Asian Journal of Distance Education

http://www.AsianJDE.org
© 2013 The Asian Society of Open and Distance Education
ISSN 1347-9008 Asian J D E 2013 vol 11, no 1, pp 4 - 18

Current Initiatives and Challenges to OERs

in Indian Higher Education
Tulika BANSAL, Sonal CHABRA, & Dhananjay JOSHI
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT :

In the modern era of information technology, digital resources have become readily
accessible source of learning for teachers and learners. One such movement that encourages
and enables sharing such learning resources is OER (Open Educational Resources). In India
OER movement is especially important as higher education is still facing the paucity of high
quality teachers, inadequate infrastructure of the universities and more specifically their
libraries, and the derisory quality of Educational Resources utilized at the various universities
and colleges. The paper intends to elucidate the OER movement in Indian higher education and
to introduce the open educational resources initiatives in /Indian higher education. It also
outlines the issues hindering the progress of OER in India along with the recommendations that
address these issues.

Keywords:
OER (Open Educational Resource), Open Educational Movement, Higher Education, India

INTRODUCTION : number of material was locked up behind

In today’s knowledge seeking passwords within proprietary systems, this
environment, information technologies have limited the usage of these resources for a
proved themselves as more readily available category of learners. For this reason efforts
and easily accessible medium for both were made at different levels to make Open
teaching and learning. Those involved in Educational Resources (OERs) accessible
education have found that a vast number of which aimed at offering opportunities for
digital resources are available from many free and open sharing of the content to a
sources such as internet and other digital wide range of users. The effort has now
technologies. It is often found that many taken the form of almost a movement.
teachers and students use internet in their
courses and this is one of the reason of
growing number of content in digital
format. Until recently it was seen that large

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

The OER movement has now grown into In the Indian context, this sharing and
a worldwide movement which by reuse of learning content would definitely
digitalizing the print resources has leave its impact on the different dimensions
dramatically reduced the cost of higher of higher education. The current study will
education and has made higher education help in grasping this rendezvous of OERs in
equally accessible to all. Indian Higher Education. The focus of the
study will be in mapping out the scale of
The National Knowledge Commission initiatives taken in the field of OERs in
(2007) has also highlighted the importance Indian higher education as well as the
of OER in widening the access of higher barriers which hinders its growth in India,
education. It has stated that so as to assess the extent by which OER is
freely available to the learners, teachers,
“National Educational Foundation with a researchers and professionals in the various
one-time infusion of adequate funds must fields of higher education. The study will
be established to develop a web-based also highlight the OER initiatives taken in
repository of high quality educational the different parts of the world so that it can
resources. Open educational resources be charted out that where India stands in
(OER) must be created online through a comparison to its other counterparts in
collaborative process, pooling in the terms of OER movement in higher
efforts and expertise of all major education.
institutions of higher education. The OER
repository would supply pedagogical METHODOLOGY
software for various programs run This research is based on secondary data.
through ODE and be available for The data has been taken from different
utilization by all ODE institutions. An research reports, journals and research
enabling legal framework that would papers.
allow unrestricted access without
compromising intellectual authorship FINDINGS
must be devised for this purpose.”
The findings from the study have been
OBJECTIVES encapsulated under different headings for
• To define Open Educational better comprehensibility of the readers.
Resources
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
• To exemplify OER initiatives in
India and in different parts of OER are teaching, learning, and research
World. materials in any medium that reside in the
public domain. The concept of Open
• To compare the OER movement in Educational Resources came into existence
India and other Countries. during a conference hosted by UNESCO in
2002. Since then the term has become a
• To identify the challenges to OER
subject of interest and many explorations
in India.
have been done by the institutions on
• To recommend suggestions for finding out the contributions it can make to
overcoming the challenges. education. The initial concept pertaining to
OER was developed further based on follow
RATIONALE ups through online discussion hosted by
UNESCO. The final form is as follows:
‘Open Education Resources’ is
comparatively a newer notion with a focus
on collective knowledge.

