Case Study
India
Indira Gandhi National Open University - Electronic Media Production Centre
Prepared by: Jai Chandiram
Brief description of the programme
The Electronic Media Production Centre (empc), located in the new Sanchar Kendra at the Maidan Garhi campus of Indira Gandhi National Open University (ignou), has a budget of 700,000,000 rupees to produce educational media materials. The distinguishing feature of ignou’s distance education programme is the extensive and systematic use of educational media in its courses.
Today the empc is an advanced centre for the application of media technologies for distance education and training at the national and international level. The primary functions are: programme production; media education; and research.
Programme production
The tasks involved in programme production include:
producing audio-visual course materials;
developing and applying communication technology strategies in distance
education; developing approaches to integrate communication technologies
into existing training programmes;
undertaking pilot projects in the application of new technologies to improve
education, training, and the quality of delivery;
consulting in education communication systems and technologies;
expanding the infrastructure for training and delivery in distance education;
developing high quality course materials for media studies;
providing an audio-visual library and resource centre; and
marketing and selling empc–ignou products and facilities.
Media education
At present, the empc offers a one-year Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication.
The following additional programmes are under development:
Diploma in Audio-Video Technology;
Certificate in Audio Programme Production;
Certificate in Videography; and
Certificate in Video Editing.
The following short-term or weekend courses have been planned as an open school:
‘Art of Video Presentation’;
Interview Techniques for Television’;
'TV Studio Lighting Techniques’; and
‘Evaluation of Educational Television Programmes’.
Research
The empc conducts the following research tasks:
regular feedback studies on programme use; and
specially designed studies to assess quality, content,
and impact are undertaken from
time to time.
Facilities
The facilities available at empc include:
Services
Two large video studios equipped with multi-camera set-ups, eng beta sp
camcorders, edit suites, Quantel Paint Box, audio studios with digital audio
cassette format equipped with eight-track recording facility, audio dubbing suite,
audio edit suites with multi-format editing facility, duplication facilities, including
format transfers and high speed audio cassette duplication, audio-visual library with
more than 564 video and 646 audio cassettes of curriculum-based programmes.
The Training and Development Communication Channel,
which is a teleconferencing facility comprising a studio with teaching end and
up-linking for two-way audio and one-way video through insat-2a on the Extended
C band being offered jointly with the Indian Space Research Organisation.
Presently 23 receiver terminals located all over the county are linked to the
teaching-end studio. Another 135 locations have been identified.
This facility is being used for counselling and teaching students as well as
providing orientation to regional centre personnel.
The system configuration of the Training and Development Communication Channel
is as follows: the teaching-end studio (195 square metres and located in the
Sanchar Kendra complex) is equipped with two cameras on tripods and a third
camera set up as a caption scanner.
Audio and video signals from the control room are fed to the Transportable
Remote Area Communications Terminal for up-linking to the insat-2a satellite.
Direct reception sets are located at state open universities, resource centres,;
and a few remote study centres, as well as at other user institutions.
The return communication is through telephone lines and fax.
The services empc offers include:
producing audiovisuals;
broadcasting and telecasting through national channels;
teleconferencing;
conducting research in educational media;
providing training in media production, research, and technical operations; and
offering short-term courses and workshops in script writing,
presentation techniques,
videography, and technical operations.
Output
So far, empc’s output includes:
a total of 606 videos and 659 audios to date;
about 80 to 100 days of live teleconferences,
conducted per year by various schools of as well as other users through
the Training and Development Communication Channel; and
regular feedback reports on data gathered pertaining to the utilisation of the
teleconferencing.
Problems encountered
Planning and managing distance education
During the preparation of audio-visual materials,
empc works with academics in developing audio-visual productions.
The academics concentrate predominantly on the print materials
and consequently the audio-visual component is often only a
supplementary input of the course materials.
The strengths of audio-visual media are yet to be fully explored.
Greater integration of audio-visuals into print materials in the course materials is
being a attempted in programmes.
Greater interaction with counsellors and facilitating their utilisation of audio-visual
materials, encouraging students and counsellors to use them as part of the
learning system.
Implementing quality assurance
The quality of empc programmes is assured through:
training of technical and programme staff
preview sessions; and
increasing interaction at the concept development stage.
Using and integrating media in distance education
Teleconferencing through the Training and Development Communication Channel.
The response of students at weekends is more than weekdays when students
are not usually available at the study centres.
Certain courses have more active responses (for example,
those in the School of Nursing and the MBA programme).
Instructional design and production for distance education
Instructional design essentially comprises of ‘talking heads’ with few print graphics
and is more easily accepted by experts.
They are yet to experiment with other flexible interactive formats.
