PGDHE Dissertation

                                                Synopsis

Introduction: Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational material, audio, video, books, notes, presentations etc that are freely available for teachers and students to use, adapt, share, and reuse. Since the inception of the Internet, especially in India, communication, sharing of information and data movability specially in digital format, has become very easy.  The learning process has slightly shifted from face to face study to distance learning mode by the opening of Open Universities and Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are one of the fast growing sources of educational information, along-with libraries and MOOCs, for online/distance learning in higher studies, skill development and acquiring knowledge either working in an establishment or from home.  Since the increase of commercialized online learning platforms like Coursera, ALISON, edX, Udacity, Udemy and nptel, the space of OERs have changed. In India, with the highest registration in higher study after the USA and China, OER is the first choice of acquiring knowledge among the learners.  Few of the Indian universities, specially, IGNOU have made available their lectures, study materials online for their students. These are very helpful to all learners in their exams and studies. IIT Madras has taken initiatives for the online National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (nptel).  SWAYAM initiatives of Govt of India, is another credible initiative contributing to OER. Diversity of healthy ideas are good for knowledge evolution. This is the reason that increase in the OER is always heartily accepted. The objective of this project is to explore the study of Role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education in Indian Context.

Education Style: There is a high requirement of skilled persons in the Indian industries to meet the industrial requirement.  In Indian academic systems, i.e. 10+2+3+2 or 10+2+4+2, students search for a job as early as possible.  Though India has third highest gross registration in higher education, it is least in percentage terms (25.2%) in post graduation.  UGC Guidelines and Employment rules do not allow a learner either for simultaneous Dual Degrees or for registration in higher education on a regular basis respectively. Therefore, Opened Educational Resources becomes one of the best choices to adopt, acquire knowledge in a wider scope without any restrictions. Online courses, distance mode education are one of the growing choices of the employed person to enhance their knowledge.  This project not only explores the benefits of OER but also rationalises its role, impact and competence to improve the skill level of the learners, infrastructure, exposure to the technology and improvement in the overall academic level of the learner.

Rationale for the Study:  The study starts with objectives of finding, whether Open Educational Resources have contribution in higher studies or not. If it has a contribution, then upto which level and impact.  Open Educational Resources are available free to all without any material benefits.  A non commercialized job is always performed in the leisure time or as a lackadaisical work. Therefore, there are possibilities of mistakes, misinterpretations, lack of references and skewed ideas, which may be added in OER.  Specially, subjects related to humanities, arts, culture, religion, politics etc may have negative contents.  These reasons make it essential that a study should be carried out periodically on the OER and exact outcomes may be communicated to all about Open Educational Resources.

Statement of Topic- The subject of the study is “Role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education – A Study in Indian Context”

Objectives:

Study of “Role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education – A Study in Indian Context” is divided into three sub objectives which are given below:

1. To study the Role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education

2. To study the Effectiveness of Open Educational Resources (OER) in India

3. Role of IGNOU's Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education

Hypothesis: 

1. There is not significant contribution of OER in Higher Studies in comparison to the face to face program. But OER via growing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) based communication are contributing upto significant level in all stages of studies in Indian Form of Education.  

2. There are significant Effects of Open Educational Resources (OER) as universities are starting publishing their course material, lecture notes, books duly vetted & verified by experts. The levels of these contents are at par as published books, reports and research papers.

3. IGNOU is one of the first known universities of the world who has made available their commercial educational contents (printed books and video) in e-format, free of cost to all learners from all over the world as Open Educational Resources.  It is an impressive contribution of the University towards the free and accessible information to all.

Definitions :

 Open Educational Resources – Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational material, audio, video, books, notes, presentations etc those are freely available for teachers and students to use, adapt, share, and reuse.

 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) – It  stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications, like telephone lines and wireless signals, computers, as well as software etc.

 Learner - A person willing to learn through any mode of communication

 MOOC - Massive Open Online  Courses, which are conducted by recognised universities, institutions and awarded certificates after completion of the course by evaluation.

 UGC - University Grant Commission, a statutory Organization that governs, controls, frames rules and regulations to Indian  Universities. It is also charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education.

Methodology : 

 There are OERs websites available online free of cost  for open learning and comparative study of their contents.  Reports which are previously published in this regard are also a source of study. Descriptive summaries available in journals  are also included in the study.

Population: 

 The data being populated from the secondary sources, freely available on the internet. Top 50 websites shall be taken for comparative study. Data is also mined from Government's reports on higher studies. A comparative study may also be carried out for top 50 Indian Universities & Institutions who have published or not published their course material, study notes, presentations, videos, audios etc in e-format for all learners free. 

Tools:

To complete the study, Government's Reports, samples collected via self survey of 50 top Indian Universities and top 50 OERs providing material online for learners. A questionnaire feedback from 50 learners of different backgrounds who have benefited from Open Educational Resources (OERs) are also utilised in this study. 

Data Collection:

 Data for analysis shall be collected from following sources.

1. Previous reports, surveys, paper published etc

2. Self data collection

3. Survey from 50 learners

Analysis of Study: 

 The data collected for the study is either Boolean (yes/no) or numeric type ranging from 0 to 5, i.e. grading from useless, poor, beneficial, very good and excellent. Therefore, mean and percentage analysis is sufficient to analyses the data.

Delimitation of the Study:

1. Each learner has own level of acquiring knowledge, area of interest, vision, view and analytical capacities. Thus output of the data depends on the learner's feedback.  

2. The contents of Open Educational Resources (OER) may or may not be of any use to learners. It is observed frequently that the content discarded by one learner is recognised by another learner.

3. Available authentic reports are few that are freely accessible.  Sometimes, reports are jeopardised due to rivalry and tough competition to increase the ranking of OER platform.

4. Sometimes data is not disclosed accurately. It causes errors and misinterpretations while reaching our results.

Bibliography & References:

1. Online source of 50 Top Indian Universities and Institutions.

2. Top 50 websites providing Open Educational Resources (OERs)

3. Fifty Feedback forms received from learners

Proposed Chapter Scheme:

Comments of Project Supervisor/Examiner: