CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) is coordinating a national effort to create crash courses for rural learners which will be telecast on DTH Swayam Prabha channels, said a statement from the institute on Thursday.
Around 300 hours of video lectures have already been created under this initiative, the statement said, adding that the first broadcast is scheduled for August 28. This new content will be broadcast on NPTEL Channel 11-18 until August 31 and rescheduled on Channels 11-16 from September 1.
The project aims to create crash courses with an emphasis on problem-solving approaches. The lectures were recorded by faculty from various central universities from their homes. The schedule of the lectures is available and will be updated on the DTH Swayam Prabha website: https://www.swayamprabha.gov.in/
The project was initiated by BS Balaji, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and supported by Prof. K Mangala Sunder, IIT Madras, and Chief Coordinator, DTH Swayam Prabha, N Parameswaran.
Speaking about the initiative, Sunder said, “All the faculty members understood the pressing need and willingly came forward to contribute to the important aspect of nation building through creating new learning materials for the students who were affected by the lockdown.”
The regular 40 to 50-hour lectures of the entire course have been condensed to 10-15 hours for fast assimilation by students during the lockdown. They were created to meet or exceed the very high academic standards set by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other academic bodies and the technical requirements for High Definition (HD) broadcast, the statement said.
Swayam Prabha is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting high-quality educational programmes on a 24x7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite.