KOZHIKODE: The Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMMRC) of Calicut University has launched 'MOOC' (massive open online course) designed fully in sign language for hearing-impaired people.
The course also has a voice-over version. The course titled 'Forms of business organisation' is available on the Swayam portal, a platform initiated by the Government of India that facilitates hosting different courses.
EMMRC director Damodar Prasad said a university is offering a massive open online course for the hearing impaired in sign language for the first time in the country. "Currently, Calicut varsity is hosting the most number of massive open online courses in the country, which is 36.
"However, almost all of the courses offered online are making use of the spoken language as the medium of instruction and this dissuades the hearing-impaired people from enrolling. People with hearing ailments follow only visual and sign language, which is rarely available online. As the National Education Policy (NEP) emphasises developing study tools for specially-abled students, we decided to develop courses in sign language," said Damodar.
The course duration is six weeks. The online course is developed by Dr Bhavana U B, head of the Department of Commerce, National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH), Thiruvananthapuram, and produced by Sajith Kumar Koyikkal. The enrolment for the course started on July 5 and will continue till August 31. Students from commerce and management streams and business aspirants can join.