Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Virtual university for engineering centres planned

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JAN. 14. The Union Human Resources Development Ministry is all set to release nearly Rs.19 crores for a project which will use modern technology to improve teacher capability and learning systems in engineering educational institutions. The money will be channelled into a virtual centre for technology enhanced learning (VCTEL) for producing educational content pertaining to about 100 courses in the first phase. This content in digital form can be made available online for teachers handling B.E/B.Tech courses in engineering colleges.

The head of the national implementation committee for the VCTEL and the director of IIT-Madras, M.S. Ananth, says educators from different IITs and universities will meet next month to finalise a structured agenda for "writing" the course material. Later, the IIT heads would talk to each of their subject experts to begin actual creation of the content.

"Technology enhanced learning" (TEL) is a concept that was born in 1999, and as per the model proposed, the IITs and Indian Institute of Managements would come together to create the course contents, with the expertise provided by the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

Dr. Ananth, in an informal chat with reporters here recently, explained that the brick and mortar model of educational institutions could be too costly. But technology provided alternatives by which course contents could be made available to the educators and institutions in a cost effective manner. Information in digital form can be made available across institutions for improving and changing learning environments. The VCTEL's objective was to enhance the students' learning of concepts and reduce mechanical aspects of current learning methods. It can help share knowledge and experiences.

He says the course content could be created and given in the form of CD ROMs or made available online, and even made interactive, with a set of `FAQs'. In a distributed learning environment under TEL, even interaction between learners and instructors is possible. In essence, it can meet the much-felt need for improving teacher capabilities in engineering education institutions.

The creation of a digital library containing digital learning resources would also be part of the VCTEL project.

In the second phase of the project, the Indian Institutes of Management would also come in for providing management concepts creating a much-needed synthesis between IITs and IIMs for improving engineering education in the country.

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