Bharathiar University VC advocates video conferencing to promote e-learning

Video conferencing facilities will be made available in Bharathiar University as well as in its affiliated colleges, in order to promote e-learning, Vice Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam said here recently.

To make e-learning popular it was not enough that students alone were motivated to adopt this system; it was also essential that teachers got trained in e-learning systems, he added.

He was presiding over a five-day national workshop for teachers on "Content Creation and Learning Management System (LMS) for e-learning" organized by the Department of Extension, Career Guidance and Students Welfare of Bharathiar University.

At least one teacher from each department would get trained in e-learning systems by making them for enrol for either a diploma or a post-graduate diploma course, he said.

In higher education there was an increasing tendency to create a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). He wanted e-learning - computer-enhanced learning - be used as a viable option to reach the maximum number of students, especially those doing distance education.

Computer-enhanced learning had both advantages and constraints. Enumerating the advantages, he said the system offered flexibility and convenience to learners, besides variety in learning.

The constraints were that it was not cost-effective and that many colleges could not spare funds and infrastructure required for development of the relevant software.

Acceptance of e-learning for regular students should be seen in the light of the present higher education scenario in India. Only seven per cent of students opted for higher education. "Educational dualism" - colleges that had state-of-the-art facilities on the one hand and colleges that did not have even the basic facilities - was rampant.

Curriculum was neither job-oriented nor life-oriented. Industry-university linkage was very little. Old and traditional methods of teaching were still the order of the day. Faculty output was not whole-hearted. There was a void in socially useful research undertaken at colleges and universities.

Prof. Thiruvasagam hoped that e-learning would successfully overcome these hurdles and provide practical solutions to improve the learning system.

Mangala Sunder Krishnan, National Co-ordinator for the e-learning Core Science Project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, said that e-learning was not something that happened overnight, but one that involved both synergy and cost.

It required a lot of support and awareness to bring it on a par with classroom teaching.

He also stressed the need for institutions to have qualified faculty, to be in tandem with the students.



Courtesy : The Hindu