Prema Nedungadi
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita CREATE, Department Member
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In a farming community, different types of commodities may need to be transported to different destinations, like the market, storage unit or a processing unit, during the harvest season. To organize efficient transportation in such a... more
In a farming community, different types of commodities may need to be transported to different destinations, like the market, storage unit or a processing unit, during the harvest season. To organize efficient transportation in such a setting, the problem is formulated as a Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickups and Deliveries, by considering a virtual field and a virtual destination for delivery of each commodity. To solve this particular problem instance, four common metaheuristics - iterative hill-climbing, guided local search, tabu search, and simulated annealing - were tried and their performances based on total tour lengths for different run times were compared. Basic implementations of these metaheuristics were done using Google OR tools. Guided local search was found to produce good solutions quicker than others. In the long run, tabu search was able to find a slightly better solution. Simulated annealing was prone to get trapped in a local optimum for hours.
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Experimental learning combined with theoretical learning enhances the conceptual understanding of a subject. Therefore, the Online Labs (OLabs) that hosts science experiments was developed. OLabs uses interactive simulations with theory,... more
Experimental learning combined with theoretical learning enhances the conceptual understanding of a subject. Therefore, the Online Labs (OLabs) that hosts science experiments was developed. OLabs uses interactive simulations with theory, procedure, animations, videos, assessments and reference material. Our study blended OLabs with concept maps to examine if it enhances students' learning in Biology. Concept mapping is a framework that provides a deeper knowledge of a subject by understanding the relationships among concepts. The study was quasi-experimental; pre-test, post-test and a satisfaction survey was used as measurement instruments. The study sample was 54 students from a school in Haripad, Kerala, India. The students were randomly grouped into a control and an experimental group. The experimental group that used concept maps as a learning aid scored slightly higher, suggesting blending concept maps can lead to a deeper understanding of the subject. Gender difference did not significantly affect the scores.
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In the three months following its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT, the LLM bot employing deep learning algorithms to generate human-like responses, has been the subject of numerous research articles (n=385). Identifying early attention... more
In the three months following its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT, the LLM bot employing deep learning algorithms to generate human-like responses, has been the subject of numerous research articles (n=385). Identifying early attention to this research is highly intriguing. As citations for these publications may take time to accumulate, our study focused on examining the early attention of ChatGPT research using the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS), a composite attention score developed by Digital Science. Our findings from the total set of publications and the top publications according to the highest AAS scores reveal the following trends: (i) The United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom are the top countries that published most of the top research articles related to ChatGPT. (ii) The most frequently mentioned source titles include journals like Nature, Science, and preprint sources like medRxiv and arXiv. (iii) Among the fields of research (FoR) to which ChatGPT publication...
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Live-in-Labs is an innovative approach to experiential learning for rapid translational research for the development of rural villages of India. It is designed as an ecosystem for multidisciplinary university student teams, field... more
Live-in-Labs is an innovative approach to experiential learning for rapid translational research for the development of rural villages of India. It is designed as an ecosystem for multidisciplinary university student teams, field practitioners and researchers to jointly explore global sustainable development challenges and collaboratively design technology-based solutions. Within the context of Rogers' innovation diffusion theory, we expand the innovation-related attributes to understand students' rate of adoption and perceived value of the Live-in-Labs experience. In our research study, 99 students from an MBA program participated, supported by 9 faculty members. A 5-point Likert scale survey was administered to evaluate seven independent variables hypothesized to be factors that positively affect innovation adoption. Diffusion of innovation theory as operationalized in this study to predict adoption of Live-in-Labs, indicated that attributes such as Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Ease of Use and Department Support were positively related to adoption, with Ease of Use being the strongest contributor. Gender did not have any significant influence on adoption. Holistic experiential programs with translational research for social impact has thus far been relatively infrequent in the context of business education but has a great potential for simultaneously benefiting students and the rural community.
