Technology and Inequalities in Education – A case of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Distance Education in India as a means of Exclusion

The data echoes the demand for a massive market space for MOOCs for the Indian learners, which has become a great alternative for the learners to access quality higher ed[r]

Working Paper

“Technology and Inequalities in Education – A case of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Distance Education in India as a means of

Exclusion”

By: Arunima Naithani

Distance Education in India: Growth and Development

The Open and Distance Learning in India (or distance education) plays a significant role in democratising the higher education system of the country The growth and development of distance education, as a sub-system of higher education in India has experienced several stages Beginning from pure correspondence courses in early 1960s, the range of educational programmes, and institutional access has evolved and developed over time into technology-enabled education system Today, there are 14 State Open Universities, Indira Gandhi National Open University –IGNOU, in addition over 40 Universities (Private, central, state) which are dual mode institutions to provide distance education academic courses In terms of enrollment of students, distance education courses constituted 11.05 per cent of the total gross enrollment ratio (GER) of 26 per cent in higher education, especially at the UG, PG, and Certificate levels courses (AISHE Report, 2017-18) Impressively, the national open university of India – IGNOU offers 232 academic programs and is the world's largest university in terms of ever-growing enrolment (IGNOU Prospectus, 2017-18) This indicates

a progressive trend in distance education system in India as more than 3 million students are enrolled in various distance-learning programmes offered by such institutes (Gaba & Li, 2015)

The expansion of distance education over the years and increasing enrolment rates largely attracts diverse group of learners The focus of distance education institutes (IGNOU and SOUs) has always been the disadvantaged (socio-economically) and geographically distant student community and the working population, who could not afford regular college education in India (Panda, 2005) Over time, the profile of learners in distance education has diversified impressively possible because of its accessibility and affordability features Initially popular among working population, with time it has seen a remarkable increase of 50 per cent of fresh school pass outs who now enrol in open and distance education programmes (Chaudhary et al., 2016) Moreover, the share of women learners in the total enrolment (40 per cent) has increased steadily Data further supports that large segment of learners from rural areas embrace distance education system and their percentage has increased from 23.3%

in 2003-04 to 44.5% in 2013-14 This percentage of rural students is significantly high among State Open universities (Correspondence Course Institutes) such as in states like Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh

Although, higher education system in India is transforming rapidly to meet the global demands of the 'networked society', but its GER (calculated for 18-23 years old) is not very promising Compared with other developed nations where the GER in Higher Education are marked above 40 per cent, while in India it is still at 26 per cent This presents a huge challenge for the Government as the proposed target of 30% GER by 2020 is still unmet Since access to tertiary education, remains limited due to unavailability of „brick and mortar‟ institutions, educational resources and required faculty Distance education seems one such viable alternative through its flexible educational delivery and cost effectiveness in achieving the larger objective of access and equity in the higher education realm Particularly, in India where hierarchies of castes, socio-economic status, gender relations and cultural diversities deeply influence issues related to access and equity in affording quality education In relation

to this, the Government strongly believes in the growth and development of distance education system in India for an improved and sustainable knowledge society

Education through Technology: Policy Initiatives

Technology is an indispensable part of everyday activities and it has its contribution on educational processes as well, particularly in distance education mode ICT enabled teaching, and learning is one of the promising feature Recent innovations have revolutionized the system of distance education, particularly in forms of e-learning, blended learning, OER (open educational resources) There is an emerging global educational community and India

is making huge progress to bring all possible latest developments to provide learners with maximum learning opportunities Moreover, the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web has brought a radical shift in the transformation of education and training through web based online courses to offer life-long learning opportunities

The government initiative, which needs special reference, is the – National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India Launched in 2009, it was designed to leverage the benefits of ICT enabled teaching and learning process This major intervention came into launch in order to enhance the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to 30 per cent in Higher Education in India, particularly to serve the cardinal principles of Education Policy, that is, access, equity and quality Especially to reduce the digital divide within learners from all socio-economic background, as well as, reach out hitherto deprived sections of the society

in rural and underdeveloped areas With the belief that India‟s best teachers and subject experts should invest and preserve their collective knowledge for the benefit of every Indian learner, the NMEICT scheme was designed with three broader objectives That is, to provide connectivity to all colleges and universities; provide low cost and affordable access-cum-computing devices to learners and teachers; and provide high quality e-content free of cost

The initiative of e-content generation and development for under-graduate and post-graduate courses has been undertaken on a massive scale mostly by educational institutes of national importance such as Indian Institute of Technology, IISC, and central universities This has

been successful under the programme - NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning), a joint initiative of seven IITs and IISc institute funded by NMEICT scheme Launched in 2013, over time, it has developed around 933 courses in 23 disciplines

as e-learning programme to be provided through online Web and Video based courses in engineering, science and humanities streams

