G.Biswas Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Educational (Science and Technology) Environment in India and Distance Mode of Delivering Education - A Proposal

Background

After the Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1850), the Western Countries began to reap the fruits of industrialization, which led to plenty of discoveries in science at that time.

The waves of Intellectual Revolution (Renaissance) and Industrial Revolution touched India – then a

British colony – during the end of the 19th Century

Creation of Modern Universities

1850 – 1900 : 5 Modern Indian Universities were set up. Location: Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Allahabad and Lahore in the erstwhile undivided Punjab.

1900 – 1947 : 16 more universities were added. The notable ones include:

Benaras Hindu University (1915), University of Mysore (1916), Osmania University (1918), Aligarh Muslim University (1920) University of Delhi (1922).

1841 - 1950 : 12 Indians were elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

A. Cursetjee, Engineer & Shipbuilder

S. Ramanujan, Mathematician

Sir J. C. Bose, Bio-physicist

Sir C. V. Raman, Physicist

Meghnad Saha, Physicist

Birbal Sahni, Palaeo-botanist

Early Recognition (International)

Sir K. S. Krishnan, Physicist

Homi J. Bhabha, Physicist

Sir S. S. Bhatnagar, Chemist

S. Chandrasekhar, Astrophysicist

P. C. Mahalanobis, Statistician

D.N. Wadia, Geologist

Significant Success - Milestones

In 1888, H. Hertz at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, generated and received electromagnetic waves of wavelength 660 mm and established Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory.

Sometime later, Sir J.C. Bose developed A system for wave transmission at 5 mm wavelength. Millimeter wave transmission system. Point contact Galena detector for the reception of millimeter waves.

Bose-Einstein statistics was introduced for photons in 1923 by S. N. Bose and generalized to atoms by Albert Einstein (Bose-Einstein statistics) in 1924.

Significant Success - Milestones

In 1917, Sir C. V. Raman moved as a Professor of Physics to the Calcutta University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his discovery of ‘Raman Effect’.

Researchers of Genius like Sir C. V. Raman, S. N. Bose, Meghnad Saha, Sir J. C. Bose, K. S.

Krishnan, P.C. Mahalanobis and Homi J. Bhabha created history through their outstanding contributions in Physical, Chemical and Mathematical sciences. The torch lit by them has been kept alight by subsequent generations…

G.N. Ramachandran (1922-2001) FRS and A Jewel in the Crown of the Indian Science was Professor & Head, Molecular Biophysics Unit, lISc, Bangalore

1955: He discovered the triple helical structure of the connective tissue protein called collagen

'The Ramachandran phi-psi Plot' which has become a standard description of protein structure

Great Discovery in Biological Science

IISc has become epitome of Indian excellence in Scientific Research

Indian Institutes of TechnologyThe first Indian Institute of

Technology (IIT) was established at

Kharagpur through an Act of

Parliament in 1951. Subsequently,

IIT Bombay (Mumbai),

IIT Madras (Chennai),

IIT Kanpur,

IIT Delhi,

IIT Guwahati and

IIT Roorkee

were established one by one.

IITKGP

IITM

IITB

IITK

IITD IITG

IITR

IITs have been able to establish respectable visibility in research in

the recent past. Annual research publications (in the respectable

international journals) are around 3600. Six engineering scientists

from the IIT system appear in the list of World’s most cited

engineering scientists (Web of Science).

Major Problem!!

•The Universities run by provincial governments take care of 80% of the post-secondary students.

•Many of these universities are in a bad shape

Even the few that were nurturing respectable education and research 25 years ago (Universities of Pune, Punjab, Calcutta, Jadavpur, Bombay, Madurai Kamraj) are the shadows (12 noon!) of their past.

• China has taken a decision to create 100 IIT like Universities each with annual budget of 25 million US dollars.

• The annual quality manpower generation rate from these Universities are expected to be 0.25 million.

• In 1980, India was way ahead of China in volume and breadth of published research.

• During last thirty years, China’s research production has increased exponentially.

• Today China has outperformed India both in quality and quantity (as measured by the impact factor). The gap is widening even more!

Setting the Standard

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) was initiated by Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) & Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore in 2003 under the leadership of Prof. M.S. Ananth.

The NPTEL programme is funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development for a total budget of 205 million Indian Rupees for the creation of 120 web based courses,120 videocourses and conversion of existing 110 video courses.

