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www.gpejournal.org   ISSN 2163-758X 
 

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Impact of Information and Communication Technologies 

on Education Delivery: The Case of Global Understanding Course 

at the University of Jammu 

 

Amit Mahajan 

University of Jammu, India 

Prof. I.V. Malhan 

Central University of Himachal Pradesh, India 

Abstract 

In the growing globalized, highly competitive and turbulent world, 

understanding and adopting the best practices in various cultures plays a 

crucial role in surviving and thriving. Information Technology facilitates 

global accessibility of information, diffusion of cultures, online delivery of 

education and just in time learning. This paper portrays the learning 

experiences and understanding of students undergoing global 

understanding course at the University of Jammu in context to their inter-

cultural experience, their knowledge of handling computers and perceptions 

of different levels of students on online delivery of education. The paper 

provides an analysis of information furnished by students on problems, 

benefits and convenience of online learning. 

 

Introduction 

Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a profound 

influence on the way we do delivery of education and learn. Besides compact storage 

and quick retrieval of learning resources, developments in ICTs helped linking information 

with information, packaging and repackaging of information, development of more 

aesthetic learning material, distribution of learning resources over networks and facilitated 

real time learning. Increased communication and sharing of knowledge and experiences 

among a global community of students, quick sharing of ideas through video conferences, 

blogging, tweeting, and other social networking sites is taking place. Information is being 

directly streamed in smart class rooms to provide access to the most appropriate and 

comprehensive learning resources. Collaborative tools such as wikisare making possible 

the creation and accumulation of need based content that helps to meet the repetitive 

information requirements of several users. The voice over Internet protocol is helping 

learners to instantly exchange information through word of mouth. 

 

A teacher can not only simultaneously deliver a lecture in several classrooms in the 
institution but also deliver the same lecture across universities existing on different 
continents. Developments in information communication technologies have helped to 

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overcome the barriers of geographical distance and facilitated democratic access to 
educational resources. The ongoing digitization of print documents and development of 
institutional digital repositories further enhanced access to large volume of learning 
resources. The open access movement and development of accumulated research 
resources such as Biomedcentrum are enabling free access to desired learning resources. 
Open source content creation software packages such as Joomla! and Druppal help to 
create and manage educational content. Software package such as Moodle serve the 
need to manage educational resources. Educational institutions are using open source 
software packages like DSpace to create institutional repositories and Greenstoneto 
develop digital libraries. 
 
Besides enhancing access to learning resources, use of ICTs has increased 
communication with students, authorities and administrators. Students are able to use 
computing power and access networks when and where they want on the university 
campus. Wi-Fi and WiMAX are providing increasing freedom for Internet access 
anywhere in the campus including the classrooms. Students with the intention of learning 
and continuing their education through distance mode, students with disabilities and 
students interested in learning from their homes and employees from their offices are 
facilitated by the Internet to access the learning resources. Learning on the go may 
receive greater attention with growing time constraints, greater need for learning, 
increasing competition and availability of more learning resources. Conscious that mobile 
learning may eventually come to mean learning from a cell phone or a personal digital 
assistant, researchers at Stanford University's Learning Lab have studied the possibility 
of teaching people anything useful in sessions as short as a few minutes at a time 
(Cairncross, 2002). The pedagogical development thus is taking place in response to 
technological advances and emerging new learning spaces and requirements. 
 
In a split second, learners can retrieve and access learning resources through search 
engines on any subject under the sun. Video conferencing and chatting facilitate live 
exchange of ideas and information. Technology has offered comprehensive learning 
resources and conveniences but actual learning depends upon individual's efforts, 
training and motivation to take advantage of what is available. We have an ocean of 
learning resources that can be used and the sky is the limit for learning. Computing power 
is increasingly shifting to personal space with the growing availability of hand held 
computing devices and smart phones. Content creation is also more or less personalized 
as ideas are now boxed in blogs. With the increasing availability of choice based credit 
systems in universities and need based e-learning programs, learning is also becoming 
more focused, skill centered and personalized. 
 
Although advancing technologies, greater content and more choices have made the 
learning process more learner centric, the very process of learning is predominantly a 
human interactive course of action. It involves information sharing, prior domain 
knowledge to understand new concepts and to absorb and assimilate new learning. It 
requires explanations, instructions, mentoring, reason, logic, consent and dissent, and 
acceptance of ideas according to learners' mental framework and background. It requires 
expert assistance to know what is at the other end of the tunnel. It needs co-studying and 

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information sharing to know various perspectives and to grasp multiple points of views. 
According to the views of Alexander (2004) and Ayers and Grisham (2003), IT has 
transformed higher education without transforming the places which set the standards for 
higher education.  
 
