Good morning everyone. Am I audible? So I'll be talking about introduction to Sunbird. Sunbird is a platform that we'll get to know in a bit But before that I'd like to you know do a quick analysis about you guys although Your introduction session is scheduled to happen sometime later in the day, but I just want to know a quick few things How many of you are from second year? Of your in degree Okay, so so like you're in second year or you have completed your second year and Completed so you are now going to your third year and how many of you are in your third year? Okay, so you have completed your third year and this is your industrial training Break, okay. How many of you are from computer science background? Majority Is there any who is from some other stream like electronic central communication or some Because ICT what is it? Okay, okay, it's more or less the same and How many of you have worked on on any of the open source projects before have you contributed to any open source project you Which project was it? That's great. Okay. Nice to know Anyone else? No, how many of you are aware that what are open source projects? What the what is this thing open source because In your next eight weeks, you'll hear it more more often Okay, so not many of you are aware about open source projects I'll briefly talk about it. I have a different slides Ready because in the past I have given a given a session on what is an open source project and how to contribute to it So If anyone of you need those slides just drop a mail to me How many of you have worked with github and you're aware of this version control system get That's okay. There are many good And how many of you are aware about the agile? development model of software development model Not many Okay, so in your courses, it's still iterative waterfall model that is being taught. Is it Or it is not yet covered in your engineering It's okay. So it may be a part of your syllabus in your upcoming years Okay, this is definitely you should check what is the agile software development model because it's being used so much in the industry these days All right, then let's begin with the presentation. Okay introduction to sunbird we'll Briefly look at all these contents. I have not many slides. I have only a few slides. So I'll wind up early So we'll begin with understanding what is eight step foundation then idea behind eight step eight step platform sunbird platform the genie app What's in the store for you and resources So eight step foundation is a not-for-profit foundation Which is co-founded by one of the alumnus of iit bombay and he's mr. Nandan neelkenny And miss roheny neelkenny and mr. Shankar maru adha Now when anyone starts an organization, there is an idea behind That there is a purpose. There is a reason or there is some problem that they are trying to solve So the problem that the eight step foundation is trying to solve is that in india particularly in the rural setting There is lack of access to learning opportunities And it's a very complex and multi-dimensional problem. See we are fortunate. I think most of us are fortunate to have receive a very good You know education, but if you go to the rural settings the people are not that privileged so There are some Initiatives by the government of india in order to help Resolve this problem and there are some noble people benevolent people who come up with such foundations And you will wonder that almost 200 million Million children in india are affected by these problems So this is the problem which is impacting the lives of millions of children on a daily basis So this is the problem that they are trying to solve. So how they are trying to solve They've created an eight step platform Which is a platform to create share and distribute free community sourced educational content for primary school children So it is mainly targeted for the school students for the primary school children's and What's a sunbird platform sunbird is an open source platform developed by eight step foundation and is licensed under agpl license Sunbird is open source again this term open source It is configurable. It is extendable. It is a modular learning management platform What's genie Genie gives you access to free educational content from the eight step platform The the content which was created which is being created on the eight step platform is being accessed through genie mobile app It's an android app So with genie you can explore and download free educational content You can create and manage multiple user profiles. You can consume interactive audio video content Use the app in uh currently in these three languages english hindi and canada The other languages are are being worked upon and get recommendations for content best suited for you as a user So I know these three slides is still the picture is not very clear So because to me also while making these three slides it was not clear So I decided to make this diagram. So I think it will be more clearer to you now So eight step platform is an initiative by the eight step foundation Okay, as you can see and eight step platform Is the front end and on the behind it's the sunbird platform. So sunbird sunbird platform gives the Gives the entire functionality to the eight step platform. Okay on eight step platform the teachers tutors Everyone who any citizen who would like to create lessons for school students? Enroll on eight step platform and be a creator There are also other roles like you can also be a reviewer of that content and there are many such other roles So that's how people Contribute on eight step platform and the consumers who are the students. Now, how do they access that? So they access that through an android application, which is the genie app Okay It's it's beta version is available to download on the google play store So what sunbird for you like what's in the store for you? So it's an opportunity I will say because this project is very new. It's only an year or two old And some of the best teams in India are working on the on this project And we are fortunate that some exploratory work and some extension to the existing functionality of sunbird is being worked upon here So many of the project proposals will revolve around sunbird. So Uh, you can contribute to it if you are a software developer by writing code to develop new features or enhance the existing features You can contribute at soft as software architects by extending the platform architecture As educators, I think we don't have such audience here But if you are a teacher or an educator, you can Uh, contribute to it by suggesting courses course structures creating learning materials reviewing artifacts and more And uh, lastly as students using the learning artifacts and providing feedback Now resources I will quickly glance through you the website of sunbird so that you know Where you need to get started I want you to uh those of you Are starting to getting interest in this I want you to note these three URLs First is sunbird.org Another is xstep.org xstep.in I think you can even memorize it They are pretty simple sunbird.org xstep.org and xstep.in So this is the sunbird Website which talks about sunbird I'm really impressed by the way, uh, they have documented this entire project Considering the fact that it's it's only one year old But since it's an open source project and an open source project is the project wherein people Contribute to it, right? So in order for people to understand that where should we contribute They need to understand the software first and how they will understand They they will go through the documentation and if the documentation is good They'll be able to contribute to it in a much more productive way So they've documented it pretty well if you go to the developer documentation You can see on the left, uh, they started with an architecture diagram Because because defining an architecture is one of the primary stages of software development So, uh, after the presentation or whenever you will, uh, explore your project proposals So you you you can go through these documentations Okay, so here in the architecture, uh, you will get all those details all those details about the architecture Then in the developer documentation, if you'll go, um You will get to see how to get started with the sunbird Uh, here in the installation, uh, there are different type of installations of sunbird This one is to install on your single machine This deployment is up to is for up to 10,000 users And when we say it's scalable, it's scalable beyond 10,000 users also if it's it's deployed in such a way Uh, you will also one of the projects will also talk about, you know, uh Deploying it using containerization using docker. Uh, one of our colleagues will be, uh, presenting the same shortly So it will be a good learning Then contribute to sunbird. You will also, uh, see here how you can contribute through code. There are guidelines How you can contribute to the documentation existing documentation of sunbird One of the myths is that, uh, open source software projects People can only contribute to them through, uh, writing code, but it's it's it's not like that even if Yeah, even if there is a small typo error in their documents, which is totally, you know, um, Removing the sense of it, then you can raise a pull request using, uh, you you can also Report that and that will also be, uh, counted as a contribution to that open source project We'll quickly look at the tech stack So this is the tech stack of sunbird. Uh, in the background, they have used angular j s java play apache kessandra elastic search Docker again for containerization of some sunbird components Yeah These are primarily the, uh, components of sunbird sunbird portal content editor content editor plugins sunbird services and others Okay, so this was one of the URLs. The the other URL was acestab.in So this is the one where in all the tutors teachers come and create lessons when you go to lessons You can see till date, uh, there are around 6000 and 68 lessons already being created Okay, you can search them through different filters. These are trivial things I should not be sharing this with you, but you can this is self exploratory You can go through this URL and uh, using your google or facebook account when you log in you'll also have, uh, A privilege to create lesson lessons into it. Okay, so And these lessons which you create here The consumer will consume it through Genie app. Yeah, so currently, uh, only three languages are supported by the genie app So maybe this can be one of your contributions that you can, uh, you can give support for other languages Okay, so this is briefly as promised. Uh, I'll wind it up in In just a minute So major majority of the resources you'll find on this website sunbird.org slash docs And these are some of the references And thank you


Well nights like these are just what you hope for as a spectator a warm welcome a warm welcome from me Derek Ray I'm joined for commentary by the former Arsenal and England defender Lee Dixon and we've got Premier League action coming right up It's Arsenal up against Tottenham Hotspur Well, thank you Derek glorious atmosphere here really looking forward to it the fans are to the players look like they're up for it This could be end to end we could get goals today Derek not a good pass And so they start at 11 to 4 Arsenal Laino is the goalkeeper David Louis starts with Rob holding in defense Danny Savaios plays with Granite Jacka in the center of the pitch and the main forward here is Alex Lacazette It looked as though he almost forced the shot that time. Well, it's okay shooting from there But you have to test the keeper Lucas And he's through here. There will be the slightest bit bothered by Well, just the sort of weather the fans were hoping for this evening. It's absolutely ideal Derek Ray here in the commentary position and I'm joined as always by Lee Dixon And we've got Premier League action coming right up. It's Arsenal up against Tottenham Hotspur Yeah, thanks Derek looking forward to a bright lively start in this one quick tempo Who can be the dominant force in the first 20 minutes? They could get the upper hand in this one Here are the starters for Arsenal Laino begins in goal Granite Jacka plays alongside Danny Savaios in the center of the park and leading the line today Alexander Lacazette Introducing the Spurs starting 11 Lucas plays with Jungmin Son in the white positions and the Responsibility of leading the line today goes to Harry K On a pretty ordinary challenge Locked together well the goalkeeper has earned his corner a fabulous save The defenders will certainly have done the homework Lee and on that basis must keep more than a weather eye on Lacazette Well virtually everything quick feet quick mind sees the past before anybody else so difficult to stop a player like that


