Learnings From India

Finally E-learning Begins in India – with a Bang!

2011-05-27T20:57:00.011+05:30

May, 2011 seems to be the beginning of a new era for Indian e-learning. With several companies and organizations announcing e-learning initiatives India is poised to address the gaps that have long existed in this part of the world.

The e-learning era appears to have finally dawned in

India

. From being a largely outward looking industry, where Indian companies primarily served as a service provider for clients in US and Europe, Indian companies are becoming inward looking – a clear reversal of trend. Leading this transformation are several Indian companies that have lined up with some very innovative offerings.

This month Educomp announced that it has joined hands with Great Lakes Institute of Management to provide e-learning education. The two partners are poised to invest around Rs 150 crores (15 million USD) in the next five years and the duo are planning to roll out e-learning management courses which will cost about 10 percent of the cost that a student spends in the regular courses. Sify meanwhile is planning to introduce a learning management system in India and they already have a couple of customers who are interested in its products.

At a corporate level Harvard Business Publishings (HBP) is planning to begin e-learning for Indian managers this year. The courseware will be delivered through the mobile platform. Close on it’s heal are other institutes like the Wharton's Executive Education Division that have also shown a keen interest in beginning such initiatives for the Indian manager.

Even iProf, which claims to be India’s first and largest e-learning superstore for IIT, CAT, PMT and other high-stakes tests on tablet computers, has announced an investment by Kaplan Ventures to enable the iProf platform to offer test preparation in GMAT and GRE, two exams required for admissions to most competitive U.S. business or graduate schools.

The Indian NGO sector too is not far behind and many have already begun using e-learning for furthering the cause of education for the marginalized and the disadvantaged sections of the society. Smile foundation of Ahmedabad has begun a innovative program called the Twin e-learning Programme (STeP) which is designed to offer job-oriented skills to youth from the less privileged sections of society living in urban slums and peripheral rural areas.

In Kolkata, a Jesuit-run media center is promoting e-learning in schools using audio-visual material in a bid to make lessons more interesting. Called Chitrabani, the center, named began its Bichitra Pathsala (innovative school) a year ago.

With so many different e-earning initiatives in the country, the service-driven mindset is rapidly getting replaced with an innovation-driven mindset. This however, brings forth a new challenge of gathering next level e-learning professionals who possess strong grounding in innovation. What it also requires is the need for the industry to enrich itself by drawing in the academic fraternity which has for long been kept out of the commercially-driven service industry.

At the government level, IGNOU, India’s largest Open University, has announced the details of the virtual university for Africa after the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised such an institution in May, 2011, at a summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Pan-African E-learning Network of IGNOU will be devised as a robust e-learning network that will go a long way in alleviating the needs of African nations.

Will it be a Transformative Agent?

2010-11-11T13:22:00.004+05:30

The Nandan Nilekani led UID project appears to be a gigantic step forward in arresting identity frauds and duplication in India. The UID project, it is believed, will bring Indians at par with the European citizens by offering them a social identity number that can be useful to launch social welfare schemes launched and prevent the role of middlemen or political groups that siphon off the money. Here's Nandan Nilekani's interview that throws light on the nuances of the UID project.

My Research Visit to Europe

2010-09-18T04:17:00.004+05:30

Dear Friends,

I have been selected by the European Research, funded by the European Union, to visit Germany and other European countries to undertake a study on my area of doctoral research which is on the New Media and the Internet. In September and October I will be in Potsdam, Germany. I will pen down my everyday experience in Europe, as a traveller. You can read these writeups at www.asimineurope.blogspot.com

Cheers!

AC

Its a Time to Change

2010-09-18T03:26:00.005+05:30

Dear Friends,

Its been a momentous journey with all of you. Its been about 5 years that I started blogging on issues related to e-learning. And all these years e-learning has also evolved, aquiring new forms and new avatars, each better than before. The issues that plagiarized the e-learning world have lessened, if not eliminated, to a considerable degree. The blog too had to evolve and shed its narrow focus on e-learning and embrace a much broader field of discussion. Henceforth, I will blog on broader issues that relate to the EDUCATION (e-learning/training) and MANAGEMENT (leadership/strategy/Human Resource).

Expanding the nature of this blog was essential because of the interconnectedness of these various forms. I have also replaced the now obsolete title band of this blog which is given below:

Historically this blog began as fun and then slowly acquired a serious tone. And it has also set a few benchmarks in the Indian blogosphere. No wonder the discourses in this blog has been dissected and deliberated by a whole generation of bloggers in India and abroad. The blog's critical writeups have also rattled a few quarters, annoyed countless and jerked up an equal number from their slumber. I can promise that I will continue to lay before you a platter of dishes that are not served in the industry. I shall continue to serve as the alternate voice. Hope you will enjoy the journey further.

Cheers,
AC

On Leadership and Pseudo-Leadership

2010-02-19T09:08:00.013+05:30

No other word in human history has been so frivolously used and misused as the word “Leader”. In India an excessive use of the word evokes strong resentment amongst the educated and sensible largesse. Petty that for most Indians every well-dressed man, every English-speaking guy and every Merc that rolls signifies leadership. We are naive in the sense in which we assume leadership to be so ephemeral, so easy coming. We take their supremacy for granted.

In India, the term “leader” evokes a visual image of a politician-like figure perched on high pedestal with thousands of creepy followers beneath, shoving one another for space. In Indian businesses "leaders" seek to provoke the image of a Nobel-laureate like stalwart whose leadership is all about English suits, elegant appearance and fancy mouthings. Day in and out images of these Indian businessmen pops out of shabby magazines and websites eulogising them as heroes, whose actions or history are rarely questioned. The story is somewhat like the seemingly-decent Aggarwalji of Haldiram whose real brand and business ethics became evident when he was charged for the ruthless murder of a poor roadside vendor in Kolkata. Perhaps it was a stroke of bad luck that brand Haldiram wiped it goodwill off the marketplace in one stroke. Its history now stands questioned.

Deliberations on leadership over the years has been pretty shaky. Human Resource departments of countless manufacturing plants in India have dwelled on this catchy term because it captures the popular imagination. What is left untalked is the real essence of leadership. The debate continues...

For the politically correct folks, leaders like Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods and N. D. Tiwari continue to ride high on leadership metrics. For the non-political gentry these names are best relegated to oblivion. Their stories are perhaps best examples of the private image eating into the public. Bill Clinton was hailed as a great economist, orator and statesman until his petty affair with a White House intern shook the conscience of every American citizen and made him into a no-man. Tiger Woods, admired as the greatest golfer of our times, met a similar fate when his unholy liaisons with prostitutes became public. Back in India, N. D. Tiwari, a veteran Congress leader, faced a humiliatory exit when he was allegedly filmed romping with prostitutes, even while his age and stature as constitutional head of an Indian state weighed heavily.

The true leaders of our times in India are undoubtedly the thought-leaders and silent implementers who do not pride in any long sedans or oodles of artificial mass following. Such individuals, hidden from the gaze of the popular media and the international fraternity, can be found in unusual places. With the true spark of leadership within their hearts these silent leaders are felt, not by their dresses but by the way they devote themselves for countless ways in which they serve those around them and the society. Unlike the millionaire who rides past you in a Merc and gives you a shrill feeling of poverty or downtrodden-ness, true leaders in India remain positioned amongst the masses, in silence.

Yet it is equally true that there are millionaires in India like JRD Tata, Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy and their ilk who have set new benchmarks of leadership, not by their razzmatazz but by being balanced individuals -- both in their personal and the professional realm.

Its time to do a little introspection and recognize true leaders. It’s time to shun the mediatized images of leadership popping out of television sets or magazine covers. Perhaps its time to realize that real leaders are ones who are utterly honest and dedicated to improving the lives of others, in small steps and in subtle ways. True leadership perhaps is more visible in the enthusiastic soldier who guards our borders, the housewife who toils relentlessly or the brother, friend and neighbour who never shies away from being just and humane.

What our self-proclaimed leaders of the political and the corporate world have failed to learn is that true essence of leadership borrows from a pure intent, humility and honesty. After all what’s a leader who claims to be educated in the best of universities in the world, flaunts enormous wealth but mistreats and misleads others with almost the same fervour. They are perhaps best seen as museum pieces, jokers to be looked down and benchmarked as social misfits. The one fitting response that may do justice to the fragile ego of such men and women is to emulate the style in the India movie, Three Idiots, and proclaim “Jahapanah Tussi Great Ho! and sign off.

Recession in India: Carried or Created?

2008-11-20T11:31:00.029+05:30

For the global media recession appears to be the central theme. Most writings dwell on flat market statistics, often failing to highlight alternate opinions -- in particular on the fundamentals questions that naturally arise for economies like that in India.

In India, recession is yet another opportunity for journos and localized 'experts' with myopic vision to talk about -- even if their opinion is nothing but a unworthy emulation of popular opinion. Thank you Sir, I am enriched! Your objective is fulfilled.

For me, information sharing is about a quest to gather the holistic framework, to capture sensible alternate views that allude our understanding. My quest for a knowledge on the fundamentals forced me to meet Mr Vivek Kumar Sharma, Group Head - Strategic Business of the Ashok Minda Group, at Noida. No wonder for a scholar like me Mr Vivek remains a treat -- given his rare acumen to sniff what others ignore. His is an opinion that remains unhindered by the sundry voices that clutter our mental landscape. Here's the perspective that emerged from my discussion with him -- between sips of strong coffee.

RECESSION IS GOOD FOR INDIA:
Recession is a boon for India, a corrective pause that seeks to lead Indian corporate towards becoming more matured and more experienced. The recession we witness in India today is more than just mundane market economics or capital flows. Perhaps it calls for a more holistic analysis of the fundamentals. Are our economists listening? Perhaps there aren't any.

Fundamentally, recession is absolutely normal for India. For a market that reeled under absymal and unstructured growth it offers us the rare opportunity to pause for a while and assess the situation -- forcing us to recede back and revist the fundamentals. Expecting a continous and unhindered growth is perhaps naive by all standards. Any growth should ideally be enriched with pauses and that's what the recession is helping us to do. Afterall who can account for the way every Tom, Dick and Harry was minting money round the corner, doing nothing substantial. Or the unjustifiable fat pay package of a funny group of corporate professionals with limited mindsets who fancied more about their high-flying lifestyle than the professional competencies they possessed. Somewhere someone has to account for this anomaly. Perhaps recession is the savior.

Its time we ward-off the Indian tendency of getting excited about everything and anything. So far Indian corporates were behaving like the dog that walked beneath the horse-driven cart, content that it was pulling a heavy carraige, much to the surprise of the onlooker who witnessed the horse slogging it out. With the carriage down, the dog lies battered -- its ambition still aspiring. Today much to the delight of all the arm-chaired pseudo-intellectuals in Indian corporates are nowhere to be seen predicting the vision of a great future ahead. Poor souls they never got their fundamentals correct.

Even before news of a global recession seeped in Indian shores companies have begun firing people and predicting a grim future. And as employees recede into a quagmire of depression, entrepreneurs and their able management stars are digging pits to hide -- from something not so visible in the horizon. What an irony!

Only a few months back Indian companies appeared to be in the pink of their health. Today they lie limping at the other extreme. Thrilling extremeties indeed. For many India was just about to replace the United States' economy but loo the train seems to be heading towards Somalia. What a pity! A few months back airline companies offered free tickets and treated ordinary passengers like the Maharaja. Today they report losses, inspite a reduction in tax and fuel prices and treat the Indian pasenger as an unwanted street dog waiting to hop in for a cheap ride.

THE INCOMPETENT DRIVERS
Indian buisiness is surely sentiment-driven. More so are its drivers -- the shaky entrepreneur and his equally shaky teams. Imagine a corporate culture smeared with jargons, of powerpoint presentations and stolen alien concepts that do not fit the industry.

These corporate honchos have failed us. We all believed in their illogical philosophies. Little meat but too much sound. the ones who have failed us are a selective bunch of ill-equipped corporate gurus who hyped the sentiments because they benefitted. What else accounts for the countless mindless powerpoint presentations and the discomforting salary packages?

Its time we questioned the obnoxious pay package of corporate team members in India. Instead of focussing on building a matured system and human capital corporate houses have been running a rat race to hire professionals with a fat pay package. Yet their competencies have never been questioned. These professionals usually remain content being stuck in day-to-day issues rather than growth-related value-laden work.

A better way out of this mess is to contain this trend and lay more emphasis on human capital -- on working out a balanced remuneration based on identified competencies. The money saved can go for building cash reserves for sustaining critical human resources for a longer period of time during recessions.

The anomaly in the remuneration in India is noticeable. In Europe, for example, the difference between the salary of the lowest employee and the highest paid employee is about 10 to 15 times, while in India the difference is about 400 to 500 times. Let's seriously think on this if at all we want to sustain the indian economy.

Its time entrepreneurs critically question these people at the helm of affairs. Afterall they have taken everyone for a ride for too long. What is required is an extra flair of competence to outwit vile professionals at the senior management.They depict what Vivek Kr. Sharma says, "a seemingly strong mind embedded serious weakness."

