The NPTEL venture by the IITs, in its second phase, will add science and humanities courses too.
Science and Humanities students, by this year end, will be able to source study materials from Google and YouTube, thanks to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a venture of the IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, will shortly design study materials in science and humanities for engineering institutes in the country. The same would be provided via Google and YouTube.
These courses will be offered free of cost. NPTEL already offers engineering courses on Google and You Tube free of cost.
NPTEL was started along the lines of Open Courseware by MIT in the US.
“We introduced 300-odd courses in engineering in the first phase and in the second phase, we would be offering courses in science and humanities to broaden the spectrum of our offerings,” said Mangala Sunder Krishnan, National Web Courses Coordinator at IIT-Madras.
IITs have also roped in another 30 engineering colleges for content creation. Over 600 engineering institutes across the country have been using course materials designed under NPTEL.
“After engineering colleges, we are now aiming to cover all the technical universities in the country under the second phase. The course materials are uploaded as text and videos in a sequential lecture format. We are continually updating these materials in a phased manner,” adds Krishnan.
The IITs, having completed first phase of introducing engineering courses on Google and YouTube, are expediting the second phase by adding over 900 more courses by 2012.
According to Krishnan, last year the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had made it mandatory for engineering institutes in the country to use basic sciences and engineering courses.
NPTEL in the first phase of the project, had developed around 250 courses. All of these are available online for a duration of 4,500 hours, free of charge. The course materials (both web and video) are freely accessible by everyone independent of their geographic location. “Professionals can use these courses to update themselves. Open and distance education using NPTEL contents are long-term prospects for IITs,” added Krishnan.
What’s more, with over 5,000 hours of video having been uploaded on YouTube, the viewership of course materials under NPTEL has crossed the 40 million mark. With already 50 per cent of the Rs 96 crore being released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), the project will see another 15,000-20,000 hours of video being uploaded by 2012.
“The rest of the grant should be released in the near future, allowing us to upload additional course materials till the target year of 2012,” Krishnan adds.
NPTEL, was launched around four years ago to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum-based video and web courses.
A total of 15 institutes — Seven IITs, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and other engineering institutes — have collaborated to carry out the venture. The IITs have been nominated as the one of the best institutions in providing free university courses.
IIT Madras which officially handles the venture, distributes web contents free of charge to the government-funded institutes.
In addition it will allow the content to be hosted on a website local to the institutions (intranet). Privately-funded institutions obtain the entire web course contents on DVD ROMs for hosting them on their Intranet for a fee of Rs 1,00,000. The IITs are also planning to revise the fee shortly.
Meanwhile, faculty members from the new IITs will also develop course materials for NPTEL. Universities, research labs and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research are also part of the programme.
NPTEL project receives its funding support through the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) since the year 2009. Course materials on sections like civil engineering, computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, mechanical engineering, ocean engineering, biotechnology, mining and metallurgy are also offered through web.