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Virtual Labs (VLAB) is a multi-institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, exclusively focused on lab experiments for engineering education. This project envisages building a large OER repository, containing over 1650... more
Virtual Labs (VLAB) is a multi-institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, exclusively focused on lab experiments for engineering education. This project envisages building a large OER repository, containing over 1650 virtual experiments mapped to the engineering curriculum. The introduction of VLAB is a paradigm shift in an educational system that is slow to change. Treating VLAB OER as an educational technology innovation, its adoption by potential-adopter engineering students (N=131) is modeled based on Roger's theory of perceived attributes. Regression and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Results indicate that the attributes of Compatibility, Ease of Use, Relative Advantage, and Trialability significantly influence potential-adopter students' intention to adopt an innovation like VLAB. The study also observed that using OER (such as VLAB) on desktops and low-cost tablets had similar effects in student performance to using physical labs. This has interesting implications for education policy-makers who are looking to reduce the digital divide.
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K-12 science education in rural India is characterized by rote learning in teacher-centered classrooms with poor lab facilities. As a result, students often have poor attitudes toward science. To inculcate the joy of learning in rural... more
K-12 science education in rural India is characterized by rote learning in teacher-centered classrooms with poor lab facilities. As a result, students often have poor attitudes toward science. To inculcate the joy of learning in rural students, we conducted three science camps in remote villages in North India. The camps emphasized hands-on learning using low-cost experiments from locally available materials. Videos, animations and simulations on mobile phones were used to supplement the physical experiments. The goal was not only to teach science, but to change the attitude of students towards science. This paper describes the results of daily assessments, pre, post, and six-month follow-up surveys. Findings include a significant improvement in attitude towards science, a particularly strong improvement for girls, and a positive effect of videos and simulations to learn abstract concepts. Also the academic marks of the students improved significantly after the camp in a longitudinal analysis. Additional insight was gained by clustering students by two simple dimensions: attitudes and learning styles. The change in attitude towards science was larger for students who prefer hands-on learning or concept learning.
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Background: Among the different social groups in India, the tribes are the most vulnerable and socioeconomically deprived. The tribal population is distinct from the general population in terms of their unique cultural, traditional, and... more
Background: Among the different social groups in India, the tribes are the most vulnerable and socioeconomically deprived. The tribal population is distinct from the general population in terms of their unique cultural, traditional, and reproductive health practices. Therefore, the aim of the study was to conduct an exploratory analysis of the menstrual practices, fertility intentions and decision-making regarding family planning among various indigenous tribal women of Kerala. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted among the tribal women of Wayanad district using the grounded theory approach. Using purposive sampling 16 in-depth interviews, 6 key informant interviews and 2 focus group discussion (FGD) s were conducted. Interview guides were developed for in-depth interviews, key-informant interviews, and focus group discussion through extensive formative research with literature reviews and taking expert opinions. The interviews were conducted among women of reproductive age an...
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Background: Micronutrient deficiency has long been recognized as a public health problem, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women. Micronutrient deficiency could not be ruled out in... more
Background: Micronutrient deficiency has long been recognized as a public health problem, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women. Micronutrient deficiency could not be ruled out in spite of the implementation of various intervention strategies. Different interventions are being used to prevent and treat micronutrient deficiencies at the national and global level. The aim of this study is to systematically review the intervention strategies among different vulnerable age groups in India. Methods: The review was focused on identifying various interventions published based on the internet databases and the peer-reviewed papers from 2011 to 2021, on the predefined inclusive/exclusive criteria. The major intervention strategies implemented in India were recognized and evaluated based on dietary supplementation, micronutrient supplementation, knowledge interventions and food fortification among various age groups. Results: The resu...
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SwastyaSIM is a simulation-based, multilingual, interactive learning environment designed to supplement the training of community health workers. It includes medical training and diagnostic tests relevant to common village ailments that... more
SwastyaSIM is a simulation-based, multilingual, interactive learning environment designed to supplement the training of community health workers. It includes medical training and diagnostic tests relevant to common village ailments that are designed to be sensitive to socio-cultural perspectives. This platform supports training, reporting and assessing health workers. Findings from a pilot study with health workers are discussed.