SOME NEW PERSPECTIVES
Indian corporates do not analyze success from how things ought to be rather than whether corporate goals aligned with the personal objectives of a select few. Who cannot recall the scenario a few months back when investors from across the world were fed to the ill-conceived and smartly presented business scenarios. The common scene is most 5-star spots were that of the eager investor and the smartly dressed Indian who positioned himself as the next Bill Gates in the horizon. The gullible investor perhaps had little option but to shell out millions of bucks for projects that promised them tremendous returns.

The recession could not have come at a better time. Its definately the time and an opportunity for entrepreneurs to understand that they need to check the people they trusted and benefitted the most. They need to understand that all management members are not Ratan Tatas, Azim Premjis or Narayan Murthy.

Recession or not organizations in India are poised to loose their strengths and empty their coffers even while trying to gain ground. For instance, in the absence of a matured competency matrix in most Indian companies, corporates are likely to retrench key people for the time being. This will appear to be beneficial in the cash-strapped businesses. However, as the market will pick up there will be a crazy run for rebuilding on the organization's strength. The result: employees who were retrenched are likely to return back at twice or thrice the salary at which they were thrown out.

DIVINE INTERVENTION - FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC
For the general members of the public who are severely limited from comprehending the finer nuances or the economy and the myriad forces at play Mr Vivek Sharma offers a rather unusual argument:

As per our beliefs, "India have about 84 billions Gods and Goddesses. In a population of 1.2 billion odd Indians each Indian can stake claim to about 70 dedicated Gods and Goddesses. Market or no market there is no reason for us to worry. We will always find these Gods and Goddesses helping us out."

Perhaps our high-flying corporate honchos need such divine intervention...

Forget E-learning, the System is Rotting at the Base!

2008-03-29T20:34:00.004+05:30

E-learning sounds attractive, suggesting a gigantic leap onto an era of rapid and serious learning change. The psychological comfort it offers to educationists and upmarket teachers in India enables them to use these complexities of technology to raise the level of perception towards learning and education. Today its clear that there’s no rocket science in learning – the way it is made to appear.

Look at the very core of the educational system in India -- it’s a pure mess. The basics are so intelligently sidelined through a fascinating technological garb that it confuses many a poor souls. For the Indian citizenry its a confusing realm as they try to make sense of traditional education and technology-aided. No other example can highlight this mess than the recent confusion surrounding Nursery admissions in the various schools of Delhi – India's national capital.

It was a quite a drama in Delhi. Right under the nose of the central government and with the seemingly stringent norms spelt out by the Ganguly Commission, the schools blatantly ignored rules, bent admission procedures, fiddled with processes and led to a massive confusion of sorts. Yet very few voices could be heard against this. Perhaps the Indian citizenry remained immatured to be able to see through the flimsy system.

Schools in Delhi had their own unique criteria for admission. Under the garb of the Ganguly Commission the admission formula was a mess – every school had its own unique system. Parents meanwhile remained thoroughly confused. There were ones who applied for their ward’s admission to as high as 35 schools, since they were not sure where they would get lucky. At the end of the ordeal almost all ended up in despair. They did not know what criteria were used to select students. When they demanded information they were shooed away like cattle. Information collected from several parents reveal a vicious nexus. Some suggested that it was the social status and wealth that defined the admission norm – for schools remained in the run to grab students whose parents were powerful enough to offer them indirect benefits – in cash or in kind.

Amindst this chaos there were several hundreds of low-grade schools that attempted to position themselves as an alternative – showcasing such things as the airconditioned classroom, presence of a swimming pool and other so-called “world class standards”. Most of these schools also used the word ‘International’ as a prefix or suffix to suggest their new found avatar. A closer look suggests that they were nowhere near being international – even on the cleanliness front.

The very premise in which everyone questions these schools is the fact that the land in which they were situated was handed over to them by the Government – since education is considered to be serving a noble cause. There were countless news items on the admission process in Delhi that questioned the credibility of admission and the response of the government.

The dramatics that unfolded and was spread over several days threw more questions than answers. It suggested how Indian education system remained eons behind global educational standards. It also forced many to question the veracity of the claims that most schools make about education – most of which was downright farcical. For scholars the situation offered a perfect ground for conducting research on education in third-world countries. Its perhaps interesting to see that why India produces very little leaders and researchers and more of salaried slaves who find solace in serving in a private or a government sector company that can guarantee them a decent lifestyle – nothing more nothing less.

Indian companies need competent HR professionals

2007-12-05T21:14:00.003+05:30

Any wonder what the acronym HR means in India --"Human Resource," "Human Recruitment," "Human Relations" or what an employee recently coined "Humiliation Resource."

Any discussion on organizations is perhaps incomplete without pondering on its HR practices and HR health. Inspite a booming economy Indian companies have always grappled with HR issues that never seem to end. For many the high attrition rates are a direct indicator of any organizations HR health. After all its the HR Deptt. that is responsible for the fundamental "organizational culture." And the system appears to be worsening by the day.

For experts high attrition rate symbolizes a heathy economy. Enormous opportunities, they say, are driving the youth to seek fatter salary packages. Companies, on the other hand, see attrition as the organization's inability to match the industry-standard salary packages. In essence both these perspectives are flawed at the very core.

The current issues of employee-retention is a fabulous creation of shabby HR practices -- a creation of ill-bred and half-baked HR professionals, most of whom owe their knowledge to C-grade run-of-the-mill institutes strewn across India. For most HR activity relates only to "Recruitments".

Rising attrition rates is a direct reflection of the HR incompetency. HR Departments, for one, are now endowed with the skills, competency and knowledge to map individual needs and organizational goals -- a prerequisite while recruiting resources. Today very few Indian HR professionals appreciate the immense potential of on-demand training and e-learning. For them these are jargons that typically signify nothing. No wonder that HR Departments in Indian companies (barring a few well-structured companies) has now come to be seen as a very low-end and low-dignity assignment in the management spectrum.

MAP YOUR ORGANIZATION'S HR HEALTH ...
To clearly understand how the HR is setting back your organization try answering the following questions:

1. Has your HR Department ever asked you to submit your training needs?

2. Did you ever meet a matured HR professional in your current company who has offered you matured and sensible personal advice?

3. Can your HR department put a box soliciting annonymous letters about the issues that concern employees?

4. How many HR professionals within your organization are employee-friendly?

5. Do you think that the HR department in your organization are spies of the senior management and cannot be trusted with personal information.

6. How many HR professionals in Indian companies have a good understanding of the company's line of business?

7. Can you approach your HR Deptt. in case any conflicting situation with your immediate superior?

DUCKS, RABBITS & LEARNING

2007-12-04T20:06:00.000+05:30

I was immersed in the design of our organizational newsletter in this decrepit Advertising agency in South Delhi when I received a call on my mobile. The caller informed me about swimming ducks, a defiant pack of dogs, unruly pigeons, staring rabbits and colorful fishes. For a moment I tried to rationalize on what was more important for me – the saga of these creatures or my editing the newsletter. Surely the newsletter! But these tales too were not of lesser importance. They were from my 3 year old darling daughter who had just returned after her school trip to Bal Bhawan.

That day evening I perched comfortably with my dearie daughter and listened to her experience in Bal Bhawan – so honestly captured and relayed. All along as Pakhi stood trying to narrate me what she saw I could sense how interesting learning can become if we were to remove the artificial garb of formalism and protocol that we endeavour it to wear.

Learning about the way children learn offers us a great research opportunity. Few realize that the exact nature in which children learn, if captured and analyzed properly in the relevant cultural and socio-economic context, can be applied in various learning scenarios that are unique to India. The psychological inter-play of cognitive processing, the impact of the environment, the impact of language and the socio-cultural context is barely understood. In India, in the current format in which learning is being sold and bought, research often finds a backseat. The reasons for this abject rejection of research as foundation for the future can be seen as as an academic limitation or because such research is often considered tedious and not seen as providing overnight results.

I believe that today or tomorrow we may need to take a serious call on this callousness towards "learning research". Though institutions such as the CBSE and the NGO sector have initiated steps in this directio, a research-based analytical mindset is still a far-cry in most institutions that deal with learning. Till then, we all will continue to read about what learning research was undertaken in which part of the world with what impact. Isn't it time we stopped such blatant emulation and address learning issues as they are –- contextually?

Cheats, Drama and Survival

2007-11-24T16:35:00.001+05:30

Folks, I am back!

Its been several months now that I had disappeared from the bloggers realm as anxious readers tried contacting me over mails, over phones and what not. Well, the past few months have been exciting, not to mention the drama that was kicked off by one of my blog posts on fradulent organizations. I had to delete the post because of the painful and unfortunate events that ensued.

My story on an institute that trains Air Hostesses was extremely honest. I had captured every small detail with the rigours of a perfect reporter. The writeup, as soon as it was posted, bought down the rankings of the institute -- putting my post much higher in rank in Google search. Almost a day later I received a call from the lady with whom I had interacted during the freelance work (amounting to Rs 25,000 that I was never paid). She informed me that she had left her job in the institute and was held almost captive in a location in South Delhi and was being threatened. She told me that unless I removed my post she would be tortured. Thereafter, I received a call from the Branding Director of the institute -- suave in communication but criminal in intent. He tried to entice me with pleasantries (the usual sweet talk of professionals in Delhi). When I disagreed he started using abusive language, almost sounding like a roadside goon. I kept quite. All the while he never talked of the money that his company owed me. He told me that he will ensure that he stops my blog and reduces its value. This he did, by posting several annonymous vulgar messages that suits his personality perfectly.

By the end of the day too many people got involved in the drame -- 2 Vice-Presidents of the company I was working in, the top management of that air hostess training institute, a few journalists, 2 petty politicians and some friends. At my end I decided to pull down the blog post because the girl was begging mercy and the Vice Presidents wanted me to stay away from such petty thugs, who while calling themselves an institute are bereft of any credibility.

I personally drew two conclusion from the drama. One that most of these so-called brands in Delhi have a shadier side to their existence. And two, Frankfinn Air Hostess Academy remains the undisputed leader in Air Hostess training. Its far above, in terms of quality, than its desperate competitor.

Freelance Frauds: Delhi tops the List

2007-06-19T21:05:00.000+05:30

Have you ever been cheated in a project where your intellectual work was simply stolen? Was there a situation where the money promised to you in a freelance writing project was simply never delivered? Well, its far too common in Delhi -- perhaps one reason for people getting less and less attracted towards freelance assignments.

Most freelance assignment in Delhi drops in through a friend with lot of sweet talk and friendly gesture, something that is intended to override your demand for a contract paper. Common dialogues that drop from the proposer of the assignment when you seek a written agreement etc are, Are Humari Aur Aapki relation alag Hai," "Aap to Mere Bhai Ho," Yeh Sale Fraud Companies Ne To Delhi Mein Sabka Naam Badnam Kar Rakha Hai."

And while you spend fuel and effort running around putting together parts of a great assignment, its often too late when you hear that the project was "shelved" for reasons unexplained or your english was simply "not upto the mark." Even programmers are not spared from this ever-rising menace of frauds.

Content writing and research frauds in Delhi is in its all-time high. Even senior professionals with several years of experience often find themselves in the receiving end of such practices. Since the relationships usually does not come through hard paper contracts, freelance workers usually do not have the power to appeal before a labour court of take legal action.

How do you identify credible companies from fradulent ones? Well, there is no single formula in which you can. Even job sites like http://www.naukri.com/ and http://www.monster.com/ carry a advertisements of several of such fradulent freelance companies.

My suggestion to all freelancers in Delhi is to undertake some research before undertaking any assignment. And the one best formula for succeeding in the game is to look at all these companies with skepticism -- that will keep you alert about where you are heading. And do not forget to sign a contract beforehand!

I will definately try to publish some amazing and true case studies of such fradulent cases in Delhi for seperating the wheat from the chalf.

Does the Ambience impact e-learning?

2007-05-31T19:40:00.000+05:30

Oft my mind pondered whether e-learning as a profession was impacted by the ambience or not. Perhaps Yes.

Unlike the regular software development work, e-learning requires a serene ambience, one that could steer the human mind to levels of utmost calm and well-being wherein it could blossom and relive the instructional designer of creative blockades.

My conversations with some instructional designers in Genpact and NIIT have helped me understand the deeper workings of the human mind to a greater extent – in the way the ambience and the surroundings impinge on performance. Many professionals who undertake onsite visits in the US and Europe have displayed significant levels of enthusiasm, that perhaps was absent when they were squeezed inside a concrete building with little scope for cognitive boosterism.

Whatever be the conditional theories of the human mind and the feelings therein, I feel the following pictures will surely transfer instructional designers to an ethereal realm of calmness. These are the pictures from Austria and the Alps mountain range…

Hey! Is the E-learning Boom Round the Corner?

