The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : E-learning Centre to come up in Coimbatore by year-end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

E-learning Centre to come up in Coimbatore by year-end

Puja S Navin

Bharathiar University expresses interest

COIMBATORE: Universities are reservoirs of learning but not all students have access to them. However, virtual universities emerging through advancements in information and communication technologies are soon bridging this gap. Students can log onto a virtual university from any part of the world and earn online degrees.

Virtual classrooms

To kick start virtual classrooms in Coimbatore, Metalearn Services Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore-based e-learning company plans to set up such a centre here by the year-end.

Speaking to The Hindu on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer of Metalearn, Sonjib Mukharjee, said, "This centre will serve as an experimental ground for universities to provide their courses through the e-learning virtual platform."

A real university provides a meeting ground for students, faculty and administrators. This interaction will be replicated in the virtual space, according to Mr. Mukharjee.

Separate login identities

" A virtual university can be created using a software called learning management system. Students can log on, enrol and pay for a course. The faculty members will also have separate login identities for loading lectures and assignments. Students can form study groups, invite chats, have a bulletin board, take tests and submit assignments," explains Mr. Mukharjee.

Initially the centre will enable universities to provide training in using the software which can have 500 to 1,000 faculty members, 10,000 students and another 1,000 administrators logged on.

"We have not zeroed in on the location, but the Bharathiar University has shown a tremendous amount of interest," says Mr. Mukharjee.

The Vice-Chancellor of the Bharathiar University, says, "We will use this expertise to develop e-learning content as the first step in that direction."

"The need for colleges of higher education falls short of the demand. The amount of investment that Government has ploughed in primary and secondary education far exceeds that in higher education and capacities are not growing in higher education."

The students stand to gain as world class teaching expertise can be made available to them at a fraction of the cost, they can take an online job -oriented degrees or courses in addition to the course they are pursuing, he says.

"For a student in Tamil Nadu the only option of e-learning is an XLRI or Narsee Monjee MBA. Not all students can pass the entrances tests or pay the cost of fees.

"So why not work with the Universities in Tamil Nadu and make job oriented courses available online," he asks.

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