The Hindu News Update Service

Mumbai (PTI): Students across the country will soon have access to quality education imparted at the prestigious IIT-B here as the institute plans to start within a month a virtual classroom using the Edusat facility of ISRO.

"We have set up a studio inside the campus which is just like any other classroom. It has all the facilities for uplinking the lecture to the devoted satellite - Edusat, which can transmit it to others. Colleges can have live lectures," head of IIT-B's distance engineering education progarmme Kannan Moudgalya told PTI.

Any engineering college which awards degrees to students can fit a receiver in their premises so that the students can "sit" for the lecture.

Over a hundred colleges in the country have presently installed the receivers that cost approximately Rs 3.20 lakh per piece and over 1,000 are expected to take advantage of the facility.

A total of thirteen of Indian Institute of Technology's 500-odd courses will be relayed as part of the scheme, starting January two next year, he said.

"The professor will conduct a normal lecture like he normally does and the students will also be made to sit in the studio itself," Moudgalya said, adding the scheme is also interactive and students sitting anywhere can ask questions to the faculty.

"No special degrees will be given to the students who sit for the virtual lectures...this is just a value addition for them and we will not charge the institutes as well..any college can start it by installing the receiver," he added.