2007-05-18T18:56:00.000+05:30

Its interesting to see how the Indian mainstream media occasionally dabbles with features on e-learning. Surprisingly, for more than a decade now reporters continue to file the same generic stories on e-learning over and over again. A common theme in most of these stories is about the e-learning boom that's just "round the corner." Such themes were interesting a decade back. Now they sound monotonous and give the impression that e-learning as a profession has made no stride. Perhaps this has more to do with the poor breed of technology journalists in India whose sense of journalism is to COPY PASTE stories from old sources and give them a slight twist.

The latest article is filed by The Tribune and even in TOI's Ascent that dwells on the same stale theme. And as if that was not sufficient senior industry professionals too have jumped in the fray with their bit of stale soothsaying.

Its time we spare the media channels! Its time we allowed e-learning to speak for itself. Isn't it in poor taste to use rhetoric, cathy phrases and soothsaying to promote the field of e-learning? The time for such frills are passe and its time that journalists and industry professionals stop singing the same stale song over and over again. Let the newcomers in e-learning not be awed with such features and interviews that do little service by way of informing readers. At best these shoddy writeups just fill newspaper space and generate hype for e-learning companies eager to earn the tag of a "leader."

Train Journey through Pristine Nature

2007-05-10T21:45:00.000+05:30

Only yesterday I browsed through my collection of pictures. In a forlorn folder inside my computer I found some pictures of the train route between Silchar and Lumding (in Assam). The train route was constructed around 1900 by the Bristishers, although the Indian government is trying to convert this meter gauge into broad gauge.

The train journey between Lumding and Silchar is one of its kind largely because it has not been commercialized and hyped. Enroute lies Jatinga, a village famous for the mystery of birds committing suicide in hordes -- a phenomenon yet to be explained. Ornithologists have been flocking to this place to study the phenomenon. The area is rich in a variety of orchids & plants species such as Blue Vandas (a lovely sky blue orchid) -- the only one of its kinds in the world.

A friend had sent me these pictures. And I learn that this is the train route on which Sharukh Khan shot his famous Chaiya Chaiya song for the film Dil Se.

2007-05-10T21:24:00.000+05:30

2007-05-10T21:22:00.000+05:30

2007-05-10T21:20:00.000+05:30

2007-05-10T21:18:00.000+05:30

View from Halflong circuit house

2007-05-10T20:31:00.000+05:30

Curvy Railway bridge near Halflong

In Delhi, it’s the Dead End for E-Learning

2007-05-04T16:51:00.000+05:30

Delhi, India’s capital, never ceases to baffle me. For the sheer amount of grandeur and ostentation the city has emerged to offer a delusive contentment for professionals -– the latest in e-learning. The industry that once trumpeted a revolution or sorts is now beset with myriad issues – skeptic clients, dwindling market-space, and disenchanted resources. Professionals with several years of experience can be seen running from pillar to post -- trying to locate that honest employer, the workplace of their dreams.

E-learning companies in Delhi and NCR have hit a dead end, or so it appears. Jobs that were once clamoring for attention have suddenly disappeared forcing professionals to get stuck in the rut of their current assignments, in companies that once promised them the world. Amidst stories of disenchantment and dream-shattered there are many who are now seriously pensive about continuing a career in e-learning. Websites like www.naukri.com and www.jobsahead.com now carry ads of small e-learning players positioned in disheveled locales offering paltry remuneration packages. While many smart clients have backed off from outsourcing e-learning projects to North-Indian observers believe many more will follow suit. Amidst this shaky situation some players continue to function with an unusual calm -– the lull before the storm!

Strangely for a city of its size a slight shrugging-off and the impact can be seen everywhere. Towards mid-2006 Brainvisa, a Pune-based e-learning company suddenly called off its development center in Noida. This resulted in a sudden overflow of Instructional Designers all over the region. Like a flock of aliens they crowded other e-learning companies only to be despised, or worse, employed at a lower salary than what they were drawing at Brainvisa. For many it was lesson learnt hard – they should have resisted the allurement of the fat package offered by Brainvisa. Quick come quick go.

Given the shape of e-learning in Delhi and the NCR region one cannot help but wonder whether we have over-sung the outsourcing song. Its time we learnt a few lessons. A better idea for e-learning professionals is to hone their skills beyond e-learning -– in technical writing, journalism and related areas. And if you are employed in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad it makes tremendous sense to ward-off offers from e-learning companies in the North. Its time we prepared for the worst!

Shedding off that spurious Flab

2007-04-11T16:16:00.000+05:30

The shameful ouster of the Indian cricket team from the world cup has the entire nation running for cover – a classic case of Indians and Indianness. Die-hard fans now satiate themselves with shoddy family soaps, the wayward discussions in pan shops are irrelevant, and advertisers have disappeared in a whiff. And just when I thought the euphoria was over, I found myself inundated in superficial and irritating media bickering -- allegations and counter-allegations, cricketers’ analysis, Chappell versus Tendulkar. Add to it the audacity of the BCCI and hoards of publicity-hungry ex-cricketers who spared no efforts in analyzing this and that. Indians just won’t give up. Today the enigma applies to almost all fields of Indians' endeavour.

A similar rut thrives in e-learning, the Indian software industry and almost all Indian ventures. Forget the generous picture of a resurgent India (as portrayed by the media and soothsayers). A closer look and most Indian IT and e-learning companies appear to be wading through a virtual ocean of issues – mismanagement, lack of employee welfare, unethical claims – some true some false – and the over-zealous media that faces a severe dearth of intellectual food. For a global Indian (thanks to the Internet), the dramatics is far too boring and I find fail to consume it with a sense of extreme optimism.

India’s much-hyped teamwork — like our infamous cricket team – has always been shaky and questionable by all standards. Stories of differences are far too common than stories of concerted accomplishments, of teamwork — Infosys' are an exception while Reliances' are the norm. Our value system and traits, it appears, is being carried over in far too many areas. Consider the facts that cry for attention. Barring the few top leaders most Indian companies have an attrition rates ranging from 40% to 75%, although they claim otherwise. In places like Delhi small groups of unsuccessful professionals have got together in decrepit South Delhi locations claiming to be the next big leaders in e-learning. All the while the government machinery, the infrastructure, the police, the law and order, and the social system remain entangled in the quagmire of deficiency. Yet we proclaim ourselves as emerging power in the world — our inflated egos overriding our shabby performance. Rationality and logic are words that we Indians can do without.

Our exit from the world cup carries symbolic connotations for the larger issues that confront us today. So while the Sehwags and Yuvrajs have been forced by circumstances to shed off their now infamous and intolerable boisterous flab, the Indian software industry should follow suit. Its time the offshoring and outsourcing industry wake up and arrest its unprofessional flab — the unethical promises, the shady under-table deals, the overstatements, and the dubious commitments that are announced before international clients. For now Indian cricket appears to be a dead animal or so — as it appears. And its pretty much possible that the 'overhyped' outsourcing industry too face a similar shameful exit from the global IT arena. And once it happens we naive Indians can help little but witness another bout of ‘Indian’ dramatics featuring allegations, counter-allegations and opprobrium. Isn't it time we shed our infamous “Indianness” — traits that have done us no good so far.

Of Project Managers and Staged Shows

2007-02-14T15:25:00.000+05:30

Days back I received an email from an acquaintance based in Mumbai. He informed me that he has joined as a PM in an e-learning company. To quote him verbatim, “I am having a gala time as a PM. The only thing I need to do here is to squeeze timelines so that we get the most out of these silly IDs and graphic designers.”

That didn’t surprise to me, largely because I had sensed this trend about a year back. The issue of squeezed timelines is not usually done by the outsourcing client but by the Project Managers within. The logic is simple – squeezing the timeline reduces development costs for the company and adds a feather in the PM’s cap that can be converted to a higher annual increment.

Consider the statistics (lent by a senior ID from Genpact). About 2 years back the average number of frames that IDs were required to churn out daily was 12-15. This number has now shot to 20-25 even while the salaries have not seen an increment by that rate. So even while clients throw a deadline of say 15 days, the project manager reduces this to 7 days even while the client is billed on the actual effort of 15 days, and maybe more.

Project Managers are also instructed by the management to escalate fictitious issues for IDs and GDs so that the conditions become conducive for them to leave the company. With an annual increment of an average of 25% companies discover that certain resources are a liability and their replacements can come at a lower remuneration package. However, for individuals who redefine themselves and are capable of shouldering higher responsibilities are not axed.

Even as you see those flashy growth figures of Indian e-learning companies, the underlying politics weigh far too heavily on the employee’s careers. For some rational and far-sighted ones e-learning today has come to be a makeshift arrangement, a platform, to launch their actual careers. Perhaps they see the e-learning as closely resembling the BPOs where numbers matter more than the grey matter. Is it this coldness that makes software professionals giggle at ‘e-learning?’ Who knows – the answer is best left unanswered.

The 8 hour shift that never is

2007-02-12T14:08:00.000+05:30

There's more to the 8-hour stumper, the number of hours an e-learning professional spends in office. For most Indian companies the 8-hour mantra remains a pleasing jargon -- to be uttered by sweet-mouthed and 'cute' HR executives (the bait). And it just cannot be practiced. After all 'we are a family'. Surely they are!

Cleverly hidden inside this practice of extended work hours lies a hidden agenda, a vile lucidity that transcends beyond mere rhetorics. For most Indians in the e-learning industry the salary they earn is not for an 8-hour job, 5 days a week, its for delivering more. After all such long and extended hours of work deliver nothing except gimmicks in the form of shabby food and the pride to travel in a so-called cab.

Time-centric employee politics has some to be the mainstay of most Indian e-learning companies in India today. Its not uncommon to witness IDs and graphic designers spending sleepless nights over courses, endlessly. They hope that after this one project, this last effort they will be able to return home on time. And even as such hope remain chained within the deepest realms of cognition, e-learning professionals register a whole range of health related issues.

Perhaps its too early for the industry and too early for us to witness strong non-nonsense e-learning professionals who are qualitative and assertive to the core. Perhaps it the clients to be blamed who ride on an ill-conceived value of outsourcing -- cost. Till then IDs and Graphic Designers have to carry on with that 12-14 hour shift. What they loose in the process is a decent human life, a desire to give quality time for themselves and their families, and live a life of contentment. Are e-learning employees humans?

Global players in as Indian institutes sleep

2007-02-02T13:52:00.000+05:30

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.

Shape up with Rapid E-learning!

2007-01-29T17:15:00.000+05:30

Recall the number of encounters you have had with an uncouth and obnoxious Indian government employee –- in railway stations, airports, banks, government offices etc. Were you ever left feeling dejected and cheated? Were you showered with expletives and attitude? Given the current standards, YES!

Most government workers in India today, inspite their tasting the fruits of globalization, remain localized –- unprofessional in every sense of the word. For example, in India's national capital 2 out of three citizens I meet report of harrasment, racism, inhuman treatment and unprofessionalism meted out by a govt. employee -- postman, policeman, bank clerk, municipality counseller, booking clerk, and worst, peons. And they have nowhere to go. As tales of some of the most horrendous racial discrimination makes inroads into the public realm, one cannot help but remain concerned about the lop-sided development. The rut appears to be eating out our senses.

With claims of being one of the world’s ancient civilizations, our government officials exemplify otherwise. Clearly no evolution is visible in sight and action. Even with the noted Right to Information (RTI) Act the difference in workplace attitude and approach is a mirage. As one Indian citizen recently noted "I feel India is fast receding into a chaotic nation with public work culture and attitude registering the lowest performance in the world. The government machinery just does not seem to work."

Perhaps e-learning has a solution here largely because training a mammoth government work-force with basic workplace skills through traditional instructor-led training would require tremendous effort -- something that the government cannot afford. Ideally, the government should firm-up mandatory training laws for all departments, and better still, map training to the appraisal system. E-learning can help inject order in government servants. Its time Indians inward-feed some of those e-learning courses that they develop for a global clientele. And the Indian government should be the first customers -- if they aren't they surely are determined to take the nation back in time to devastation.

Are e-learning employees getting a raw deal?

2007-01-09T16:21:00.000+05:30

There's little doubt that e-learning has made great strides over the years. India today boasts of a sizeable number of e-learning companies with clients of all sizes and shapes -- from small to Fortune 500 companies. And Indian companies appear to be scoring high on quality issues.

But the flipside of the whole game is ironical. While all e-learning companies boasts of a competent workforce, most do not price their resources. Today as the industry stands in the threshold of a revolution in the software and e-learning sector, e-learning professionals are getting far too less than they actually deserve. And that explains the huge exodus of e-learning professionals from one company to another and even to the IT sector.

Most e-learning companies do not have an employee insurance scheme. This means that if employees meet with a fatal accident, they are left on their own -- with nowhere to go. Their family members are left to strive on their own. The company simply dashes off a condolence message to one and all through e-mail and loo all are back to work. As one e-learning professional working with one of India's largest e-learning company in New Delhi recently observed, "They kiss you like a buddy when they need you and dump you like a fly when you are in distress."

In the US, e-learning employees are covered through a comprehensive health and life insurance. Surprisingly, in India, while most e-learning companies emulate the US model they simply ignore things when it comes to employee welfare. This trend should change, if at all Indian e-learning companies are serious about registering global success stories.