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BANSAL, CHABRA & JOSHI

Open Educational Resources are defined A license is issued for each resource
as ‘technology‐enabled, open provision of which spells out that how the resource can
educational resources for consultation, use be used. Some content or learning material
and adaptation by a community of users for can only be used in their original form
noncommercial purposes.’ They are while some can be modified or remixed.
typically made freely available over the OER is found in collections or repositories
Web or the Internet. Their principle use is of single institution or in collections of
by teachers and educational institutions to materials gathered from institutions or
support course development, but they can individuals from wide range of single
also be used directly by students. Open institutions from where the OER can be
Educational Resources include learning downloaded by the learners or instructors
objects such as lecture material, references for use in formal or informal learning.
and readings, simulations, experiments and
demonstrations, as well as syllabuses, As in OER, Educational resources are
curricula, and teachers’ guides. developed in an open environment which
results in their improvement by a broad
OER has also been defined as community of educators and as a result
“teaching, learning, and research resources pedagogical innovations, new and
that reside in the public domain or have innovative methods for effective teaching
been released under an intellectual property spurs up. It also provides an opportunity
license that permits their free use or re- to the learners and instructors to get
purposing by others” (Atkins, Brown, & familiar with huge content which never
Hammond, 2007, p. 4). In more simple found its way into educational use. OER
words it can be said that OER describes the also increases the accessibility of the high
educational resources that are freely quality learning material by distributing
available on the internet for the use of the cost of development of content over a
learners, educators and educational large number of users and makes it
institutions and doesn’t accompany itself possible for the learners to obtain the
with the need of paying royalty, license or educational content at low cost. Moreover
registration fee. The scope of OER ranges by providing the learning content all the
from full courses to course materials, time it enables particularly the adult
modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, learners, nontraditional students and the
software, and any other tools, materials, or students who work full time to learn
techniques used to support access to independently. OERs have also potential
knowledge. to facilitate new styles of teaching and
learning by giving opportunity of
But it should be noted that OER is no modification and assembling of open
explicitly about e-learning as many people resources in unique way.
conclude it because of it sharing content on
the digital architecture of internet. OER do OER INITIATIVES AROUND THE WORLD
use the digital architecture of internet but
shares printable materials stored in digital The simple idea behind the spread of
format and share it as easily as any form of Open Educational Resources is that the
multimedia. world’s knowledge is a public good and that
technology in general and the World Wide
WHY OER IS SIGNIFICANT? Web in particular provides an extraordinary
OER, in general, refers to digital opportunity for everyone to share, use, and
resources and focus on its usage in online or reuse knowledge. All the fundamental
hybrid learning environments. components of education—content and
tools for teaching, learning, and research are
under the purview of OER.

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

Hence OER initiatives are in all these •There are also several translation
directions. Some of the notable ones are projects underway which is
highlighted below (Sharma, 2013): undertaking efforts to make
higher education based OCW
•There are huge active initiatives in materials available in multiple
OER at the colleges and languages, including Universia’s
universities around the world. Spanish and Portuguese
Currently there are more than translations, CORE’s simplified
2500 open access courses Chinese translations, OOPS’
available from more than 200 traditional Chinese translations,
universities. and Chulalongkorn University’s
Thai translations.
•In United States 1700 courses have
been made available online by •More OER projects are emerging at
seven universities namely MIT, various universities of Australia,
Rice, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, India,
Carnegie Mellon, and Utah State Iran, Ireland, the Netherlands,
University. Portugal, Russia, South Africa,
Spain, Thailand, United
•In China more than 450 courses have Kingdom, United States, Cuba
been made available online by and Vietnam.
participation of more than 150
universities in China Open CURRENT OER INITIATIVES IN
Resources for Education INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION
initiative.
Indian higher education is posing a
•In Japan 1500 courses have been challenge with rapid increase in demand
made available online by the and with limited increases in resources.
universities participating in Further there has been a rollout of ICT
Japanese Open Course ware infrastructure into higher education
Consortium of which 1,285 are in institutions; all this has created a
Japanese language and 212 are in distinctive situation. It has become
English. increasingly important to widely use OER
so as to expand the coverage of higher
•In France, over 2,000 educational education in India. Further the use of OER
resources from around 200 is being done with the goal is to make
teaching units have been made education available to everyone in the
available by twelve member country (particularly those in the
universities of the ParisTech geographically difficult terrains or who
OCW project. could not otherwise afford an education—
as well as self-learners). In India,
•There are numerous Higher government, universities and research
Education OER initiatives coming institutions have realized the importance
up in the United Kingdom (UK). of Open Educational Resources in
One such initiative JORUM widening the access to higher education
(http://www.jorum.ac.uk), which and for this they are undertaking several
is a free online repository service efforts to promote it in the country. In
for teaching and support staff in India, there are not many major initiatives
UK Further and Higher Education for creating open educational tools and
Institutions. resources, most of them are in the area of
science and engineering. Some other
initiatives are highlighted below.