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Online Labs (OLabs) is a major Digital India initiative with over 135 online experiments mapped to high school curriculum. For each experiment, OLabs provides background on the theory, animations, simulations, videos, viva voce questions,... more
Online Labs (OLabs) is a major Digital India initiative with over 135 online experiments mapped to high school curriculum. For each experiment, OLabs provides background on the theory, animations, simulations, videos, viva voce questions, and links to additional resources. OLabs has been translated to multiple Indian languages. As part of scaling OLabs to the nation, over 16,000 teachers in all Indian states have been trained across India. The current manuscript presents a survey of 112 teachers who attended OLabs workshops and uses OLabs in the classroom. The study’s purpose is to understand the effective implementation of teacher training, to understand how OLabs is used in school laboratory experiments, and to understand how OLabs can supplement or replace real laboratories. A majority of teachers agree that repetition of OLabs experiments helps improve understanding of the concepts. There exists a strong correlation between the teachers’ perception of the quality of videos and animations and the teachers’ attitude on the usefulness of virtual laboratory software. Whether or not teachers feel that virtual laboratory software is useful to students is strongly associated with whether or not teachers feel that software is sufficiently fast and responsive. With regard to the workshops, teachers place high emphasis on the importance of establishing a clear agenda during the workshops. Finally, almost all teachers agree that OLabs can be an effective supplement to real laboratories.
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Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) supplement traditional learning by providing personalized instruction. Predicting student performance in formative and summative assessments can help educators and parents determine suitable learning... more
Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) supplement traditional learning by providing personalized instruction. Predicting student performance in formative and summative assessments can help educators and parents determine suitable learning interventions. In this article, interaction log data from three south Indian schools using Amrita Learning ITS were gathered and analyzed. We investigated the extent to which information from the system improves the prediction of students' performance on both formative and summative assessments. Results indicated that prediction improves significantly for both formative and summative assessments when compared to models that only use pretest information.
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1. Abstract Educational schemes for marginalized communities such as SC/ST were introduced by the Government of India with the aim of providing equal opportunity for scheduled tribe and scheduled caste to empower them with free... more
1. Abstract Educational schemes for marginalized communities such as SC/ST were introduced by the Government of India with the aim of providing equal opportunity for scheduled tribe and scheduled caste to empower them with free educational facilities. For such programs to be effective, SC/ST members need to be aware of them and need to have a positive attitude towards them. However, due to the practice of untouchability and the remoteness of their dwellings, SCs and STs have suffered isolation from mainstream population for several centuries. As a consequence, they continue to suffer from a high degree of educational exclusion. Upliftment of SCs and STs, both economically and socially, will be only possible through inclusive education efforts. This study focus on the role ofawareness on educational schemes in attaining primary and secondary education among SC/ST communities in two rural villages in Coimbatore. The major findings of the study reveals that most of marginalized communi...
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The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) offers insights on creating, organizing and presenting multimedia content in a way that can enhance the effectiveness of learners. While several studies have been conducted to verify... more
The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) offers insights on creating, organizing and presenting multimedia content in a way that can enhance the effectiveness of learners. While several studies have been conducted to verify these principles, not many have been done using content presented on low cost tablets. In this paper, we present our experimental study on the retention and understanding by children when learning content a) adheres to CTML and b) offered on low cost tablets. In our study we used Online Labs theory and videos and incorporated CTML principles into it. According to CTML principle it will maximize learning without causing cognitive overload. The study sample was 58 students from an English medium secondary education school from south India. The experiment involves a control and experiment group where the control group is tested on content which does not adhere to CTML and the experimental group is tested on content designed based on CTML. A pre-test is con...