Understandably the demand for a regulator of the e-learning industry, that has been doing the rounds of informal corridors in India, has been more from employees than from e-learning employers because of the simple reason that a regulator is more likely to tighten the noose around e-learning companies than the code of conduct laid down for the professionals.

There are good reasons to beleive why the e-learning sector is looked down upon by IT professionals in software companies. Most IT professionals believe that in an era of scare resources its foolish to hang around in a sector that offers challenges sans simple employee benefits like health insurance and accidental insurance. While these benefits come natural to software professionals in IT companies e-learning companies continue crying over "petty" profits that they claim to make. While the fact remains that most e-learning companies are raking in profits amounting to millions of dollars.

Perhaps this explains the huge exodus of e-learning professionals from one company to another without showcasing a wee bit of attachment to companies. And they are right when they do so. Afterall who the heck is concerned about e-learning companies when these companies have done almost nothing to win the heart and confidence of its resources. And its also justified when I hear tales of e-learning professionals demanding hefty remuneration packages and annual increments forcing employers to concede. Perhaps these companies deserve it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007

2007-01-01T15:39:00.000+05:30

Hi Buddies!

It takes a true leader to appreciate E-learning

2006-12-26T13:59:00.000+05:30

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, one of the finest examples of Indian leadership, has vouched for e-learning. His recognition of e-learning is not just timely but a trendsetter of sorts given the fact that the Indian government has been extremely slow in accepting e-learning as a way to solve the issues of literacy in India.

What Kalam states makes perfect sense to educationists and researchers. The mammoth task of educating a ever-increasing mass of illiterates can only be realized through Internet technologies and applications. Its time government in Indian states look beyond the parochial five-year politics and plan education for a much longer time-frame. The education ministers in each state should undergo a complete training workshop under our brilliant President so that they are able to appreciate the wider benefits technologies like the Internet. If these education ministers cannot ready themselves for a change then its best for them to forego their charge from the ministry.

Free Online University: Another revolution round the corner!!

2006-12-19T14:59:00.000+05:30

Having given a run for their money to dubious content sellers Wikipedia is readying to launch another power-laced product -- a Free Online University. True to its democratic nature Wikipedia University will enable anyone and everyone to host e-learning courses or collaboratively develop learning materials. Currently the University is seeking assistance from netizens for a host of areas and its worth being a part of this great initiative.

Though the reaction to this initiative from the global e-learning industry is not apparently noticeable, its definately sending jitters down the spine of most e-learning companies in India -- ones that are surviving on the edge. While its obviously a thing to rejoice for the global community as education sheds its boundaries and reaches out to the underpriviledged, its definately a death kneel for the e-learning service industry.

E-learning to replace teachers?

2006-12-13T17:30:00.000+05:30

Redefining e-learning rules appears interesting. What it actually achieves is perhaps a different story. In Vietnam the National University has announced that it is going to arrest the paucity of teachers through e-learning. The vice director of National University believes that e-learning can enable the university educationh system in the country to produce 20,000 doctors and 1.8 million graduates.

E-learning surely will help Vietam meet its paucity of teachers and facilities but what concerns me is the way e-learning will replace the need of teachers for medical education. As far as my knowledge goes you cannot replace medical teachers with e-learning. If it were possible we would have witnessed a new breed of medics around the world -- e-doctors.

Aptech off to Malaysia

2006-12-11T20:00:00.000+05:30

Aptech has finally decided to wrap up in India and head for Malaysia. Aptech's CEO Pramod Khera cites that since cost of skilled workers in India had risen sharply Malaysia is a more attractive destination because of its good manpower and infrastructure facilities.

By 'good' Pramod meant 'cheap'. With Aptech now heading to cheaper destinations the day, it seems, is not far when other companies will quickly follow suit. Wonder, should we say that the death-kneel of Indian e-learning has been struck?

Progressive Disclosure through Ajax

2006-12-11T19:43:00.000+05:30

The mechanism of information disclosure is central to effective learning. Earlier developers used multiple pages to progressively disclose information. Today the same can be done with Ajax code and definately this can result in an improved user experience since all requested information can be found on the same page. Ajax can now enable users to seek more power, better features and ample options, as well as, experience learning with much simplicity.

Its time the Indian e-learning industry starts using Ajax coding.

Is Reliance Competent to handle E-learning?

2006-12-08T17:56:00.000+05:30

Though its good news that e-learning is gaining ground in India the concern remains that the niche domain may soon loose its edge with e-learning becoming more of a fancy business decision than anything else. The latest news that Reliance will provide e-learning through its Webworld network is a concern for the industry.

Though its is not exactly clear how Reliance plans to weave out the content for these courses there is a feeling that Reliance will have to rope in some stable and established e-learning players rather than go on its own. If it doesn't the concept is surely not going to be a long-term thing. This considering Reliance's track record of not delivering what they promise, as has been witnessed in the case of its telephone services.

Liqvid eLearning is an acclaimed leader

2006-12-07T17:08:00.000+05:30

Leadership cannot be propagated through tall claims, it has to show up in action. So truly proved by Liqvid eLearning. With a stupendous growth of 450% Liqvid e-learning has been ranked 8th amongst the among the 50 fastest growing companies in India at the ‘Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2006’ award. At the same time, LIQVID has also been selected in the `Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific program'. The ranking is an international recognition for a true leader that has so far silently carved a niche for itself in the e-learning industry -- setting new quality benchmarks for others to follow.

Just about a month back I predicted that Liqvid is an e-learning leader in the making, even while indutry honchos laughed away my claim saying that it was too naive and immatured. Quite upto my expectations of their understanding of e-learning, they suggested that I could have made a better journalist if I would have said so about NIIT or their ilk. They talked of financials and several such sundry nuances. I remained unaffected by their affectations.

I always beleived that the best way to gauge leadership is not to look at financials but more at the base-level resources, at the actual resources that does the work. To me Liqvid offered a more vibrant work culture and matured professionalism -- bereft of willy-nilly mindless politics. The micro-level planning at work was meticulous, a quality that I fely was inherent only in leaders.

Today Liqvid's achievement is a personal gain for me, largely because it has enabled me to sustain my argument that leadership in the knowledge economy era is not the realm of the ones who hijack public opinion through glossy ads and publicity -- real leadership can be witnessed in unconventional places amongst unconventional professionals. I only hope that the so-called claimants to leadership in e-learning in India will revisit their system and learn to set their basics correctly. Its time e-learning professionals refute the arguments of the so-called stalwarts in the industry whose credentials, I feel, are as doubtful as their opinions.

E-learning unleashes its real Power

2006-11-27T19:13:00.000+05:30

Years back as a new entrant to the e-learning industry I found professionals going gungho about the benefits of e-learning. Today after all these years of learning on e-learning I realize that even at that time there were very few (in India) who could actually summarize the benefits of e-learning beyond the usual ‘global reach, lesser costs’ theory. Few could actually peer on futuristics.

E-learning today is working wonders. David Dewhurst, the Professor of e-learning at Edinburgh University has achieved a rare feat of actually saving thousands of animals from being slaughtered through his powerful computer simulations.

As always, I maintain that the key to a successful e-learning initiative is to understand change, understand that learning should be freed from the parochial clutches of professionals who do not want to look beyond Instructional Designing. Today, one has to think about the frontier. And to that end a professional experience in e-learning can replace the cognitive rigours of academics. Its the scholar who can unfolding knowledge from the darkest legions of the human mind.

Perhaps this will take a while to change, bogged as e-learning resources are with offshored work that goes little beyond working on Instructional Designing and development. Perhaps it will come at a later time when Indian e-learning professionals will realize that what they have missed in their long career in e-learning is the ability to think out of the box, of the far-fetched, innovative possibilities. Right now the issue is about survival, of feeding dependants, of two square meals a day.

Brands are not always the Best!

2006-11-23T19:57:00.003+05:30

Just settled down with my work, I received yet another mail from the HR division of India's best known e-learning company based in Delhi. This was one of the several mails that I have received in the past. I was irritated. Inspite informing the company that I cannot join them, several times over, I was still receiving mails from this company. It was time I gave them a fitting reply, point-by-point. They deserved it.

THE EMAIL I WROTE

Dearest [],

Thanks for your offer. Unfortunately, as I have communicated to your earlier, I do not have any plans to join your company. To say the least my experience with your company has been extremely unpleasant. Your woeful remuneration, highly politicized work culture and poor recognition of performance makes it one of the worst places to work in the e-learning industry today. My allegations not baseless but are actual facts and is based on hard evidence. I have gathered these facts by talking to nothing less than 100 resources who have left your company in the recent past for reasons that I have mentioned above. The people who have left your organization also includes several senior resources (PMs and senior IDs) who have now joined companies like Genpact, Accenture and Satyam. Your attrition rates are amongst the highest in the industry. Just a few comparitive points where your company I feel scores low:

1. My present company gives me a flexi-timing that enables me to work more productively.

2. The work is project driven and no one is concerned how long I sat on my desk or wandered around (that makes me more responsible)

3. The annual increment is GUARANTEED between 25% to 100%. I am part of the strategic group in this company which means that I decide the communication strategy here and do not take the dictats of petty, incompetent managers.

4. I have a strict 5 days a week. And a 5 day strictly means 5 day.

5. A 5-star standard food (breakfast, lunch, dinner) that is supplied completely free.

7. I have free health insurance for me and my family.

Try rating your company on any of these points and see where it stands. For guys like me we are rarely fascinated by brands like yours. Your display of net profits and financial figures holds little value for me as I fail to see how it concerns me, whether you earn in millions or billions. For me, what matters the most are the finer organizational cultures.

I remember appearing for 5 rounds of interview in your company about 2 years back. And even while your incompetent HR executive kept saying all the while that the remuneration is not an issue, in the final round I was offered a 30k package per month -- a remuneration that was far less than what I was earning then. My writing this big mail has a specific purpose. I want to help you realize that all resources in Delhi cannot lured with false promises, tall claims or silly raazmataaz. There still are professionals like us who demand respect, who have a personal brand that is more credible, and who cannot beat around the bush sounding goody-goody words about brands like yours. Your International clients maybe awed with your brand but I am not.

Cheers!

Managing E-learning: Is this the trend?

2006-11-13T17:50:00.000+05:30

Last week an acquaintance working in the e-learning industry sent me a joke (from this website) that, he opined, perfectly captured the essence of the project managers in the e-learning industry in India:

A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner points to three identical looking parrots on a perch and says, "the parrot on the left costs 500 dollars".

"Why does the parrot cost so much," asks the man.The shop owner says, "well, the parrot knows how to use a computer".

The man then asks about the next parrot to be told that this one costs 1,000 dollars because it can do everything the other parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system.

Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third parrot to be told that it costs 2,000 dollars. Needless to say this begs the question, "What can it do?"

To which the shop owner replies, "to be honest I have never seen it do a thing, but the other two call him boss!"

Finally the Indian Government wakes upto E-learning

2006-11-13T12:17:00.000+05:30

Better late than never. Finally the Indian Government has appreciated the potential of e-learning. The Department of Income Tax (DIT) has roped in NIIT for a innovative STE (Source-Train-Enable) programme where NIIT will select 5000 candidates for becoming ‘Certified Tax Return Preparers’. Over the past one decade even as India has emerged as a e-learning courseware development hub for global companies and governments, e-learning as a tool for training and education was ignored by the Indian government largely due to the apathy of its maladroit bureaucracy.

Let's hope that the wisdom of the Indian government grows as they adopt more e-learning initiatives for others departments. With a academician Prime Minister at the helm, there could be no better time than this for India to streamline its education, training and information dissemination initiatives through e-learning.

Who said e-learning comes cheap?

2006-11-10T18:07:00.000+05:30

Journalists and regular writers have the unusual habit of sounding what sounds sweet. For instance claims that e-learning is cheap has has rattled the pillars of learning for long. Everyone is gung ho on the "low cost" as they peruse through arbit reports and features on the subject. But that's just a common opinion -- the ground realities say that elearning is definately COSTLY.

Lets consider a scenario in India and calculate the cost factor.

First, the actual competent e-learning resources do not come cheap. This since learning is not about being able to write a script in flawless english and then prinking pictures here and there. True learning experts are people who have honed their skills after years of toil.

At the delivery end, any e-learning course has to run on a system such as an LMS that enables the administrators to track the learning progess. LMS prices are not cheap. Even an average LMS can be bought at nothing less than 40-50lakhs. Add to it the enhancements and maintenance involving a team of programmers.

Finally when the e-learning course is deployed that's not the end. Its just the beginning. Apart from a few subjects such as softskills, most courses would require updations and enhancements. This too requires a cost.

For the ones bugging the naive with all that "cost talk", I suggest that they look at elearning holistically -- the dynamism, the expertise required, the delivery mechanism, the constant maintenance and updations required and so on. Its not a magic pill that will erode all learning problems once and for all.

Terrorism E-learning courses now!

