Edusat project to help fill gaping holes in technical education

The paucity of teachers in the many new fields of engineering education is so acute that there are no faculty members in many well-reputed institutions to handle these subjects, lamented Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) vice-chancellor Dr K Balaveera Reddy.

Subjects like embedded system, digital signal processing, Internet programming and multimedia computing do not have the requisite teachers.

Getting quality teachers and retaining them are significant challenges. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) satellite exclusively for educational services (EDUSAT), to be launched in the second half of 2004, will help meet the requirements as it will supplement the present education system across the nation.

VTU's e-Learning Centre's special officer Dr G L Shekar says, the EDUSAT project allows key elements of interactivity, access, cost-effectiveness and consistency of information to students.

An expert on a subject can simultaneously teach hundreds of students in multiple locations across a vast geographical area. Students of remote and 'unreached' villages can benefit from the live lectures. The initiative, therefore, addresses the major issue of paucity of faculty members in higher education.

Author of the compendium on 'EDUSAT "� Indian Satellite in Education', released by President Abdul Kalam on July 23 in Bangalore, Shekar said, the EDUSAT project has helped the VTU in Karnataka become the largest connected technical university in the country. Some 113 engineering colleges are connected under EDUSAT distance education/e-learning network benefiting over 1,20,000 students.

Realising the critical issue of the dearth of teachers, more so in computer science and electronics engineering, the Karnataka government launched the project 'Networking of Engineering Colleges' in 2002 for providing high quality distance education through satellite and Internet.

A pilot run was held by transmitting interactive education programme (IEP) from a government studio in Mysore to 15 engineering colleges across Karnataka using Direct Reception System (DRS), the brainchild of ISRO.

The pilot run, conducted under aegis of the Board for Information Technology Education Standards (BITES) and VTU with the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre (KSRSAC) created great interest among the students and faculty of participating colleges. Encouraged by this, the VTU recommended to the Karnataka government to extend IEP to all engineering colleges in the state.

The EDUSAT project has come as a boon to Karnataka, particularly to the higher education sector, he said.

Explaining the VTU's projections, Reddy said, using the EDUSAT network, the VTU plans to train students on skills like problem solving, leadership qualities, communication skills, , team work, time and crisis management, techno-entrepreneurship development, design orientation, creative and career planning, which are vital for today's industry and entrepreneurship.