Setting the Standard

The first phase of the project is completed and has ensured complete

coverage of the first three years of the undergraduate curriculum in 5 major

Engineering branches: (Web site: http://nptel.iitm.ac.in)

Civil Engineering Computer Science Electrical Engineering Electronics and Communication and Mechanical Engineering.

These were supplemented by the courses in the Core

Sciences and Management. The Video contents are hosted

by “Youtube”

Need for Virtual Technological University

Success of NPTEL has initiated the thinking about the Virtual Technological University (Virtual Tech).

The Virtual Tech is envisaged to have 5 broad Schools covering different areas of expertise.

Each School will float a suitable number of courses in order to cater to the need of various disciplines associated with the school.

Following 5 Schools can be delineated:

School of Education School of Engineering Sciences School of Natural Sciences School of Management Sciences School of Human Sciences

Role of Virtual Technological University

Virtual Tech is envisaged to Develop Course Material using the

expertise available in the country as well as in partnership with the

other partner universities across the world.

The course material will be in the form of Video Tapes, Web based

learning information as well as course ware in the form of Reference

Material.

For the creation of all the course ware, Virtual Tech will

engage a large pool of talented faculty members from IITs,

IISc & other well known Technological Institutions

including superannuated faculty.

As such the huge reserve of well known superannuated faculty

members from the IIT system, and IISc will play a vital role in content

creation.

Virtual Tech – Virtual Laboratories

Academic Programme at the Virtual Tech should develop boundary-less academic environment. It must put more emphasis on interdisciplinary topics and ideas.

Laboratory, Experimental work & Research is crucial in Higher Education. Providing such training for large system is very difficult.

Technologies of Virtual Laboratory and Simulation may fulfill requirements of training for the students in laboratory work.

Experiments at one place are to be perfected and also sharpened, especially in the light of new & complementary features of the knowledge available in open literature.

Experts will conduct thoroughly designed version of the experiments at one place and the procedure & data reduction will be transmitted to remote classrooms at the Institutes where creating such facilities are not possible due to the financial reasons.

Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs

A typical course shall consist of either 1 or 2 or 4 credit units. Accumulation of a certain number of credits will enable a professional student to earn a Certificate/ Diploma/ Degree.

In addition to prepare the courseware for the undergraduates elsewhere, Virtual Tech would also like to make use of its expertise in imparting training to the working professionals in different organizations.

Virtual Tech also proposes to convert this effort into a credit-based academic pursuit for the practicing engineers. The proposed academic program would cover the entire range of courses in the continuing education mode like those under QIP or under SELF FINANCING schemes.

A course of 1 credit under this scheme would comprise of 10 hours of lectures (instructions), 2 hours of tutorials, 8 hours of home work and 1 hour of test. This is equivalent to earning 1 credit point. The expected duration of a 1 credit course is between two weeks (minimum) and one month (maximum).

The tutorials would be used to assign home work, provide necessary help in sorting out difficulties in solving the problems. A course of 2 credits would have 20 hours of lecture, 4 hours of tutorial, 16 hours of home work and 2 hours of test. Likewise a course of 4 credits would have 40 hours of lecture, 8 hours of tutorial, 32 hours of home work and 4 hours of test.

Announcement and Selection: The selection of the candidates will be done through a set of questionnaires that will be made available to the applicants.

Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs

Certificate Program: Academic Requirement for a certificate course is 16 credit points.

(Here tests would be optional and no grades would be awarded)

PG Diploma: Academic Requirement for a PG-Diploma is 32 credit points.One has to earn the credits through several modules having 1 or 2 or 4 credits. One has to appear for the tests in the modular courses, if he/ she desires to obtain a PG Diploma at the end of attending the required number of courses. On completion of the program, grades would be awarded for the PG Diploma.

Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs

Master’s Degree Program: Academic Requirement for a Master’s Degree is 64 credit points. Here, also the tests are mandatory. There can be a residential requirement of about one month for a term paper project of 4 credits. On the completion of the program, grades would be awarded for the PG-Degree. The degree proposed is Master of Engineering (M. Eng.).

The proposed initiative calls for major investments and variety of requirements along with appropriate technologies for a sound beginning of this new paradigm of Outreach Education.

Virtual Tech - Proposed Academic Programs

Acknowledgement

The proposal for the Virtual Tech was prepared jointly by Prof. S.G. Dhande and

the speaker

T h a n k s !