2006-11-08T19:48:00.000+05:30

E-learning is a clear winner. E-learning has finally caught on with terrorism. Its news for the e-learning fraternity that Informa has joined forces with the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at the University of St Andrews to offer the first transnational e-learning course in the study of terrorism. The 16-week course enables participants to receive a solid grounding in the causes, consequences and responses to terrorism.
And now the flip side. Even while the terrorism courses are being created one wonders whether actual terrorists will get hold of these courses and redefine their modus operandi. The other concern is that terrorism as a subject is extremely dynamic and requires real-time capture of data without which the courses will become a mere "content junk" as they will not be enable learners to practice their learning in countering terrorist attacks or making any difference to this onerous issue that impacts the society at large.

However, the attempt to develop e-learning courses for terrorism is laudable. The first stride is important. The rest will follow.

Thomson sells NETg with a Thud!

2006-11-07T21:16:00.000+05:30

Finally the giant e-learning division was sold off to its competitor. Thomson's prestigious e-learning division Thomson NETg was bought by SkillSoft plc, its e-learning rival, for a whooping $285 million. And as this huge money changes hands the fate of about 300 employees lurks in the dark.

While selling off Thomson NETg Richard Harrington, the Chief Executive Officer said that though Thomson Learning is an excellent business it "does not fit with our long-term strategic vision."

So while the deal closes by the first half of 2007, a more pressing concern confronts Indian companies, particularly the ones that were dependent on NETg for a good chunk of their business. What of the employees that were recruited by these Indian vendors who have spent a major part of their lives only working for developing only NETg courses?

With Skillsoft at the helm now, getting NETg projects for Indians companies will remain a challenge for the days to come. Its likely that Skillsoft will analyze Indian vendors now on more stringent parameters.

Unpredictability undoubtedly is the king in e-learning.

NASSCOM should rank E-learning Companies!!

2006-11-03T15:37:00.000+05:30

Its time we struck a fine balance between authentic claims and misleading information. As the e-learning industry in India gets innundated in unsolicited claims by e-learning companies that they are "Best in India" and the "Largest", its become all the more essential to seperate the wheat from the chaff. The ramifications of such loud claims have been pretty expensive and tasking for clients. Though an exact figure is not available there are countless instances where global clients have learned their lessons the hard way -- that financial figures and gigantic sizes are not always an indication of the e-learning capabilities. Some organizations like the General Motors have already learnt from experience that offshoring e-learning development to India is not always about cost-cutting. There's more to it.

Its time NASSCOM comes forward and provides a robust mechanism to rate all e-learning companies in India. Not only will this help in generating more trust but will shove aside the incompetent players who have been bringing the industry to disrepute.

NIIT receives Dataquest Award 2006

2006-11-02T12:08:00.000+05:30

Its time for NIITians to rejoice. NIIT has bagged the Award for being No. 1 IT Training Company in India from Dataquest. Dataquest cited that "NIIT...is now nearly 1.5 times bigger than the combined revenues of the next 4 players put together."

I think a broader and a better analysis by dataquest for the award would have been to analyze the leader in developing quality training courses -- perhaps an average of revenue, reach and impact. NIIT is 1.5 times bigger does not sound impressive. Size unfortunately fails to impress everyone. Its time we think beyond simple size and economics.

India's First Education Portal...at Last!!!

2006-10-31T18:58:00.000+05:30

Too late or too early -- its best left for debate. The Indian government has finally got an educational portal "Sakshat" in shape. The portal was launched by President Abdul Kalam on Monday.

Being a researcher certain issues concern me. Its news to me that the content for the portal is being developed by UGC, AICTE, IGNOU, NCERT, KVS, NVS, CBSE, IITs and IISc. While names like IITs, IISc and UGC evoke respect, others such as IGNOU are better ignored. Consider the facts. For several years now the university has not been able to update its distance learning course material for subjects such as Journalism. And this is not due to lack of will; rather the infighting for supremacy between hoardes of self-proclaimed intellectuals who incessantly hover around flaunting their political reach and prowess.

Back in the year 2000, as a researcher for DD-GyanDarshan, I experienced the intellectual potential and capability of IGNOU. I was a researcher who already knew his findings before conducting the research. It was then that I predicted an early death for DD-GyanDarshan. And I was correct. The educational channel today moves in a crippling pace inviting very little attention. Perhaps the only audience left for it are the ones who create the programs. Nevertheless the channel serves as a potential money-vending medium for a sizeable chunk of so-called TV professionals who would not be bought even free by any of these private channels. Today, the news of the innauguration of the educational portal evokes concern because I am worried whether it is another medium poised for an early death?

The Making of E-learning Leaders

2006-09-12T20:18:00.000+05:30

Leadership knows no shortcuts. It comes through factors such as persistence, maturity, a global outlook and a smart workforce. Liqvid eLearning Services proves just that...

Occasionally I confront queries from laymen and laywomen asking me to identify India's upcoming leaders in e-learning. I maintain that the answer to the question is difficult yet agree that the best e-learning companies in India are to be found outside the North Indian belt, in Maharasthtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, amongst others. However, exceptions remain.

Personally, one of my favourite e-learning companies in North India is Liqvid E-learning, a Noida based organization that appears to have redefined the way e-learning is created and delivered. My choice for Liqvid comes after closely observing several e-learning companies in the NCR region spanning several years. And these are the key takes for my choice:

Bright minds: The company has some of the brightest e-learning talent in the industry. They know their job well.

An informal atmosphere: Unlike other e-learning companies in the region who remain transfixed in the quagmire of hierarchy and senior-junior tangle, Liqvid professionals do not find themselves alienated in either the PM group, the ID group or the graphics group. The vile trappings of power, position, and hierarchy give way to freedom and free-flowing communication between professionals.

Nonintrusive management: The management is comparitively non-intrusive and the senior management people do not sit "on top of the heads" of its workforce.

Non-politicized: There is no evidence of politics being a key take between the members of the workforce, unlike most e-learning companies in the region.

Note: Personally I have some great friends in Liqvid. And to cut a long story short these guys are equally adept at e-learning as they are in other creative pursuits like composing music, jokes and enabling the development of a ambience that is less prudish and more humane. They have helped me realize that life holds more in its bouquet -- finer sense and sensibility.

E-learning has a new follower in the Indian Government

2006-06-13T20:28:00.000+05:30

If the latest news is to be believed, the Indian government has woken up to e-learning. BSNL Pune is launching multiplayer services that include e-classes, among other things. And Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL) is gearing to supply the content. Elsewhere, at the 1st ICT conference, the Indian Embassy in Addis Ababa declared that India is committed to develop and promote E-learning in Africa.

Amidst this entire hullabaloo, several questions arise. Can organizations like BSNL sustain the project and provide quality e-learning to its subscribers, given the poor records of project implementation of the government? Even while BSNL has been unable to maintain a flawless and functional telephone network in the country, does it auger well for the organization to venture into areas that require cutting-edge talent and human resources. Of course being optimistic in such innovative ventures helps. A failure, however, could be devastating for the government which can loose face before everyone. A failure would also reinforce the government's inability to smoothly execute any 'dream project' and it will serve as an example for the years to come.

The African initiative again would mean that the government has to pull in resources to ideate the projects and then implement it. Where will the government find resources for this? Perhaps the government will seek the services of private e-learning organizations in India for this. And even with this step things are going to be difficult as the government has no regulatory body for e-learning companies. A few Indian e-learning companies are enlisted with NASSCOM, but simple enlistment does not mean that they are 'competent'. Only time will tell how the Indian government fare in the challenge they face in Africa.

Leap-frogging E-learning: The new era begins

2006-05-12T16:36:00.000+05:30

Leap-frogging, the mainstay of Indian development scenario, now finds a new follower in the Indian e-learning industry. So even while most organizations still struggle while creating flawless CBTs and WBTs, some companies are eyeing the gen-next mobile learning. Wonder! Is e-learning fated for an ugly death in the hands of these "knowledge marauders".

So here’s the new baby in town: mobile learning. Even as Gartner declared that India is going to have the largest number of mobile subscribers in the world by 2009, e-learning managers have crowded conference rooms in their quest to understand the situation – prospects and futuristic fundas. Expert opinion is being sought and e-learning companies are frantically trying to tie-up with mobile service providers in trying to work out ways in which learning could be easily provided for Indian learners.

The flurry is however as usual: more hype and little understanding. What Gartner has suggested in the number of mobile subscribers and not the ‘quality’ of mobile subscribers. So even if the mobile service providers try to ‘pack’ talk-time with some ‘learning modules’ the concept may not work. Most Indian subscribers are likely to be people who are illiterate and have no need for hi-tech learning. And they are not going to be interested in ‘soft-skills’ and ‘managerial lessons’ at all. Perhaps a lesson on ‘how to make a living’ could be high on their list of preferences. And with a ‘knowledge-starving’ e-learning industry in India the first subscribers of the ‘how to make a living’ course could be e-learning professionals themselves.

It perhaps makes more sense for Indian e-learning companies in avoiding the quantitative figures in mobile subscribers in India and look for a pie in the mobile learning phenomenon sweeping others regions of the world – in the US and Europe.

Inviting your Comments

2006-04-16T13:16:00.000+05:30

Woops! Thanks for your qualitative responses. I like this space to come up as a virtual meeting place for all e-learning experts and enthusiasts. Your observations on the Indian e-learning industry is essential to give everyone a factual and rational information on Indian e-learning. Do write me your observations! Dash me your mail at india.elearn@gmail.com.

Cheers,

AC

Websites take clients for the infamous ‘Indian ride’

2006-04-12T14:26:00.000+05:30

Hiding behind snazzy graphics and animations are websites of Indian e-learning companies that are strikingly erroneous – smeared with incorrigible elements that are simply boisterous, over-jazzed or downright atrocious. The results are perhaps obvious as more and more international e-learning clients today refuse to be taken on the ‘Indian ride’ as they stand demanding more details. Its time Indian companies revamp their websites to portray the ‘facts’ as they are.

The indubitable truth, folklorists say, follows like a spook. This is perhaps true with the Internet medium that offers unlimited scope for the audience to see through the farcical. Quite oblivious of the concept of how and what they communicate, several Indian e-learning companies appear to have hurriedly put together websites that make dubitable claims on their e-learning capabilities. This desperation is perhaps driven by increased local competition where each company is trying their level best to woo the ‘best international clients'. Unfortunately these websites reveal the secrets -- pretty easily.

The Graphic Blunder
Apparently e-learning websites carry captive images of cheerful men and women drawn from a diverse global culture: African, American and European. Impressive though, these smiling faces are definitely not the real people behind the company’s e-learning efforts. In reality, the entire workforce consists of Indians.

By positioning the photographs of foreigners, these companies portray Indians in bad light. They tend to reinforce that Indian employees are inferior, incapable and incompetent. The practice perhaps seeks to reinforce the notion that Indian e-learning professionals lack competence and formal training that is so essential in e-learning. Surprisingly, there’s no voice against this misguided approach. Perhaps e-learning professionals accept this as a whiff of fate.

Jargon-smeared literature
Jargons are a craze in most e-learning companies. Phrases such as ‘top of the line’, ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘top notch’ are being used excessively thereby diluting the essence of the communication. There are examples of e-learning companies hiring copywriters from the advertising industry to help them perform the ‘trick.’

Jargons are passé and it is doubtful whether the old tricks work fine with all western clients. Indian companies perhaps seem to have forgotten that the hype surrounding the new media is long dead ever since the dot com bust in the late 1990s. Clients now firmly believe that there is no alternative to quality work – the ones delivering quality work need not ‘shout’ at the top of their voice, they get noticed even if they lie low.

Client List: Brand Transfer
The next strategy problematic area in websites is the long display of foreign clients on the home pages. Client logos are displayed as a priced element, with the sole objective of transferring value to their otherwise ‘valueless’ entities. Client list makes sense for big organizations such as Tata Interactive Services (TIS) and NIIT – for others, it’s calamitous. Some of the clients displayed in the websites of smaller companies are ones who got a few odd jobs worth a few thousand dollars done and never returned back. Yet, Indian companies carry their relationships with pride – a relationship that never was.

Suggested Measures
Its time e-learning companies in India start looking at the facts on the face. The best way to serve the international clientele is to come out with the truth through a truthful account of their capabilities, their resources and their intentions. Carried for long, these websites this could well mean the death knell for the industry in India as clients scout for other sincere service providers in China and other cheaper destinations across the world. Sincerity helps!

Industry Wrestles with a Befuddled Group of Projects Managers

2005-12-26T21:27:00.000+05:30

By Asim Choudhury

E-mail: india.elearn@gmail.com

As e-learning ventures crop up at every conceivable place in India, driving business goals appears to be difficult and painful. As the rush for offering e-learning services increase, international clients remain innoculated against well-worded sales pitches and tall promises. Most companies fail to adhere to the standards they commit largely because of major flaws in project management. No wonder, the craggy Indian e-learning industry cannot get back to some acceptable shape unless they begin looking for professional project management. This article addresses the oft-neglected realm of professional project management and enlists reasons that make for inefficacious Project Managers in Indian e-learning industry.

