Experiences with an Interactive Satellite Based Distance Education Program

Saraswathi Krithivasan, Malati Baru and Sridhar Iyer
KR School of Information Technology
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
{saras, malati, sri}@it.iitb.ac.in

Abstract
Dissemination of high quality education to a large number of geographically spread participants is an exciting and stimulating challenge. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, successfully deployed a novel satellite-based model of Distance Education Program (DEP) from 2002. The key objectives of DEP are to not only impart quality education to a large number of participants but also to provide a live two-way interactive classroom environment. The feedback from the participants shows that DEP has been very effective for enhancing the expertise of a large number of teachers from other regional colleges as well as working professionals. In this paper we discuss the key features of DEP – Interactivity, scalability and reusability.  The underlying economics that arises out of scaling the program and the current status of the program are also briefly discussed. Given the benefits of live interaction and peer-to-peer interaction that the model support, we feel that such a model can be easily adopted by other institutes elsewhere.

1. Introduction
India with its large pool of talented professionals is one of the top five countries providing services to Fortune 500 companies in the world. Although the country produces numerous qualified engineers and postgraduates every year, only those graduating from premier institutes can look forward to a bright and rewarding career, in the industry or in academia. In terms of both numbers and quality of professionals, there is a vast gap between the resources required and resources available in any field of the industry. There is also a dire need to upgrade the expertise of the teachers in the regional institutes, which in turn will help in upgrading the quality of education across the country. Hence dissemination of high quality education to a large number of participants, geographically spread across the country, is an exciting and stimulating challenge. 

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB), one of the premier institutes in the world took up this challenge and successfully deployed a novel model of Distance Education Program (DEP) from 2002. The objectives of DEP are:
•	Imparting education by transmission of IITB lectures to a large number of participants.
•	Creating a live two-way interactive classroom environment for the participants.
•	Deploying a scalable solution to reach increasing participants across the country.
•	Providing a cost effective solution for the participating centers in terms of affordable technology and minimal recurring charges. 

DEP uses a satellite based (VSAT) network and through this mode, the remote participants have access to the teaching of IITB faculty. The feedback from the participants shows that DEP is a boon for working professionals, students and teachers. In this paper we describe the key features of DEP, its scalability and economic viability, and the challenges ahead. We feel that such a model can be easily adopted by other institutes elsewhere.

2. DEP Features
The DEP model consists of a central transmitting site (IITB) and a number of geographically dispersed Remote Centers (RCs) receiving the transmission, synchronously. The key distinguishing features of the DEP are: live synchronous lectures with interactivity, technical and administrative scalability and content reusability. We discuss each of these below:

2.1. Interactivity
The DEP model uses a network as shown in Figure 1 to provide a live classroom experience to participants at the RCs. The various operational steps for the transmission of a lecture are as follows:

Noida Hub 

Remote Center 1

Remote Center 2 

IITB central site 

        Figure 1: The DEP Network

•	Lectures are given live by IIT faculty in a state-of- the-art studio cum classroom. The faculty has the option of using slides, whiteboard and multimedia clips to deliver the lecture.
•	These lectures are synchronously transmitted using VSAT technology to the various registered RCs, where the lecture is projected on to a large screen.
•	A classroom scenario at each RC has thirty to forty students sitting and viewing this lecture. Any participant from any of the RCs has the freedom to ask a question during the lecture. The desire to ask a question is communicated to the faculty through video-conferencing software.
•	The faculty may grant the floor to the RC, in which case the question being asked is heard by the faculty as well as the participants at all the other RCs. Subsequently, the floor is taken back by the faculty, the question is answered and the lecture continues.
•	The entire session of the live lecture, including the interaction is recorded and stored on digital tapes and CDs for archival and reuse.

The two-way audio video communication between the central site (IITB) and the Remote Center (RC) adds tremendous value to the program. As the transmission is synchronous, live, and interactive, the model gives a live classroom feel to the participant.

2.2 Scalability
 In order to take DEP to large number of geographically dispersed remote centers, scalability of the technology as well as administrative processes is necessary. We examine each of these below:

•	Technology: DEP uses a satellite-based (VSAT) network, which is inherently scalable and reliable. This makes the learning experience consistent across the RCs. As the satellite’s footprint covers the entire country, expanding the program to include an RC in any part of the country is relatively simple. A new RC needs to only install the VSAT receiving infrastructure to receive the transmission from the central site.

•	Administration: DEP Administration happens at two levels: core functions at the central site and distributed functions at the RCs. The core administration functions are illustrated in Figure 2.