7
BANSAL, CHABRA & JOSHI

i)Digital Library Initiatives library on indigenous cultural

heritage whereas Ministry of
A Digital library is a type of Communications and
information retrieval system where Information Technology,
collections to be stored in digital Government of India is
formats which can be accessed with supporting it. This digital
the help of computer networks. In library has been developed
India following digital library with special focus on the
initiatives have been taken. Hindi-speaking region in
India. CHDLH disseminates
a)CSIR Explorations information and traditional
(URL: knowledge related to:
http://eprints.csirexplorations.
com/) •common heritage of the
people;
CSIR Unit for Research and •poetic and literary heritage;
Development of Information •architectural heritage;
Products (URDIP) at Pune is •natural heritage; and
the principal agency behind •miscellaneous information
its implementation while related to other areas of
Council of Scientific and arts, aesthetics and
Industrial Research (CSIR), culture.
Government of India is
supporting this project. SIR
Explorations is a digital c)Digital Library of India
library of electronic (URL:
dissertations, thesis and http://www.dli.ernet.in/)
research reports of the Indian Institute of Science
fellowships and projects (IISc), Bangalore is the
supported by CSIR. Presently, principle agency behind
it has three bibliographic implementation of Digital
databases, namely, E-Thesis, Library of India. It is hosted at
EMR (Extramural Research) the Mega Scanning Centers
and CSIR Publications. This Indian Institute of Information
database is very useful for the Technology Hyderabad (IIIT
doctoral candidates, faculty Hyderabad); Centre for
members and scientists who Development of Advanced
are interested in knowing Computing, Noida (CDAC
about the researches Noida); Centre for
completed in past by their Development of Advanced
research fellows. Computing, Kolkata (CDAC
Kolkata) whereas ERNET
b)Cultural Heritage Digital (Education and Research
Library in Hindi (CHDLH) Network), India is the
(URL: participating institution in it.
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/Publicati Ministry of Communications
ons) and Information Technology,
Government of India (for India)
Indira Gandhi National Centre for and National Science
the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, Foundation, USA (for
India has established this digital Overseas) are supporting
agencies behind this project.

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

The Digital Library of India The Indian National Digital

(DLI) is the greatest digital library Library in Engineering Sciences and
initiative in South Asia, spreading Technology (INDEST), implemented
all over the country and by IIT, Delhi and funded by MHRD,
establishing a network of four Government of India is a national
mega scanning centers and 21 information infrastructure
scanning centers, which feed the programme which is established for
digital contents into the digital strengthening access to subscription-
library systems. Its mission is to based electronic information
create a portal that will foster resources and for capacity
creativity and free access to all enhancement of information
human knowledge. For realizing infrastructure in Indian academic
this mission free-to-read, institutions imparting professional
searchable collection of 1 million education and research in the areas of
books, predominantly in Indian engineering, technology and
languages, is available to everyone management sciences.
over the Internet. The vision of the
website states: “For the first time f)Kalasampada: Digital Library
in history, all the significant - Resources of Indian
literary, artistic, and scientific Cultural Heritage (DL-
works of mankind can be digitally RICH)
preserved and made freely (URL:
available, in every corner of the http://www.ignca.nic.in/dlrich
world, for our education, study, .html)
and appreciation and that of all
our future generations.” Kalasampada: Digital Library
Resource for Indian Cultural
d)in.arXiv, hosted by Institute Heritage (DL-RICH) has been
of Mathematical Sciences, established by Indira Gandhi
Chennai National Centre for the Arts
(URL 1: http://in.arxiv.org/ (IGNCA) with the support
Hosted by IMSc, Chennai) from India's Ministry of
(URL 2: http://xxx.imsc.res.in/ Communications and
Hosted by IMSc, Channai) Information Technology. It is
(URL 3: http://www.arxiv.org/ basically recognized as a
Hosted by Cornell University reference databank for
Library, USA) cultural heritage of India
Behind this Digital Library, the which encompasses and
Principal Implementing Agency is preserves the distributed
Institute of Mathematical fragments of Indian arts,
Sciences, Chennai (IIMSc). It aesthetics and culture. It has
hosts a mirror site of the arXiv, a over 0.5 million folios of
resourceful open access archive in manuscripts, slides, digitized
the fields of physics, mathematics, photographs, IGNCA
non-linear science, computer published books &
science, quantitative biology and periodicals, more than 400
statistics since 1997. hours of audio and video, and
approximately 50
e)Indian National Digital Library walkthroughs.
in Engineering Sciences and
Technology (INDEST)
Consortium
(URL: http://paniit.iitd.ac.in/indest/)

