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Education Plus
High-definition classrooms from IGNOU
P. OPPILI
V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai
As part of enhancing e-teaching and e-learning capabilities, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will create high-definition classrooms, its vice-chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai has said.Dr. Pillai who was in Chennai recently to attend a function at SIET College told Education Plus that in the next three years about 100 such classrooms would be created throughout the country. The high-definition classroom in Tamil N
adu would be created at the University of Madras.
Students could walk into the classroom and learn using materials from the Internet and multimedia kits, he said.
The content for the classroom would be packaged in various multimedia formats and delivered to various institutions using satellite and Internet facilities.
Work on this had already begun and IGNOU would provide a platform for delivery of this programme, Dr Pillai said.
Prototype of the high-definition class rooms would be given to other universities, which could use them for their own benefit.
IGNOU has proposed to enhance its technology capabilities to conduct programmes.
The institution has also digitised 90 per cent of its self-learning materials.
Students having access to a computer can download the materials.
At present, IGNOU’s education programme has reached nine million homes through Direct to Home television links.
Technology
IGNOU has also ventured into using the radio as an alternative tool to reach the community. For this the institution has carved a separate department, School of Journalism and New Media.
“We have to create ample opportunities for education,” Dr. Pillai said. Basic school education is the crux of development, he said.
On the higher education side the world over, 23 per cent of students (in the age group 15 - 24) got into higher education.
In India it was only 10 per cent. Scaling up the education levels was very important and would have to be achieved using technology.
Technology was important, but it could not teach. Hence the teacher should have the knowledge to use the technology for enhancing the education standards in open universities, he said.
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