THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The Department of Home Science, Government College for Women hosted the inauguration of L3 or Lab for Learning and Life Skills, a new learning hub, on Monday. Modeled after the ‘Tesseract’, the smart learning space of the University of Southampton in United Kingdom, this is a joint initiative of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Kerala, and the British Council.
As part of the initiative, a group of faculty members from the Department of Home Science had visited a number of British Universities to get acquainted with the teaching and learning style there.
The aim of the learning hub is to provide a stimulating academic platform for interactive learning and collaborative work in higher education while also being designed to facilitate focused academic interaction and research discussions involving learners and facilitators. The lab can be used not only by the department students, but also others including research students and faculty members of the college. According to Sithara, associate professor, Department of Home Science, currently the hub which cost Rs 3 lakhs has only a couple of computers with internet and wifi. This is a one-of-a-kind initiative for post-graduate and research students and is conducted as part of FLAIR(Fostering Linkages in Academic Innovation and Research), a project taken up by the Department of Higher Education,” she said.
M Nandakumar, director of Collegiate Education, Government of Kerala, inaugurated the event which was presided over by Sujatha, college principal. G Shankar, founder and chief architect, Habitat Technology Group, P K Girija Devi, former additional Director of Collegiate Education, K P Jaikiran, programme director, FLAIR, also attended.
FLAIR is a capacity building programme of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Kerala, for the newly joined faculty members of Arts and Science Colleges, Engineering Colleges and Teaching Departments of Universities, which was started in the year 2013-14. The Programme is funded by the Directorate of Collegiate Education.