9
BANSAL, CHABRA & JOSHI

g)Vidyanidhi that digital material which is freely

(URL: and publicly available,and that are
http://www.vidyanidhi.org. either a part of, or a complete course
in/) from an educational institution such
as a university or college. These
Vidyanidhi, a national level OCW generally includes audio/video
repository, covering major lectures, course syllabi, study material
universities of India is a and evaluation tools. In 2002 MIT
national digital library for started the initiative by offering 50
electronic theses and open online classes on its website.
dissertations (ETD), which is The number of classes and materials
initiated by the University of grew into more than 2,000 open
Mysore and is supported by courses, as of 2010.
the Department of Scientific (http://www.ehow.com/facts_743917
and Industrial Research 8_meaning-open-course-
(DSIR), Ford Foundation and initiative_.html)
Microsoft India. It aims at
enhancing visibility of Indian Some of the OCW initiatives are as
doctoral research and follows
maintains mainly two kinds a)CEC Learning Object
of databases namely Repository
bibliographic database and (URL1:
full text repository using http://cec.nic.in/LOR/Pages
DSpace software. /Search.aspx)
h)Vigyan Prasar Digital (URL2:
Library http://cec.nic.in/Pages/Hom
(URL1: e.aspx)
http://www.vigyanprasar.g Consortium for Educational
ov.in/digilib/) Communication (CEC),
(URL2: established by University
http://www.vigyanprasar.g Grant Commission (UGC), is
ov.in/dream/index1.asp ) an inter-university centre on
electronic media. CEC
Vigyan Prasar Digital produce television
Library, initiated by Vigyan programmes (audio visual
Prasar, Noida, supported by programmes) in various
Department of Science & languages for various subjects
Technology, Government of in coordination with its 17
India maintains a network of Educational Multimedia
science clubs across the country Research Centers. The
known as VIPNET for television programmes are
promoting scientific attitude based on syllabus based
among the youths and school topics of the schools,
children. Its open access digital polytechnic, colleges and
library has 131 books (72 in university levels. Produced
English, 42 in Hindi and 17 in programmes are broadcasted
other languages) on significant on the national educational
scientific works published by television channels such as
Vigyan Prasar. Vyas Higher Education
ii)Open courseware Initiative Channel, Gyan Darshan, and
The term‘Open Doordarshan.
Courseware’ (OCW) refers to

