CHENNAI: As educational institutions close down due to Coronavirus scare, education-based digital companies have started announcing free classes to fill the gap.
Particularly, students looking to revise topics ahead of the exam and those about to sit for campus placements are in need of these tech solutions.
On March 10, BYJU’S announced that it will provide free access to its complete app to school students till the end of April. This comes after government advisory for schools to remain closed. It can be downloaded for free.
Toppr, another app, has announced free access to live classes and video classes till May.
“In view of coronavirus pandemic, we are making live classes and video classes completely free to prevent interruption in studies,” says a note on the home page of the website.
While most colleges continue to take classes, they have started calling off training programmes, seminars and conferences. This particularly affects placement season, through which colleges conduct various training programmes.
“Every year, we call an expert to give soft skill training during placements. Usually, they organise conferences and mock interviews. However, this year, we have called it off as we do not want students to gather at the auditorium at the same time,” said a placement co-ordinator from an engineering college.
He added that he has sent web links to various online soft skills training videos that students can prepare with.
For instance, IIT-Madras-incubated startup GUVI is offering online IT skilling courses to prepare for campus placements free of cost to students.
Engineering students can subscribe on www.guvi.io to access the courses on the platform without having to pay any charge for two weeks.
Speaking about this initiative, SP Balamurugan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, GUVI, said, “We need to ensure the safety of students through all possible measures while also ensuring they have the requisite skills for bright job prospects.”
Online learning platform Coursera also announced that it will provide affected universities with free access to its course catalogue through Coursera for Campus.