OAsis :: Browsing by Author "Balaji, Venkataraman"

Browsing by Author "Balaji, Venkataraman"

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Open Access
Agricultural Higher Education in the 21st Century: Non-traditional educational models
(2015-06-16) Kanwar, Asha; Balasubramanian, K; Balaji, Venkataraman
Speech delivered by Professor Asha Kanwar at 'Agricultural Higher Education in the 21st Century: A global challenge in knowledge transfer to meet world demands for food security and sustainability'. Zaragoza, Spain June 2015.
Open Access
Capacity-building of Teachers and Parents in Cyber Safety and Security: The COL Experience
(2022-11-23) Kanwar, Asha; Balaji, Venkataraman; Ogange, Betty
Presented by Professor Asha Kanwar, COL President & CEO at the International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime and Cybersecurity in India, on 23 November 2022. Co-written with Dr V Balaji, Vice President, COL, and Dr Betty Ogange, Education Specialist: Teacher Education, COL.
Open Access
Changing Roles of Agricultural Extension: Harnessing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Adapting to Stresses Envisaged Under Climate Change
(2011) Meera, Shaik N; Balaji, Venkataraman; Muthuraman, P; Sailaja, B; Dixit, S
The linkages between agriculture and climate are pronounced and often complex. Agricultural systems are most sensitive to extreme climatic events such as droughts, floods and hailstorms, and to seasonal variability and changing rainfall patterns. The role of inadequate institutional support is frequently cited in the literature as a hindrance to adaptation. In context of climate change, extension will increasingly face challenges of addressing vulnerability. The effectiveness of extension will be influenced by the factors such as identifying vulnerable regions, vulnerable groups, farmers having multiple stressors, areas which will be doubly exposed, for assessing and strengthening the coping strategies among vulnerable regions/groups and improve the ability for adaptive measures. Effective and timely provision of information will play a crucial role in future extension. Despite the need for timely and well-targeted information on climatic risks, there are currently a number of gaps and challenges in providing climate information to the farmers. Of late, organisations in agriculture realised the importance of managing the Knowledge (Implicit & Explicit; Internal & External) for the dissemination purposes. In this chapter, we have discussed at length the cases for developing insights into the contemporary initiatives of integrating ICTs and climate information in extension. In order to promote the development of appropriate community-based ICT endeavors for sharing climate change information and technology options at grassroots level, it is important that we also understand the attributes that must be considered for building more practical and broad based approaches. For the benefit of the readers, a comprehensive framework involving various components of climate change vis a vis Extension is provided. In the context of climate change, information needs assessment and strategies for strengthening Research-Extension-Farmers linkages are discussed in this chapter. Further looking at the complexities of climate change scenario, it is proposed that ICT enabled extension framework may be tested, refined and adapted in future extension endeavours.
Open Access
Collaborate, Complement and Connect
(2019-01-24) Balaji, Venkataraman
Presented by Dr Venkataraman Balaji, Vice-President, Commonwealth of Learning, at the Education Ministers Action Group (EMAG), London, UK, 24 January 2019.
Open Access
The Commonwealth of Learning
(2013-04-11) Kanwar, Asha; Naidoo, Vis; Ferreira, Frances; Umar, Abdurrahman; Kaushik, Madhulika; Lesperance, John; Mead Richardson, Alison; Balasubramanian, K; Pringle, Ian; Bullen, Mark; Balaji, Venkataraman; McEachern, Doris
The Commonwealth of Learning’s presentation to the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, Canada, 11 April 2013, Vancouver, Canada // It gives me great pleasure to formally welcome, for the first time at COL, a Minister of International Cooperation. It is perhaps appropriate that the visit is happening this year, when COL celebrates its 25th anniversary. Thank you, Minister for your time and for your interest in our work.
Open Access
Communication and capacity building to advance adaptation strategies in agriculture in the context of climate change in India
(2015-04) Balaji, Venkataraman; Ganapuram, Sreedhar; Devakumar, C
Climate change is perhaps the most serious issue that affects food security of a very large number of human beings and animals. Impacts of climate change will be particularly significant in South Asia where most of food production comes from smallholder farms. Vulnerability in this region is two-fold: production of important food crop varieties may be affected by developments such as rise in temperature; smallholder farmers have low economic resilience when large variations in crop outputs occur. Both adaptive and anticipatory measures based on research in agricultural sciences are being proposed. What is important is also to build the capacity of smallholder farmers to cope with the impact of climate change-induced phenomena. Key guides to large scale action such as the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change propose integrated action for capacity building involving both top-down and bottom-up inputs. In this paper, we provide an overview of accepted impacts of climate change on agriculture and food security in South Asia, and the proposed and ongoing agronomic adaptation strategies in India. Our focus is on capacity building at a micro-level which can augment adaptation efforts. We offer two case studies that provide pointers for integrating novel communication and capacity building processes for smallholder farmers that can considerably improve their ability to engage in action for adaptation.
Open Access
Connected Learning and Ag Extension: Shall the twain meet?