All right, welcome back. It's still the breakfast on plus TV Africa this time around. We're moving away from security matters and we are talking about education specifically how You can get a quality education in the UK with a UK boarding schools exhibition are going on here in Lagos today We have two people the beautiful lady and a gentleman joining us this morning. Let's make welcome Natasha danger failed It is our pleasure and of course George, but thanks for joining us on the show Okay, let's talk about first of all, I welcome you both to Nigeria. How you find in Lagos so far noisy. It's wonderful Wonderfully noisy Wonderfully noisy. That's a first. That's a good one George. How's your experience been so far in Lagos? I think very colorful and very very very very vibrant. We're delighted to be here It's our pleasure to host you in Nigeria, but let's just get straight to the issue for today Education in the UK. They are I must say great schools are in Lagos What's at the advantage of getting to get an education in the United Kingdom? Natasha, I think in a similar way to in the United Kingdom. There are there are immense choices And I think choice is the key word We have an option some families are fortunate to have an option to make a choice and sending to the UK particularly from from Nigeria allows people to Possibly access the senior education in in universities. We have a lot of our students that come across From Nigeria who are looking to access the British University system And I think this gives them a great footstep into that. All right, so let me talk to you now, Georgia What would you say is the remark in different? What is the main reason as a parent while I would want my children to school in the UK? I think as as Natasha says partly it's looking further ahead to University and I think families in Nigeria recognize that a levels Done in Britain a really good way to access a British University So I think it's in some ways it's less about the school and more about higher education in university I know the vast majority of Nigerians will then return will return home once they've done that once they've done their degree and I think also it's about who you meet contacts networks and Life experiences of growing up with people from all over the world We have students from over 20 different countries at my school And I think it's a fantastic way of understanding cultural literacy and getting a foothold into the world of business Where you're going to be doing business with people from all over the world. I'm glad you mentioned the issue of uncultural Okay, fine because most people have this issue of uncultural shock. Let's talk about adapting and settling down You know, so how has it really been like a you know for students from specifically in Nigeria and West Africa per se. How's it how's the experience been like in terms of settling down when they get to the UK for schooling? Natasha, I think initially there there are three things that we have to be careful with with children at children of any culture The first thing is feeding them because food is a really important part Yes, it is isn't it and this is and particularly for African students that really feel the need to make sure that this is the focal part of their day This is where they come to be with family normally But the friendships that they create in in boarding environments mean that they have this great array of friendships around the food But making sure the food is right and supporting them in making healthy choices with that But allowing them to have access still to be able to contact parents is important But also making sure the foundation of those staff that support them the boarding schools in the UK a Phenomenal at pastoral care making sure that they know who they can talk to who they can ground with So just making sure they know who to talk to in the school Where they can get in touch with their parents and when and then understanding the routine But making sure that focuses around how they eat and eating well. All right, George. Let's talk about I want you to give us Maybe a bit of an instant how a student from Nigeria has actually thrived and adapted and to UK schools Of course, and I could give an example from 1953, which is when our first Nigerian people came to the school It is a long time ago. We've worked with with Nigeria for many many years I'm actually going to give an example of a girl who just joined our lower six so she's come over to us to do her a levels and She is the youngest of three siblings her brothers are both sorry her brother and her sister about the university in the US So she's very from a very globally looking outward looking family And she has been really welcomed into into the sick form into the boarding house She's made some cracking friends And I think that the sociability and the affability of people from Nigeria I think has served her extremely well in in making those connections and also the school is a place where Where people join at any stage of their education. So we're quite used to welcoming people Into into into the school who haven't been there from from the beginning And it's always been that home from home a real family feel and that comes actually from the students and the girls We're a girls school in the sick form It comes from the girls as much as it does from the staff And I think the the peer support that the girls offer one another particularly over the last couple of years through COVID Shows that they are they're so welcoming and you know I think that you get back what you put in and we certainly find that our Nigerian girls they put in a lot Natasha, I understand there is an exhibition today in Lagos Can you tell us more about it in terms of what to expect and Sponsors and all of that of course. So we're at the week Baker hotel from 11 till 4 today The sponsors were supported hugely supported by the High Commission British High Commission and the DIT alongside Mark Brooks education and Anderson education and they facilitated an opportunity to bring a number of schools Together we are here to represent our various differences and we have a diverse range of schools Here for for parents to come and talk to but the idea really is for you just to come and have those conversations See what options there are see if anything suits or simply just to hear a little bit more about what education is like in the UK So is it I'm sure is it thrown to the members of the public you could just walk in and walk it or how does it really work? Absolutely, so we're in the week Baker hotel and the exhibition is 11 a.m. Until 4 p.m. Today And we're there to talk about British education For the children and also to meet school leaders to talk possibly about partnerships I've had some great conversations with head teachers and school proprietors In abuja earlier in the week about our teacher training partnerships how we might work together there Whether we can offer seminars for the schools and indeed what we can what we can learn in return And so we'd love to welcome families parents children and also school school leaders, too Yeah, so Natasha in case one or parents just need to get more information How do they just go about? Getting that information in case that they have made decisions, you know to send just children to the UK for school Of course mark Brooks education that if you pop that straight into the Google handle He has a website that will facilitate that conversation in the first stages and then connect us Accordingly so depending on your wishes as a parent. Okay Share education shared experiences. How do we ensure that what has been learned and being taught from the UK is actually brought to bear? Not just to Nigeria, but of course the South region in West Africa George Yeah, of course, so I think that that plays into the students going home once they finish their education and their degrees and We met some fantastic alumni at the British High Commission in abuja who had done their degrees around Britain I met one lady who studied public health at the University of Aberdeen and She works over here in public health now. She came back straight away and that's I think that sort of Sort of feedback back to back to people's home country and we see that around the world And I think people bring back with them the the world view the experience international Connections and networks and an understanding of how to how to get the best out of people from all around the world and a real commitment To their home nations. Let's talk figures. Let's talk finances right now because most I'm really talk about schooling abroad In the case specifically most people just have to try and do a bit of math Savings how much do I have but first of all talk about time the exhibition for today? Is it a paid event and that's just on the one side and then again does it really cost so much to school in the UK? That's a sure. It's perfectly free to come and visit us today And so yeah, everybody's very welcome to come and join in there But but of course it's it's a paid education It's expensive for the English parents and it's more expensive for Nigerian parents because of course they have to fly them across But there are benefits to that and obviously this high networking that you can create out of that is a really positive bear on that So at the end of the day, it is like a win-win situation You send your children they get an education for the from the UK and they come to Niger to actually share their experiences and Get involved in nation building. Yeah, okay, but would you really say that? Africans Adopt easily In the UK system George absolutely I think there's you know the Nigerian students that we welcome into our school every year are so hard-working and dedicated and outgoing And they get involved with with being at the school for a very short period of time soon enough They're showing around my prospective families talking to them about life at the school and speaking really from the heart about their Experiences they get involved with sports. They get involved with drama. They're on the stage Learning musical instruments that they absolutely get involved with with school life And I think that the basious energy that we see here in Lagos and in Abusia to really plays out in what we see in the In the students when they come to us. Okay, just to emphasize Natasha We had 22 UK principles from the two colleges. Can you tell us about that? Sorry, so 22 UK principles from 22 colleges from the UK and Nigeria to support this. Yes. Yeah Yeah, we have we have a full range We represent Scotland right the way through down to the south of England Okay I think this is what's important is that is that that range and diversity of schools are there some of them are just sixth form colleges So very focused on the A level or the IB so concentrating on different layers of education within the system to all right We wish you all the best, but just before we'll let you go I just want you to emphasize or yet again the venue of This particular exhibition what is to be expected from all people who intend to participate? Natasha I think a warm welcome for sure. We're at the wheat baker, which is beautifully welcoming But certainly the heads are very keen to stand and have a conversation Just to hear a little bit more about the children that are out there But certainly some refreshments so come on and cool off or have a nice cup of tea, okay George anything to add before yes We love to as I say we love to meet families parents and educational leaders From from Lagos we're at the wheat baker hotel between 11 and 4 today, and it'd be fantastic to see you there All right. Thank you so much. I happen to speak with Natasha at Dangerfield and of course a judge But thank you so much for your time and we wish you a wonderful exhibition today Justin. Thank you very much It is indeed our pleasure. Thank you. All right. It is the breakfast on plus tv africa We'll take a quick break and we return with more don't go away stay with us


