600 video courses to come in 2 yrs - 120 Web-Based Programmes

[dhilipkumar]

600 video courses to come in 2 yrs

Under First Phase, IITs, IISc Have Developed 120 Web-Based Programmes

Over the next two years, more than a thousand professors at the seven old Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, will develop at least 600 web and video-based courses in the fields of engineering and science that will be available for free downloading by students and teachers across the globe. The videos containing recorded classroom lectures in different subjects will be up-loaded on Youtube as well. Besides, students and colleges can buy DVDs containing the video lectures for a nominal fee.
   
This is the target the IITs (Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kharagpur, Kanpur and Roorkee) and the IISc have set under the second phase of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) for which the central government had sanctioned Rs 96 crore. Already in the first phase, nearly 325 faculty members of the eight institutions had devel-oped 120 webbased courses and an equal number of video courses in civil, mechanical, computer science, electronics and communication engineering. "We want everybody to have access to the best quality lectures in science and engineering. The NPTEL initiative is a social revolution that seeks to transform the education system, taking it from gurukula (teachers' place) to shishyakula (students' place)," IIT Madras director M S Ananth said on Monday. "In Mexico, the best students don't go to colleges, they learn from virtual universities. A similar transition in India will lead to social changes where students can have education at their own place," he added.

    Ananth was confident that the 600 courses, that will also cover subjects in postgraduate science and engineering courses, including the humanities components, would be ready for upload by end of 2011.

    What the professors do is to divide each course into 12 to 15 modules and record live lectures delivered by highly competent faculty members at the eight institutions and upload them on a dedicated Youtube section  www.youtube.com/iit  and the webbased material is hosted on the NPTEL website. "Currently, 24,000-odd persons have subscribed to the Youtube content, which is the largest subscription for any content on the Youtube in India," said professor Mangala Sunder Krishnan, who heads the NPTEL initiative at the IIT Madras.

timesofindia