Massive efforts are required for online education to meet the demands for learning in the 
hyper competitive globalized world. Networking and collaborations are emerging as 
efforts for providing more effective institutional framework for facilitating learning as well 
as individual level means for sharing ideas and facilitating collaborative learning. 
Educational institutions are undergoing metamorphosis to stay competitive and provide 
state of the art education. As the funding requirements for quality education and 
commercial interests grow, educational institutions have started functioning like corporate 
houses. In the emerging competitive educational scenario, they are collaborating and 
building strategic alliances for delivery of need based and high quality sustainable 
education. “Co-operate to compete as a strategy of ‘collabotition’ (collaboration + 
competition) will be a critical strategy for colleges and universities in the future” 
(Casanovas, 2010, p. 76). 
 
Technology has also enabled personalization of such sharing of information and 
facilitated choice for connectivity and networking through social networking tools such as 
Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. There is now an enormous number of social networking 
based learning resources where learners can find content, tutors and words of wisdom. 
Students and others on the social network are tending to make more use of social 
networking sites rather than email for their communication requirements. 
 
Educational Technologists helped to develop a variety of tools and artificial intelligence 
techniques that enhance learning and comprehension of the information delivered in 
various fields. Companies are using such methods for delivery of education and to 
effectively train their staff. For instance, one well known giant manufacturer of aircraft 
engines has developed a simulation of a running Boeing 777 engine. Students have been 
found to learn ten times better than they do from an instructor using audio-visual 
equipment (Cairncross, 2002). Encyclopedia Britannica's e-learning tool names 
SmartMath not only better equips the teacher to deliver learning but also enhances 
students' understanding of mathematics. As knowledge and ideas are largely becoming 
resources to provide a competitive edge over others, many companies not only invest in 
technologies but also encourage their employees’ work specific learning, for their capacity 
building and performance enhancement. Some companies have seen a very positive 
impact of e-learning. Unilever, a big British household goods company, tracks the results 
of e-learning in an attempt to evaluate them. The company argues that e-learning has 
helped its sales staff to produce more than US$ 20 million in additional sales (Hoekstra, 
2001). 
 
In the globalized and hyper competitive business environment, companies are attempting 
to understand cultural traits, value systems, beliefs and behavior patterns of societies 
where increasing interconnectivity is leading to instant exchange of information and 
diffusion of cultures. The spread of fast food restaurant in India and yogic practices and 

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Ayurveda based herbal medicines in the western world are some instances of the cultural 
diffusion. Studying and understanding the culture and work practices of different parts of 
the world help businesses to make choices and adopt the best practices. The importance 
of understanding cultures and societal moral philosophies is not only increasing for 
effective communication with distant colleagues and BPO work, but also for marketing of 
products and services. 
 
This study focuses on the online Global Understanding Course (GUC) which is being 
offered at the University of Jammu, Jammu (Tawi). Students registered for this course 
were asked to provide feedback regarding their level of learning, intercultural encounters 
and experiences of online delivery of education. Online education helps in acquisition of 
knowledge, helps to eliminate obsolete ideas, and facilitates learning the best practices 
across different cultures, and thus has great relevance for learners in the contemporary 
world. The GUC is aimed at students who wish to learn and understand other cultures 
through online education. This course is helpful for any major where communicating with 
diverse populations is a key for success in the chosen career pursuit. As far as the course 
content is concerned, the GUC gives an opportunity for scholars to learn and understand 
different societies, without voyaging. In this course scholars join forces for the span of the 
course accommodating and respecting cultural values and permitting an atmosphere of 
trust to develop. This trust helps to impart information, suppositions, qualities, mentalities 
and passions. Students exchange information with one another regularly to understand 
each other’s customs. This coordinated dialogue advances the sense of fellowship. 
Students scrutinize one another’s daily papers to learn what is going on in their associate 
society.  
 
Moreover students develop a joint paper. This joint endeavor educates them how to work 
in a team. When distant learners collaboratively learn, they figure out similarities, look at 
positive practices in other cultures and also identify the negative distinctions. This helps 
them to have a broader point of view and learn the good features of other societies. The 
participants learn to interact effectively in a culturally diverse interactive environment. This 
prepares people to think deliberately about not just what they express, but how they state 
it. Moreover, scholars learn how to listen, so they fathom the significance of the 
expressions as well as the state of mind and passions that accompany them.  
 