mobile. Hello, everyone. My name is Jayda Khadam-Nursad. I'm a lecturer in modern Middle Eastern history in the department, the Department of History, and also the convener for the MA History program, as well as the MA History and Intensive Language Program here at SOAS. And I welcome you all. I have a very small group, but I'm really delighted to see you. This virtual information session, you can see in the background, this is my bookshelf in my office, but I'm not there at the moment. So it's an all-round virtual session, I think, for everyone. Okay. So we have campus representation. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, if you feel like, do type in where you're joining from, the city that you're in, it would be nice to see that flow on the side. So I mean, what I have in mind today, what I plan to do today is to, well, briefly to introduce you to SOAS, to say a few things about what we do here in the department and also in the program, and also at SOAS in general. And what we do differently, which is also an important thing that might be interesting for you to hear. So after that, I will talk a little bit about more detailed information on the program itself and the structure and module options, some of which are fairly new. So they're not reflected on the website yet. And I will point those things out. And overall, I will try to provide you a glimpse of what it is like to study history at the postgraduate level here at SOAS with my presentation. And after the presentation, I will have, I think, ample amount of time to go over your questions about the program, about SOAS, so on and so forth. But that said, I mean, if you have any specific questions as I go along, please feel free to just type in the question. If I notice it, as I continue with my presentation, I can just stop and respond. But in the worst case scenario, I will just go back and read your questions and go over them in the Q&A session. But before I move on to my presentation, we have with us today two of my department colleagues, Lars Laman and Mike Charney, who would also like to say hi to you. So maybe we can go over to you with your introductions and then I can continue with my presentation. Lars, would you like to go first? Okay. Well, welcome to SOAS. My name is Lars Laman. I've been here at SOAS for some time and I specialize in East Asian, especially Chinese and Central Asian, especially Mongolian Manchu studies. And the history that you'll be learning with me is very much, it interacts with the with the neighboring areas. I tend to concentrate on my own research on medicine and popular religion and find that there are many interfaces that also apply to neighboring areas and that have been taught here at SOAS. That's it for the time being. Excellent. Mike? Hi, I'm Mike Charney. I teach a little widely. I'm interested in Southeast Asia and West Africa, but I tend to handle Asia as a whole. Some of the thematic areas I teach are violence and urban history, but also military histories because technically I'm a military historian, but I would say it's more along the lines of warfare and conflict. I'm particularly interested in decolonizing history now. In addition to being a historian for my work, I also engage in a lot of politics involving the non-Western world in my daily life, particularly with the Riga, Myanmar, and politics in Southeast Asia. Great. Excellent. Thank you very much. I can say a few things about my own research as well since we have time. As I said, I am a lecturer in modern Middle Eastern history with the focus on the Ottoman Empire. I work largely on slavery and ideas and practices of freedom, how it was understood and practiced and sometimes abused by the Ottoman state and Ottoman public in general. So, I mean, like that said, I guess I can just move on to my brief presentation. And for that, let me share my screen quickly and let me... Okay. Can everyone see my shared screen? The presentation all right? Okay. Excellent. Okay. So, just really briefly a historical overview of SOAS and the history department. SOAS, as you may already know, going through the website perhaps, SOAS was founded in 1916, this is a rather historic moment in itself in the middle of the First World War. It was referred to as the Great War back then. It was founded as a graduate level teaching and especially research institution. Its original name was School of Oriental Studies, SOAS, not SOAS at the beginning. And the A, Africa, was added to its title about two decades later in 1935. So, initially, it was primarily to train the colonial officers, the British Empire. That was its initial primary aim at the time. But that aim was rather quickly dismantled by SOAS scholars themselves within within a couple decades. So, SOAS historians particularly began to emphasize as early as 1950s, the importance of studying the history of Asian and African countries from their own perspective in their own terms and not through the framework of imperial history, imperial learning. So, this is something that still very much shapes how we do things at SOAS at the department specifically. And it is in this context that SOAS history and SOAS historians have been pioneers in its quest to look at and focus on different parts of the world from their own perspective. So, I mean, this is also, as I said, this continues to shape what we do here at SOAS. And it's also what makes us unique and special as a history department too. SOAS is the only history department in Britain. And it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this in the world too, with the exception, of course, of the higher education institutions in these respective regions that teaches history from the perspective of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Meaning that in many other history departments in the UK or in the US, you would have the majority of academic staff focusing on European history, British history, American history, Atlantic history best, and you would have a smaller group of academics working on the other parts of the world. I mean, in our case, it's quite the contrary. We all deal with European or global history in our own ways, but the centre is always placed in the regions that we work on. And accordingly, the department has the highest concentration of specialists working in these regions. And SOAS's research facilities match and correspond with that concentration as well. You can see in the background here, SOAS's library is one of the words leading academic libraries for the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. And when you think about this in combination with the surrounding libraries, we have most notably the Senate House Library, right next building from SOAS, which is the central library of University of London, SOAS students can use freely, which covers pretty much everything that SOAS doesn't cover. I mean, that's its function in that way. And also, we have the British Library, which is 10 minutes away, walking distance, which again can be used freely by general public. So in that sense, SOAS is in every way a research powerhouse with the facility, research facilities that it offers. That SOAS was founded as a graduate level institution, constitutes, again, to shape who we are, what we do, not only at the school level, but also at the programme level. Unlike many other institutions in the UK, SOAS started with the other institutions that started with undergraduate teaching, and then added graduate level programmes. Postgraduate study is and has always been at the centre of all teaching here at SOAS and continues to be so, to this day. Currently, there are more than 100 programmes across the school, and even more than that, I think about 200, so in degree combinations across the school, you can bring these degrees together. These give you the opportunity, these programmes, give you the opportunity to study a subject in greater depth, but also combining rigorous training in history, historical methods at the same time. And I'll talk about this in a few minutes, but this is done specifically through our compulsory module within the programme, debating paths and crafting histories, it's a year-long seminar that provides this rigorous training in history that I just mentioned. But besides that, these programmes and programme combinations also allow you, allow students to bring together other things, most notably languages, which again, SOAS has been historically famous for in the part of the early training, was to provide language training specifically at the institution. These languages can be studied as part of a degree like MA history and intensive languages in support and connection with your coursework. But you can also study languages as part of your selective, elective course courses or open option courses along with your taught modules. You can also bring together interdisciplinary and inter-regional expertise. And I'll talk a little bit about this when I talk about the module options and programme structure in a few minutes. So what makes SOAS a special place is also its emphasis in engaging with larger issues in the world today. And this this applies to history department as well as SOAS as a whole in other departments too. SOAS scholars including SOAS historians work on a wide range of pressing issues, displacement, poverty, inequalities, environment, race, among many other things. And so for us, which is really important to underline perhaps, history is not something that happened and neatly ended in the past, but something that is continuing and continues to shape the world that we live in today. And this is something again that we like to emphasise when it comes to understanding what's special, what's important with the programme and SOAS in general. So in accordance with this, I mean in accordance with this effort to engage with the present day and pressing issues in our world today. Our graduates, to say just one little thing about it, our graduates move on to PhD programmes here in the UK, the US or elsewhere in the world to pursue academic careers, but also my sense is increasingly so to a variety of governmental and intergovernmental organisations as well as NGOs to pursue careers in policy related areas as well. And that's something that history allows you to do, just equips you with that kind of resource skills and other kind of transferable skills with that as they're called. So in that sense, any research focus, research intensive area, not only in academia but also in those institutions that I just mentioned, history would be a good field to get that kind of training to pursue later on. So this is a very concise introduction or background for SOAS and for the programmes that we offer. And let me now move on to more specifically about the programmes themselves and take a closer look at what we expect you to do, what you can expect from these programmes. So there are currently, you may know this already from the website, there are currently two MA programmes that we offer in the department and the first of these is the MA history programme. And when undertaken in full-time mode, MA history programme is a one-year programme that consists of 180 credits and let me go back. And 120 of these 180 credits are taught courses and 60 credits would be your dissertation that you write at the end of the year. We have a course that is a compulsory module debating paths that I just actually mentioned a few minutes ago, which is the methodology seminar. And it serves as a year-long seminar, meets two to three hours per week, and in many ways serves as the main hub for the MA history cohort. It didn't work that way, unfortunately, last year and it's meeting partly on campus this year, so it is gradually resuming that function, but it really brings together the entire cohort where you exchange ideas and experiences, so on and so forth, which you need as you conduct research and start, especially start writing your dissertation. So that's the function of the core module, compulsory module debating paths and crafting histories. So that would be part of the taught modules and in addition to the debating paths, the compulsory module, you will have to complete another 90 credits, which you can choose from a list of modules offered by the history department or other departments from across the school. And I mentioned that some of these modules, some of these options are fairly new and not reflected on the website and this is more of a full list that you will be able to choose from. On the left hand side, you have a list A, meaning that these modules are offered by the history department itself and several of them you can see on the race and slavery in the Middle East and Africa, formations of the colonial in the Middle East, are new modules that will be added to the program structure on the website shortly. It's also module descriptions and other details that you can find online. On the right hand side, you can see list B. These are modules offered by other departments, but of strictly historical nature. So they can complement your study of history at here and so on. So the full list is a bit longer than this. This is what I could fit in in one page, but as I said, everything will be up to date in the coming weeks. So you'll have a chance to go through the course descriptions, as well as the up to date program structure as well. Apart