As the HRD Ministry carries on with its efforts to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown and provide students with continued access to learning during this period, e-learning in the country has witnessed an appreciable upsurge during the past two weeks, according to official release.
Union HRD Minister Ramesh PokhriyalNishank has been in regular touch with heads of institutions through video conferencing, giving necessary guidance and directions, and receiving feedback in this regard.
Both schools and higher education institutions have started various modes of online classes and sharing of study material depending on the resources available with them and with the students. These range from structured online classes through platforms like Skype, Zoom, Google Classroom, Google Hangout, Piazza to teachers uploading lectures and class notes through YouTube, WhatsApp, sharing links of digital learning resources like SWAYAM, NPTEL, providing access to online journals, the statement said.
About 50-65 percent of students in HE institutions like Central Universities, IITs, IIITs, NITs, IISERs are participating in some form of e-learning. Lack of internet connectivity and other required digital infrastructure with students is proving to be an impediment to e-learning in many cases. To overcome this problem to some extent, teachers are also sharing slides or hand written notes apart from recorded lectures and live sessions so that students with uncertain network access can also get at least some material. Recorded lectures ensure that a short-term problem with network access does not block out a student. Faculty members are doing online chat sessions with students to answer any queries that they may have, it said.
Pokhriyal said that for a large number of students who do not have access to computer and internet, the Ministry is promoting learning through the television.
