Shikshan: A hybrid framework to augment instructional video

Abstract

The video medium is increasingly being used to conduct pedagogical exercises of significant complexity. While digital video facilitates learning through both real-time and asynchronous routes, the costs and the infrastructure required to support real-time video make it infeasible in developing countries like India. Instead, a powerful blended distance programme can be conceived around the careful use of videos.

This article illustrates Shikshan, a hybrid framework which combines the richness of digital video with essential Web-based support services to create a versatile educational programme. Although inadequate PC penetration and poor Internet access plague many developing countries, consumer electronic items like television sets and cell phones are fast gaining ubiquity. The Shikshan framework harnesses these to provide educators as well as learners with a comprehensive solution.

Some of the features of the Shikshan framework include a searchable media library, a user database that uses profile information to deliver video summaries of different complexities for the same content, an efficient order management system, motion video summaries of the media library for the benefit of students who possess neither a wireless device nor a desktop, and a learning management system enabling standard online activities. Standard services such as content management, sustenance of user groups, drop boxes, chat rooms and assessment, as well as special services for wireless alternatives, feedback mechanisms, annotation tools, content databases, data transmission through satellite and the harnessing of postal services to support students in backward areas are necessary features of the model.

While Shikshan is intended to address the needs of a community with a scarcity of quality teachers, the role of formal inputs cannot be overlooked. Standby tutors such as industry professionals can mediate the videos in a classroom setting. Future activity on the Shikshan project is intended to create a scaleable and cost-effective implementation.