from these list A and B modules, here you can see the composition of these credits, required credits, which is up to date on the program website, by the way. You can go to the program website and check at the very bottom of the structure, check the program grid and you'll get that composition in detail as a separate file that that bit is up to date. Apart from list A and B modules that you can choose from, you have what are called open option modules and these are modules offered by other departments that are not necessarily historical in nature. Basically, includes all MA level courses offered throughout the school and the list is very long, but I have put here, just chosen and added here a few of these modules just to give you an idea what you can bring in to your studies. You can see from politics and development studies, arts, music, media studies, law and practically all other departments have those options on offer you can choose from and you are free to choose up to two modules that you can combine with your history modules as you study here and those open option modules can also be language modules. Again, it's a wide variety of languages that you can choose from here and so on. And let me quickly move. Speaking of languages, this brings me to the second program, MA program that we offer, the space, the history department and that's history and intensive language program. Again, a similar list of requirements you can see on the screen. It's credit-wide, it's the same structure as the MA history program added intensive language units, which is about, I think, 135 credits. It's a two-year program. The first year you would have, again, similar to the MA history program, have debating past crafting histories for 30 credits and regional thematic courses and then you'd have another 60 credits of the language study, intensive language study, and so on. The languages on offer had to be limited in the past two years due to COVID-related restrictions. We had Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Swahili, if I'm not mistaken, Persian and Turkish, and there may be an expansion of the languages that are offered in the coming year. These will be updated as we go along and please do not hesitate to just drop me an email, checking with me about the status of the language that you're interested in if it's not on the list that you see on the website. And I'd be happy to discuss the, provide information, but also discuss with you the options. The MA history and intensive program has a summer abroad language study component where you normally go abroad to an affiliated institution to do intensive, continued intensive language study over the summer, and then you come back, continue with another 30 credits of language study, then complete the regional thematic courses, history, or open option modules in the second year and write the dissertation and complete the degree. This is what the structure looks like. Again, this is up to date on the program website. You can just follow the links to the program grid at the bottom of the structure page and check out the credit requirements for completion of the program here. And just to say, and I've been mentioning the dissertation for both of these programs that we offer in passing, but let me say a few things about it as well, mainly because it is the most important component in every way for both of these programs. It's worth 60 credits to begin with, that's 25% of your overall mark that you graduate with, but also it takes up a significant amount of your time and energy in terms of conducting research, in terms of writing throughout your time, during your time here at SOAS. In that sense, it's the centerpiece of both of these programs. That said, it requires a lot of time and energy during your time here, but it's also the most enjoyable and most rewarding element within both of these programs. This is an opportunity for you to conduct your own research on a topic that you're interested, you care about, and also write history yourself and make a genuine contribution to our historical knowledge, as many of our students actually do. Some of them, as I said, continue with academic work and others continue with, again, research-related areas, but they do take away from their dissertation the kind of research that they conduct, carry out for the entire year, and writing and managing that kind of project as well. I mean, it's really the end goal of the program in general, but very intellectually rewarding and enriching exercise in every way. I will just stop here. Thank you very much for your attention. I guess we can just move from here to your questions about the program, about my presentation, about any other detail that you can think of. And let me, sorry, move on here. On the screen, you can see my name and my email address as well. Please feel free to drop me a line if you think of anything that you forgot to mention. In this meeting, it also is anything that comes up later on as well. Any questions? You can please feel free to type your questions in the chat box, but also you can just turn in your microphone and talk as well. Hello. Hello, Sangyukta. Hi, Sita. Just a quick question. You showed us the list of modules, and you said they are more up to date. So they will be in the website sometimes. Do you know when they will be on the website? I did take a screen wrap, sorry, but just wanted to know. Yeah, I mean, I'm not entirely sure. I know that a team is working on it. There are substantial changes to the website too. That's one of the reasons that there is a delay in updating this information, but I expect it will be done in the next few weeks or so, or maybe a month. But as I said, the work that they're undertaking is a bit more substantial than usual, so that's the reason to the delay. But I'd be happy to send you, I mean, if anyone is interested in you, Sangyukta, as well, you just send me an email and I'd be happy to share with you the up to date list of modules. Oh, thank you. Let me see, there is. Shruti has a question? Yeah, Shruti asked, I wanted to know about the admission criteria for the course graduates course in history. Do we have to give an entrance? When you say do we have to give an entrance, do you mean an exam? Okay, there is no exam as such. There is a minimum grade average requirement, which is, I think second, I would say 50s or so. But I mean, you can you can check the main history program page and then saw us pages for conversion. I mean, that may not indicate anything that may not look like anything from when compared to the grading structures and criteria in your own institution. But you can convert it easily through using charts and I'd be happy to provide that information too. So as a short answer to your question, there are set criterias, but there aren't any exams or of any sort for that. And even entry requirements, there's quite a bit of flexibility there. If you have a project, and if you if you tell us about it in your statement letter, and if you're enthusiastic about it, you can always review, revise that criteria too. There's a flexibility there and not so much, but there's some flexibility there. Absolutely. I don't know. I mean, Mike Larsh, do you have anything to add? I always have things to add, but it's the beauty of the MA program, of course, is the is that you are, oh, I guess you can just see the truth. Yes, something else. A specific grade is required from graduation. Yes, that's true. That's the and the the grade is set with PhD application. Okay. Let me just finish my line of thought before I get back to the PhDs, because that that's of course another area that's of great interest. So the beauty of the MA program is the breadth, because you have, you can really go to any region in the world and then also go beyond the actual thematic range of that MA and explore. And you have a dissertation that you write, and in this dissertation, you can follow your own interests. So if you're interested in your, say, your own community, you can do that, you can write on that, but building on the the more general background that you have accumulated during your course, if you want to do something inter regional, trans regional, then you can also do that. It's a bit more ambitious, but it's definitely something that you could do. For example, the connections between India and China. That's one thing that I often, not often, but sometimes very successfully actually bring to a conclusion and the dissertations are really amazing. The other thing I wanted to say is actually ties in with the question about the PhD. It is a, we're dealing with thought courses, but we also want you to experience the what Jada referred to as the, you know, the opportunities that the so as library gives, namely that we have an archive and this archive is something that you will find is second only to the British library probably, and the collections in Q. So it's very, you have a great range of items that are either related to the the missionary archives that you find and you don't, they're not just dealing with Christian mission topics that you know, you find out a lot about hospitals, the early hospitals in India, early hospitals in Africa or in East Asia, that the that the missionaries built as part of their project. And the same trade, the same about diplomatic complications that arise. So this is a very important stepping stone if you're interested in academic research as a career. Great. Thank you very much, Lars. I mean, and thank you, Laura, too, for that information that you had put on the chat box. So sure, in that, to sum up, I mean, you don't really need an exam, but you will have to obtain a certain average and colleagues in the admissions division can help you with the details with the conversions as well. And to go back to Sonam's question about the PhD application. And thank you very much, Mike, for for putting that information in the chat box. I mean, absolutely. To repeat what Mike says here, you can write, I mean, I would recommend that you write get in touch with your potential supervisors at the PhD level. You work really closely with your supervisor. And it's good to be on the same page with them before you place your application to so it's it's always good to get in touch before before applying to the program. And tell them what your project is about what your interests are, what your technical capabilities are also, I mean, by that I mean specifically language, the knowledge of the language for that you will use for your research. So yeah, absolutely. Just you can drop your potential supervisors online and and and ask their opinion or just introduce yourself. Sonam continues with good. What kind of references do you require for PhD application? Do both need an academic or can one be professional? If it really depends, I would say mostly academic, but if let's say you have a background in a certain topic, would say in in development studies, working on developing certain projects in the field. And if you have someone that would write that academic letter for you with the testing to your practical capabilities, I think that would also be an important asset. So it depends who will write for you, but anything that supports your project, what you aim to do in the in the PhD program would be a good support of of your application. Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, the second question, second part of your question, Mike answers this. Absolutely. I mean, that's, that's I mean, not a problem or criteria at all. Often, actually, it works quite the contrary. I mean, the true students come in with a very clear idea of what they want to do. That can be really advantageous in every way. So, so yeah, that's that is that is not a criteria anyway. Just to add to what everybody's already said, if you go onto our website and onto our PhD pages and scroll to the very, very bottom, we have a whole section dedicated to references that just reiterates everything that's been said today and can guide you through that part and some of the general criteria that we have in terms of PhD references. I popped a little link in the chat, but all you need to do is scroll to the very, very bottom. And then we have tabs that just go through each stage of the process because it can be a little bit different from our masters. Excellent. Thank you, Laura. I think if there's no more questions, unfortunately, we might have to wrap up because the final session of the OpenD is about to start at one o'clock. Just to repeat, here you can see on the screen my email address. Please feel free to drop me a line if any other questions you can think of later on as as we go along. OK, thank you all for joining in. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Laura.