As 2005 wraps up, the aspirations of the Indian e-learning industry is soaring to greater heights. The plans are set and all believe that mission 2006 will help them register greater profits and faster growth. This belief is largely driven by the action in the global e-learning theatre where players are voicing a great future for the industry. With such a global e-learning revolution in the offing, it makes sense for Indian companies to rejoice.

But there ought to be a limit to one's aspirations, and mainly when the Indian industry harps on professionals who are semi-skilled, project managers who are less capable and a blurred vision. Add to it the plight resulting from lack of standards and regulation, the Indian scenario is not so rosy as one might think. As organizations grapple with sleek brochures and jazzy flash animations, the scenario remains mired in confusion.

The Ferment
That's the situation! Amidst the plethora of jargons and talk on processes and quality, the management of e-learning companies setup umpteen ‘meetings’ and ‘brainstorming sessions’ to find the actual flaw in their system. Once the long-drawn meetings get over, organizations fall back on some fanciful ideas. The core issue gets mired in confusion and they are all back to square one. The actual answer to their failures, largely overlooked, remains clearly written all over the wall -- incompetent Project Management.

Most project managers in the industry are ill-equipped to tackle the pressures of meeting organizational goals. The reason lies in their breeding and their candid and open negligence of skills. The position of an Indian project manager is more of hype than actual action.

So here’s the crux, realize it or not. A myopic management has never been able to shed their preoccupation with confusion and address the real question of professional Project Management: an issue that stands squashed under the boots of ROI-hungry Indian entrepreneurs.

What’s in a PM’s Role?
There goes a popular modern saying, “never buy a car from a salesman who does not know how to drive.” Arguing in the same sense a project manager is supposed to be an expert in handling e-learning challenges – be it at the stage of client interaction, storyboarding or development. In short he or she should necessarily be a multi-tasker and problem-solver.

For instance, any project manager without through understanding of storyboarding techniques will obviously fail to add value or distinguish between good or bad storyboards (SBs). At best, they can indulge in the now fairly common Indian technique of allocating the job to someone else – a scenario very common in Indian e-learning companies.

Going by existing practices, it is fairly understood that Project Managers in e-learning companies are responsible for the success of e-learning teams and also for contributing to organizational profitability and competitiveness. It is also clear that such endeavours requires PMs to be committed to processes and goals, apart from scheduling, staffing and budgeting, and monitoring and controlling teams efficiently.

Some Pertinent Questions
Given the current state of affairs, some questions remain. Let’s look into these here, albeit briefly.

Role Vs Action
Most Indian e-learning ventures are a confusing salmagundi. And that’s largely because of conflicting roles. Instructional Designers who are recruited to script story boards find themselves helping the PM drafting a ‘sleek’ mail to the client and undertaking ‘budgeting’ efforts. The Project Managers can be seen running around listening to the dictats of the management: their sole existence is based on keeping the management pleased. Such confusion of roles often sets discontentment within development teams resulting in high attritions. On an average most e-learning companies face an attrition rate of more than 35%, although companies claim that the attrition rate is hardly above 5%.

Lack of Basic Education
Most project managers in the e-learning industry are bereft of any basic education. They are at most a graduate or a post-graduate with no formal training. A study of about 200 project managers undertaken by the author in Delhi in January 2005 reveals that as many as 85% of PMs have not secured 60% or higher grades in their graduate or post-graduate examinations. And most have climbed up the ladder to position themselves as Project Managers on the basis of the “years of experience.”

Study has also revealed that e-learning companies often recruit PMs on the brand value of the previous company he or she has worked for. So a NIIT or a GE tag fetches them plum jobs.

Managing Sans Certification
The study by this author also revealed that a majority of project managers (about 98%) in the e-learning industry are not certified Project Managers. And while the PMs argue that they do not have the time to write a course, a comparative study of their academic records shows that most cannot simply get through a certification program owing to their abysmally poor academic caliber.

From the perspective of the employers this also makes sense in the way that these PMs can be employed at any salary and lack of a global certification makes them susceptible to employer dictates: that could be anything from handling odd assignments to undertaking business develop work.

The Fall-outs: Unstoppable
The early signs of discontentment are already visible round the corner. Big international clients have now woken up to the hard reality that they are indeed being taken for a ride by Indian e-learning vendors, largely by the North Indian ventures. The discontent has reached such alarming proportions that global clients are now giving a fresh look at their e-learning programs and the feasibility of getting them done in India. Some have been smart enough and have setup their own in-house e-learning teams. The costs for their ventures, they realize, is a part of what they paid Indian e-learning vendors.

Another trend that has been observed is that more and more e-learning professionals are now packing their bags and heading for different career paths. This is very rational. In a situation where processes and performance shows up for few boot-licking people, it is better to save their professional competence for other career paths. IT companies are now employing IDs by the dozens for Technical Writing and Documentation. This trend is most likely to increase over time as efficient resources are drained by other industries and the ones left are loosely trained people who cannot scale up beyond a certain level of competence.

Training in the Oil and Gas Sector: a Direct ROI

2005-12-12T20:17:00.000+05:30

By Asim Choudhury

E-learning in the Oil and Gas sector in India is in its infancy. Given the fact that India is one of the fastest growing Oil economies in the world where billions of dollars are being invested in the upstream, midstream and the downstream sectors, cutting-edge training has been grossly neglected. The reasons for this are several -- perhaps there are few or no e-learning players who can take up the challenge or perhaps the Oil and Gas companies are ignorant of emerging technologies and the benefits therein. Its high time for things to change: either by a strong will of the companies or by the e-learning industry that is all too happy without nerve-shattering challenges. This article takes a look into the possibilities of what may be termed as a 'goldmine'.

The oil and gas industry is a global, highly competitive, and knowledge-intensive business with high demand for e-learning. However, most oil companies in India are not au courant with cutting-edge learning technologies like e-learning. Even if they are aware, they remain aporetic to its power and reach. While both Indian e-learning developers remain unlettered of the vast business prospects of e-learning business in Oil and Gas in India, global companies are adding more and more clients to their existing repertoire.

Even while the Indian e-learning service providers ignore e-learning in Oil and Gas, the Oil and Gas companies based in India too appear ignorant of the tremendous possibilities of e-learning. These Oil and Gas companies are yet to open their eyes to the tremendous potential of e-learning in helping them reduce training costs and building a knowledge-based workplace.

In a classic case of training ignorance in India one can only point out the example of Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC). So far, ONGC has evaded the idea of incorporating e-learning in their organization. Perhaps the real benefits are unknown to its policy makers or because of lack of credible and ‘qualified’ Indian vendors. ONGC is entering e-learning in a small scale, by securing some training licenses for technical courses from international e-learning companies on a license basis. However, the training institutes of ONGC largely remain unmoved by e-learning.

Why E-learning for the Oil and Gas Sector?
Companies in the oil and gas sector are rapidly embracing e-learning as an integral part of their training initiatives. The reason for this lies in the benefit it offers to their staff and their bottom line. Considering the issues faced by oil and gas companies in working offshore and meeting the demands of health and safety, e-learning benefits are pertinent to meeting their critical organizational needs.

However, there are still several small oil and gas companies who remain unaware of the larger benefits of e-learning. The fear then is that these companies may miss out on the benefits accrued through structured learning and eventually fail to face competition.

Developing a highly-skilled and adaptable workforce in a flexible way remains the priority of the leaders in the oil and gas sector. E-learning includes the use of a variety of media and techniques for learning, including text, sound, graphics, photography, animation, video, e-mail, discussion forums, chat rooms, virtual meetings or tutorials, and simulations.

Simulation-based E-learning
Simulation-based e-learning remains a potential tool for e-learning in Oil and Gas. Simulations can take learning beyond the possible – into realms that can never be accessed through regular training. For example, when technical trainees are taken to a drilling rig for onsite training, they may never get to see inside a pipeline when it pulls-up crude oil or how the robotic arms move beneath the surface and shoots bullets to gauge the potential of crude or gas. At best, it can be visualized in an instructor led classroom-based training setting. E-learning, however, can show the animated action of the robotic arms and all such activities that are beyond the reach of the learner.

Some Noteworthy Global e-learning Initiatives
Across the world several e-learning giants have woken up to this reality. In 2004, PETRONAS (Petroliam Nasional Berhad), Malaysia’s Oil and Gas giant, tied up with Thompson NETg to develop a comprehensive training system to drive its employees to a higher learning path, thereby enabling them to take up more responsibility and assume bigger roles in a globalized business environment. The initiative is part of the Malaysian Government’s Vision 2020, wherein the Government wants to create knowledge-based workers to be able to serve as the foundation for the nation to acquire a developed status.

Known as the “PETRONAS eLearning” programme, it aims to bring eLearning opportunities, information and communications technology (ICT) to staff, partners and on a latter part to the public locally and worldwide. PETRONAS selected Thomson NETg to provide IT courses, on-going support and valuable industry experience. The training solutions would be blended e-learning and would help train a workforce of 25,000 employees working in 35 countries.

Statoil, another Norwegian oil and gas company has setup a SAP-based Learning System that seeks to address the learning needs of its 17,000 employees working in 28 countries. The SAP Learning Solution is used to manage over 1,100 courses of all delivery types (classroom instructions, WBTs and CBTs). The system has proved to be an easy-to-use tool that gives employees and managers the ability to plan and track competency-development activities. Statoil has also replaced several legacy systems and increased its usage of e-learning by offering better visibility of available courses across the enterprise. Statoil primary training initiatives focus on exploration and production, drilling operations and maintenance, safety and environmental concerns, technical skills for engineering and geology professionals.

Petrobras, another major Oil and Gas player is now using the services of e-leaning companies to increase employee productivity, ensure safety compliance, and enhance its competitive position. Petrobras has almost 40,000 employees and nearly 80,000 contractors working throughout 11 countries, including Brazil and the U.S., and in locations such as offshore drilling facilities and remote offices in the Amazon.

Learning on Demand (LoD)
Oil and Gas companies across the world are increasingly subscribing to the concept of Learning on Demand (LoD). Learning on Demand refers to ‘situated learning’ in a working context which occurs at the user's discretion, often triggered by a breakdown. In large information stores, such as high-functionality computer systems, where users only have a partial knowledge, learning on demand is the only viable strategy. Learning on Demand applies a wide lens to learning and includes the broad range of ad hoc or informal learning activities that takes place everyday in organizations.

Employees of Oil and Gas companies have a tremendous need for learning. Unlike other organizations, the employees of Oil and Gas companies require a large amount of learning material. This learning cannot be defined within the narrow parameters of a few courses. They have to be wide and should encompass a wide range of professional and personal development.

Consider a scenario to understand the concept better. Oil and Gas employees are typically situated in several levels of the hierarchy. When a General Manager wants to learn about the nuances of making an effective presentation, he/she has a dilemma. He/she cannot go to a presentation expert in the Public Relations department and seek his/her help as this would entail a ‘loss of professional competence.’ This General Manager can then go to a secure system and demand a learning course on ‘making presentations’ – in complete confidentiality.

Global e-learning Solutions Providers
There are several competent e-learning solutions providers in the World. NETg and Accenture appear to lead the front. While NETg has bagged several prestigious clients like Petronas, Malaysia, Accenture operates across 20 countries and has over 90 clients that include major international, independent and national oil companies. In the upstream segment, Accenture has several well-known brands as clients from across the world, including those in the United States, Europe, Russia, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Accenture’s e-learning initiatives focus on reducing operating costs, decreasing cycle time for key operational processes, focusing key personnel on core value-added activities, providing real-time, accurate information to facilitate decision-making, providing flexible, high-quality support services at low cost, and increasing operational outcome probability while decreasing risk.

E-learning: The Deadly Traps

2005-12-10T20:27:00.000+05:30

By Asim Choudhury

Even while the Indian e-learning industry remains awed with captive technological tools and snazzy graphics, the actual elements of learning are being ignored, much to the dismay of serious e-learning players. And amidst such hullabaloo, international clients are slowly waking up to what can be termed as ‘e-learning garbage’ emanating out of India – all in the name of cost-effectiveness. Today, the industry, more than ever before, is witnessing an increasing demand for the actual dishes in e-learning – Content, competent SMEs and powerful Learning Strategies.

“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.” Helen Keller

The Indian e-learning industry is laden with issues – the most notable being the innoxiousness of a large section of e-learning professionals in India on what actually constitutes e-learning. The definition is different for different people. Some buy the idea that e-learning is mere chunking of content with graphics with a few questions strewn here and there. Some think that it’s all about flash animations – the more snazzy the better. Yet others think that e-learning means quick money. For the so-called brain truster, e-learning offers to serve as a platform for positioning their intellectual skills.

The Glitter of the Interface
Most e-learning entrepreneurs in the e-learning industry in India are people who get awed with the glitter and jazz in e-learning courses. They forget that what they see is simply one small part of the whole picture.

Globally, e-learning clients are no longer ignorant bunch of people who can be enamored by silly logic. Clients today have several levels of training experts onboard their training teams who are acquainted with the subtle nuances of e-learning. And, impressing them with captive raillery doesn’t make sense.

