NIIT, Asia's largest IT training firm, recently launched a cloud computing-based skill development program called Cloud Campus. Through Cloud Campus, NIIT aims to offer over 100 online courses across 300 locations in India by the end of 2013, reaching over 500,000 students by 2014. Key features of Cloud Campus include 24/7 online access for hands-on practice, collaborative learning tools, live online classrooms, digital course materials, and online assessments. The initiative aims to expand access to education across India.

1. http://www.shiksha.com/niit-cloud-campus-for-students-professionals-article-6039-1
Asia's largest IT training firm, NIIT Limited recently launched a brand new breakthrough initiative
'Cloud Campus' a cloud computing based skill development programme for students across the
country. Through 'Cloud Campus’, NIIT aims to offer over 100 courses - including IT, banking, global
finance, management, digital and social media marketing- across 300 locations by the end of 2013
and seeks to cover over 500,000 students by 2014.
Features of the campus:
Anywhere Lab that provides 24x7 access for hands-on practice on their devices
Buddynet Learning: a learning feature that enables collaboration with other students as well as
expert faculty, thus making learning lot more fun
Cloud Classroom: where students can interact and learn from not only the at-location faculty, but
more importantly from expert faculty from wherever they are
Cloud Courseware: the digital and dynamic courseware enables students to make notes, highlight
and review at their convenience
Lesson on Demand: ensuring that students don’t have to miss a lesson, even if they miss a class
Online Assessments: enabling students take practice tests besides taking industry-level
assessments
Cloud Campus would offer programs for people of different backgrounds and profile:
Students from Engineering & Non-Engineering streams: It will offer courses in IT, Banking,
Global Finance and Management. These courses enhance team work & ability to do projects in a
distributed environment through Collaborative Learning
Graduates: Graduates can acquire a range of beneficial programs from Employability
Enhancement Skills & Customized Training in domains across IT, Banking, Global Finance,
Management, to access to multiple experts and real time guidance through ‘Lesson on Demand’ to
be Job Ready. Besides this, Cloud Campus would also offer advanced programs on Digital & Social
Media Marketing for graduates.
Working professional: For this lot, Cloud Campus would offer specialized new technology &
advanced skills program through Cloud Classrooms tailored to working professionals’ needs along
with Continuous Online Assessment to enable effective learning.
The initiative is expected to reach to the remotest corners of the country to fix the dilemma of
scalability and quality in education that India is currently going through.

2. http://www.niitcloudcampus.com/cloudcampus/CloudCampus.aspx#ad-image-0
Say goodbye to the traditional way of studying and hello to a whole new world of learning at the NIIT
Cloud Campus. Learn by interacting not just with faculty at your centre, but also with experts across
India. Practice your concepts in the machine room supported by your NIIT faculty. Revise lectures and
catch up on missed classes with Lesson on Demand and brush up on the practical application of
concepts, sitting at home. Or if you prefer studying with friends, use our group based online learning
modules and solve assignments with your batch mates. Take charge. Be a part of a system that's truly
built around you. Be a part of the Cloud Campus where studying is nothing like studying.
Cloud Classrooms
Cloud Classrooms enable you to learn by interacting not just with faculty at your centre, but also with
experts from across India. Live, interactive classrooms are powered by Synchronous Learning
Technology, a real time communication tool that facilitates live interaction between faculty and
students. This way, you can direct any questions you have to your faculty, who will answer them in class
itself.
Cloud Courseware
Cloud Courseware is an intelligent digital device enabled courseware to help you learn on the go. It gives
you access to your personal IPR protected content, secured to your netbook, laptop or tablet. It allows
you to make highlights, create annotations, take notes and share them with your faculty and classmates.
Its dynamic nature allows NIIT to send you plug-ins to include new content or reading material needs.
Anywhere Lab
Anywhere Lab allows you to practice the application of concepts you have learnt in class, no matter
where you are. The hint system lets you seek help while solving problems. In addition to this, you can
also chat with experts to seek answers to your queries. To complete the learning process, you get tested
on the concepts learnt at home during your Machine Room sessions at the NIIT Centre.
Lesson on Demand
Download lessons to catch up on classes you’ve missed and revise previous lectures from anywhere.
Online Assessment
At the NIIT Cloud Campus, you can continuously improve your performance with online practice tests.
These include cycle tests, review tests and sample tests for preparation.

