Rongring Platform
AUTOMATION – DIGITIZATION OF THE COURSE
Need for Rongring Online Course
As per UNESCO report, the Lepcha language is one of the 197 endangered languages in India. Lepchas are considered to be one of the indigenous tribe of the Himalayan region and are mostly inhabitants of Sikkim, West Bengal (Hill region), eastern Nepal, western and south western Bhutan and Tibet.
The Lepcha language is considered to be one of the aboriginal languages, pre dating the arrival of Tibetan and Nepali languages. This langrage is mostly prevalent amongst the people of Sikkim, Kalimpong and Darjeeling of West Bengal and in parts of Nepal and Bhutan. The language has its own dialect, script and grammar and has a rich repository of literature. According to the tradition, it was devised the 17th century by scholar Thikúng Men Salóng .
In the current scenario, the language has been seen to be effected by the lack of awareness and interaction amongst the local community.
Due to Industrialization (Tea and Tourism Industry) in the 19th century, people of other community started to reside over this area and in the span of time the language, culture and traditions of other community overlapped the existing language, culture and traditions of the Lepcha. The influence made such an impact on the current generations, that the youth have very little or no knowledge about their language, culture and traditions. Keeping in view the urgent need to revive the Lepcha language an innovative venture was initiated by Ryen Gideon Taso Lepcha in 2020 to start the online Lepcha Language through “Rongring course” which has a vision to create awareness and promote the Lepcha language locally and globally in all the communities. The Rongring course started from June 2020 an initiative of “MAYEL CRAFTS”.
RONGRING ( GLOBAL LEPCHA LANGUAGE ONLINE COURSE )
COVID 19 pandemic further boosted the scope for E- learning and the growth of digital transformation the “Global Lepcha Language Online Course” called “RONGRING” was started, The Rongring course was immensely appreciated by the Lepcha community and as well as people of different communities. In the year 2021, Rongring course was handed over to the “Rongring Lepcha Culture and Welfare society” by “Mayel crafts “. The course was in need of a larger team with similar intent and thought leadership to focus on Global dissemination of Rongring to the Lepcha community as well as other communities to learn Lepcha Language.
The course is accessible through Mobile app and the other being in SaaS Platform. In this platform it has features like live classes, High definition digital tutorials, learning content, online assignment submissions and grading. The course is now being implemented in three Levels – Basic Level, Level 1 and Level 2
Basic level – Learn to identify letters – Types of letters and letter symbols. Waongboo Framework (Skilled Framework) is a process which will teach to learn how to place letters in words. The objective of this basic level is to be able to read and write letters and words.
Level 1 – Grammar is taught in this level along with making a complete sentence in Lepcha. A brief introduction to Lazaong – a technique where on practicing will be able to pronounce the letter/words correctly
Level 2 – Translation of sentences from English to Lepcha. Reading and translation of Short folk tales in Lepcha
Process and Timeline – The timeline for each batch to complete one level is of 8 weeks. The process of online classes for every batch is that live sessions are held for one hour on Saturdays or Sundays, where participant are taught on a particular topic and also interact with the teacher. Thereafter participants are provided by assignments (based on the content of the topic taught) and they need to complete within the timeline provided. The submissions are graded by the teacher. The same process/method of teaching is followed across all each level.
ACHIEVEMENTS
During the period of three years, Rongring course has successfully completed 12+ batches with total 500+ confirmed students across 12+ countries – India, Japan, Canada, USA, UK, Maldives, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Bhutan, Holland, Nepal & more.
RONGRING SELF -LEARNING PLATFORM
Though the Rongring Global Lepcha Language Online Course witnessed stupendous success since its inception through the digital learning process, the RLCWS team saw further possibilities to make this course even more democratic and accessible to the public. The online classes function on three indispensable fundamental factors. Firstly, there is a specific scale in which the entire digital pedagogic process is accomplished and that up scaling would pertain to the requirement of resources that the Society may not always be able to bear. Secondly, all classes happen in real time and thirdly a requisite number of pupils are required for the commencement of a particular batch. The Rongring Global Lepcha Language Online Course cannot be put to motion in the absence of either of these three aforementioned constants. Instrumentally, these factors also sometimes became hindrances that led to a certain friction in the process of learning the Lepcha language.
In order to cross this bridge, the RLCWS team seeks to overcome these problems by bringing forth the automation of the curriculum of the Rongring Global Lepcha Language Online Course. The process of automation would constitute the creation of a database that would contain all the recordings of the live lessons along with other elements essential to the course like assignments, quizzes and the respective reading materials and handouts. This would eliminate all the three problems of the scaling of the course, its dependency on a requisite batch size and the requirement of real-time attendance. With the help of these pre-recorded modules, a student can teach him/herself the Lepcha language without having to worry about synchronizing his/her time with that of the live class and the need for the fulfilment of a predetermined batch strength. The issue of upscaling that is dependent on time, money and human power, is also eliminated. The automation program would entail the complete digitization of the three batches; Basic Level, Level 1 and Level 2.