Introduction
Allaire (1996) stated that countries that first establish an information
infrastructure and effective e-content will enjoy enormous competitive
advantage. The learners and the society requirements are very clear. The
analytical capacity and thinking levels of the current generations are
high. Their inherent ease in usage of modern gadgets is not only to be
harnessed but that makes them to learn and retain more. But the older
generation are left far behind. Thus the content providers and the
technocrats should provide quick and novel solutions for managing,
packaging and delivering the solutions to satisfy the requirements of
the academia, society and the market in the coming years. This paper
deals with areas such as e-content design and planning, governance
models, internet adoption issues, infrastructure requirements, effective
content management, hierarchy and evaluation in the use of ICT in
tertiary education.
Advantages of e- (virtual) learning
* It is not limited by the classroom walls;
* It is does not know or care what the learner's socioeconomic status is;
* It provides equal opportunity for everyone to learn;
* It is more in tune with the way our past students learn today;
Benefits of e-learning
e- learning is the use of new multimedia technologies and internet to
improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and
services, as well as remote exchanges and collaboration. The benefits
are;
* 60% faster learning curve
* 25%-60% higher content retention
* 56% greater learning gains
* 50%-60% better consistency of learning
* 38%-70% faster training comprehension
* Cost is 50%-70% less than instructor-led training
Supplementary nature of e-learning
It is important to note however that ICT should be used when it
contributes to the interactive teaching. The use of ICT supplements
other academic tools - investigations, scientific enquiry outside the
classroom, collecting and recording evidence and many other traditional
methods.
Developmental Goals for the new Milleneenium
Universal enrollment in primary education and elimination of gender
disparities in primary and secondary education is the United Nations
Millennium Development Goal. Whether the developing and transition
countries have achieved that is doubtful But tertiary education can
support the other education system passively.
ICT in Tertiary Education
In every society, the tertiary institution is the most dependable source
of human resource capital for socio-political and economic development.
Since the government is the prime mover of development in apart from
funding, problems of Computer Hardware and Software, and Shortage of
Technical Manpower has to be met by the government.
Benefits of ICT in Tertiary Education
1. Hardware and Networking
Institutions that provide a link between local researchers, teachers and
scholars and their counterparts in other parts of the country will have
to have improved the Internet connectivity. This benefits everyone in
the project / team.
2. Provision of Teaching and Research Facilities
Provision of access to the best of teaching and research materials
available on par with the world class cost, tertiary institutions.
Develeping ICT policy for Tertiary Education
Any IT policy must benefit all of a country's population by combined
private-public services, and so forth. Another important policy element
will be linking IT with education. This means using IT for education,
aggressively expanding its coverage with quality and relevance, and
educating and training for IT as a must for social and individual
progress.
Design and Planning
The following assertions have to be made before incorporating ICT in Tertiary Education.
* The level of knowledge that students already have.
* The use of technology for the entire curriculum of those who left school or college.
* Establishing a foundation upon primary and secondary education upon which to build the tertiary education.
* How faculty can expertise in using technology throughout the learning experience of the students ?
* How much infrastructure is to be built upon in which students routinely use technology with ease ?
e- Content Implementation Models
Several universities and higher education systems have created distinct
distance education or e-learning delivery structures and governance
model.
Three ways in which to organize an e-learning governance model are;
1) Technical service model In whereby institutional autonomy for all
e-learning functions, while technical resources are supplied
2) Development and delivery model whereby the development and delivery of courses and programs is in all institutions.
3) Service center delivery model provides a seamless interface of e-learning support services to the institutions.
Infrastructure requirements
The infrastructure should supplied to handle the huge amount of data,
intelligently and to deliver it efficiently and quickly. It should also
avoid the delay even during heavy traffic times and without any loss of
data.
Implementation of ICT In Tertiary Education
The biggest challenges to adopt appropriate development policies and
implementing corresponding programmes of tertiary education is keeping
in mind the existing local conditions and standards of the nascent
learner.
Evaluating ICT in Tertiary Education
For any policy to be successfully implemented there is the need for
constant evaluation of the policy especially for new and fast growing
technologies like ICT. Dewey and Bentley (1949) in their book, Knowing
and the Known, mentioned the importance of transaction. Rather than
considering technology as a discrete object we have to see how the
technology participates in an working relationship in the social
practices such as Tertiary Education.
Instead of being rigid technology the different levels of the user has to be kept in mind while designing the e-content.
Pedagogical content Management
This system should support the content acquisition and archival, file
conversions and transformation, version control, meta-tagging, workflow,
integration with multiple repositories/delivery networks, platform
independency, security, permission and rights management, conversions to
any formats and channels, meta-data generation, non dependency of
platforms etc.,.
High-level steps while entering e-content for Tertiary education
Review of prior e-learning reports, identification of key market
segments, e-learning areas, selecting branding approach, developing
e-learning governance model, consideration of funding issues including
revenues and costs, developments of partnership with content providers
and academics are the steps to be followed before actually entering into
the production
Conclusion
Should ask what courses are learners starting from and what are their
expectations and assessments? This should be followed by how do people
learn and how do you facilitate learning. The answers to these two
questions can be obtained if principles from Learning theories and
Pedagogical theories are applied to the current reality for tertiary
education.
REFERENCES
Allaire, P., Young, J., & Vest, C. (1996). Breaking the Barriers to
the National Information Infrastructure, quoted by E. Talero and P.
Gaudette, Harnessing Information for Development. A proposal for a World
Bank group strategy, World Bank Discussion Papers no. 313, World