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In this paper, a tribal village in India was examined, where a community farming model for cultivation of lemon-grass is being proposed. To ensure effective implementation of the program, two mathematical problems were identified, for... more
In this paper, a tribal village in India was examined, where a community farming model for cultivation of lemon-grass is being proposed. To ensure effective implementation of the program, two mathematical problems were identified, for facility location and vehicle routing. Solutions to the problems were found, using a geographic information system; the results obtained were compared with a common routing heuristic and a convenient location for the facility. Findings include savings of about 14 percent in the transportation costs.
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This exploratory study examined the potential for adapting Online Labs (OLabs), an innovative educational initiative of Digital India, for use in secondary schools in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. OLabs provides exposure to and... more
This exploratory study examined the potential for adapting Online Labs (OLabs), an innovative educational initiative of Digital India, for use in secondary schools in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. OLabs provides exposure to and participation in scientific experiments for students attending low-resource schools and cannot provide expensive laboratory equipments. Following a site visit in India, we examined Cote d’Ivoire curriculum documents and interviewed a variety of Ivorian stakeholders including school principals, science teachers, and students to evaluate needs and identify which experiments might be best suited for the Cote d’Ivoire context. Thirty experiments across the three scientific disciplines were identified as appropriate, and of these, 12 were translated from English to French, the official language of instruction in Cote d’Ivoire. These 12 experiments were published online and tested in Cote d’Ivoire by Ivorian teachers in terms of connectivity, user registration, acces...
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Most children across the world learn to read and write in non-alphabetic orthographies such as abjads (e.g., Arabic), abugidas (e.g., Ethiopic Ge’ez), and morphosyllabaries (e.g., Chinese). However, most theories of reading, reading... more
Most children across the world learn to read and write in non-alphabetic orthographies such as abjads (e.g., Arabic), abugidas (e.g., Ethiopic Ge’ez), and morphosyllabaries (e.g., Chinese). However, most theories of reading, reading development, and dyslexia derive from a relatively narrow empirical base of research in English—an outlier alphabetic orthography—and a handful of mainly Western European Roman alphabets. Consideration of the full spectrum of the world’s writing systems reveals multiple dimensions of writing system complexity, each of which could possibly create obstacles for the developing reader. Daniels and Share (Sci Stud Read 22:101–116, 2018) proposed a multi-dimensional framework for assessing a range of writing system characteristics likely to challenge literacy acquisition: linguistic distance, non-linearity, visual uniformity and complexity, historical orthographic inertia, spelling constancy despite morphophonemic alternation, omission of phonological elements, allography, dual purpose letters, ligaturing, and symbol inventory size. The present study examines the applicability of these ten dimensions to understanding reading and spelling acquisition in Malayalam, a non-European language written in a non-alphabetic script. Malayalam, a south Indian language spoken by some 35 million people, employs a writing system typical of the Brahmi-derived Indic scripts used by almost two billion people throughout South and Southeast Asia. We found that a majority (7/10) of the D&S dimensions are indeed useful for understanding the challenges of learning to read and write in Malayalam. Three dimensions are not applicable, and an additional dimension, word length, needs to be added to the framework. The popular uni-dimensional approach of characterizing orthographies as shallow/transparent or deep/opaque (mis)classifies Malayalam as a highly transparent or shallow script simply because the characters almost invariably have a one-to-one correspondence between symbol and sound. Clearly, however, there are many other dimensions of complexity, such as non-sequentiality, visual similarity, allography, ligaturing, and inventory size, that challenge the learner and prolong the task of learning to read and write. We conclude that the popular uni-dimensional characterization of writing system variation along a single continuum of spelling-to-sound consistency fails to do justice to the multi-dimensional complexity of many, perhaps most, of the world’s writing systems and the challenges they pose for literacy learners.