3. BuddyNet Learning
BuddyNet Learning lets you hang out with the best students on the cloud to boost your scores. You can
solve group assignments using services like blogs, discussion forums, group chats, groups, My Calendar
and My Score.
http://www.techgig.com/tech-news/editors-pick/NIIT-to-offer-courses-
through-cloud-campus-18335
In one of its most significant shift in business model, computer education
major NIIT will offer courses directly on student's tablets and desktops, via what it
calls a cloud campus. Besides, in the next three years, it sees non-IT courses like
banking, design and social media marketing account for about one-third of its
revenues.
This branching out into an alternative medium, as well as diversification drive, is
about both a pull and push. "We are using the slowdown opportunity to shift to
cloud," says Rajendra S Pawar, chairman of NIIT. "It will redefine how education is
delivered." NIIT will offer about 50 courses via the cloud. Among the new ones are
social media marketing, which will train students on how to use Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter and blogs for marketing. There's also digital media marketing, online
marketing, business & financial services for commerce graduates to make them job-
ready for sectors like banking and insurance.
This shift also comes at a time when the core business of this 32-year-old company,
IT training, is facing a squeeze. In an uncertain and changing environment, IT
companies are hiring less and are looking to do more with fewer engineers, and

4. there is greater resistance to outsourcing in the US. "IT sector hiring has reduced by
20% this year alone," says Pawar. "It's a volatile environment, reminiscent of the
2002 dotcom crash. IT has been a drag."
NIIT's flagship IT course, the three-year GNIIT, which enrolled about 70,000
students a year till 2010, does 50,000 students a year now. "Some of NIIT's once
popular courses like GNIIT, which was an equivalent of an engineering programme,
are less attractive now," says Enayet Kabir, associate VP & head, education,
Technopak Advisors, a consulting firm. Revenues from NIIT's career solutions
business ( CBS), with IT training as it main component, fell to Rs 458 crore in 2012-
13, against Rs 583 crore in 2011-12. At an overall company level, too, NIIT is under
pressure, both on the revenue and profit front (See graphic). NIIT, which says it has
trained 35 million people till date, has three other business lines: imparting computer
training to employees of companies (like Wal-Mart, Philips and KFC), providing the
same to school students and imparting vocational skills through 34 centres.
The company hopes that cloud learning — with its anytime, anywhere appeal — will
bring in more students and complement its 950 classrooms across the country. "It
expands the market for us," says Vijay K Thadani, CEO of NIIT.
NIIT has invested Rs 50 crore in a data centre for its cloud campus. It aims to enrol
5 lakh students at 300 centres via cloud by 2014. For content, it has pacts with
institutes like the Digital Marketing International of Ireland and the Internet & Mobile
Association of India for social media marketing courses.
"The new areas that NIIT is getting into are not very scalable and won't be able to
replace the loss from its IT business, as volumes are unlikely to be that high," says
P Phani Sekhar, fund manager, portfolio management services, Angel Broking. "It's
true that more banks are opening, but with more reliability on technology, they will

5. need fewer people."
Thadani doesn't think so. In banking, he says, the industry will need 500,000
professionals in the next five years. "The education system is not designed to meet
that demand," he says. "We have to create a destination for students at end of
school. In India, it is school to college and then a professional course for a job. A
services economy needs to give options for jobs much quicker than that."
http://edcetera.rafter.com/cloud-based-technologies-changing-campus-
operations/
Cloud-based Technologies
Changing Campus Operations
userGuest Contributor | clockApr 10, 2013 | chat0 comments
bookmarkcloud, cloud computing, cloud security, cloud-based education, edtech, trends
By Rob Sabo
Bob Burke, president of Boston-based FolderWave Inc., an educational process automation
firm, likens the increasing prevalence of cloud-based technologies on college campuses to the
time-share craze — everyone’s jumping in (in fact, if you’re someone who wants a job in
technology on campus, there are more opportunities now than ever before — read more about
that here).
Cloud-based programs are changing the way colleges handle admissions, financial aid,
human resources and internal communications across the nation. No studies have been
conducted to provide hard numbers of institutions that have shifted to cloud-based
technologies, but Burke says cloud-based vendors have never been busier.
“The industry is becoming much more educated on the value of cloud-based technology. It’s