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

b)eGyankosh - A National Under this project Open

Digital Repository Source Educational
(URL:http://www.egyankosh.ac.in) Resources Animation
eGyankosh, is a digital Repository (OSCAR) has also
repository which is initiated been developed which
by Indira Gandhi National provides an opportunity for
Open University (IGNOU), teaching various concepts and
New Delhi and is supported technologies using web-based
by Ministry of Human interactive animations.
Resource Development,
Government of India. It e)E-Grid
stores, index, preserve and
share the self instructional E-Grid is a project which is
study material, audio video supported by MHRD at IIIT,
programmes and radio & Kerala. Under this project
television based live subject experts develop and
interaction sessions, produced govern subject specific
by IGNOU. portals, though currently this
programme offers OER only
c)National Programme on in sciences and engineering
Technology Enhanced sciences.
Learning (NPTEL)
(URL: http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/) f)Brihaspati
The NPTEL project, (URL:
implemented by IIT Madras, http://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/D
carried out by seven IITs and OAA/brihaspati.htm)
funded by MHRD is one of
the major programme of India Brihaspati, an e- Learning
which focuses on enhancing platform is initiated by IIT,
the quality of engineering Kanpur and is supported by
education in India through Ministry of Communication &
developing curriculum based Information Technology. This
audio video material and Web platform is being used since
courses. Currently, the January 2003 and is benefiting
programme has 120 web based over 75 universities Institutes
courses and 115 video courses across India by posting the
in the areas of core sciences, lecture notes, handouts, and
computer science, civil reference material.
engineering, electrical
engineering, electronics and iii)Open Access Journals
material engineering. Initiative - Open access
journals (sometimes called
d)Ekalavya “gold road to open access”)
(URL: are the scholarly journals
http://ekalavya.it.iitb.ac.in/eka which are available online
lavyaHome.do) without financial, legal, or
The Ekalavya project, technical barriers. They
launched by IIT, Bombay
provide open access to
distributes the content
developed in various Indian
literature and publications
languages through the internet. in journals.

11
BANSAL, CHABRA & JOSHI

a)e-Journals @ INSA Some Open Access Journals Hosted by

(URL: Private Bodies are given in the following
http://www.insaindia.org/) Table 1.

The e-journals@insa is a project that was Table 1: Open access journals hosted by
started in July 2002 by Indian National private bodies
Science Academy (INSA) with objectives
URL Implementing
of building national digital resource, Agency
bringing out electronic versions of INSA http://www.india Divan Enterprises,
journals and global access of scientific njournals.com New Delhi
information. This project has become one of
the much-acclaimed open access initiatives http://www.krep Kamla-Raj
in India, supporting the concept of free ublishers.com/K Enterprises, Delhi
access to scientific literature. RE-New-
J/index.html
b)Indian Academy of Sciences http://www.med Medknow
know.com/journ Publications Private
Published Open Access
als.asp Limited, Mumbai
Journals
(URL: http://www.ias.ac.in/)
The Indian Academy of
Sciences (IAS), Bangalore is a
scientific academy funded by
the Government of India was iv)Institutional Repositories
established in 1934 and
publishes 11 journals. All 11 Clifford Lynch
journals are open access and (2003), Director of
full-text literature is available in the Coalition for Networked
PDF format on each journal's Information has defined
website. Institutional Repositories as “a
set of services that a university
c)INDMED@NIC and offers to the members of its
MEDIND@NIC: Biomedical community for the management
Journals from India and dissemination of digital
(URL: http://medind.nic.in/) materials created by the
The Indian MEDLARS institution and its community
Centre at the National members. It is most essentially
Informatics Centre has an organizational commitment
initiated two unique projects to the stewardship of these
namely INMED@NIC and digital materials, including
MEDIND@NIC with support long-term preservation where
from the Indian Council of appropriate, as well as
Medical Research. organization and access or
NDMED@NIC indexes 70+ distribution.”(http://www.arl.or
prominent biomedical g/bm~doc/br226ir.pdf).
journals of India and
MEDIND@NIC provides Some of the Institutional Repositories in
open access to the full-text India is mentioned in Table 2.
content of 38 Indian
biomedical journals.

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

v)Some More Academic Initiatives and/or the scientists of the

a)Catalysis Databases National Centre for Catalysis
(http://catalysis.eprints.iitm.ac.in/) Research (NCCR).
The Catalysis Database b)Librarians' Digital Library
implemented by National (LDL)
Centre for Catalysis Research (URL: http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/)
(NCCR) collects, preserves This open access repository
and disseminates the implemented by
scholarly materials (research Documentation Research and
publications, conference Training Centre (DRTC)
papers, conference stores different kinds of
proceedings, theses and scholarly materials such as
dissertations) related to a journal articles, conference
narrower area of chemical papers, theses, dissertations,
sciences in digital format reports, presentations,
produced by members of the multimedia objects and digital
Catalysis Society of India photos pertaining to library
(CSI) and information science.