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ObjectivesTo assess the pattern of contraceptive use and its determinants, knowledge regarding contraceptives including oral contraceptive pills and fertility intentions among tribal women in the reproductive age... more
ObjectivesTo assess the pattern of contraceptive use and its determinants, knowledge regarding contraceptives including oral contraceptive pills and fertility intentions among tribal women in the reproductive age group.DesignCommunity-based cross-sectional study.SettingCommunity development blocks in a predominantly tribal district of Wayanad in Kerala, India.ParticipantsWomen in the reproductive age group (15–49 years) from the tribal groups in the district numbering 2495.Outcome measuresPrimaryPrevalence of contraceptive use and its determinants.SecondaryKnowledge regarding contraceptives in general, oral contraceptives and fertility intentions.ResultsThe mean age of the study participants was 30.8 years (SD=9.8) and belonged to various tribal groups such as Paniya (59.2%), Kurichiyar (13.6%) and Adiya (10.9%). Current use of contraceptive was reported by about a fourth, 658 (26.4%) (95% CI 27.9 to 24.9) of women. Following logistic regression, belonging to Paniya tribe (adjusted ...
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Women entrepreneurship has attracted the attention of academics and practitioners with a large body of research studies in recent years. Past literature reviews on women entrepreneurship have been criticized for their limited scope, lack... more
Women entrepreneurship has attracted the attention of academics and practitioners with a large body of research studies in recent years. Past literature reviews on women entrepreneurship have been criticized for their limited scope, lack of interdisciplinary perspective, and the need for more objective, technology-facilitated analytical methods. Our study provides insights into the development of women entrepreneurship research, including a new analysis through the lens of sustainable development and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bibliometric indicators and a systematic literature review approach are used to analyze literature published between 1991 and 2021 to better map the development of research and related opportunities for enhancing studies on women entrepreneurship. In addition to traditional bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations, etc., we used altmetrics, a new metric to assess the engagement and impact of publications based on social media presence....
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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the closure of schools at every level, globally, forcing education to move online. Meeting the needs of students online for Science Lab classes, in particular, is a challenge since the physical labs... more
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the closure of schools at every level, globally, forcing education to move online. Meeting the needs of students online for Science Lab classes, in particular, is a challenge since the physical labs are not available to the teachers or students. OLabs is a virtual Science Lab providing a complete learning environment of theory, experimental procedures, videos, animations, simulations, and assessments that capture real lab experiences with the relevant pedagogy. This study looks at the acquisition and behaviors of users, on the OLabs platform, during pre and COVID-19 times. Using Google Analytics, we observe that, during the pandemic time, users increasingly adopted OLabs as a new learning pedagogy for performing experiments as indicated by parameters like the number of users; the number of unique pages viewed per session; time spent on viewing content; bounce rate; and preference for content types such as theory, simulations, videos, and animati...
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In remote rural areas, the availability of trained and qualified teachers is poor. Rural teaching is teacher-centric instead of student-centric. A systematic monitoring system to ensure that teachers practice the methods they learn at... more
In remote rural areas, the availability of trained and qualified teachers is poor. Rural teaching is teacher-centric instead of student-centric. A systematic monitoring system to ensure that teachers practice the methods they learn at pre- or in-service trainings is not yet in place. Plagued by such deficiencies, present day rural education in India lacks quality, and children read, write, and compute several levels below grade level. Our intervention comes from the premise that reform approach in rural education should be at the grassroots level, involving comprehensive change in teaching and learning attitudes, teaching methodology and subject matter expertise. Amrita Rural India Tablet Education Teacher Training Program is a technology-enabled training program for teachers that train them to be change-agents and influence both children and communities to bring about sustainable change in attitudes as well as education and learning outcomes. AmritaRITE utilizes cutting edge mobile learning technology in both teaching and monitoring, to improve quality and accountability, even in low-electricity and intermittent-connectivity areas. The comprehensive program trains teachers in tablet-supported teaching methodologies, multi-age classrooms, classroom management styles suited to specific environment, addressing different learning modalities, developing student critical thinking, identifying learning disabilities and overcoming social barriers such as educating girls and low literacy communities.