(2016-01-05) Balaji, Venkataraman
Presented by Dr. V. Balaji at the 8th Global Communications Research Association in Bangalore, India, 5-7 January 2016.
Open Access
Contemporary information and knowledge management: impact on farming in India
(2011) Kumar, R Ajith; Balaji, Venkataraman; Guntuku, Dileepkumar; Prabhakar, T V; Yaduraju, N T
Farming is an important part of Indian economy and it involves a wide range of stakeholders, of whom the small holder farmers are the largest group. Information sharing on new production processes with farmers was prominent in the ‘sixties which was key to the success of the Green Revolution. Agricultural extension, the process of enabling farmers and experts to exchange information with each other, has since been institutionalized to a high degree and is assessed to be not as effective as it had been a generation back. The advent of digital, technology-mediated information and knowledge management was thought to offer significant new opportunities for knowledge exchange in Indian farming as a whole. These hopes led to the launching of a number of initiatives in different parts of India, which has emerged as the host of the largest number of rural development projects where contemporary information and communication technology (ICT) play a pivotal role. While analyzing the outputs of such initiatives, many studies have pointed out that farming is not a priority concern of most of them. On the other hand, we can notice a noncomplimentary strand of ICT in agriculture projects operated by a number of institutions with ICT resources playing a key role in some of them. These efforts, generally speaking, do not promote user participation in information flows quite unlike the contemporary trends. Almost two decades later, the original hope remains unfulfilled. The nation-wide availability of digital content in relation to the farming sector is small when compared to equally important development sectors such as public health. This has considerably limited the opportunities for various stakeholders to build viable online services on production, marketing and meteorology for farmers and other stakeholders. What we now have is a collection of projectized activities that are fragmented in their overall understanding and approaches. What we need is an approach that can bring together the two strands, namely, of ICT in rural development and ICT in agriculture. Such an effort, however, needs a new IT architecture to be developed for aggregation of content and to make services available in multiple modes. Two groups of projects in India, namely, the Agropedia and the KISSANKerala, have built large prototypes and human capacities using unprecedented innovations in web technology areas and in integrated services delivery (including mobile telephony). With their advent, a wider range of solutions to the challenge of developing a novel architecture for information services for farming in India are now feasible and need to be researched upon. Countries that offered extension models for India in in an earlier generation do not require innovations for mass outreach for prosperity through farming and are thus in position to offer models for the present India needs to build solutions, processes and structures of its own so that the advantages accruing from its rapidly advancing ICT and mobile telephony infrastructure and export-oriented IT sector can flow to the benefit of its farmers. Formation of synergies with non-traditional partners such as those in ICT sector will be essential. There is a task to be accomplished, and it is contrary to the prevalent understanding in the leadership of farm education, research and extension sector that all the ICT solutions needed are available.
Open Access
Education and Blockchain
(2022-12) Grech, Alex; Balaji, Venkataraman; Miao, Fengchun
Blockchain is a verification infrastructure that offers a solution to the problem of how to verify digital identity. This publication is aimed at policy-makers in education who have an interest in understanding the affordances of blockchain technology to the education sector. Exploratory exercises with blockchain demonstrate that it is already possible to deploy the technology to cover credentialing and certification in both formal and non-formal learning. This publication presents the essential concepts and uses in a style accessible to policy-makers and experts who are not necessarily specialists in the area but need a quick introduction into the subject.
Open Access
Future of Education: Advances and Trends in AI, Blockchain And 5G
(2020-01) Balaji, Venkataraman
Presented at at the Focal Points Meeting for the Caribbean, St Lucia, 28 January 2020
Open Access
Learning in the Era of Digital Transformation
(2018-05-08) Kanwar, Asha; Balaji, Venkataraman
Presented by Professor Asha Kanwar, President & CEO, Commonwealth of Learning, at a public lecture, Wawasan Open University, Malaysia, 8 May 2018. Co-written with Dr Venkataraman Balaji, COL.
Open Access
Making It Matter: Supporting Education in the Developing World Through Open and Linked Data
(2014-05-16) Balaji, Venkataraman
Video presentation at the Making it Matter Workshop organised by the LinkedUp Project and the Commonwealth of Learning, London, United Kingdom, 16 May 2014. Duration: 17:03 // Resource contains link to video as well as a document of the presentation slides.
Open Access
Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide for Policy-Makers in Developing Countries
(2016-06) Patru, Mariana; Balaji, Venkataraman
The Guide is designed to raise general awareness amongst policy makers in developing countries as to how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) might address their concerns and priorities, particularly in terms of access to affordable quality higher education and preparation of secondary school leavers for academic as well as vocational education and training. With very few exceptions, many of the reports on MOOCs already published do not refer to the interest and experience of developing countries, although we are witnessing important initiatives in more and more countries around the world.
Open Access
Massive Open Online Courses for Development (MOOC4D)
(2017-11-27) Balaji, Venkataraman
Presented by Dr. Ventakaraman Balaji, Director - Technology and Knowledge Management, Commonwealth of Learning, at a Faculty Workshop on a MOOC on Life Skills for Engineers, Kanpur, India, 27 November 2017.