Therefore, the need to reach out to a large number of students and learners who are majorly deprived of educational opportunities became a priority for the Government At the beginning

of 2014, the MHRD, GoI undertook another initiative to develop a unified online learning platform A unified platform that would integrate several online Web and Video based educational courses, already developed by subject experts from various educational institutes under the NPTEL programme With this objective and resource available, it was decided to develop an indigenous platform for India‟s open online courses, thus a MOOC model was designed called – SWAYAM

SWAYAM –India’s MOOC

SWAYAM fully known as „Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds‟ (SWAYAM) was launched as the beta version in 2017 A unique innovation featuring India‟s

“Digital India” initiative, aims to bring learners closer to the digitalized revolution society, especially those who have remained untouched by the digital era Developed under NMEICT scheme, it supports the broader objective of providing access to quality education as well as increase the GER in higher education in India

SWAYAM is an integrated platform for online courses, which offers educational courses for school, certificate, diploma, undergraduate, and postgraduate programmes, engineering, law and other professional courses including vocational and skill-based training, which are free of cost (SWAYAM, 2017) On the SWAYAM website it has catalog of 2,000 courses, of which most of the course content is the same that has already been created for NPTEL programme

in 2013, which is re-purposed for SWAYAM platform The responsibility of delivering courses is entrusted to six major institutes based on their type, such as NCERT and NIOS for offering school education, IGNOU for out of school learners, CEC for undergraduate education, UGC for post-graduation education, while NPTEL for engineering, and IIMB for management studies These national educational bodies are also assigned as the national MOOCs coordinator agencies for the generation and development of e-content at large scale

The courses hosted on SWAYAM platform adopt four quadrants approach – Tutorial, e-Content, Web Resources and Self- Assessment The courses delivered through SWAYAM

using the quadrant approach are available free of cost to the learners Registered students who need certifications can pay a small fee, and on successful completion can earn a certificate SWAYAM‟s credit system is another distinctive feature as laid out by the University Grant Commission, a framework that integrates regular classroom learning with online learning It

is the UGC Regulation of 2016 titled as „Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses

through SWAYAM‟ This regulation is applicable to all public universities (even affiliated institutes) as well as universities offering distance education courses These educational institutes shall allow their enrolled students to complete up to 20% of their degree online by taking online courses on SWAYAM These institutions would first have to earmark SWAYAM courses as credit-eligible courses required for the academic term, and which upon successful completion by the student will reflect in their degree

At present there are more than 500 free online courses categorized as Engineering (137 courses), Science (93 courses), Business (58 courses), Social Sciences (44 courses), Computer Science (36 courses), Humanities (31 courses), followed by Programming, Data Science, Education, Mathematics, Health and Medicine Moreover, Institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, among others, have collaborated with SWAYAM initiative to offer around 2,000 courses in science and management (Chauhan, 2017) In addition, it has been reported that around 2,300 courses on edX will soon be co-hosted on SWAYAM web portal for Indian students (Goyal, 2018)

Indian Learners in Global MOOCs Platform

These latest web-based courses, particularly, MOOCs - open online courses that allow for unlimited participation, as well as SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses), is said to have revolutionized universities and the higher education landscape (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2016) Availability of MOOCs has recently attracted a very large number of students Since their emergence in 2012, the number of registered MOOC users has significantly increased Currently, at the global level, about 800 universities offer 9,400 courses on MOOC platforms

In addition to 81 million MOOC users globally in 2017, new 23 million learners are expected

to join in the following year (Class Central, 2018) This signifies the massiveness and open aspects of MOOCs, that is, an online distance course accessible without entry requirements

by anyone at no cost, thus making it unique

Globally, online education take the major share of distance education programmes, mostly in developed countries What varies MOOCs from other established online learning courses is that MOOCs are equally accessible even for students who are enrolled in universities or formal educational institutes, as well as, any other individual interested in learning about the courses or topics of their interest (Almedina & Stéphan, 2016) In terms of MOOC providers, Coursera is the largest platform by user base, followed by EdX, Chinese XuetangX, Udacity and UK-based FutureLearn Coursera founded by Stanford University professors has 30 million users, in which 7.8 million are in the US and 3.4 million in India (Goyal, 2018) The enrollment of Indian learners is one such interesting phenomenon The three main US-based MOOCs - edX, Coursera and Udacity - in their very first year of launch in 2012 each had a large number of Indian enrolments, representing between 10-15% of total enrolments (Bhattacharyya, 2013) Over the years, statistics on the enrolment rate of MOOCs for global learners as well as Indian learners is most astonishing As of today, the number of registered

MOOC learners from India are one of the largest groups enrolling (after participants from the United States and China)