Indian e-learning professionals are now face-to-face with the harsh realities. They are now forced to forego their fancy ‘intellectual skins’ and deliver substantial quality. A rough estimate reveals that globally clients have lost several billions of dollars in buying what may be best called ‘e-learning junk’ from Indian vendors. The colours of the e-learning interface no more lure clients. At best they impress the nescient ones who are new to e-learning.

Plagiarism is Passe
Some time back a group of professionals were debating on what would happen if the Internet were to disappear from out lives. Amidst the viewpoints that were tables, one was particularly interesting – that the worst hit organizations would be Indian e-learning companies. The reason for this was simple. Most e-learning companies in India today vouch their supremacy n the basis of plagiarized content culled from the Internet.

Several e-learning vendors in India are now running for cover as more and more international clients are pointing to the use of plagiarized content and graphics. With such harsh comments from clients, most e-learning vendors have shed their garb of farce intellectualism and are getting their acts firmed up to contain plagiarism. But, is there any noticeable change ?

To understand the issue of plagiarism one needs to understand the actual reasons for it. Most companies select writers and Instructional Designers without proper evaluation. This again is driven by the fact that IDs are paid way below the standards and so companies do not want to loose on a ‘cheap resource.’ Once employed the IDs are instructed to browse the Net, download content and rewrite them. The content is then plugged-in onto e-learning frames to look like, what they push before the client as BRILLIANT e-learning course. But the client isn't impressed!

Vendors also need to distinguish between learning content and informational content. Learning content is to the point, carries a lot of meat, and is detailed. Informational content is generic, contains lots of preaching and is intended to awe the user – which is simply not wanted.

SMEs are the Real Heroes
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are the actual spices that add flavour, aroma and taste to e-learning. Unfortunately, Indian e-learning ventures are nascent – they are yet to realize the essence of SMEs for e-learning. Some companies do have onboard SMEs but that’s come about over a long-drawn trial and error process. The others are just hanging around the industry with few odd projects that is helping them sustain their costs.

The average e-learning company in India shares ‘weird’ processes and concepts about e-learning. And since the e-learning industry is not as systematic as the software development ventures, every Tom, Dick and Harry has an IDEA that is neither bought nor refuted. For instance, there were instances where some e-learning companies in Delhi had written off the role of a SME with the argument that they are fancy resources and are also very ‘expensive.’ No wonder, e-learning gurus in Indian e-learning ventures still believe that the role of a SME and ID are one and the same. Ignorance is bliss.

Good SMEs in India are found in top-notch institutions like IITs and IIMs and other research organizations. In the absence of an industry-academic interface such competent SMEs remain largely ignored. Although there are instances wherein some e-learning companies had attempted to hire these top-notch experts for content validation, the association has been mostly effete. After all, too longer an association with the resources from the intellectual realm is neither ‘safe’ nor ‘healthy’ for the odd bunch of self-proclaimed e-learning gurus in India.

In their own interest and the interest of their serious learners, it’s high time that clients start questioning the veracity of e-learning vendors in India. Its time that clients do some tough talk and force Indian vendors to sign a legitimate contract spelling out penalty clauses for serving the courses with ‘unwanted content’ and ‘styles’. They should make it mandatory for all e-learning solutions provider to spell out the competence level of the SMEs to be employed for a particular course.

Getting the Right Strategy
Disorganized people cannot think of strategy. In a scenario where much of the resources in Indian e-learning industry remain untrained and are ill-bred, learning strategies are difficult to come by.

Successful e-learning necessitates a powerful strategy. And it is pertinent that all e-learning strategies be grounded in strong research. Just the way a teacher would adopt a different style of teaching in a classroom setting for different groups of students, e-learning too essentially requires a good strategy that sets the platform for optimum learning.

Working on the strategy brings us to the realm of RESEARCH – a realm of the intellectuals. Where most resources in the Indian e-learning industry have a foreboding academic stint, one could help but wonder on whether these individuals can bear the onus of setting a good strategy for learning.

Getting the strategy for effective learning requires a deeper understanding of the audience profile, the technological ‘comfort level’ of the users and also their ‘attitudes’ towards learning. Studies on these aspects should be done at a micro-level.

Most e-learning professionals are not even aware that e-learning is Mass Communication – a communication that is very powerful when compared to the mass media. While the news products available in the mass media have a short shelf life, the shelf life of an e-learning course could span months, or several years.

Most e-learning companies in India do little or no research before involving in courseware designs. All they are aware of Bloom, Merrill et al – thanks to the Internet. Fortunately, so far most e-learning courses that have Indian companies were entrusted to develop were predefined by their clients and there were only a handful of cases where Indian companies ever got the opportunity to develop end-to-end e-learning solutions. Even with that the mess is all too much to describe.

Today, any attempt to seek the services of Indian e-learning companies should be well-researched and well-thought. A slight indecisiveness could land clients into the hands of ‘e-learning rogues’ who are teeming in India.

Research-Based E-learning: The Pertinent Need in Modern Organizations

2005-12-05T18:41:00.001+05:30

By Asim Choudhury

E-learning has come of age. The euphoria, promted by a rapid march towards technology and graphics, has subsided and the glamour has fizzled out. Organizations around the world have woken up to the real learning and to the co-related fact that it can bring in a tangible change in workplace culture and performance. This paper analyses the impending need for research in developing e-learning courses for the global corporate industry.

Introduction
In simple terms, e-learning is a process that enables learning to be an effective process. While the nuances of this procedure remain similar to the traditional instructor-led classroom settings, the effectiveness comes in the form of rapid delivery of learning to a global learner base and an ability to assess the learners effectively. Technologies play a proactive role and facilitates this process.

After the realization of the global Internet medium when e-learning emerged as a concept, the learning was based on mere powerpoint slides or documents. With the emergence of technologies like ASP, XML, learning management system (LMS), content management system (CMS) and learning content management system (LCMS), the Sack Du process saw tremendous a makeover in terms of effective delivery and tracking. And now, with the emergence of applications like Flash and streaming video, learning has morphed into an environment never experienced before.
However, amidst all this amalgamation of technology and delivery means, learning called for a broader treatment. Today, learning is no longer understood as the domain of the learners studying only in schools and universities but even in smaller setups and organizations. Corporate training has thus emerged as a specialized area of learning that calls for as much innovative skills and competence.

Being successful in tomorrow’s e-learning marketplace will involve following research-based learning principles; using e-learning’s unique capability to connect with learners over time; assessing a program’s design before it is deployed; analyzing the appropriateness of the implementation scheme; and evaluating learning outcomes using simulated real-world scenarios.

Corporate Courses: A Different Ball Game
Developing corporate courses are a different ball game; quite unconventional and performance centric. Unlike the learning that takes place in universities and schools, corporate learning does not deal much with theories. Instead, this type of learning deals with the current needs. It deals with not the possibilities but with practicable skill-based learning that can be immediately applied to the job.

Corporate courses different from one organization to another. So, for example, a corporate learning courseware for an oil and gas company would be quite different from the courses that is being delivered to IT companies. Though all corporate courses address the needs of the workforce, the nuances differ because of a great deal of difference between workplace settings, technical background, and skillsets.

Thus, corporate training courses should cater to the following essential nuances:

Research on the workforce skillsets
Research on the organizational setup and structure
Research on the career path of individual employees
Research on the organizational goals
Research on individuals (psychological, behavioural)
Research on individual learner’s objective

Understand the Business Impact
E-learning courses in business environments need to focus on the business impact. The actual value proposition of e-learning courseware developers is to create real business impact. Business impact comes from learning that is based on real work projects.

Tomorrow’s e-learning customers will not only demand business results, they’ll ask specific questions. Is e-learning the right tool for the issues we face? Does our e-learning follow proven research-based design principles? Can we improve our e-learning implementation scheme? How can we measure our performance results?Developers of e-learning for organizations will look to different types of people as the market ups its demands. Experts on learning will be needed to ensure that e-learning in organizations support the human learning system instead of working against it.

Analysing learning readiness
Also known as learners’ prerequisites, the learning state or condition of an individual makes it possible for him or her to engage profitably in a given learning activity. The learning readiness depends on such factors as past experiences, cognitive development, affective factors, and motivation. It also depends on the instructional methods and materials to be used. Knowledge, achievements, or other characteristics or circumstances required before proceeding on a given course of action.

The e-learning marketplace makes for interesting display. While new learning technologies typically generate considerable euphoria, the courses are usually followed by failure then effectiveness. Continued success in e-learning therefore will come to only those who update their offerings to keep pace with the changing expectations of buyers and learners. For this constant pace with market needs, research is indispensable.

Today’s e-learning market is predominantly dominated by ROI calculations. This is an impediment as well as a boon. The impediment factor comes from increased commercialization of learning at the cost of its essence and long-term benefits. The boon comes from a focused parameter to the knowledge industry.

Therefore unlike the formative years of e-learning, today’s success does not depend on cost cutting; rather, it depends on high-quality learning and on-the-job performance results. Several successful organizations today seem to be headed in that direction. Organizations no longer decide on e-learning courses on the basis of costs; rather, they do so on the basis of the outcomes.

Avoiding tailor-made courses
Tailor-made courses are ineffective. E-learning courses for the corporate world that are churned out in rapid numbers resemble the rush for commodities during the industrial revolution in Europe: it was much about quantity and less of quality. E-learning has dragged on so long with this with little or no success. Organizations that were awed with the new process forgot to realise that actual learning was a different game altogether. The macro-level approach followed by e-learning vendors were largely ineffective and made little difference to the learning curve amongst the workforce. This is simply because of the fact that organizations vary in degrees from one another in terms of learning needs. Even within organizations there was a wide variation between the departments. This then calls for a micro-level analysis and a granular understanding of the learning needs.

The micro-level approach is the key to organizational learning. Recent years have seen too much of run-of-the-mill type training courses in organizations that have greatly reduced the learning effectiveness and have developed a negative mindset towards e-learning. This is partly due to the incompetence of the e-learning courseware developers and partly due to the lack of understanding of training managers in organizations.

It has been quite a disaster for organizations to focus on the costs rather than the effectiveness of the vendors. The cut-throat competition between e-learning vendors was primarily responsible for this parochial cost-centric perspective of e-learning courses. Today, however, the e-learning industry seems to have matured; the result of which is witnessed in the large number of effective and innovative courseware available for organizations. At the other end the training managers in organizations are to be equally blamed. With little or no understanding on e-learning, the training managers had outsourced their training courses to almost anyone, without worrying even a wee bit about the profile and competence of the courseware developers. This is now changing as training managers mature and focus more on quality and are not affected by mere word play.

Research on the Instructional Design Strategies
Instructional Strategic Design (ISD) forms the basic framework for constructing an e-learning course. ISD may be thought of as similar to the architecture prepared by an architect prior to constructing a building. At a superficial level the architecture seems independent and obvious, but at the micro-level one observes several other factors that come into play. For example, for an architectural design of a building, apart from the aesthetics, the architecture should also cater to the finer nuances like direction, ventilation, utility and the ability to repurpose it for other unusual needs. The same principle applies to ISDs. Merely framing an ISD for the obvious learning and not considering the granular nuances is fraught with dangers. When implemented in improperly designed ISD will not only lead to loss of precious development time but will result in huge cost expenditures, thereby making the whole exercise futile.

ISDs based on thorough granular level research would enable developers to meet the exigencies that may creep in. The research-based ISD provides alternate paths to assessments, graphics, reinforcements, style of presentation and an ability to quickly repurpose it to changing needs.
The well-researched ISD would also consider information of human information processing of the learners and the effective instruction for maximum learning. Almost all ISDs today are incomplete in the sense that they contain very little though on the several techniques of learning that are specific to individual learners. Learner-sensitive ISDs are robust and possessed with logic for every single element suggested therein. Any move that cannot be logically srgued and supported is scrap and serve as the loopholes to effective learning.

Research also suggests that ISDs should stear clear of unwanted “noise,” that emanates from the inclusion of unthought graphic and functional elements. Most e-learning course developers feel that adding unusual elements to the courses would make it look different. While a graphic-intensive ISD might appeal to the novice training managers, for the serious and foccused one, they are chaotic. These elements erode the sheen out of the learning activity making them just another format of glitz and glamour. This however, does not mean that glitz and glamour is to be completely avoided. The real essence lies in a balanced use of these elements so that they enhance learning and do not serve as distractors in the learning process.

E-learning courses, to be effective, should be grounded in time-tested learning theories and not on the subjective decisions of a few people. The focus should shift from “what we think” to “what learners need.” This is true even in the traditional model of classroom learning where the efficient teacher rarely concentrates on what he or she thinks is right to what is actually required. The science of instruction calls for a thorough understanding of how instruction works, how it is encoded and consequently decoded by the learners. Human Information Processing – Encoding, Transfer, and Metacognition – all should be adequately addressed by developers while developing learning courses. There is a lot of maturity now both within the domain of the teachers as well as within the domain of the taught.

