sound
templete and the second part attempts to guide the
development of e-courseware. |
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Part I: Customise
the Template
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| Step
I: Locate the downloadable template |
- Type the link www.edugrid.ac.in
in the browser. The KEG portal will open
up with two options: i)
Graphic based (Default) and ii)
Text based. The Text based is rcommended
for low speed connectivity.
- Choose any one of the options according to
your connectivity. The home page of Kerala Education
Grid comes up. Click on the
'courses' link. At the top right sidess
of the page a downloadable link with the caption
"Template"
is provided.
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| Step II: Download
the template of e-courseware development |
- Click on the hyperlinked word
Template. Specify the location where the
template needs to be saved. A file named
"template. zip" will be saved
in the specified location.
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| Step III: Unzip the downloaded
file, "template.zip" atyour convenient
location |
- Right click on the file and extract the file.
Now you are having two folders -
"images" and
"template". The folder named
"images"
contains Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
files and it requires no modifications. The
folder named "template"
contains pages for the course, which needs to
be modified.
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| Step IV: Rename the files |
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Rename all the files inside
the folder "template"
by replacing
' temp' with the
'course name' (for eg; cn for Computer
Networks, os for Operating Systems). Inside
the "template"
folder there is another folder named
"data". The folder
"data" contains several other
folders. One of them is
"univ-papers", which is for
putting all the question papers from different
universities. Other folders are exclusively
for the specific modules of the course, which
could be used for keeping presentations, audio
and/or video files for each module. Rename
all the folders inside
"data" by replacing
' temp' with the
'course name'. The folder
"template" itself should
be renamed with the
"course name".
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| Step V: Provide the Course
ID |
- Contact the course coordinator at the nearest
Resource Centre to get the Course ID. Provide
the respective course ID, course name and version
number in all the pages. (eg. KEG-cusat-04-C07,
KEG-cet--04-C01). Course name is the subject
name.
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| Step IV: Modify the links |
- The side links of all the pages need to be
modified as all the files are renamed
- At the top of the page (Learning Modules only)
there are links to the other learning modules.
Modify these links since the name of the files
has been changed. Similar modifications are
needed at the bottom part of these pages also.
- This is the customized template for the course
you are going to develop. Now, it is ready to
add the relevant materials to the relevant pages
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| Dreamweaver
Tool [Only for Windows environment] |
| To
bring in same the changes in multiple files of a
folder:Open any one of the files in dreamweaver.
Select the portion that you desire to change. Pressing
Ctrl + F a new window pops up. Provide the following
details specified below: |
- Find In -
From the dropdown menu select the option "Folder".
Another field comes up along with a folder icon.
Click on the folder icon. Browse and select
the folder containing all the files to be modified.
- Search For
- From the dropdown menu select the option "Source
Code". Make sure that words/phrase that
you need to replace appear(s) in the text area
to the right of the "Source Code".
- Replace With
- In this text area write the new text
you want to bring in.
- Options -
There are three options. Select the appropriate
one. (Generally, we should select the "Ignore
Whitespace Differences")
- Then click on
"Find All" button given at
the right side of the window. All the files
having the selected word will be listed at the
bottom of the window.
- Now click "Replace
All" button given at the right
side of the window. It replaces the text in
all the files and subfolders inside that folder.
- Save the current document
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| Note: |
- In all the pages there are seven links - 'Search',
'Site Map', 'Contact Us', 'KEG Home', 'KEG Courses'
and "Feedback
', which needs no modification. You are
requested to leave these links as it is. These
links are related to the KEG website.
- By default, the version of the course is 1.0a.
Once it is released it should be changed to
1.0 and so on...
- File extension should be '.htm'
(not '.html')
- Use '.pdf' format instead of '.doc'
file, if needed
- Your feedback and valuable suggestions on
the template are most welcome
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Part II: E-Courseware
Development - A Pedagogic Approach
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| Objectives: |
- To define a standardised process of e-courseware
development
- To introduce consistentency in e-courseware
development
- To define milestones for monitoring the progress
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| Assumptions: |
- The course expert group consisting of the
course coordinator, authors and referee is in
place
- CEG identifies and builds the database of
all the teachers in the subject for refereeing
the content of the course during a statewide
workshop. Prior to the workshop these members
are exposed to "Technology Enhanced Learning
and Teaching" activities
- CEG is encouraged to participate in e-courseware
development process
- Materials are prepared without infringing
copyrights/IPR in terms of contents
- The multimedia team is available to the content
development team
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Major steps in e-courseware
development under Kerala Education Grid
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| Step I: Identification
of the Course |
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Identification of the course/subject
is the first and foremost activity in this process.
It depends on the interest, knowledge and experience
of the group. But it is recommended that the subject
should be chosen from the existing curriculum
of the universities in Kerala. The course has
to have a suitable title and a unique id. The
coordinator of the respective Resource Centre
should provide unique course id for the course.
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| Step II: Collection of
existing syllabi |
| This is an important input
in the e-courseware developmen process. Course Expert
Group [CEG] collects the syllabi from all the universities
in Kerala. |
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| Step III: Development
of the detailed syllabus |
| CEG develops the detailed syllabus
by listing all the concepts explicitly for the proposed
course. Any variance in the existing syllabi and/or
considerations for curriculum revision should also
be highlighted. It is advised to take the superset
of the existing syllabi from different universities
in Kerala. |
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| Step IV: Breaking up the
syllabus into learning modules |
| Syllabus for the proposed course
has to be split into modules. Each module lists
out all the dependent concepts explicitly. To provide
a focused material in a module, it is recommended
that the module size should vary between 2 to 4
lecture-hours. So, in a typical course, there could
be 12-15 modules of total 40 lecture-hours. |
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| Step V: Defining "Target
Learner Group", "Pre-requisites",
and "Course Objectives" |
| Generally, the e-courseware
is targeted to the teachers, teaching assistants
as well as the students of graduate level. CEG decides
the actual target learner group for the course.