All around the world leading universities have collaborated with MOOC providers such as Coursera and EdX to deliver high-quality online courses free to millions of learners These two are currently the largest higher education provider in the world in terms of registered learners in the virtual learning platform With Indian students signing up for MOOCs, globally in large numbers and embracing the online education learning models is an interesting research inquiry It is even predicted that in coming years the market for MOOCs

in India will be much bigger than the U.S (Anant Agarwal, CEO, edX, as cited in Damodharan, 2016) The data echoes the demand for a massive market space for MOOCs for the Indian learners, which has become a great alternative for the learners to access quality higher education course content through online learning

The Digital Divide and Criticism on MOOCs

This massification of MOOCs are under a lot of criticism and scrutiny The large-scale implementation of MOOCs in the international education market has not paid much attention

to the process of completion and engagement with the courses, as well as, the increasing dropout rates (Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013; Jordan, 2015) Moreover, million learners in the world today are still untouched by the empowering features of online learning and MOOCs This has provoked a lot of criticism towards the exclusivity factor of MOOCs and the homogenous profile of learners Since access to technology in any society is not uniform, this further reinforces the existing educational divide in the digital world

Globally, there is a wide disparity within people to make effective use of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) in their everyday lives Mainly caused by the digital divide, that is the gap between learners who have effective access to information technology, and those who are left out without access and usage As quoted by Paul (2002) - the phrase

“digital divide” refers to the unequal and disproportionate pace of development in societies in having access to digital infrastructure and services (p 13) The research in digital divide broadly conceptualizes it in terms of the differences of accessibility to technology and user‟s digital skills for usage For the accessibility of high-quality content of MOOC courses, a learner requires high-speed internet or wi-fi connectivity (for downloading material and viewing videos), either on the desktop or mobile devices This raises the issue of technological cost for many in developing countries, especially relevant for rural and remote township communities, thus leaving behind learners who are digitally disadvantaged

However, such a binary classification limits the nuanced understanding of digital divide in a social setting (Hargittai, 2002) The concept of digital divide is a complex and dynamic phenomenon (van Dijk and Hacker, 2003) and the research in digital divide should go beyond just studying access (Stanley, 2003) Sassen (2002) argues that digital technologies cannot be studied in isolation and the “digital space is embedded in the larger societal, cultural,

subjective, economic, imaginary structurations of lived experience and the systems within which we exist and operate” (pp 368–369) Such robust understanding of digital divide has

to be acknowledged, to shift away from the technological determinist perspective and move towards a framework that examines how the digital divide reflects and reinforces society‟s social and economic inequities (Light, 2001; Mossberger et al., 2003) This digital divide, which is a reproducer of larger social problem, is misunderstood even at the policy and institutional level Light (2001) critiques policies that concentrate on technical fixes for these social problems, stating, „the digital divide debate is based on a technologically determinist assumption that closing gaps in access to computers will mitigate broader inequalities – an assumption requiring enormous faith in the capacity of a technology to bring about major social change‟ (Ibid.)

Proponents of MOOCs, emphasize that MOOCs are recent innovations in the educational domain, which makes education “class blind” (Agarwal, 2013), and “allow people who lack access to world-class learning, an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families” (Friedman, 2012) Therefore in a just and equitable society, the notion of “class-blind” would refer to witnessing least affluent students equally or overrepresented in the distribution of MOOC enrolled students, as well as, completing courses successfully Instead, earliest evidence of MOOC enrollment saw that most registered students/learners are from privileged background (Ho et al., 2013; Perna et al., 2014) MOOC users are well, educated young male learners aged under 30 (mostly post-secondary degrees and graduate degree) Most of them are predominantly from developed and emerging countries (US, Europe, India, China, UK) generally in job market belonging to a privileged and advantaged background in terms of socio-economic status and technologically advancement (Glass et al., 2015) Similar findings are reflected in the context of India, it was found that majority of Indian MOOC students are employed full-time and using the courses to develop skills that help them at their current job or will help them find a new one (Christensen et al., 2013) This highlights that MOOCs are at a greater extent augmenting educational advantages to „educated‟ student community than educating the „have-nots‟ or digitally disadvantaged students (Emanueal, 2013)

Digital inequality is one of the newer forms of inequalities, which is prominent in the society along with the long-standing traditional forms of inequalities It is mainly understood in the broader context of social inequality and social stratification, seen as the different skills required for using information sources and opportunities that are the major cause of digital divides (Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008; Selwyn, 2004) Moreover, the existing patterns that characterize and shape social structures, such as education, skills, income, occupation, and gender strongly influences access to and use of the Internet (Rice & Katz, 2003; van Deursen

& van Dijk, 2013) Therefore, there exist a complex interplay between MOOC learner educational status and existing educational inequality