Open Access
MobiMOOC – A Practical Learning Tool to Promote Corporate Literacy for Effective Functioning of Farmer Producer Organizations
(2022-09) Raj, Rengalakshmi; Perumal, Thamizoli; Balaji, Venkataraman
PCF10 Sub-theme: Fostering Lifelong Learning // Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood to more than 70% of rural households in India. Of the total farmers, 87% are small-holders with less than two hectares of land. Yet they play an imperative role in agriculture development and poverty reduction. They face constraints to adopt technologies, access credit services, buy inputs, get market links and achieve economies of scale. As a mitigation measure, in the recent past, Indian government has adopted the development of the Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) to collectivize farmers with the core objectives of doubling farmers income by reducing production costs, improving productivity, strengthening participation in the value-chain and foster business principles. As on date 10,000 FPOs are formed in India with an average 700 to 1000 shareholders and registered under the company’s act. However, there have been gaps and challenges in securing the active participation of the shareholders in contributing to the business. The recent impact study conducted in the state of Maharashtra pointed out that FPOs resulted in rising in price realization among 22% of members and 28% accessed inputs at a lesser cost. Although results are encouraging, promoting the participation of all members in business transactions is crucial to the growth of the company. The main barriers are limited understanding among shareholders about their roles, responsibilities, rights, operational structure, and governance of the organization. Members perceive the FPO as one more collective and thus they miss connecting the corporate dimension in their organization. Thus, promoting continuous learning among shareholders and leaders about the above-listed issues is necessary for their active participation in the company activities and achieving a successful business. // Against this backdrop, a corporate literacy course was designed and piloted using the MobiMOOC digital tool with 24 FPOs from five districts, having an average shareholder base of 1035, in Tamil Nadu, India. Contents are prepared based on the learner's needs assessment conducted and categorized into blocks, divided into units and chunks. The contents were disseminated to farmers as voice calls on simple mobile phones with options of retrieving (IVRS) and listening when convenient to individual farmers. In this paper we will discuss the experiences of pedagogy adopted, design and dissemination of contents, feedback of learners on how it supported in gaining and knowledge on FPOs, and how they practiced the learning in their FPOs businesses and its impacts. The paper will also touch upon the scope for replication of the learnings. // Paper ID 2639
Open Access
MOOC for Capacity Building in Indian Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges
(2014) Devakumar, C; Balaji, Venkataraman; Yaduraju, N T
The landscape of agriculture is expanding to include agribusiness in the supply chain operations and management. Globalization is opening enormous opportunities for food and processed commodities while, at the same time bringing challenges of global competition. Linking agriculture with green economy and empowering farmers, women and youth with livelihood and entrepreneurship skills are necessary. Improving the competencies of scientists, teachers and extension workers, and delivering training in high-tech agriculture, secondary agriculture, and entrepreneurship will go a long way toward developing and adopting modern technologies that will bring more income to farmers.
Open Access
MOOC for Development
(2015-06-25) Balaji, Venkataraman; Kanwar, Asha
This presentation explains why Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) need not be only about Higher Education and can contribute to sustainable development by addressing the three S’s, namely, Skills, Scale and Speed. Presented at the Roundtable 3: ICT, 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (19CCEM), Nassau, The Bahamas, 25 June 2015.
Open Access
MOOC for Sustainable Development?
(2014-09-18) Balaji, Venkataraman
Presentation slides from a presentation given as the Keynote Address, Second International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Education and Computer Science, Organised by the Universidad Da Vinci, Mexico, 18 September 2014. Dr Venkataraman Balaji, Director, Technology & Knowledge Management, Commonwealth of Learning.
Open Access
MOOC, OER and Mass Higher Education
(2013-05) Balaji, Venkataraman
MOOC, OER and Mass Higher Education, May 2013 by Venkataraman Balaji, Commonwealth of Learning, Based on a report by Professor T V Prabhakar, IIT Kanpur // A key challenge facing the policy makers in many developing countries is the need to increase affordable access to quality education and training at post-secondary level. The ODL paradigm has been able to address this challenge quite effectively in the past. Two key developments, both involving contemporary ICT, can be of further help.
Open Access
MOOCs: an Introduction
(2013-08-09) Kanwar, Asha; Balaji, Venkataraman
‘Transforming Indian Higher Education through MOOCs’ Forum, New Delhi, India, 9 August 2013, Presented by Professor Asha Kanwar (co-written with Dr. Venkataraman Balaji), Commonwealth of Learning // It is a real pleasure to be here at the Forum that will reflect on ‘Transforming Indian Higher Education through MOOCs’. I am very grateful to Prof MM Pant for the kind invitation and the opportunity to speak to you. I’ll share some basic developments in Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs to start the conversation on where the triggers for transformation may lie. I have prepared this presentation with our Director, Technology and Knowledge Management, Dr V Balaji. // I will first look at the context of Higher Education (HE) today and the developments that led to the emergence of MOOCs. I will conclude with the implications that MOOCs have for HE in the developing world.