Friday, February 02, 2007

Global players in as Indian institutes sleep

Even as India's desi Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) gets crowded with more and more so-called intellectuals, the wider needs of the Indian student community will now be met by Cambridge College. With a strategically located center in Mumbai Cambridge College spell that their mission is to "to provide academically excellent, time-efficient and cost-effective higher education for a diverse population of working adults for whom those opportunities may have been limited or denied."

The college also has plans to open a school in Delhi, and eventually an entire campus in India. The method by which students will earn their degrees is an adaptive blended learning model. The system was developed by Nishikant Sonwalkar, currently the Vice-President of the Center for Adaptive Learning and Programs at Cambridge College. Sonwalkar researched on the model at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he had been the principal Educational architect.

Amidst such moves one cannot help but wonder what value does institutions like IGNOU bring for the student commnuity. Consider the fact that most course material of IGNOU stand outdated and useless. The only one service that the institution has done till date is to serve as a platform for Indian scholars who have got a wide area to tread and satiate their urge of self-promotion.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

IGNOU and other institutes are highly politicized. The govt. is spending valuable money in sustaining these institutions that do not offer much benefit to the education industry. IGNOU will implement e-learning 1000 years from now.

Anonymous said...

It is too harsh to say that IGNOU's courses are outdated and useless. To comment on IGNOU, one has to recognize the mandate and the quantum of work tht goes in. Yes, quality is questionable. But that is ture for all institutions, including the so called elite insitutions. Well, Ritesh is correct going by the present state of affiars, IGNOU will certainly take 1000 years to implement e-learning in an acceptable manner...