10 Learning Principles
Organizational learning needs to focus on 10 learning principles. These learning principles provide a mechanism to work out the basics of an effective human learning system. The principles are as follows:

1. Make learning context similar to performance context
2. Provide retrieval practice and testing
3. Provide feedback on practice and testing
4. Provide interactivity to engage the learner
5. Provide repetition of learning and practice
6. Space learning and practice over time
7. Present learning material innovatively
8. Prepare a psychologically powerful learning environment (interface)
9. Utilize relevant information only
10. Help learners focus on the most important information

E-learning or E-burning: The life of an Indian ID

2005-12-01T20:48:00.000+05:30

By Asim Choudhury

The Role of an Instructional Designer is often exaggerated in India. For the amount of brainwashing and rumour doing the rounds in e-learning companies, one can’t help but believe that IDs are the ‘kings’ in the world of writing. The real fact: they are like tissue papers – get momentary pleasure by being placated the one moment and then get thrown out when the job is done.

Days back I found myself in the company of an Instructional Designer (ID) working in an Indian e-learning company. Young and full of gait, the chap threw the airs of a king: possibly induced by his newly acquired status and the monetary benefits. He was casual and remained serious. A little time in some silly talk, I settled for the killer question: “what do you think is your future in e-learning?” He fancied my question, paused, gave a weird smile and took a long drag from his Malboro before coming out with a loosely crafted response, “Well dear, see, now I am here…cool job… 3 years and I hop somewhere as a Project Manager and then…shoooo…I am off… off to the US or some foreign country.”

I digested the essence of his chimerical response and stared at him for sometime before throwing the next query: “Do you think some good learning is happening here in your present role as an ID”? “Learning?” he quipped smartly, “what learning?”… “Hey cool it man…we gotta work out the present and not strain our brains on what’s what.”

The answer said it all…and he said it pretty clear. Though the interaction appeared simple, the essence was thought-provoking. The answer revealed desperation and a possible ‘professional suicide.’

Most e-learning companies in India boast of a talented ID resource. In reality, all they have to pride is a fragmented ID workforce consisting of simple graduates who find themselves in in e-learning by a waft of fate than by will. Any observation will reveal that Indian vendors are least interested in analysing ID skills because of reasons whatsoever, and any wayward dummy with some knowledge of hinglish can hop in. Credentials are passe and cost factors are important. Afterall, at the end of the day, costs have to be justified.

A closer look at the academic background of most IDs in the industry, a select few can boast of a post-graduate degree. A majority are graduates and lack sound academic knowledge. One can only magine the value they bring to the workplace. Even by the standards of an average layman, it would be difficult to understand as to how could someone with shoddy education create powerful instructional designs.

E-learning companies today frequently advertise for IDs keeping the simple criteria of “a minimum of 1 year experience.” Thereby applications are screened by the dozens and consequently selected. Training, they say, can happen on the job. Unfortunately that training never comes by. Apart from a few companies like NIIT, Inforpro and Accenture, most organizations in India offer no ID training whatsoever.

Talking of remuneration, the scale of an ID appears tempting for most middle-class Indians with a penchant for quick money. The long-term prospects, however, appear bleak, as is evident from several instances in the Indian e-learning industry. While industry honchos vouch that IDs can notch up a package of anything between Rs 20k to 1 lakh a month, reality is something else. IDs in India have a saturation point beyond which they turn into a liability for the organization. A few years of increments lands the ID into a position that is a dead end. Neither can organizations afford them, nor can they justify their package to prospective clients. This is the time when organizations dump them like a fly from a bowl of soup. The result: IDs have to start analyzing their skill-sets and eyeing opportunities in related fields like technical writing and journalism. Wonder do they really stand a chance there!

Identity-wise, IDs are rather unknown creatures – all they have is a name lost in heaps of HR files in the database. Poor chaps, the best they can do is to fill their CVs with tall claims of having done some great piece of work for some XYZ GREAT MNC. The actual glory is reaped by Project Managers and the top management from clients.

As an ID one tends to burn-out the knowledge they have accumulated over the years after almost 25 years of education. This is since, theories apart, IDs do not get the opportunity to learn on the job. And all they leverage on during their stint as an ID is the knowledge they have learnt over the years. Unfortunately, their work is just like another clerk, bereft of learning opportunities. As an individual the ID tends to become a virtual recluse – cutting out from regular social interactions and knowledge exchange. The ID work gobbles up the fun and excitement from their lives: too much work pressure and very little rest.

One opinion in the industry is that the role of an ID hones one’s skills and helps them become better writers – partly true and partly false. True that ID develops the skills of objectivity and rationality but in the process, they kill the creative writer within. The final result is that they hang around like a misfit – quite like the washerman’s dog, neither at home nor on the river banks (Ghar ka nag hat ka). They neither make good journalists nor do they fit into a creative role.

Recent years have seen a large number of frustrated IDs in India hopping from one organization to another in the vain hope of having something different. But its all the same everywhere. There are ample instances of IDs who have pulled out of the nerve-wracking role of IDs from companies as small as Magic to big giants like NIIT. Wonder what beckons them!

The repository of learning knowledge is as vast as one imagination and cannot be simply captured within the framework of a few cognitive or constructivist learning theories by Bloom et al. What the industry respects and perhaps looks forward to are innovative people capable of developing top-of-the-line courseware, not clerks who mug-up a couple of tailor-made theories and set for the kill.

Instructional Designing by virtue is very limiting. Its not always that the IDs in the Indian industry cannot think of innovative strategy for designing e-learning courses. They do have some up their sleeves but most remain constrained with whatever the client dictates: another rationale for comparing the work to that of a clerk’s. Strategy is the client’s call and IDs are not allowed to think. The situation can be compared to that in the Defence forces where a soldier is not supposed to exercise his thoughts; he is simply supposed to act on the orders. The result is a mind that is bereft of creativity; or more precisely programmed not to think creatively. Unless IDs are allowed to treat into the creative domain of e-learning solutions, the work would continue to remain drab.

The programmed thought in IDs contains very few items: suggest a graphic with a few lines of text in a frame and then follow them intermittently with reinforcements in the form of drag and drop, multiple choice or fill-in the blanks. The visualization also is a problem area. Working under stringent timelines, graphic designers always ask for simpler graphics which they can work on very fast. A creatively visualized flash graphic can send the whole project awry as the developer will have to put in extra effort which time never permits him.

It's time Indian IDs forego their slumber and get onto doing some real analysis. They need to make up their minds -- whether they want to hang around the lively world doing unyielding and unsatisfying work or get into a cutting-edge area. And this analysis has to come fast, before they burn out the last remains of their intelligence and creativity.

E-learning: Mad Rush of Willy-nilly Entrepreneurs in India

2005-11-26T15:15:00.000+05:30

By Asim Choudhury

The current e-learning boom in India has added to the existing woes. Standards apart, the industry hangs on the edge where processes and players are dubious. Much of this blame can be put on the Indian government’s inability to put together a regulatory body. Unregulated and unstructured, the e-learning industry in India is likely to wreck havoc for the global e-learning industry as small vendors pile up huge "learning garbage" for clients worldwide.

E-learning in India has come of age. Two decades and the nation already cherishes several global e-learning players on its soil. This can be attributed to some basic reasons like cheap human resources, a large pool of English-speaking workforce and ‘business discounts’ offered by the central and state governments. Although exact figures of the size of the industry is not available, a conservative estimate shows the offshore e-learning industry at about $150 million in 2004-05, up almost by 200 percent in the last two years.

Inspite such impressive figures, the e-learning industry in India remains mired with a plethora of issues. Some of these issues include lack of uniform e-learning standards and workplace practices, and the lack of adequate human resources to power the spiraling upward growth. These concerns apart, government apathy has also bolstered fly-by-night e-learning entrepreneurs who eye quick bucks and increasingly deliver ‘learning garbage’ to a global clientele.

Smaller vendors in India have setup e-learning business houses with paltry investments of a few thousand dollars – in the hope of getting a sizeable pie of the global e-learning business. Most of these short-term vendors run their shows from North India – from places in and around the National Capital Region of Delhi. A sizeable segment of these street-smart vendors eye the US e-learning market – given the current explosion in e-learning expenditure in the US. According to the International Data Corp., in 2004, U.S. companies spent $14.5 billion training employees on the Web and through CBT.

The modus operandi for these vendors is simple. They rent in a couple of rooms in an urban area and advertise for resources in job websites and newspapers. Writers, designers and technology professionals – mostly unskilled – are hired by the dozens. The average salary of the employees ranges anything between $100 to $400 and the working hours stretch well over 72 hours per week. Next, these companies setup small sales calling teams to call up international clients asking for work. The sales pitch is often exaggerated and boasts of a few “big names”. To show their experience, these vendors cull-out a few odd CBTs from other companies or ‘steal’ courses through their contacts.

The basic quality that behooves a standard e-learning company is absent in these companies. Proprietors remain ignorant of even the most basic information that is essential to run the show. A Java programmer, for example, is asked to hone his skills in C++ or any other program since he is responsible for all ‘programming’ needs. Almost anyone who walks in for the position of writers is employed as an ‘instructional designer’, primarily because they can be asked to work for lesser salaries on the pretext that they lack instructional designing experience. Vendors also rely on these writers to validate the learning content for authenticity even when content validation remains the domain of the expert, the Subject Matter Expert (SME). The writers and designers are instructed to download content from Internet websites and ‘rewrite’ them before using it. A basic ignorance of the Internet medium on the part of the owners means that the writers are often confused with the content because no single idea or information on the Internet appears consistent.

E-learning processes are virtually absent in these companies. All that offers a direct benefit to the proprietor becomes part of the practiced processes. A Project Manager, for example, may be required to recruit people, review e-learning courses, undertake marketing activities, and do just anything that catches the fancy of the owner. In some companies, it was observed that programmers were asked to work as typists. The motto: no resource should sit idle. Employees who work for more than 9 hours a day are neither paid additional remuneration nor are given facilities like cabs and food for their late stay and long hours of work. As an e-learning professional once remarked, “employees in these fly-by-night ventures reminds one of the rampant practice of human slavery in Africa and Arabian countries a few centuries back. Professional torture apart, these employees are also subjected to extremely inhuman conditions of work – congested workplace, outdated computers, stinking toilets, and the same paltry salary year after year. Employees in these companies too appear to have resigned to their fates – partly because their poor education that doesn’t stand them in good stead for jobs in big e-learning MNCs and also because most do not have a professional competence in English language.

This phenomenon is rarely reported by any section of the Indian media, perhaps due to ignorance or for fear of antagonizing the international fraternity. The abysmal condition and the unplanned e-learning sector, however, have both a positive and a negative side to it. The positive side is that these e-learning ventures help to reinforce the fact that there is no alternate to quality, and quality comes from the big guys, not the fly-by-night operators. The flipside is that the employees in tiny Indian e-learning ventures rarely get the exposure to standard work processes and world-class e-learning products thereby subjecting themselves to professional impairment.

Unfortunate for the Indian e-learning industry, at an era of globalization and information revolution, Indian laws too have failed to contain these IT hawks. While the existing labour laws do have provisions against inhuman practices in the private workplace, in practice they remain a mirage. Most of the employees neither have the financial resources to chase a litigation nor are they willing to ‘waste’ their time.

The Southern part of India presents a striking contrast to the North. Recent years have seen a rapid and strategic development of global e-learning companies in the South, in places like Bangalore and Chennai. Several global players have also setup their centers in Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Not surprising, the South has become a favourite e-learning destinations for serious e-learning players because of the absence of the mayhem so ramphant in the Northern part of the country. Although the same Indian laws apply to all states across India, security and infrastructure is usually better in the Southern states than in the North.

Consequently, most of these global giants are reluctant to setup their operations in the North for obvious reasons: lax security, incompetent e-learning resources, and rampant corruption. However of all the paraphernalia, one primary reason that dissuades the big names in e-learning from setting bases in North India is the abysmally poor skill-sets of the workforce here. In an era of cut-throat competition, generalized skills fetch little or paltry returns. In the past companies like Tata Interactive Services, Brainvisa, Sify e-learning and Accenture have all failed to locate substantial trained workforce from the North for its setups in the South.

Amidst all the rigmarole, smaller global clients seeking ‘cheap’ e-learning courses remain unconcerned about the operatives of these vile businessmen. The only thing that seemingly matters for them is ‘cheaper products’, even if it comes in poor quality or if the employees who developed them are subjected to inhuman practices. Its time that global clients shed their ignorance and act responsibly by seeking detailed credentials from smaller e-learning vendors in India on their HR processes, employee welfare schemes and workforce competence. Failing to do this will not result in the development of shabby e-learning courses.

The state of e-learning in India, particularly the frenzy in North India, remains a serious concern for the industry. Either the law of the land has to haul-up the desperados or wait till the hawks eat up the industry for the worse. A regulatory authority is essential now, if the industry is to survive and prosper. Money-eyed hawks can’t be allowed to have a field day. If they hang around for long, the death of the industry in India is imminent.