The cassette mode of audio-visual materials production is yet to evolve.
Learner support systems
Access to modes of delivery such as lending library system needs
to be strengthened.
Quicker production and timely delivery system are necessary.
The most important issue: Using and integrating media in distance education through the Training and Development Communication Channel
ignou has adopted the multimedia approach to reaching out to its student population. A variety of modes, including print, audio and video, face-to-face counselling, as well as mass media are being adapted. The empc produces the curricula-based audio-visual programmes that are distributed to more than 256 study centres located all over the country. In addition, they are broadcast or telecast over the national network three times a week in regularly allotted time slots.
Yet a need for greater interactivity is always felt. The Training and Development Communication Channel at ignou has added a new dimension, striving to enhance learning by serving as a critical communication bridge. It helps create a ‘virtual classroom’ environment conducive to real-time interaction, lateral learning, immediacy in communications, and participatory decision-making.
The Training and Development Communication Channel has been in operation since 1993. It is a two-way audio, one-way video teleconferencing facility through insat-2a on the Extended C-Band offered jointly with the Indian Space Research Organisation. The teaching end is at empc–ignou, while about 23 receiver ‘nodes’ are located at all state open universities, regional centres, and a few remote study centres. Efforts are underway to set up at least another 135 nodes in the near future.
Other ‘user’ institutions such as the All India Management Association, State Bank of India, and National Dairy Development Board have set up 200 receiver nodes of their own. Other major institutional users include the National Open School, National Centre for Education Research and Training (ncert) the state governments of Karnataka and Gujarat, the Department of Women and Children, the Department of Electronics, and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Dairy Development Board have set up 200 receiver nodes of their own. Other major institutional users include the National Open School, National Centre for Education Research and Training (ncert) the state governments of Karnataka and Gujarat, the Department of Women and Children, the Department of Electronics, and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Training functions
ignou regularly uses the Training and Development Communication Channel for telecounselling and extended counselling with student groups, and for training resource and study centre counsellors and co-ordinators. Different schools at ignou are evolving their own strategies in utilising this facility based on the volume of enrolment in their academic programme, duration of the course, profile of the student groups, and availability of experts.
Other user institutions have put the facility to a variety of uses; for example, the All India Management Association conducts regular classes, and the National Open School and the National Centre for Education Research and Training conduct training sessions for their regional functionaries.
The Department of Women and Children launched a popular social welfare programme ‘Indira Mahila Yojana’, to enable all concerned at the state, district, and village levels to interact with the minister in Delhi.
Response
Regular feedback from the Training and Development Communication Channel’s receiver nodes is being sought and available data shows that there have been extremely good responses in some of ignou’s academic programmes in Management, Nursing, Journalism and Mass Communication, Panchayati Raj, and Tourism, and in most sessions held by other institutions such as those in the Department of Women and Child and the ncert], wherein a lot of participatory processes were planned into the sessions and sufficient advance notice given.
Most students of ignou seem to prefer after-office hours and weekend sessions. A feedback research study to assess the utilisation of the teleconferencing system by the student sessions is being undertaken and will be completed by year-end.
Other aspects need study, including the policy, technical, co-ordination, and administrative components, as well as the academic, research, and production components that in one way or the other influence the success of the sessions. Better co-ordination at the headquarters, school, empc, Indian Space Research Organisation, and resource and study centre levels are being fine tuned.
With resources becoming an additional but critical criteria, efforts are underway to balance in-house use with external use, to make it an economically viable activity. However, there is great scope for improvement in the utilisation of the facility.
Strengths
Technical: The Training and Development Communication Channel is a unique facility using modern satellite-based communication technology. It is eminently suited for mass training simultaneously and cost effective.
Learner content: The Training and Development Communication Channel can improve the quality of training as top level experts could be involved. The asynchronous mode of communication is also possible through recording sessions at the teaching and learning ends and using them in other teaching and learning situations.
Shortcomings
Technical: Due to the poor condition of the telecommunication network in the country, the desired quality and level of interaction is affected. The receiver network is still in the process of expansion.
Learner content: From an academic viewpoint, the audio-visual component, including the Training and Development Communication Channel, is not a mandatory part of the students’ learning package. The optional and supplementary status accorded for various reasons results in it being given lower priority by the schools and students.
They are yet to adapt fully to utilising the technology-aided visual medium with adequate graphic support. They also lack sufficient advance planning of content. The high rate of technology obsolescence is also adding to the problem. A lack of adequate co-ordination among the various departments involved delayed information flow, affecting attendance at the sessions.
Students are faced with mainly logistic problems in attending the sessions as most are working or live at long distances from the venue.