Table 2: Institutional Repositories in India

Repository Name URL Implementing Types of
Agency Documents
Digital Archive of http://dspace.nitrkl.a National Institute of Conference papers,
National Institute of c.in/dspace/ Technology- journal articles,
Technology – Rourkela (NITR) preprints and theses
Rourkela
Electronic Theses http://etd.ncsi.iisc.er National Centre for Theses &
and Dissertations of net.in/ Science Information Dissertations
Indian Institute of (NCSI), Indian
Science Institute of Science
(ETD@IISc) (IISc), Bangalore

Open Access http://eprints.iisc.er National Centre for Research Papers,

Repository of IISc net.in/ Science Information Articles, Reports,
Research (NCSI), Indian etc.
Publications Institute of Science
(ePrints@IISc) (IISc), Bangalore
Digital Repository of http://dspace.library Central Library,
Faculty and
IIT Bombay .iitb.ac.in/ Indian Institute of
research
Technology Bombay
publications
DSpace at National http://ncralib1.ncra.t National Centre for Research Papers,
Centre for Radio ifr.res.in:8080/jspui/ Radio Astrophysics Articles, Reports,
Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune Thesis, etc.
Digital Repository http://drs.nio.org/drs National Information Journal articles,
Service at National /index.jsp Centre for Marine conference papers,
Institute of Sciences (NICMAS), conference
Oceanography National Institute of proceedings,
Oceanography, Goa technical
reports, theses, and
dissertations

13
BANSAL, CHABRA & JOSHI

Indian Institute of http://prints.iiap.res. Indian Institute of PhD Theses of

Astrophysics in/ Astrophysics, IIAP, journal
Repository Bangalore articles, papers and
Research
publications based
on data from Indian
Astronomical
Observatory
DSpace at National http://dspace.ncl.res National Chemical PhD theses,
Chemical Laboratory .in/dspace/index.jsp Laboratory, Pune research papers,
technical reports,
project reports,
research reports,
journal articles and
conference papers
DSpace@INFLIBNET http://ir.inflibnet.ac. Information and Research Papers,
in/ Library Network Articles, Reports,
(INFLIBNET) etc.
Centre, Gandhinagar
University of Delhi http://journals.du.ac University of Delhi, Journal articles,
EPrint Archive .in/ Delhi conference
proceedings, papers,
books
Raman Research http://dspace.rri.res. Raman Research research
Institute Digital in/ Institute Library, publications,
Repository Bangalore. collected papers of
C.V. Raman,
Archives and
Miscellaneous
Publications
EPrints and ETD at http://library.iitd.ac. The Indian Institute Research Papers,
Indian Institute of in of Technology (IIT), Articles, Reports,
Technology Delhi Delhi etc.
Digital Repository at http://www.mdi.ac.i Management Research
Management n/elibrary/ Development publications of
Development Institute Library, researchers and
Institute Gurgaon faculty members
(such as journal
articles, conference
papers and business
case studies)

National Aerospace http://nal- Information Centre Research Outputs of

Laboratories ir.nal.res.in/ for Aerospace NAL scientists:
Institutional Science and project documents,
Repository (NAL Technology technical reports,
Repository) (ICAST), National journal articles,
Aerospace conference papers
Laboratories, and workshop
Bangalore papers

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

DSpace at GBPUAT http://www.gbpuat.a G.B. Pant University Research Papers,

University c.in/library/index.ht of Agriculture & Articles, Reports,
ml Technology Thesis, etc.

