What is Educational Technology?
The world of education and training has seen a tremendous change over the last decade and has progressed from teacher-centricity to learner-centricity and now to collaborative learning. Simultaneously, the world of technology has seen a convergence trend from enabling working on stand-alone systems to connected systems and now to mobile systems leading to mobility. Technology has impacted education by not just providing a new means of imparting education but by changing the very way learning environments can be designed. The two worlds have interlocked together giving rise to a new body of knowledge – Educational Technology or ET.
The emerging field of ET has the potential to transform the way organizations conduct business.
The world of business itself has undergone changes in tandem with technological advances moving from local to global operations with innovation becoming the key factor for both survival and success. Innovation necessarily rests on how effectively the organization translates the learning that occurs from processing existing business information to smarter and better decisions, strategies and processes. Learning, thus, has become omnipresent in every business activity – organizations that learn flourish, those that don’t, perish.
This underlines a pressing need for ET professionals who can design learning and information systems that enable organizations improve its business processes to bring about a quantum change in the productivity and efficiency.
What is the program – M.Tech. in Educational Technology – about?
The program will create a new breed of professionals – the Educational Technology professionals who will function as the next generation knowledge workers and business transformation leaders.
These professionals will recognize that decisions, strategies and processes are informational, not physical – nobody has “seen” or “touched” these. But the outcomes are tangible – they bring in benefits/values to the business. Hence businesses can be viewed as having two components – Business Work – the nuts and bolts of conducting the business and Information Work – the science of learning from business information to originate “smarter” information for “improved” decision for ‘improved” policy and recommendation for competitive business action. They will create useful and usable business models and structures to create a win/win situation for all stake holders.
The ET professionals will become adept in the design and development of:
- Standalone multimedia-based training systems for individual worker/manager
- Collaborative applications to create high performance teams
- Enterprise-wide integrated information systems for empowering the workforce
- Inter-enterprise systems for effective relationship management with external organizations
- Internetworked business systems for social wealth generation
Why is NU offering this unique program?
NU recognizes the vacuum that exists within organizations because of lack of awareness of the importance played by ET leading to inefficient business processes. Hence it is offering this unique program, one of a kind, designed with inputs drawn from the industry, academia and research bodies.
Whom is the program for?
Working professionals with a graduate degree in any discipline who are involved in activities for improving internal processes within an organization or involved in designing training and information systems for external clients as part of organizational work.
Key benefits to organizations having M.Tech. ET degree holders
- Over 80% of the course time is spent on learning activities drawn from business work and projects thus enabling a high ROI for sponsoring organizations
- Global standard professionals who will generate high-end ET off-shore business
- Effective design and implementation of products, systems and processes leading to substantial efficiencies in development as well as quality to the customer – both internal and external
- An effective means to promote growth of individuals in the organization and a means to recognize high potential individuals by providing sponsorship
Key benefits to professionals with M.Tech. ET degree
- Industry recognized M.Tech. degree
- Deeper understanding of educational technologies, pedagogies and information systems enabling design of systems that bring about a transformational change in the way businesses operate
- Higher marketability and acceptability in the industry
- Recognition and competitive advantage in the organization
- A lifelong network of colleagues and mentors