Curated Content

It is almost de jour that any essay, however short it may be, on education, education reform or reconfiguring education to suit distance learning on a Net platform, carries the title phrase in it.

I wonder whether not merely many readers but also the writers of such essays know the complexities involved in such “curating”. This is a gap I, an educationist for only about seven years after superannuation, purport to address and possibly fill in this post.

“Curating” as used in the context of a museum, library etc. means selecting, organizing and presenting. The source of the curator’s prestige and power spring from the process of curating; this could be for a museum, like the National Museum in New Delhi or for the numerous travelling exhibitions of arts or history/archaeology, of even mathematics. When you enjoy a visit to a museum, the credit goes to the curator.

As a start, let us define “curated content” as applied to on-line educational material. The curator for class room instruction is the head of the School or Department under which a course is slotted. Of course, the curator-in-chief is the operational head of the institution, usually the vice-chancellor (VC). (S)he takes the view presented to them by the heads of the various units of the institution in front of the Academic Council of the institution.

Though looking at the formal structure of the process, one may think that it is a highly consultative process among the various stakeholders, it is only nominally so. There are a number of power centres that do not see eye to eye. On top of these involved at the working level to ensure the process leads to acceptable curriculums and syllabuses there in, there are supposedly hands-off regulators whose palm prints on the process are only too obvious.

Now these regulators, quite gentrified and geriatric, tell those with immediate responsibilities what to do; and, management types are ready with their metrics to help them. PowerPoint presentations – it is amazing how these have avoided geriatric wards of education – are always at hand.

It is, in some form or the other, one size-fits all type of metrics. If one wanted to offer an effective course on the Net one need not look beyond NPTEL, the reportedly the best platform offering peer-reviewed learning material.

I almost choked saying the above, but this is what I get from Googling it. I have heard from a few teachers who have listened to NPTEL lectures that they are the best antidote to insomnia!

 And, this is crucial; there is no room in the metrics for evaluating student-teacher interactions. What goes for such evaluations is the semester-end, hurried feedback from the students, again metrified. Any appreciative, singular, as opposed to a general statement beyond the metrics offered by the student for a teacher is discarded without a nod – they are deemed beneath consideration, bias be assumed.

The content for the regulators, and the high level university administrators, is dry-cleaned off all contexts. A highly mathematical subject is evaluated precisely, but not accurately, when the metrics that apply to a narrative type of course are used; and, vice versa. This is how all the courses and their contents are curated.

In reality, even selecting the courses/subjects is constrained. To make an exaggerated comparison, in selecting for a travelling exhibition of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings one would leave out his Hamsa Damayanti! This happens more often than you think.

And, organizing is done most haphazardly as there is no well-stated organizing principle to rally around. It is top-down. We have 15 hours for this unit – stuff as much content as you can! Do not worry too much about whether the teacher can cover it and students can absorb. Go by the metrics.

 And, then presentation. Whatever students may or may not learn, everything presented should conform to what NPTEL says, no ifs and buts. I do not need to elaborate as by now you know the contempt I have for the process. The most important stake-holders, teachers and students, have no say.

The process has come to resemble a non-curated assembly line. No differentiations, one metric and one metric only for the astounding variety of courses on offer.

Whose fault is this? Edupreneurs, on-line education businesses, the gullible parents ... There is enough blame to go around.

Do not, please, ever say, “Curated Content” in the context of education. Please.

Raghuram Ekambaram