Even the factor of free access to MOOC courses does not ensure effective learning As the barriers to MOOCs are propelled by the culture of online learning, course content design, evaluation and assessment techniques, low levels of academic preparation and vernacular

language that further perpetuate educational divides resulting in massive dropouts DiMaggio and Hargittai (2001) point out that there are at least five dimensions of digital inequality: equipment, autonomy of use, skill, social support, and the purpose of using the Internet Thus understanding such patterns of MOOC enrolled students and those left behind is critical to determining whether MOOCs are ameliorating or exacerbating educational inequalities (Hansen & Reich, 2015)

In order to understand and address digital divides and educational inequalities, research in MOOCs need exhaustive demographic information on student profile The future research in studying the digital divide thus should include „robust survey-based and in-depth qualitative work which begins to unpack the complexities of the digital divide‟ (Selwyn, 2004) Particularly, assessing registrants‟ socioeconomic status (SES), to understand “one‟s access

to financial, social, cultural, and human capital resources” (Hansen & Reich, 2015) Research even suggests that MOOCs do not yet appear to be reaching the developing world and critical target groups such as women, unemployed youth and digitally disadvantage learners The lack of utilization of MOOCs in developing and lower-income countries may be because young learners are unaware of the benefits of MOOCs (Ibid.) Moreover, the mere access to high-level MOOCs content does not manifest in effective learning or knowledge generation

in a specific course or topic For MOOCs to be meaningful, they need to be supported with continuous academic support, diagnostic assessment, feedback and peer engagement This is particularly necessary for students from academically disadvantaged contexts, and in developing countries such as India, which have a glaring digital divide

United Nations embraced the IT developments and technological changes in the early 21st century as major markers for growth and development and acknowledged the usage of Internet as a basic human right However, various studies (Singh, 2010; Guillen, 2006; DiMaggio et al., 2001) highlights that the problem of the digital divide is starker in the developing countries such as in India Research suggests there are several factors like physical access, lack of ICT skills and support, attitudinal factors, age, gender, low literacy rate, language barriers, geographical (rural-urban) which reinforce this digital divide especially in India

In India, the gap of digital divide is significant between the rural and urban areas driven by huge disparities that reflect the uneven distribution of tele-density, internet penetration and access (Dasgupta et al, 2002; Nath, 2001; Singh, 2007) Even though there is an exponential growth in telecommunication connections in India, most of the benefits have largely been to urban areas Figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India show rural tele-density

at the end of 2017 lagging at 56.66 per cent, while it was 168.29 per cent for urban areas This is similar with the internet consumption, though growing on a fast pace but its benefits largely remains confined with urban users The access to digital world is mostly an urban phenomenon Much more pronounced within gender, where there exist a serious digital gender gap in India The females have less access to the internet and are restrained from

using mobile phones, which is far more extreme than the global divide as highlighted by UNICEF report (2017)

Over the years, wireless connectivity has grown exponentially with over billion active connections Increased accessibility, availability of bandwidth, and affordable data costs have brought some radical changes towards massive internet users from rural India Recent studies indicate (ICUBE 2018) that there are active internet users from rural India who are accessing the internet to meet their entertainment and communication needs However, the high-value functions of mobile Internet penetration and 4G/3G services are still in nascent stages Thus, given the low penetration of the Internet, there is a possibility that access to the Internet is present only among the privileged, digitally advantaged section of society from urban pockets Moreover, the current data on Internet usage from private agencies offer very little insights on how various social groups are excluded from the digital space (Ilavarasan, 2013)

It is definite that India is facing similar challenges in offering MOOCs, especially with the SWAYAM model As highlighted by MOOCs critique in India, the development of MOOCs might undervalue the public educational institutes, further reinforcing educational inequality, especially for the specific segments of students/learners What remains unnoticed is the existing challenges, which persist in the present system of distance education, particularly, for students who are enrolled in the conventional correspondence mode of learning Teaching practice in India and course curriculum particularly at distance mode is extremely conservative While, the syllabi of online courses differ from university courses, and the level/speed of teaching is often too fast for students at regional colleges Even if there are plans and attempts to mix MOOCs with courses in other institutes, it may have limited success Understanding language and the accent is another serious concern since in India MOOCs courses are being offered only in two languages – English and Hindi As mentioned earlier, the technical constraints in online learning such as network bandwidth that is, limited video streaming and access other interactive content will dilute the chances for most of the digitally disadvantaged students in India

This working paper aims to highlights some of the critical challenges faced globally in terms

of expansion of MOOC models, which is an essential insight for the large-scale implementation in India‟s digital learning trends in distance education, especially MOOCs Particularly in the context of open and distance learning so that the benefits digital learning does not become another silent means of exclusionary marker for the larger segment of the student community from rural and digitally disadvantaged communities As MOOCs declares themselves to be massive and open to all learners, it becomes imperative to delve deeper in issues, which may prevail during the expansion of digital learning trends in distance education especially MOOCs The striking similarity in terms of challenges which online learning impose cannot be neglected, particularly for the students who are less empowered to access IT-enabled educational services