The importance of digital universities

Education today is becoming increasingly digitized, diverse, distributed, disruptive, datacentric, driven-by-vision. At the same time, the questions related to learning outcome, effective learning, and inclusivity have become of paramount importance. The Union Budget brought to our notice the concept of a digital university. One of the unique features of a digital university is the ability to transform the world of education and make it student-centric. All aspects of a digital university: digital content creation, digital content delivery, modes of access, the multitude of digital learning environments, interactive education, empowering teachers to become more effective, measuring learning outcomes, monitoring and adapting to individual student needs, inclusivity, etc. are all powerful enablers for students.

A digital university has the potential for true democratization of quality content. By virtue of the spectrum of e-learning tools available, the digital university will provide a unified platform for the convergence of students, teachers, and digital resources. In principle, a digital university is also capable of supporting multiple learning environments. The digital mode of education provides some very interesting mechanisms to engage students and support learning. Micro-learning refers to a learning strategy designed using a series of short segments of learning content and short activities. This environment can assist in delivering just-in-time informational and instructional content in short bursts, matching the learning pace of the students. The proliferation of smartphones and access devices, combined with the exponential growth of social media has evolved the concept of personalized mobile learning through bite-sized learning snippets. Messaging-app based learning and chatbot-based learning communities are also gaining currency in the microlearning space. At the other end of the spectrum is the concept of life-long, continuous learning with the flexibility of reskilling and upskilling, all of which can be buttressed by the digital university.

A digital university is an enabler for delivering high-quality digital content in a personalized manner. Personalization not only means anytime/ anyplace education, but also delivery of education pitched at the right level and in a comfortable language which can result in effective learning. Digital mode and tools can also increase the efficacy of teachers and the efficacy of teaching (two different concepts). Further, survey-data shows that blended learning enables universities to cater to a broader range of students of all strata and varied backgrounds. A digital university, thus, has the true potential for the universalization of education.

There is an ever-growing need to bridge the widening skills-gap between education and an increasingly competitive job market that is also morphing at a phenomenal rate. The digital university is designed to offer degree/ diploma/certificate programs based on the current market needs. The digital university can also offer the flexibility of choice to students so that they can augment their skill-sets by curating the relevant courses, thereby navigating the education space and charting their personal journey of professional growth.

It is important to understand that learning is a social process and happens through interactions. Effective learning requires a human connect between the teacher and the student, as well as, among students in a peer-to-peer learning environment. A digital university can act as a catalyst for active learning by providing customizable platforms for more effective interactions of students with their teachers and fellow students.

The future educational systems should be resilient to disruptions like the recent pandemic. By design, a digital university is more resilient to black swan events (rare events with extreme consequences) as the unifying technology platform can seamlessly accommodate different degrees of hybrid modes of education.

Some of the Ministry of Education initiatives like SWAYAM, Virtual Labs, and NDLI have the potential to cater to the entire gamut of learning requirements online. Additionally, a digital university also addresses the dual problem of digital divide and inclusivity, which is a grey rhino (an obvious danger that’s moving slowly and yet conveniently ignored). A digital university can be potentially leveraged to reach out to every child in the country, irrespective of region, gender, language, ethnicity and economic background. It also addresses the problem of effective learning, which is the elephant in the room (a major problem that is present but conveniently avoided).

While a digital university holds a lot of promise, there are also immediate challenges. The content on the digital platform has to be coherent, comprehensive, consistent, convenientlyaccessed and complete in terms of curriculum-coverage. The underlying digital infrastructure needs to be augmented commensurate with the user base.

Teachers have to be systematically trained to truly harness the power and potential of the digital resources. AI/ML needs to be integrated into the system to enable both students and teachers to measure, analyze and improve learning outcomes. Relevant industries need to be made a part of the ecosystem so that the entire supplychain from deep skilling to employability is seamless. Also, practical mechanisms have to be institutionalized to ensure the challenges of students with special needs are adequately addressed. While implementing some of these ideas, it is crucial to understand and accept the limitations of technology: what technology can do and what it cannot do. The gaps and constraints can then be addressed by human interventions.

The author is currently the Director of IIIT-DELHI, and a professor at IIT Delhi.

Astrazeneca India Private Limited, the Global Capability Centre (GCC) of Astrazeneca recently signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur. The MOU will facilitate industry academia collaboration through research and development activities, tap into the ecosystem’s innovation capabilities and explore emerging technologies with a vision of “India for India” and “India to Global”.

Prof S Vaidhyasubramaniam, vice chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University and Siva Padmanabhan, managing director, Astrazeneca India Private Limited (AZIPL) exchanged the MOU that aims to provide opportunities to develop new technologies in the academic departments thus enabling Astrazeneca in bridging the technology skill gap and support the industry through research backed skilling programs to address the emerging talent needs.

A DIGITAL UNIVERSITY IS AN ENABLER FOR DELIVERING HIGHQUALITY DIGITAL CONTENT IN A PERSONALIZED MANNER