In this lesson, the teacher prepares students to listen to a recording and respond. She uses the learning strategy Focus. By asking a specific question before playing the recording, she helps students to listen with a purpose. Good morning class. Good morning. In this lesson, the women talk with Samar about her grandchildren. Do you remember the word from unit one for three babies at one time? Triple triplets. Right. Today we hear Nadine, Dima, and Samar talking again. When we listen carefully, we sometimes listen for only one or two things. We call that focusing. Today we want to know how Samar feels. Let's focus for a feeling word. How are you, Samar? Congratulations. Are you happy about the triplets? I am very happy. Three grandchildren. I am happy, too. You are very lucky. Samar, is your birthday next week? Yes, it is. Let's have a party. Okay. How does Samar feel? Samar is very happy. Good job on focusing. Now you know that she's happy. Okay, next I want you to listen for the names of foods. What foods will they cook for the party? Who can we invite? All our family and friends. What food do you like? I like pizza, fries, and chicken wings. What is pizza? It is a kind of bread from Italy. It has cheese on top. It is delicious. Let's have the party here at my house. Okay. What foods will they cook for the party? Pizza, fries, and chicken wings. That's right. Now look at the conversation. You will make something like this in your groups. Work with your group to write a conversation about food. Each group has a leader, writer, and speaker. Cooperative learning. In their cooperative learning groups, students create a conversation. In groups of four, students can choose from these roles. The writer puts the group's ideas on paper. The checker looks up spellings or meanings of words, asks questions, and watches the time. The leader starts the group on the assignment and makes sure everyone helps and understands. The speaker introduces the group's conversation and contributes to group work. You will have 10 minutes to write and practice your conversation. Then I will ask you to read it for the class. Two minutes left. That's 10 minutes. Now who is ready to read? Thank you. Please come up. This is about my birthday party. We talk about Mexican food. Okay. Class, listen and focus. What foods do they talk about? Tomorrow is my birthday. Let's have a party. Yes. I like parties. Where can we have it? At my house. What food do you like? I like nachos, enchiladas, and churros. What are churros? They are fried bread with sugar. That sounds delicious. Okay. What is one food they talk about? Churros. Good. Nachos. Yes. Great use of focus and listening for the names of the foods. Summary. Students work in cooperative learning groups to create and practice a conversation in English. The purpose of cooperative learning is for each student to play a different part in achieving one overall goal. This also helps ensure that everyone does an equal part in group work. Next time, join us for Unit 3. We will teach speaking skills. Thank you.


Good morning everybody. It is bright and early. Oh, I was gonna say bright and early on Monday morning. It's not it's like 1145 or something, but we are just heading out of our hotel today is kind of like a travel day We're heading to the Cotswolds checking into our cottage. We're so excited. We're renting a car, and I'm driving like You're gonna be great. I'm scared, but I think it's gonna be fine Thank you, and today was very weird because we Went we got home back to the hotel at like I don't know just before midnight Then we called our moms because only like I don't know what 4 p.m. Or something back in Arizona as we were like talking to our moms on the phone Finally fell asleep at one woke up at three was up until six and then fell back asleep and at ten Which I think is like check out time here at the hotel But that's the other thing sorry rewind backup when we got to this hotel the person at the check-in was like hey By the way when you leave we gave you late check out So you can you know stay until 1 p.m. On the day of your check up We're like, oh amazing and because of the jet lag like I mean if you know me in real life I don't wake up past 6 a.m. Like ever and you know just with jet lag and stuff I was knocked out like fast asleep and my alarm was set for 11 Well like 10 after 10 10 15 something like that I Was dreaming and I was dreaming that's that I heard like a little knock on the door And then all of a sudden the door opened and someone was in our hotel room And it was I think someone from housekeeping and I was just I just go hello They were like sorry and then they just left and I was just like What what and drew and I like we're both like shaking like I was dead asleep Like I'm telling you dead asleep. And so I just sat there and I was like Okay, like that was so weird and I had been awake at like 3 a.m. And I was thinking I really need to start buying those little like lever things that you put underneath The front door when you stay in a hotel because I was like anyone could just walk in here But I just had that thought and then it literally happened.  I don't know, but they were just like there. It wasn't a member of the public. So I was just like, well, okay. So anyway, that's all now.   We're excited We have a little pub dinner tonight. That's gonna be fun We're staying in like a little small town and it's just gonna feel like the holiday. I just know it Let's do it. It's not the elevator to the exit. It's the lift to way out. I Love it made it off our train We're in like a random area near where Airbnb is. Oh, I love the country side I already feel like at home. It just feels so so good here, but we're just so happy to be here Now we're gonna get our rental car and head to our Airbnb Okay, so it's actually like a few hours later. We left the train station picked up our rental car Which is right here. It's actually quite cute. I drove for the first time in England. It was a little scary Here's me and my baby And she is like a Hyundai or other and as you can see we are definitely not in London anymore We are out in the countryside I will say driving on these backcountry roads is a little terrifying because Everything is like narrow. It's small. I'm on the other side of the car the other side of the road But I think I did pretty good. We'll see how tomorrow goes But um, we are on like the outer edge of the Cotswolds and we just got to our Airbnb and I almost started crying. I think this is like The cutest most idyllic little thatched roof cottage that I could ever dream of like it's the cottage of my dreams So I wanted to show you a little tour because as you know, I'm a big fan of like escape to the country The holiday the Cotswolds in general. I love so so much and this is quite literally my dream. So um Here she is I can't I literally can't so okay. I'm gonna take you on a little tour. Here we go through our front gate There's a lockbox that has the key This is the key. Like are you joking me? I'll link this Airbnb down below by the way It is so precious like every little thing about it. I'm obsessed with so Let's go in So, okay, right when you walk in a high love the old creaky hardwood floors, right when you walk in you have this Amazing window these cute wall sconces and all this amazing art.  I'm obsessed. So love all the furniture We already put down some of our stuff. Here is the TV and then we have the like fireplace area I don't think it's cold enough to light a fire. Maybe tonight. I'm not sure I love these bookshelves and how they're styled. I just think it's so cozy There's even a little dog bed or like if you bring a little furry friend with you amazing I love these wall sconces. I actually desperately need them in my life. Hello I'm living my best life Then you walk through a little door into the kitchen and the host had set out Some little tea mugs for us with spoons and the tea and the biscuits We have like a little bread box that is adorable a little cutting board the fridge is in here and Just like a tiny little fridge, but the host came by and brought us some fresh milk And I just thought that was so sweet for our um for our teas and stuff We also did make a grocery run So we got some strawberries some yogurt for the morning and then we each got a meal deal And I really wanted to film that but we were ravenous and like I was a little stressed out driving So that was delicious for lunch. Oh, I can turn on the light in here. Actually, there we go We have a washer and dryer. I think it's like all in one and I actually think we will do some laundry when we're here Oh, there's a fly. I think we might actually do some laundry over here. We have a tiny little oven Which is perfect. We're not going to use it, but it's so cute. We have a little hob This is our bag that we got at waitrose. Here's our waitrose haul. We got some Cabernet for tonight. We got some cheddar's to take home with us jammy dodgers, of course a necessity We got some custard creams these giant thing of custard creams with 75 pence That's so cheap and amazing. We also saw that they have biscoff cream Biscuits so like biscoff with biscoff cream in the middle. That sounds incredible We got some Yorkshire tea. I drink decaf so we got that They probably have like other stuff as well. This is probably yeah, this is probably the stuff that drew will drink It's probably more authentic. We got some sports mix juices I ate those while I was driving for anxiety purposes and then we just have like some cute storage Dishes little pantry needs some more. Oh my god more dishes Glasses knives sink everything you could need really this is a dishwasher Oh my god, they have everything drew literally wants to live here. How was the bathroom? So tight Okay, so that's the downstairs now. I'm going to show you the upstairs. Yes, I do So you have this amazing staircase with like this looks like a museum This is just so freaking cool. Okay, let's head upstairs. There's two bedrooms and one bathroom. First of all, I love This bookshelf or this little built-in inside of the staircase incredible. We love it. There's cool funky art I like how everything is kind of really decorated. It feels very homey Or as they would say in the uk homely, which actually means like ugly in the us. Anyways, we have a nice map I think this is a map of the cotswolds very cool We've got a closet with some storage in here. Here's one of the bedrooms So I think this would be called a single bedroom very very tiny But this is going to be like our luggage storage room But I mean look at this window and look at this view. Are you kidding me? This is the best day of my life. I keep saying that I think I'm just going to say that every day of this trip Honestly, I am obsessed with these. Oh my god We need to do like some charity shop shopping or like vintage shopping because that's incredible So this will be just a landing pad for all of our luggage But a very very cute tiny bedroom and then we have another small bedroom And here and this is I think a double bedroom and this is where drew and I are going to be sleeping All crouched up together. We have a cute rug here. We have some nice Chest of drawers dresser storage cute little art. I love all these art prints. We've got some postcards This is amazing. I think this might be like some storage, but I'm obviously not going to open that We got a little bedside table a Freaking adorable window behind the bed that shows the back garden Like look how cute that back garden is. I think I forgot to show it when I was in the kitchen We'll go out there in a second. Also, it has a thatched roof That is just the best thing. I'm I'm truly in heaven. I love this bedding Like I love the quilt. The pillows are adorable. Like this is just the ideal cottage It's so cute. We have a bathroom in here Here is well, it's a shower room technically. So just a toilet and a shower. That's it And that is pretty much the tour of our cottage. I cannot believe How much I love this place. I'll get looked adorable in photos and drew and I went through probably what 20 different places To try and sort through them and see where we wanted to stay. This trip was like not super last minute But definitely just you know, we planned it pretty quickly. Maybe like a few weeks. Yeah, but um, we love it We're so excited. There's a pub Literally right across the street like when I say right across the street I mean like 100 feet away. So we made a reservation to have dinner there tonight and like have some drinks and stuff So that's going to be really fun. I think maybe in the meantime. We're either like deciding. Okay Are we going to like relax and nap because um, yeah, I totally forgot that that was today that And we we did not sleep well last night at all. We're exhausted. We're jet lagged etc But I also just want to like see everything.  