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best practices. It also helps researchers by provision of information, networking, online journals,
libraries and data. The possibility of real time interaction in all the different aspects of the
education system like teaching, collaboration, debates etc hold great promise for the future
(Mason, 2000).
Evidence through practical experience in the world indicates that investing in an ICT experience
contributes mainly to increasing human and knowledge capital, which benefits the industry as
well. Employers gain from the increased knowledge and skills of staff without releasing them
for long periods (Barratt, 2006). In addition, investment in production of ICT is a more effective
tool for development of the whole society (Casal, 2007). Research findings show that technology
can support pedagogical, curricular, and assessment reforms, which intend to support the process
of knowledge creation. Students and teachers plan their learning activities and build on each
other’s ideas to create new knowledge. It also facilitates monitoring of their progress in
understanding and preparation for lifelong learning and participation in the information society
(Kozma, 2005; Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). Besides cost effectiveness, research has proved
that ICT is most effective to tackle problems like expanding number of students in each class
(Fluck, 2003). ICT enabled distance education provides environmental benefits, as there is a
major reduction in the amount of student travel. Economies of scale in utilisation of the campus
site are generated. Student housing is not needed which further saves costs (Barrat, 2006).
However, cost of providing the distance education depends on several factors, which include:
geography and communities targeted, breadth of courses and class size. It also depends on the
technology used; amount of resources deployed in producing course materials as well as how
frequently they are updated.
E-learning allows delivery, dialogue and feedback over the Internet. It allows mass
customization in terms of content and exams. E-education can provide access to the best gurus
and the best practices or knowledge available (UNESCO, 2002). It is possible to leverage the
online environment to facilitate teaching techniques like role-play across time and distance
(Wishart, 2007). It can also facilitate the development of scenarios, which can be rarely
witnessed in practice. ICT can play a valuable role to monitor and log the progress of the
students across time, place and varied activities. Mooij (2007) states that differentiated ICT-
based education can be expected to provide greater reliability, validity, and efficiency of data
collection and greater ease of analysis, evaluation, and interpretation at any educational level. In
absence of ICT, most of the responsibility of teaching and learning lies on the teachers.
However, with the help of ICT one can transfer the responsibilities to the students so that they
can self manage. It helps to individualize the teaching or guidance method as per the student’s
need (Mooij, 2007; Ozdemir and Abrevaya, 2007). It also boosts the confidence level and the
self-esteem of the students who acquire the ICT skills through the process of being exposed to
such kind of learning (Casal, 2007). Mooij (2007) also puts forth the view that ICT-based
registration, evaluation, and administration helps to link different levels of information and
facilitate an overall view of the whole educational setup. It facilitates the evaluation and
examination of the learning process and results by the students and the parents in a flexible and
convenient way. The globalization process has also created a large market of offshore students.
To reach them, information technology is the only convenient medium, which can offer
education as a service (Collins et al, 2001; Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). It increases