This course uses various information communication technologies which are useful for 
facilitating online education. For instance, it uses Centra: an online education software 
tool which gives students a classroom feel where students chat, talk, and view 
presentations, use white boards to write and express, hand raise to ask questions and 
reply. Skype and Polycom are used for video exchanges. The mIRC is used for chat, and 
students’ blogs are created to share their views and information. 
 

Objectives 
 
This study was undertaken with the following objectives in mind: 

• To study the students’ level of knowledge for handling computers and the Internet 
related programs. 

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• To study the experience of students undertaking GUC at the University of Jammu 
including the intercultural experience. 

• To know the satisfaction level of students who pursued the GUC and to study the 
impact of ICTs on online education. 

 
Method 

 
Participants 
 
Five batches of students registered for the GUC course at the University of Jammu, 
Jammu were studied. A total of 41 students registered for this course were studied, 26 
males and 15 females. Of these students, 7 were less than the age of 20 years, 18 
belonged to the age group of 21-25 years, 14 were from 26-30 years and 2 were beyond 
the age of 30 years. As far as the qualifications of participants are concerned, 18 were 
graduates, 16 were postgraduates and 7 were just 12th pass. 
 
Materials 
 
A questionnaire was developed and used to collect data. The questionnaire included 13 
different elements of study (Table 1) and another element was included for students’ 
suggestions. The lowest anchor point 1 represented strongly disagree and the highest 5 
represented strongly agree. 
 
Procedure 
 
After the completion of course for every batch of students, questionnaires designed for 
the purpose of this study were distributed among the students. Questionnaires for data 
collection were distributed to 45 students and 41 students returned the questionnaires 
duly filled. The learning center where this course was conducted was also visited to make 
on the spot observations regarding the learning activities of students participating in the 
GUC course. The participants were asked to freely and sincerely comment so that, in 
addition to other objectives, this course may be further improved. Student input was also 
used to improve infrastructural facilities at the learning center. 
 

Results 
 
In order to study the impact of the course, various factors taken into consideration were 
knowledge of computers before the course, their past experience of interacting with the 
students abroad, the need of moderator during interaction, evaluation of online education 
vs. traditional education, the technology used for the course is up to the expectation or 
not, efficiency of the technology used during the course, scope of information that has 
been exchanged during the interaction, problems faced by students and suggestions to 
improve, over all experience and satisfaction level of the students, etc. The data are 
summarized in Table 1. 
 
 

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Table 1 
Impact of GUC on Learners 
 

 
Descriptive Statistics 

 
Mean 

 
SD 

 

 
1. Basic knowledge of handling computers and online interaction 

 
5.00 

 
0.00 

 
2. First experience of interacting with students abroad. 

 
4.41 

 
1.43 

 
3. Are you satisfied with what you have learned online? 

 
4.82 

 
0.54 

 
4. Interaction was moderated by the coordinator or self-driven 

 
4.29 

 
1.14 

 
5. Course has helped you to established interpersonal links with the 

people you have exchanged information shared through this 
online interaction. 

 
4.85 

 
0.69 

 
6. Programme enriched learning in your own area of study. 

 
5.00 

 
0.00 

 
7. Online education is better than traditional offline learning. 

 
4.53 

 
0.95 

 
8. Technology used in the course is appropriate for e-learning. 

 
4.29 

 
1.36 

 
9. Course met your expectations. 

 
4.63 

 
0.91 

 
10. The enabling technology worked fine during the course period. 

 
4.56 

 
0.77 

 
11. Recommended this course to others. 

 
5.00 

 
0.00 

 
12. Information exchanged during interaction with distant students. 

 
5.00 

 
0.00 

 
13. Cultural and Communication barriers experienced in Interaction. 

 
3.97 

 
0.79 

 

 
Table 1 indicates that the mean value of basic knowledge of handling computers and 
online interaction is 5.0, which means that all the students were familiar with these skills. 
Most of the students agreed that this was their first experience interacting with students 
from other countries whereas some of the students had experience interacting through 
online chatting and social networking. Ninety-seven percent of the students were satisfied 
with their online interaction experience. Students rated it worthwhile knowing about 
something sitting far away from the place of delivery of education which was interesting 
and they learned many things. The same percentage of the students were satisfied with 
the course, the rest few were of mixed views. Some students recommended increasing 
the duration of interaction and some faced other issues such as blurred images and 

