I was a part of a conversation about how education should be open, affordable, and accessible. Now those are three very powerful words that can get a lot of opinionated responses. Generally, I noticed that the efforts are directed towards institutionalized learning whether it be school or college level education. Coming into contact with vocational education I realized that in India, learning resources are present in silos, and largely in printed format. Alternatively, the wealth is stuck in the craniums of experts who are few and far between. Of course there are many players who have created video and other engaging forms of vocational learning but most of this is closed and difficult to find.
I started thinking of the printed vocational resources (or books) that the Governmental agencies have as print material. What is their true potential? They are created by experts and hopefully periodically updated. I also wondered about the potential impact, if these were to be digitized. The word digitized is a loosely used word. Scanning a book or making it into a page turner is not what I had in mind when I used the word. Digitization would imply converting printed content to searchable Unicode text. It would also imply meta tagging the content as far as possible, including the images. The end product of digitization in my mind in something as universally repurposable as possible. Something that can be accessed across as many media displayable devices as possible and yet be discoverable and usable.
It is easy to get excited (and then distracted) by a means of delivery (ebook, video, animation, live-conferencing and what have we...). Devices and mediums change over time. What is a rage today may quickly lose relevance tomorrow. To maintain objectivity I have generalized a tablet as delivery mechanism but ideally, the digitized content should be available across a wide swathe of devices and form factors to be usable and effective.
Digitization of vocational learning content from the printed format could have a number of advantages both convenient, pedagogic, and functional. Even as we embrace the convenience and adaptability of tablets and include them as a part of vocational training, the ubiquity of screens has given pause to many educators who are now faced with decisions on how to implement screen-based techniques and technologies into their classrooms.
Vocational Teaching-Learning transfers the skills of a trade and workmanship to an audience who are, primarily, young adults. This audience is almost always composed of digital natives who naturally understand, easily adopt, and quickly start using the technology and the associated user interactions needed to operate touch and media devices and extract maximum value from any content provided on such devices.
This helps us jump to optimally using digitized content for vocational education. Digitized content consumed through devices like tablets can aid a number of vocational learning pathways, including:
Learning by watching
Learning by imitating
Learning by practising
Learning through feedback
Learning through conversation
Learning by teaching and helping
Learning by real-world problem-solving
Learning through enquiry
Learning by critical thinking
Learning by listening, transcribing and remembering
Learning by reflecting
Learning on the fly
Learning by being coached
Learning by competing
Learning through virtual environments
Learning through simulation
The combination of these factors delivered through a digital delivery mechanism like a tablet could make for more effective learning, knowledge retention and lead to better application in the workspace post the training phase.
A number of factors can make digitized content delivered on devices like tablets and other smart devices more effective when compared to static printed learning material. Some of the factors could be:
Access
- Learning material in the vocational education space is fairly niche and is usually procedural and technical in nature. Digitization is key to making it widely available in a shareable manner, since in the print format, authors and institutions can find it difficult to reach out to a wide enough audience. Hence, digitized content can help provide on-demand local, national and international access to courses, curriculum resources or collections. It opens access to collections of information and resources that cannot always be accessed physically by users.
It also enhances opportunities for increasing the number of potential students in courses or users of information and to allow greater public interface with institutional assets
The number of trainers who are both experts in their trades and in transferring the knowledge to vocational learners are never enough given both geographic availability and certified capabilities. Digitized content that allows available master trainers to pool their knowledge-base and interact with a greater number of students than otherwise physically possible have a positive multiplier effect.
With a digital delivery platform, master trainers can reach out learners, overcoming geographic boundaries, and become virtual media mentors and even address learning audiences very too few in numbers or in locations too remote, that are otherwise unviable for existing training providers to cater to.
Once digitized, access to rapid and constant upgrades is simpler. While in print, upgrades need to be accumulated and executed in a time-expensive, low periodicity manner, digitized content upgrades can be pushed seamlessly as revisions that always keep the learner attached to the latest and most relevant content.
While there is a glut of available information, learners trying to access content that is unstructured through search are often lured into non-content related or even tangential interactions that take away from the learning purpose at hand. Access to curated and mediated digitized content can focus the learners into more effective content absorption.
Availability of training content in multiple languages is one of the key factors in vocational learning content absorption.With digitization, interlinkage with rapid translation mechanisms can make the learning potential available to many in their native tongues.
Enhanced Services:
Digitized conversion allows for the use of existing courses or resources in new or different ways as described in the possibilities for the application of various learning pathways.
Assessment and certification can be included as a part of the learning path. Also, custom learning paths, and just-in-time training delivery is also possible with digitized content.
Blended learning models of various types is possible:
- Blend of offline, online, and in-person learning
- Blend of classroom and self-paced e-Learning
- Blend of self-assessment and guided practice followed by final certification
Digitization creates a pool of constantly relevant content that can be packaged according to different needs in response to varied demands.
Partnerships
Digitization can pave the way for building partnerships between institutions to improve the quality of learning by sharing resources, adopting common standards and facilitating good practice and the exchange of information and expertise.
Merging various efforts from different identified funding opportunities and injecting a collaborative element can digital content collaborations even more successful, while clearly denoting and maintaining intellectual property rights of the content from multiple authorities.
Digitization also can bring together information about courses and resources that have already been digitized through federated search and use strategies.
Promotion, Marketing and Discoverability
Digitization and digital publication automatically makes large sections of content discoverable. This in turn can raise awareness levels about the range of courses and educational resources available for study
Once there is a sufficient pool of structured and optimized vocation learning content, with targeted promotion ad inter-linking local and international content aligning to geographically required standards can enhance both qualification and further study needs
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