The Times of India | Manash Pratim Gohain | TNN | Jul 16, 2017
NEW DELHI: What if IIT professors coached you for free to take the Joint Entrance Exam? Sounds like something too good to be true? But it’s actually true. IIT-Professor Assisted Learning or IIT-PAL was recently launched under the Swayam Prabha channels of HRD ministry. All an aspirant needs is internet connectivity or a DTH setup for TV. From the comfort of their homes, aspirants in the cities as well as remote villages could watch lectures on physics, chemistry and mathematics. There are also lectures in biology as it’s an essential ingredient of the IIT foundation courses. IIT-Delhi in charge of the project that also has as partners IITs from Mumbai, Kanpur, Chennai, Kharagpur and Guwahati. Besides interactions, consultations via email and phone are also possible. Some Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers have also contributed to the lecture bank. So far, IIT-D has recorded over 600 hours of video content that’s available via satellite TV and YouTube. Lectures are only in English right now, but plans are afoot to include Hindi and other languages.
Each subject has its own free-to-air DTH channel that transmits fresh content as per a fixed course schedule for four hours daily (two each for classes XI and XII). This is repeated six times a day so that a student could watch it as per his/her convenience. So far, the instruction only consists of recorded lectures. But soon, downloadable e-learning material apart from ‘doubt clearing’ sessions would go live too. IIT-D director V Ramgopal Rao said, “This is a great initiative to help senior secondary students. Not everyone can afford coaching classes. We need to help children from the rural backgrounds and from disadvantaged sections to enter the IITs. We are hoping that this will help facilitate entry of such children. There are bright children in every corner of the country and they can use IIT PAL and provide us their feedback. We will keep improving on the content.” Professor Ravi Soni of IIT-D’s physics department, who is also the national coordinator of the programme, said, “The main objective of the initiative is to assist the students of Class XI and XII who are IIT aspirants. The lectures that are delivered by experts in the specific subjects will help the students understand basic concepts in a very simple way. It will also help the socially and the economically backward students prepare for the IIT exam.” – Courtesy / The SWAYAM PRABHA is conceived as a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. – Take a Look at : http://www.swayamprabha.gov.in/index.php/home
/ Click here to Download the Swayamprabha Mobile App
Engineering, Science & Technology Resources Portal 