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broken voices during interaction. Eighty-six percent of respondents said that the 
interaction was moderated while fourteen percent said it was self-driven. Ninety-seven 
percent of respondents said that this online interaction has helped them to establish 
interpersonal links. They learned about the socio-cultural life of different countries. They 
had opportunities to share their views and ideology with the students abroad. Students 
also saw change in themselves and were encouraged to establish relations with new 
people. Eighty-six percent of respondents found the technology used for e-learning was 
appropriate while the rest did not agree with this. They assumed that the technology 
should be further upgraded. Eighty percent of students who opted for the course 
experienced communication and cultural barriers. Dialect and language problem seemed 
to be one of the factors interfering with students’ ability to understand some questions, 
particularly when interacting with Chinese, Russian, and Mexican students. Due to this 
they were unable to discuss the issues effectively. Most of the students agreed that the 
technology worked fine during the course period. All of the students responded that they 
will recommend the course to others. Ninety percent of students said that online education 
is better than traditional offline learning, and 92 percent of them reported that this course 
of study met their expectations. All the students exchanged information during interaction 
with distant students and all of them also reported that this program enriched learning in 
their own area of study. 
 

Discussion 
 
The global understanding course run at the University of Jammu is taken by learners from 
diverse backgrounds and levels of education ranging from pre-college students to 
Management, Computer Science, Law, Dental, and Tourism students. Basically the 
students who really consider that understanding global culture may help them in their 
professional career registered for this course. Most of the learners mentioned that they 
were really benefited by this course. For instance, a student of law appreciated the course 
delivery on climate change and reported that this course helped him to understand 
environmental laws and to look at the issue of climate change from the legal perspective. 
Similarly the MBA students mentioned that in the era of globalized, highly competitive and 
turbulent business environment, it is very important to have adequate understanding of 
global cultures and society and potential customers from all over the world. They 
mentioned that it is important to have sufficient information and to do knowledge-intensive 
work to really compete in the hyper competitive business environment. 
 
The learners were also of the view that the time duration of this course should be 
extended and there should be a well-defined calendar for various courses, and the 
university resource center should strictly adhere to that calendar. The majority of the 
students however were satisfied with the course and the learning outcomes and some of 
them even felt very excited when they communicated with their counter parts abroad. This 
course has also helped them to establish interpersonal contacts and further exchange the 
information with their friends abroad. It has had another positive effect of developing the 
culture of cross-cultural collaborative learning and working together on various issues of 
common and current concern. The learners very frequently exchanged their ideas and 
even made their joint presentations on various important issues and had a feeling that 

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information technology has overcome the barriers of space and time. They mentioned 
that student will enjoy this course much more if sound quality is improved. 
 

References 
 
Alexander, S. (2004). An e-learning ecology. E-agenda 2004 Roundtable. Retrieved from 

http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/eagenda2004 
Ayers, E. L., & Grisham, C. M. (2003). Why IT has not paid off as we hoped (yet). 

Educause Review, 38, 40-51 
Cairncross, F. (2002). The company of the future. Watertown, MA: Harvard Business 

Review Press. 
Casanovas, I. (2010). Exploring the current theoretical background about adoption until 

institutionalization of online education in universities: Needs for further research. 
Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 8, 73-84. Retrieved from 
http://www.ejel.org/volume8/issue2 

Hoekstra, J. (2001). Three in one. Online Learning, 5, 28-32. 
 
 
About the Authors 
 
Amit Mahajan is working as System Analyst (IT) in the University of Jammu, Jammu, 
India. He had an experience of more than 12 years in the field of ICT and Computer 
Networks. He is M.Sc Electronics, MCA. Presently he is pursuing doctoral programme in 
Computer Science. Besides this he has obtained Industrial certifications like CCNA, MCP, 
MCSA, CCNSP (Cyberoam Certified Network and Security Professional) and Associate 
WIPRO Accredited Service Engineer. He can be reached at amit.mahajans@gmail.com.  
 
Prof. I.V Malhan is a Professor and Dean, School of Mathematics, Computers & 
Information Science, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, (HP) India-
176215 . He has published more than 100 research papers and 9 books. He has guided 
8 Ph.D and 6 M.Phil students. Around 6 students are registered for Ph. D. He had 
received many national and International awards. He has held various administrative 
positions over the years. He can be reached at imalhan_47@rediffmail.com.   
 
 

 

 

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