Pre-requisites could be a concept or a course, which
is already taught in previous semester(s). Course
objective should be instructional in nature so that
the target learner group could gauge the learning
after completion of the course . |
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| Step VI: Sequencing of
learning modules |
| The CEG, keeping in mind the
dependencies of the concepts, sequences and organises
the modules to maintain the flow and continuity
of the material in the course. CEG may spell out
the freedom available to choose alternative threads
of modules to suit the syllabi under the different
universities. |
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| Step VII: Assigning Weights |
| The course coordinator along
with CEG members assigns weight to all the concepts
depending on the complexity and importance in the
course. The weight of a concept could be used to
provide incentive to the author. |
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| Step VIII: Defining schedule
of course-events |
| CEG spells out a detailed schedule
of course-events that should be put in place. It
guides the teachers to conduct the course and helps
the students to learn effectively. |
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| Step IX: Identification
and classification of assignments, quizzes and mini-projects
for the course |
| The CEG identifies and classifies
the assignments, quizzes and projects [if any] and
develop the same for the course. |
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| Step X: Building e-Library
of related materials |
| Plenty of content is available
over Internet related to almost all the subjects.
CEG builds the e-library of all such relevant materials
including problem sets from different universities
in Kerala, IITs as well as other national/international
universities. |
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| Step XI: Chalking out
a time schedule |
| The course coordinator along
with the members of CEG first chalks out the time
schedule for the completion of each concept/module
and finally for the entire course. |
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| Step XII: Assigning concept/module(s)
to the members of CEG |
| Course coordinator assigns
concept/module(s) to the members of the CEG. These
members work on the concept/module(s) assigned to
them. |
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| Step XIII: Customization
of Content Quality Metric [CQM] |
| Every course must have its
own version of Content Quality Metric [CQM], which
could be used to referee the course material. The
course coordinator along with the members of CEG
customizes the CQM for the course. |
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| Step XIV: Content Creation
[concept/module wise] |
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Power point slides (@ 10-15 slides per lecture)
are provided for the teachers to use while he/she
is taking classes. Detailed content on each concept/module
is also provided. Following typical components
of the content are integrated and synchronised
properly:
- Introduction: Real world problem based introduction
is provided
- Historical Anecdotes
- Problem set: A set of problems (including
objective, subjective and numerical, if any)
is provided.
- Graphics
- Hyperlinks
- Animations
- Audios
- Videos
- Book and web references
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| Step XV: Development of
pre-diagnostic tests for the modules and the entire
course |
| Each module is having a pre-diagnostic
and a post-diagnostic test associated with it. While
the development of the content for the module is
going on [or just after completion], the member
of CEG designs the pre-diagnostic test for the module.
These tests consist of 15-20 multiple-choice questions.
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| Step XVI: Coordination
and Review of Development [Monthly meetings] |
| Monthly meeting of CEG is
very crucial for the development and review of the
progress. Coordinator of the group announces in
advance, the mutually agreed time schedule, venue
and the agenda for the meeting. |
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| Step XVII: Instructional
management (guidelines) for the teachers and students |
| What a student/teacher is supposed
to do for getting the maximum out the course? CEG
provides such information in each module of the
course. |
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| Step XVIII: Refereeing
and Assigning CQM to the Content [Review by experts] |
| Every concept/module passes
through a process called refereeing. A team of experts
called refereeing team assesses the quality of the
content and assigns a rating to the modules on CQM
model. Refereeing team generally is the part of
CEG but it could be any teacher who is actually
involved in teaching the course. |
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| Step XIX: Content Posting |
| Once the material is ready,
it is posted to the Course Management Systems [CMS]
as well as the course-template area in the server.
This facilitates to share ideas, views and insights
with the other members of CEG. |
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| Step XX: Workshop for
teachers [purpose: Feedback redesign] |
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Workshop is conducted for
the teachers who are involved in teaching the course
in the state. The members of CEG present the e-courseware
and the teachers are requested to assess the course
material. They assess the course material developed
by CEG with respect to its usage in their regular
teaching. The objective of this workshop is to
- Motivate the teachers to use the material
- Get feedback from the teachers who are actually
involved in teaching the course
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| Step XXI Incorporation
of changes, if any [Configuration Management] |
| The course material is re-organized
to cater the suggestions of the teachers participated
in the workshop. The course is carefully versionized
so that the changes incorporated are tracked. |
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| Step XXII: CQM Evaluation |
| The course after incorporation
of changes is again evaluated for its final CQM. |
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| Step XXIII: Distribution |
| The refereed e-courseware
is planted (uploaded to the CMS of the server of
each member college of Kerala Education Grid and
on the main portal of the Kerala Education Grid
) to the local colleges for use. |
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| Step XXIV: Maintenance
and Updation |
| After distribution of the
course material to the local colleges, the course
coordinator along with the members of CEG continues
his/her association with the course, initially for
a period of one year. The same team is responsible
for updation and maintenance of the course material. |
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Prepared by
Content Development Team, Kerala Education Grid
Indian Institute of Information Technology and
Management - Kerala
Date: 07-07-04
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