I wonder if there's like a Oh, I think yes, I think she does have like recommendations. Also the host has been so friendly She let us check in early. I mean, we didn't end up really getting here. I think we got here like 10 minutes early Yeah There's a guest book. So yeah, this place Unbelievable Um, oh there's games down there Uno, Trivial Pursuit, Jenga There's banana grams too Well, there's like puzzles. Oh my god, you have everything you need here We're definitely need to come back and stay longer out here. I love it so much Anywho, that's what we're up to I just wanted to show you the tour of our cottage because this is just incredible Like I am just so so happy to be here and this is like what we've been dreaming of And it's like actually happening. It's so so nice Drew was like walking up and he was like, oh My god, he kept saying oh my god. I was like It's crazy We're so happy. I forgot that I was gonna show you the back garden as well because I mean look at this hold on It's taking me a minute to get used to these doors, but we're getting there Now look at this freaking but what The hell look at this How is this real? This is unbelievable That goes like all the way back there and then I think maybe there's a footpath Like this is for real secret garden like in real life. Oh, I just couldn't be happier Unbelievable Just living my dream All right, it took us A full almost two days of being in England to have a cup of tea. We don't know if we're doing it, right? A lot of people are very particular about it Um, so actually don't watch this part if you're English, but we are quite excited. Um, we're having our first Cup of okay. Let me know how I did we brewed it For a few minutes. I squeezed the bag Squeeze the bag out through the bag away. Some people keep the bag in But I threw the bag away and then I put in the milk. There is no sugar. Unfortunately, they're out So Let me know how I did. Did I do it right? I used the kettle I boiled the bag We did not put the water in the microwave. We did not put the water in the microwave I then squeezed the bag through the bag away then put in the milk Please let me know how I did. And also, is this a good color? Is this a good color? Let us know. This looks like a great color to me, but Okay, now for some tea and maybe a couple vickies We decided to go out on a country walk. It's like not even doing it justice how beautiful it is in person There's like that little bench. We want to go sit on that. We're off to explore Here is the falcon arms pub. This is where we're going to be having our dinner tonight It looks so cute. And I think this might be a footpath Or maybe someone's house. We're not 100% sure but we're gonna find out. Oh, it's like a big back garden as well Cute Oh, I can't wait. Oh my god, and there's the local cafe Right next to the pub.  What'd you just say? You said welcome to my house Oh Just lovely We're on our long walk to the pub There's our place There's the pub Ideal. If we didn't have a long day tomorrow, I'd say let's turn up. It's kind of cold There's some bird screaming in the background. It's really cool Got our drinky drinks, got the fire going All right, we're back in the cottage.  I can't even not even express How amazing that pub was? Like it was good. The food was good We felt like we were in a movie We just kept being like are we in like a d&d game? Are we in lord of the rings?  That's sort of what it was like. It was like an old tavern that would be in like Dungeons and Dragons or something like that. We were texting our friends who drew plays d&d with and we were like Oh my god, like sending pictures and stuff. It was just so cool We don't really have a ton of that in the u.s. If any Especially like that Old with that much history and like we were definitely the youngest people in there by far Oh, there was one girl reading her book But we love pubs as it turns out.   So yeah, we really enjoyed that I think we're gonna book it again for tomorrow night because we're kind of staying in the middle of nowhere It's a little bit hard to like go out to dinner and find stuff I mean, maybe we could like get stuff at the store and cook it at home. That's a possibility as well Yeah, we might just because it's literally right across the street book it again for tomorrow night Um, but yeah tomorrow is gonna be a really fun day because we are gonna be driving around and going to like Maybe four or five different cotswolds villages. So that's gonna be a fun vlog We're um kind of starting in one place and then like making our way down and then making our way back around And it's gonna be really fun We have like a list of things we want to see things we want to do It's gonna be kind of similar to like when I went last year But just maybe a little bit more extended because like he and that's because i'm here Right, of course because true is here. So um, we're really excited There's gonna be like some lord of the rings theme stuff We're gonna see like we're gonna do some afternoon tea again things like that So it's gonna be really fun It's like stuff that I already saw that I want to see with him and then also a couple new things as well So it's gonna be a blast. But thank you for hanging out with us today Maybe we'll show a little footage drunken film when i'm driving here in the uk because it's actually I actually I don't even think I have updated. Maybe I did a little bit, but it's scarier than I thought He said I did great I feel like tomorrow will be better because I'll just get more used to it I just have to get used to like hugging a different side of the lane that I'm used to because I'm all the way here. So I'm like I don't know. I'm used to veering to this side of the road. Anyways, you know what I'm saying I think I'm gonna do okay. Hopefully fingers crossed.  So I mean, I'm not gonna like rely on that obviously But um, we're protected. It's gonna be all good, but I'm excited So maybe we'll show a little bit of that and yeah, we're attempting to do laundry in this um airbnb And actually the dryer is obviously very different than like an american dryer So we put it on a dryer setting for an hour and a half. That's like the typical Dryer time and it was like it steamed the clothes a little bit. I definitely didn't dry them. So we actually have Our clothes hanging here and they're I think they're a little bit drier than we thought initially So hopefully by the morning, they'll be nice and dry. But yeah, we have like all the curtains closed up It's nice and cozy in here. We might watch something on Netflix, but we might just go to sleep So I guess we'll catch up with you tomorrow This is just gonna be like the most magical night Although we are a little scared that like spiders are gonna cry We've seen several spider because we're on the countryside and just as long as it's not like a mouse I think I'll be okay. So we'll see you tomorrow. Good night Bye


In this section of this course, we will introduce methods of multivariate statistics . Now, we have seen in the first section on random variables that we can also discuss bivariate and multivariate distributions. That means, for example, you consider a data on the patient when a patient goes for some diagnostic test. So, concerned physician or the doctor, he may record his various characteristics. For a for example, his age is recorded, x 2 is for example, his weight and x 3 could be his say systolic blood pressure, x 4 could be his systolic blood pressure, x 5 could be his say sugar level, sugar glucose level etcetera. So, in general then for a particular patient you have the data on 5 variables say. We can use it as a row vector then I will put a transpose here otherwise we can consider column vector then it will be x 1, x 2, x 5. In particular we have discussed bivariate normal distribution and also some specific problems on joint distributions in the course on probability and statistics. So, the primary thing that we have to notice here is that they may there may exist some correlatedness among these variables. And now like in the case of univariate distributions, we established normal distribution as one of the important distributions or you can say more frequently used distributions. The reason was the application of the central limit theorem that means, whenever we are considering averages or the summations then the data can be approximated or the distribution of the sums or the means can be approximated by the normal distribution. In a similar way we also have a multivariate central limit theorem which I may mention briefly and therefore, that brings us into the focus a multivariate normal distribution. Now, a multivariate normal distribution can be considered as an extension of a bivariate normal distribution and we will introduce the concept. So, we will firstly study multivariate normal distribution and then in particular certain distributions which are used for inference. So, for example, in the univariate case you had chi square distribution t distribution etcetera which were related to the normal distribution. Similarly, in the multivariate case there will be certain distribution such as we short distribution or hotelings t square distribution etcetera which will be used for the inference purposes. So, in this particular course I will in this particular section of this course we will introduce various multivariate distributions which are related to multivariate normal distribution. So, let me start with the theory of multivariate distributions. So, the first theorem or the first result which is actually attributed to Kramer-Wold let X be a random vector of order p. So, that means, we are assuming X is a mapping from the sample space into R p. Then the distribution of X is known if and only if the distribution of every linear combination say t prime X is known. So, basically characterization of a multivariate distribution can be done in terms of its linear combinations, but of course, we have to consider every linear combination. The proof is based on a characteristic function approach. Let us consider the characteristic function of say X is equal to X 1 X 2 X p at the point say t is equal to t 1 t 2 t p. So, let