Distance
Education
Program

2. Administration 

1. Content Management

3. Studio Management 

Coordination with faculty 

Classroom setup tested and readied for transmission 

Student registration  

Course handbook generation 

Coordination with RCs

Transmission of lectures  

Accounts management 

Web page maintenance 

Management of h/w and s/w used for transmission 

Lecture content editing and transferring to CDs 

Data processing and report generation 

Trouble shooting the equipment 

Figure 2: Core administrative functions at the central site

The distributed functions at each RC include processes such as local announcements, registration, mentoring and tutoring of the participants during the course, record keeping etc. The distributed administration and logistics management at the RCs simplifies the processes of student management, and coordination, thereby resulting in the scalability of the program.

2.3 Reusability of the Content
The lectures, including the interaction with the RC participants, are recorded, edited and archived on data CDs and DV tapes. These are not only available to the faculty for further reference but can also be used for subsequent retransmission of the courses. To appreciate the reusability of the content, an experiment conducted in the spring 2003 semester is described below:

A course on distributed systems was offered using the archived lectures from the previous semester. The faculty member was available in the studio during the retransmission, for interacting with the new participants. At any point, the faculty member also had the option to pause the retransmission and to introduce new live explanations of the concepts. We found that this considerably reduced the faculty load. Also since an archived lecture includes the faculty’s interaction with the earlier participants, the retransmission is quite effective and adds to the clarity of concepts being taught. 

The feedback of the participants in this experiment indicates that such a retransmission is almost as effective as a fresh live transmission. Thus such a retransmission model (see figure 3) adds value to DEP by giving the faculty the flexibility of not having to redo the entire course.

Figure 3: A typical retransmission scenario

Based on the positive feedback, two more courses are being conducted using recorded lectures with limited live interaction with the faculty, in the spring 2004 semester.

3. Economics and scaling
DEP being satellite based has an operational cost, which is more than conventional models of distance education. Nevertheless such a model is economically viable because most of the cost is in setting up the studio at the central site and the satellite bandwidth, both of which are borne by the central site. Setting up of a new remote center (RC) requires only 10% of the central site investment. The revenue model also apportions a share of the fees to the RC (40% in our case), thereby making it attractive for the RCs. The DEP model can be easily scaled by:
•	Increasing the number of RCs and thereby the remote participants.
•	Offering foundation level, undergraduate, and postgraduate courses from all departments.
•	 Utilizing the bandwidth by conducting short-term courses, workshops and seminars which can be also transmitted to the RCs. For example: An invited distinguished lecture of one hour was transmitted and attended by hundreds of students at the various RCs. 
An added advantage of conducting short-term industry specific specialized courses over DEP is that it offers working professionals a chance to enhance their skills without having to travel to a central location.

4. Current DEP status
DEP was set up in March 2002 with the launch of a pilot program by the central site (IITB). Currently there are nine participating Remote Centers (RCs). Six of them are professional colleges where interested participants can register and three are software companies that use the program for their in-house employee training. More centers are expected to join in the near future. Every semester six to seven courses are offered. Typically each course registers about 40 to 60 participants. Over the past four semesters, seventeen courses were offered and approximately 1000 participants have registered and benefited from this program. A summary of the registrations is shown in figure 4.	

                    Figure 4: Summary of DEP registrations

5. Conclusions
In this paper we have described DEP, a satellite based model for distance education, which has the key features of interactivity, scalability and reusability. We found DEP to be effective for enhancing the expertise of a large number of teachers from other regional colleges as well as working professionals. We are in the process of incorporating video streaming solutions, in order to provide flexibility and for catering to demands for asynchronous model of distance education, which would complement the existing model.

One major challenge on the pedagogical front is the inclusion of courses with major lab components. Such courses have problems due to dissimilar lab facilities at the RCs, the lack of appropriate subject expertise at the RCs and issues related to licenses of special software used in the courses. Nevertheless, we feel that such a model can be easily adopted by other institutes elsewhere.

6. References
1.	Distance Education: An Overview - http://www.uidaho.edu/eo/dist1.html.
2.	Saraswathi Krithivasan, Distance Education Program - towards Greater Interactivity, Indian Distance Education Association 2003, 10th  Annual conference, Feb. 2003.
3.	Arya, K, Krithivasan, S, Iyer, S. (2003). Satellite Based Distance Education Programme at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. Educational Media In Asia: Reviews, cases and lessons. Vancouver, Commonwealth of Learning.
4.	Distance Education Programme, KR School of Information Technology, IIT Bombay – http://www.dep.iitb.ac.in/

Acknowledgements:
The Distance Education Program is the brainchild of Prof. D.B. Phatak, KReSIT, IITB. A core team including Prof. Kavi Arya and Prof. H.V. Sahasrabuddhe along with the authors has been responsible for envisioning, setting up the infrastructure and coordinating the development of the Distance Education Program. This venture is a team effort currently headed by Prof. M.U. Deshpande. 

This work is dedicated to the DEP team including our studio manager Mr. Sameer Sahasrabuddhe, the faculty who support this experiment by giving their time and energy, the Remote Centers - our partners in this venture, our service provider and the participants.