6. great for chief information officers on campus who have had so many balls to juggle over the
course of time — this is a way for them to declare victory and to deliver solutions to their
business units,” he says. If you’re interested in how cloud-based tech shapes student learning,
check out a recent Q&A with Brian Belardi, a director at McGraw-Hill Education.
What are cloud technologies?
It may seem like a lofty concept, but cloud-based technologies actually are quite simple.
Picture 1,000 computers on campus, each operating email, admissions or financial aid
programs (think Lotus Notes, Peoplesoft or SAP), with each machine requiring a separate
license for software installation and requiring routine maintenance.
Cloud-based vendors provide access to each of these services through the Internet. A few
examples of institutions that have shifted operations to use of cloud applications include:
California State University Sacramento, which announced in late March that it moved
50,000 accounts to Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity and collaboration
suite, to greatly reduce email and communications costs.
Cal-State University at Northridge, which dumped its older tape- and disk-based data
backup system for a cloud-based solution in mid-March.
Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles, which shifted its entire IT operations to a
cloud-based solution in 2011.
In 2012, Indiana University deployed its IUanyWARE cloud-based service that lets the
university’s 100,000 students access critical software on their personal computing
devices.
“Essentially, they are leveraging infrastructure that runs on the Web to deliver solutions and
services in an economies of scale environment,” Burke says, “from the applications, to people
and processes, to the actual infrastructure and hardware.”
Cost of cloud-based technologies
There are many different ways campuses can shave costs using cloud-based applications,
Burke says. This is an especially important for the large number of colleges and universities
that have struggled with budgetary issues over the past few years.
Typical computers systems (such as the 1,000 described above — enterprise systems, in
industry lingo) are hugely capital-intensive to deploy. Capital expenditure for an entire campus
computer system can cost millions of dollars and usually includes:
Licensing fees for software
Professional consulting for installation needs

7. IT staff for installation and routine maintenance
Hardware such as computers and servers
Storage space for server racks and data backup
And enterprise systems can quickly fall behind the rapidly changing pace of technological
advances. However, with cloud technologies, vendors do much of the heavy lifting — all that’s
really required to run cloud-based admissions or financial aid software is a modestly powerful
computer with Internet access. Scope of services with cloud vendors varies, as do pricing
models.
How can campuses save on new education technology installations?
One area of savings is the reduced need for large IT staff to maintain campus computer
systems. Another is the ease with which campuses can upgrade their software — most cloud
vendors include updates and enhancements in their standard contracts.
Institutions not only can save millions in capital deployment, but the cost of running a cloud-
based system shifts to a long-term operational expense and the way administrations look at
their return on investment, Burke says. ”You are not looking at a $20 million up-front
expenditure, but cost on an annual basis.”
What do college campuses gain or lose with cloud technologies?
One of the most crucial aspects of a contract with a cloud vendor is for campuses to retain
ownership of their data, since it’s no longer housed onsite. The gains can outweigh that
cultural shift, though. IT staff can be deployed on other mission-critical objectives, and labor-
intensive processes such as entering admissions and financial aid data can be greatly
reduced.
What’s most and least expensive?
Switching over from an email program to Google mail is a simple and low-cost example of
using cloud services. Systems that touch on the largest aspects of campus operations, such
as human resources, finance or admissions, are among the most expensive vendor contracts.
But though some systems may cost more contractually, they may save a campus money in
the long run. Take the admissions process — with entry into college becoming more
competitive, students are applying to more and more colleges, which increases campus
workload. Cloud-based programs could handle part of all of a campus’s admissions process
and free up staff resources and time.
The takeaway? Look for vendors that can save an organization on up-front costs, and one
that’s flexible and can easily change the way a system operates. It’s nearly impossible to craft

8. a perfect approach to the myriad functions of a college campus, Burke says. Flexibility and
adaptability can eliminate many future headaches.
About the author:
Rob Sabo writes about business, education and technology from Nevada. He is also a
contributor for OnlineSchools.com.