BANGALORE: Identifying digital campuses as the way ahead to meet the challenges posed by the "age of networked intelligence," the Oversight Committee on Implementation of the New Reservation Policy in Higher Educational Institutions has shown a model to emulate: the national project for technology-enhanced learning (NP-TEL), being implemented jointly by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc.).

Funded by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the programme is geared to enhance the quality of engineering education by developing over 300 curriculum-based video and web courses. These courses are available to engineering students across the country.

The NP-TEL courses are offered under Civil, Computer Science, Electrical, Electronics and Communication and Mechanical engineering streams. NP-TEL was launched on September 3.

In its final report, the Oversight Committee said the campuses had to be prepared with computing and communications infrastructure, ready for use by a "Net generation" of "plugged-in and digital savvy" students. Interactive learning with computers had literally changed the learning paradigm "from linear to hypermedia learning, from instruction to construction and discovery, teacher-centric to student-centric learning."

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