us use some notation phi X t then it is equal to expectation of e to the power i summation t j u X j j is equal to 1 to p which also can be written as expectation of e to the power i t prime X. Now, if I give this name as v then this is equal to expectation of e to the power i v. So, this can be then considered as let us call this expression as say 1 the expression 1 can then be called characteristic function of random variable v that is equal to t prime X at point say t is equal to 1. So, if the distribution of v is known for all t belonging to p dimensional Euclidean space then the characteristic function of v is known at t is equal to 1 for all t belonging to r p this implies characteristic function of X is known using 1. Now, conversely so this implies that distribution of X is known conversely assume that the distribution of X is known then phi X at the point say t of t where t is a real number then this is becoming expectation of e to the power i sigma t t j X j that is equal to expectation of e to the power i t v that is the characteristic function of v at the point t that is characteristic function of v is known at t. So, distribution of v is known for all t. So, this theorem actually it is a characterization theorem that means it says that the distribution of a random vector can be described in terms of the linear combination provided all the linear combinations distributions are known. Conversely if the distribution of a random vector is known then all its linear combinations will have a known distribution. Now, in fact we use this definition in the first case for introducing a multivariate normal distribution later on we will see equivalent versions, but we will find this quite convenient to introduce a multivariate normal distribution through this. If you remember a property for the bivariate normal distribution in the course of probability and statistics that we proved that if x y has a bivariate normal distribution then every linear combination A x plus B y has a univariate normal distribution. Conversely if for every A and B A x plus B y has a univariate normal distribution then x y has a bivariate normal distribution. So, basically you can see that this theorem Kramer-Wald theorem is a most general version of this form this result. So, basically we use the same definition for a multivariate normal distribution. So, we define definition of a multivariate normal. So, a random vector x said to have a pivariate normal distribution if every linear combination its components has a univariate normal distribution. And we write x follows and p as a remark let me mention here that to take the case of t is equal to 0 vector that means basically we are saying t prime x is 0 then we take we may consider degenerate distribution at 0 also to be a normal distribution. Now, let me some introduce some multivariate notations. Suppose I consider let us consider the p dimensional vector x 1, x 2, x p. So, this is say p by 1 vector another vector is say y which is maybe of a q dimension say y 1, y 2, y q. Suppose x and y they are random vectors then the mean vectors are defined by. So, here you will have all the components coming here expectation of x 1 and so on expectation of x p which we may call say mu 1, mu 2, mu p that is equal to mu vector and similarly say for the y which let us give some notation say mu 1, mu 2, mu q that is a new vector. Now, in the case of one variable we have the variance. So, for a multivariate that means for a random vector we will have a variance covariance matrix. The variance covariance matrix or say dispersion matrix it is defined as d x say that is equal to variance of x 1, variance of x 2. So, in the diagonals we will have the variance of the components and in the off diagonal terms we will have covariance between x 1, x 2 and so on covariance between x 1, x p. Now, these terms will be same this is a symmetric matrix d x is a symmetric matrix and if we consider. So, this can also have another interpretation this is equal to expectation of x minus mu x minus mu prime this is a column vector and this is a row vector. So, if you multiply we get this matrix here. Now, covariance matrix between two vectors say x and y this is called say c x y that will consist of all the covariances that is covariance between x 1, y 1 covariance between x 1, y 2 and so on covariance between x 1, y q and so on. Here you will have covariance between x 2, y 1 and so on and here you will have covariance between x p, y q this is a p by q matrix this is actually if you consider c y x then it is transpose of this. If we consider linear transformation of a vector suppose a is a is a v by p matrix and say b is say s by q matrix then a x if I consider this then this will have a times expectation of x and the dispersion matrix of a x that will become a times dispersion matrix of x into a transpose.  So, a x then will become equal to see we can consider this as the vectors here see this is actually a 1 prime and so on a v prime vector multiplied by x here. So, I can consider it as a 1 prime x and so on a v prime x. So, if I consider expectation of a x so, that will become component wise expectation that will become a 1 prime expectation of x and so on a v prime expectation of x. So, that is equal to a 1 prime and so on a v prime expectation of x. So, that is equal to a times expectation of x. In a similar way we can consider the dispersion matrix of a x the dispersion matrix of a x it is equal to expectation of a x minus a mu into a x minus a mu transpose. So, that is equal to a times expectation of x minus mu into x minus mu transpose into a transpose. So, that is equal to a times dispersion matrix of x into a transpose. If I use the notation dx is equal to sigma then we can say that d of a x is equal to a times sigma a transpose. If we are considering say x 1, x 2 and so on x k these are say some they are say p dimensional random vectors and say a 1, a 2, a p, a k these are say r by p matrices. Then, let us consider say a j x j sigma j is equal to 1 to k then expectation of this will become sigma a j expectation of x j and also if I consider say dispersion matrix of sigma a j x j then that is equal to sum of a j dispersion matrices of x j a j transpose plus twice double summation. So, we may put not equal to I think that will be better. We put a i c of x i x j a j transpose that is the covariance matrix between x i and x j. So, these are the certain you can say linear t properties of the random vectors. Now, we go back to our definition of the multivariate normal distribution. So, if we remember we define that if every linear combination as a univariate normal distribution then we say that x as a p dimensional or p variate multivariate normal distribution. So, now, let us look at properties of the multivariate normal distribution, various properties. Let us assume that x follows n p then the first thing is that this will imply that if I consider the components x 1, x 2, x p then x i will follow n 1 for i is equal to 1 to p by definition of multivariate normal because every linear combination. So, x i since each x i is a linear combination by choosing E i x where E i is equal to 0 0 and so on 1 at the ith place and 0 0 0. Now, if x i has a univariate normal distribution it will have some mean and variance hence expectation of x i is equal to mu i and variance of x i that is equal to sigma i square exist. This will exist for i is equal to 1 to p and also if I consider covariance between x i and x j then it is less than or equal to square root of variance of x i and variance of x j. So, that is equal to sigma 1, sigma 2. So, this will imply that if I consider a say absolute value this will imply that covariance between x i, x j also exists say sigma i j. So, mu is equal to so mu transpose let me write mu 1 mu 2 mu p and sigma that is equal to sigma 1 square sigma 2 square sigma p square sigma 1 2 and so on sigma 1 p and so on sigma 2 p etcetera this exist that is mean of x and mean vector of x and dispersion matrix of x exist. That means I started with the assumption that if x has a multivariate normal distribution then certainly its mean vector and the dispersion matrix are well defined. So, we will use the notation x follows n p mu sigma. Now, further let us consider say t belonging to r p and let us take say v is equal to t prime x. Now, by definition v follows univariate normal also expectation of v will become equal to t prime expectation of x that is equal to t prime mu and the dispersion matrix or you can say variance of t prime x that will be equal to t prime sigma t. So, what we are proving here is that v follows normal distribution with mean t prime mu and variance t prime sigma t. So, if x has a multivariate normal distribution we are able to identify its mean and variance and at the same time we are able to identify completely the distribution of any linear combination here. Now, in terms of the linear combination one can write down the characteristic function that can be used here. So, next we find the characteristic function of x. So, phi x t that is equal to expectation of e to the power i t prime x. So, this can be considered as the characteristic function of v that is equal to t prime x at t is equal to 1. Now, since v has normal distribution we can write down the expression as e to the power i mu t. So, t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t half sigma square. So, this is sigma square t square t is 1. So, this is the distribution this is the characteristic function of x at a general point t. So, if we go by the definition the definition of a multivariate was characterized in terms of its linear combinations. Now, assuming a multivariate normal distribution we are able to identify its mean vector its dispersion matrix at the same time we are also able to identify completely the distribution of its linear combinations and also we have found the characteristic function. So, what we are now we will do the converse. If we assume the distribution of the linear combination let us look at the distribution of the random vector itself. Conversely let us assume t prime x follows normal with t prime mu t prime sigma t for every t in the p dimensional Euclidean space. Then this will imply that the characteristic function of this t prime x at the point 1 that is equal to e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t, but according to the definition it is equal to expectation of e to the power i t prime x. So, this is nothing but the characteristic function of x at t this will imply that x follows n p mu sigma. So, the converse result is also now established that if I know that every linear combination as a univariate normal distribution then it implies the exact form of the distribution of multivariate normal with the mean mu and variance covariance matrix as sigma. Now, what we do we consider the independence criteria. If the variance covariance matrix is only diagonal then let us write down phi x t that is equal to e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t. So, that is equal to this will become sigma t j mu j. So, this is e to the power i sigma t j mu j j is equal to 1 to k minus half sigma t j square sigma j square. So, this I can write as product of i is equal to 1 to k e to the power let us put j here i t j mu j minus half t j square sigma j square, but this I can consider as the product of the characteristic functions of x j at the point t j. So, this implies that x 1, x 2, x p this will go up to p actually not k here they are