Human Factors in Education through Information and Communication Technology in India

1. Human Factors in Education through Information and Communication Technology in India Jaison A Manjaly Assistant Professor Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

2. Background and evolution of the project • NKN experience in IIT Gandhinagar • Lack of consensus and clarity on the design of a virtual class room, pedagogy, virtual knowledge dissemination, collaboration etc. • Opinion of faculty and students who have been using the NKN facility • Urgency for an Indian specific model • NME-ICT vision document

3. Human Factors • The way humans relate to the world around them with the aim of improving operational performance and system utility • Human Factors discovers and applies information about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design of technology, tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments for productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use

4. Human Factor s in NME-ICT • Psycho-social-cultural-behavioral-cognitive aspects in transmission and reception of knowledge • Organizational dimensions of beneficiaries • Pedagogical issues in education through communication and information technologies • Design of virtual learning and communication system • Indian context specific issues • Human-technology and human-computer interaction

5. Human Factor Variables in NME-ICT • End user variables • Indirect: Aptitudes, Attitudes, Decision style • Direct: Training, Device experience, Level of end-user involvement • Decision setting: Management level supported, Uncertainty, Timeliness, Structuredness, Environmental considerations •  Interface characteristics • Content, Form, Presentation, Media, Context, Performance aspects •  Performance aspects • Decision effectiveness: Accuracy, Timeliness, Quality, Perceived confidence • Satisfaction • Learning: Ease, Time • System responsiveness • Speed of usage • Number of errors made

6. Objectives • To advance the state of the art and develop standards for human factors variables • To develop principled and robust user interfaces • To develop a generalized framework and methodology for human factor evaluation • To develop a new pedagogical framework which is sensitive to human factors • To devise strategies to address the psychological, social, cultural, behavioral and cognitive facts of end users

7. Methodology • Cognitive walk through • Field observation • Focus groups • Interviews • Logging actual user • Proactive field study • Feature inspection • Heuristic evaluation

8. Justification and importance • For effective human-technology and human-machine interaction • To improve the quality of virtual class rooms and virtual teaching styles • To effectively design the environment for virtual learning and communication • Facilitate human-centered design

9. Time schedule and deliverables • 2010: Developing prototype of a virtual class room and learning environment • 2011: Developing structure of e-content suitable for virtual knowledge transfer • 2012: Developing model for Virtual Pedagogy and interaction • 2013: Developing prototype of various user interface designs

10. Budget

11. Project Group • Bipin Indurkia (Cognitive Science Lab, IIIT Hyderabad) • Sanjay Chandrashekaran (Cognitive and Motor Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Calgary) • Koshy Tharakan (School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar) • Deepthi Shankar (School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar) • Meera Mary Sunny (Dept of Psychology, University of Warwick)