c)Inter-University Consortium for •Intellectual property: Intellectual

Technology-Enabled Flexible property is still the biggest
Education and Development problem with OER in India. None
at IGNOU (IUC-TEFED), of the content is available under
India Creative Common License so as
The IUC-TEFED was to ensure the copyright. In this
established in India at competitive age, universities are
IGNOU (www.ignou.ac.in) in seeking ways to protect their
2004 as an education, intellectual property for fear that
training, development, R&D it might be stolen or used by
and service centre on ICT- others and without assurance of
enabled interactive copyright they feel reluctant to
multimedia and online share thesis/ dissertations on
education for the distance public portals.
education system in the •Infrastructure: Where there is
country. It undertakes shortage of power, it is difficult to
national and international imagine a strong network enabled
collaborative R&D activities infrastructure. Most of Indian
for appropriate technology semi urban and rural areas are still
applications for education, struggling for sufficient amount
training, research and of supply of electricity and the
extension. IUC-TEFED aims students in these areas are
at transforming the deployed of facilities being
conventional distance offered by ICT at their footstep. A
learning to modern ICT- strong network enabled delivery
enabled, multimedia based, infrastructure with the focus on
online and blended learning. access and delivery is required to
make OER movement successful.
CHALLENGES TO OER IN INDIA
•Lack of Awareness: In India, there
is still lot of unawareness about
The appropriate use of information
the availability of Open
technology can help equalize the
Educational Resources and the
distribution of high quality knowledge
opportunities provided by them
and educational opportunities for
among the educators and learners
individuals, faculty, and institutions
communities. Libraries and
within India. However, there are obstacles
librarians are still to get involved
to the spread of OER, which have been
in OER related work.
dealt in the following points-
•Economic Issues: Teachers rarely •Technological Backwardness:
show any interest in development OER movement in India needs
of the open courseware as most of technological overhauls. OERs
them are already unpaid and are presently based on Web 1.0
tools whereas migration towards
supporting the OER movement by
Web 2.0 is necessary. It is not just
developing the content at no cost
is of no interest to them. technological backwardness but
Therefore the concept of open may be non-affordability of latest
technology.
courseware is encountering
resistance from educators in
India.

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 BANSAL, CHABRA & JOSHI

•Language and/or cultural barriers: •Initiating steps to increase the

Most of the OERs available awareness among the teachers,
only in English, limiting their researchers and students about the
usefulness to non-English availability and benefits of OERs
speakers. Additionally, not all in facilitating quality teaching
resources are culturally learning process.
appropriate for all audiences. The •Reward system should be
Indian learner audience is introduced to motivate the
generally from the non-English educators for developing open
background. educational resources.
•Lack of Quality Assessment and •Integrate OER into university
Assurance Provisions: Most of curricula and organizational
the OERs are not following structures.
any pre determined standards •Application of licensing, copyright
and are not related to teaching and intellectual property rights.
learning process. Moreover the •Modularizing the content to meet
content is not updated localization needs.
•Development of skills among the
regularly.
teachers to use or share the
•Financial limitations: Institutions
resources developed by other
are generally operating in a teachers or institutions.
financial crunch. Since OER •High quality content materials can
generally do not generate any be achieved largely by funding
type of payment for their content development from well
usage, there may be little established educational
incentive for institutions to institutions.
update their OER or ensure •Capacity building efforts need to be
that it will continue to be made for both teachers and
available online. learners to train them for effective
use of OER.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR •Research should be increased in
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES TO OER IN about and around OER so as to
INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION make future efforts in the right
direction.
There need to be considerable efforts in •Infrastructure needs to be developed
both directions - for reducing barriers and for general software and
also understanding and stimulating use. middleware services for creating,
Barriers can be reduced by dealing with federating, and finding OER
technology issues and understanding can resources.
be promoted with R&D, feasibility •Appropriate e-infrastructure or
studies, plus awareness creation. cyber infrastructure needs to be
Following measures can be taken to generated in the country.
overcome hindrances caused in the way of
OER in Indian Higher Education: CONCLUSION
•Development of user friendly The present world demands creativity and
systems is required for ensuring innovation from all of us. A culture of
the implementation for quality learning needs to be developed so as to
assurance of courseware; equip people to prosper in a rapidly
•Adoption of new and appropriate evolving, knowledge-based world. A
technologies to match the computer- enhanced learning environment
teaching-learning environment; can help make the much needed transition
from just ‘knowing’ to ‘sharing’.

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 ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION

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386.pdf

Tulika BANSAL and Sonal CHABRA are Research Scholars under Dr. Dhananjay Joshi in School
of Education, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India; as well as both are working as
Assistant Professor in Teacher Training Colleges of Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak,
Haryana, India.

Dr. Dhananjay JOSHI is Associate Professor in School of Education, Guru Gobind Singh
Indraprastha University, Dwarka, Delhi, India.

For copyright / reproducing permission details, email : [email protected]

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