independently distributed. So, as in the case of bivariate normal distribution we had seen that independence condition is equivalent to the covariance between the two variables being 0. In the multivariate case also likewise you have a generalization the independence condition is equivalent to all the covariances term being equal to 0 consequently all the correlation between the components will be 0. This is equivalent condition that means, it is if and only if the random variables are the components are independent all the correlations between the components will be 0. Conversely if all the correlations are 0 then the random variables x 1, x 2, x p they will be independent normal random variables. Now, this result can be generalized to consider decomposed vector for example, if I am considering say x is equal to say x 1, x 2 that means, I am putting some r terms here and p minus r terms here. So, we are considering decomposition. So, the corresponding decomposition of the corresponding decomposition of sigma let us consider it as sigma 1 1, sigma 1 2, sigma 2 1, sigma 2 2. So, this is r this is p minus r this is r this is p minus r. So, similarly you will have decomposition of mu as say mu 1, mu 2 then let us consider characteristic function of x e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t. What I consider I split t also as t 1, t 2 where this is r components here p minus r components. If I have this then I can write it as e to the power i t 1 prime t 2 prime mu 1, mu 2 minus half t 1 prime t 2 prime t 1 t 2. Now, if I take sigma 1 2 is equal to 0 this implies sigma 2 1 is also 0 because this is transpose of this. Then this is equal to e to the power i t 1 prime mu 1 plus i t 2 prime mu 2 minus half t 1 prime sigma 1 1 t 1 minus half t 2 prime sigma 2 2 t 2 which I can consider as the characteristic function of x 1 at t 1 into characteristic function of x 2 at t 2 that is x 1 and x 2 they are independent. So, the correlations being 0 implying independence this is true for multivariate situation also that means, I consider multivariate components of the p dimensional vector. I am considering here one as a r dimensional vector and another as a p minus r dimensional vector and then if I put that the all the co variances between the components of x 1 with the components of x 2 they are here in sigma 1 2 and sigma 2 1 if they are vanishing then x 1 and x 2 will be independent. So, this result is also true in general. Now, I can consider any subsets in place of two subsets if I consider in general any number of subsets. Let us consider say this x as x 1 x 2 and so on say x m where this as r 1 components this as r 2 components this as r m components such that sigma r i i is equal to 1 to m is equal to p.  So, here also you will have the result that if sigma i j for i not equal to j vanishes then sigma i j will be equal to r i into r j this is r 1 r 2 r m etcetera. So, here also you will have the result that if sigma i j for i not equal to j vanishes then sigma i j for x 1 x 2 this is for all for all i not equal to j then x 1 x 2 x m they are independent independently distributed multivariate normal distributions. So, I am not explaining the proof here it is again following on the same line that if I write the characteristic function of x and I decompose in place of this I decompose into m terms here t 1 t 2 t m and the corresponding decomposition I consider here then if I apply the independence condition then it will become the product of the characteristic functions of x 1 x 2 and x m at the corresponding terms. So, now we can say that now we prove the existence of a multivariate normal distribution let me call it in a form of a theorem there exists a random vector say x such that phi x t is equal to e to the power i mu t sorry it is equal to e to the power i t prime mu it is equal to e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t this sigma is a real symmetric matrix. So, we decompose it. So, sigma is equal to some gamma d gamma prime where d is actually the diagonal matrix consisting of the Eigen values this contains Eigen values of sigma and gamma is an orthogonal matrix which will consist of Eigen vectors corresponding to lambda 1 lambda 2 lambda p. Now, sigma is actually positive definite the proof is quite simple actually because sigma how I define sigma was let us consider say x prime or some a prime sigma a then that will be equal to a prime expectation of x minus mu x minus mu prime a. So, this I can write as expectation of a prime x minus mu and this I can write as because x minus mu prime a I can write as square here. So, this is greater than or equal to 0. So, this is a positive definite matrix. So, lambda i is that is the Eigen values will be greater than or equal to 0. So, d and square root d that is let us define d half that is equal to square root of lambda 1 and so on square root of lambda p this is well defined actually this d to the power half actually this d to the power half and 2 d to the power half this is satisfying that it is equal to d that is why we can call it a square root matrix. So, we can consider sigma that is equal to gamma d to the power half d to the power half gamma transpose that we can write as some b naught b naught transpose.  So, I am assuming here actually the first m are positive and the remaining are 0. So, in general for sigma this may not be true because some in between it may be 0 and so on, but we can always arrange them in a sequence in such a way because I can interchange the order of the vector you are saying x has a sigma thing here. So, I can interchange the components of sigma and arrange in such a way that lambda 1 lambda 2 lambda m will be positive and the remaining will be 0. Let us consider this gamma to be gamma 1 gamma 2 gamma p. So, b naught is actually gamma d to the power half that is becoming something like b 1 b 2 b m and then 0s this is actually your p by p matrix. So, we can say that b 1 b 2 b m they are linearly positive and they are actually independent vectors and they are actually column vectors. So, if I consider now t prime sigma t then that will be equal to t prime b 1 b 2 b m and then null vectors here multiplied by b 1 transpose and so on b m transpose 0 by p matrix. So, we can consider it as simply sigma t prime b j square j is equal to 1 to m. Now let us consider the characteristic function e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t. So, that is equal to e to the power i t prime mu minus half sigma t prime b j square. So, let us consider then z i to be normal 0 1 i is equal to 1 to m and let z 1 z 2 z m be independent. So, we are considering a sequence of independent and identically distributed standard normal variables. Let us further define say y i is equal to b i g i. So, y i is a p by 1 vector. So, characteristic function of y i that is equal to expectation of e to the power i t prime y i that is equal to expectation of e to the power t prime b i this is z i. So, let us change the notation here like let us put it j since z j's are normal 0 1. So, b j's if you are putting this thing then this is becoming with the 0 here and then you will get b j b j transpose there. So, it is becoming simply equal to expectation e to the power minus half t prime b i square.  We can write it as mu plus b and this notation we can use for z vector here.  Now, let us consider the characteristic function x. So, that is equal to expectation e to the power i t prime x that is equal to expectation of e to the power i t prime mu plus i times t prime b 1 z 1 plus. So, on b m z m that is equal to e to the power i t prime mu plus e to the power i t prime mu expectation of e to the power i t prime b 1 z 1 plus and so on b m z m that is equal to e to the power i t prime mu minus half sigma t prime b j square. So, what we have proved we started with let us summarize what we have done. Suppose there is a vector mu and there is a real symmetric matrix sigma which we are assuming positive semi definite at least. We assume it to be positive semi definite then based on the decomposition of that I am defining because if it is a positive semi definite matrix I can decompose using a spectral decomposition where gamma is an orthogonal matrix and d is the diagonal matrix consisting of the Eigen values. Then we put it in an order where we are considering actually the non zeros first and then the zero ones and then the corresponding Eigen vectors are there. So, I arrange them by multiplying this here and this becomes zero here because we are multiplying by the zero terms in the d half here. Now b 1, b 2, b m are linearly independent column vectors. So, if we consider t prime sigma t then it is becoming t prime b 1, b 2, b m then zeros and here we are getting the transposes of this into t here. Now using this, this is simply becoming the sum of squares of scalars here t prime b j square. So, now if I consider e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t we wanted to prove that there is a random variable for which this is a characteristic function. Now this characteristic function has a decomposition of this nature e to the power i t prime mu minus half summation t prime b j. Now from here what I consider I realize that it is of the form half sigma square t square kind of thing. So, I consider a standard normal variables z i's which are independent and I define y i using this b j's. So, I consider b i z i. So, this becomes multivariate here. I am multiplying by a p by 1 vector into a standard normal variable here. So, each of the components will become a different normal variable here, but each of them will have mean 0, but variance will become b i b i b i transpose. So, if I consider that thing characteristic function of y i will become e to the power i because the mean term is 0. So, it is simply becoming t prime b i square. Now, I define a vector x using these terms.  So, using this I define a random vector x here which is of course, mu plus b z in the compact notation. So, if we use this then let us look at the characteristic function of x then this is turning out to be simply after using this decomposition I write it in this particular fashion and I use the characteristic function of the y i's here these are y 1 y 2 y m. So, it is of this nature. So, ultimately I get it as of the form e to the power i t prime mu minus half t prime sigma t. So, we are able to construct a random vector whose characteristic function is exactly the characteristic function of a multivariate normal distribution. So, basically it means that given a p dimensional random vector and a p by p positive semi definite matrix we can define a random vector which will have a p dimensional multinormal distribution with that as the mean vector and that variance covariance matrix. So, this is a characterizing property and the existence of the multivariate normal distribution. Here one thing is there we consider the rank to be equal to m now m can be less than p or it can be equal to p. So, if rank of sigma that is equal to m is less than p we call the multivariate normal distribution to be a singular distribution. So, you can also associate it with the sigma matrix. So, sigma inverse will exist if it is non-singular if it is singular then sigma inverse will not exist. So, later on when we consider the density then this point will be important. Now in the next lecture I will consider some further properties of the multivariate normal distribution and we will look at the estimation of the parameters etcetera for the particular distribution.