Learning & Teaching Enhancement Office leads e-learning debate in India
Gwen van der Velden, Director of the Learning & Teaching Enhancement Office (LTEO) and Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou, Head of e-Learning, led an exciting debate on enhancing e-learning provision as part of an international workshop in New Delhi, India.
Invited by the British Council and representing the University, Gwen and Kyriaki led
discussions on e-content and learning design and explored a range of practices and developments in
both Indian and UK higher education. Meeting senior colleagues from a number of the Indian higher
education institutions including the Indira Gandhi National Open University, the Universities of
Delhi, Goa, Madras and Hyderabad, several Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Ministry
of Human Resource Development, Gwen and Kyriaki had the opportunity to establish collaborative
networks and partnerships to form part of the University’s internationalisation strategy.
Following the recent visit, Gwen said:
‘We received excellent support from our colleagues in the British Council which enabled us to
make connections at a senior level within some of the Indian institutions as well as government
ministries. We are delighted to have been invited to progress these connections through the
development of the first national network on Instructional Design and an Advisory Group for the
Indian Ministry of Human Resources and Development. This new network will provide the platform we
need to build new partnerships and develop future research collaborations. We are looking forward
to working with our Indian counterparts over the coming months.’
Gwen and Kyriaki’s visit was part of a large scale development plan by India’s universities
and colleges to develop e-curricula and exploit new technologies to support a transformation of
higher education. With over 17.5 million students in higher education in India, delivered by over
400 institutions, India has established a national mission on education through ICT and is keen to
harness new learning technologies to address some of their key challenges such as vast travelling
distances and a population of over one billion people.
Following the success of this recent visit, future visits are being planned for the new year
to set up projects and further develop the new national network.
Further information: Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou, Head of e-Learning, LTEO ext 5578
