DU proposes national centre for e-content

Updated on: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

New Delhi: Delhi University has submitted a Rs 105-crore proposal to the government to set up a National Centre to generate econtent. The proposal is to convert DU’s existing Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL) into a national centre that will be responsible for generating e-content for the recently launched National Mission in Education through ICT.

“ILLL has been working towards generating e-content for various subjects taught at DU. If the proposal is accepted, the activity will get a major boost. The ministry for human resource development (MHRD) has already given us the approval to launch a pilot project,” informed A K Bakhshi, director, ILLL. According to him, the ministry has granted Rs 2 crore for the pilot project, under which ILLL would be generating e-content for the seven different disciplines taught at the undergraduate level across India. The content would follow UGC guidelines for undergraduate curriculum. The disciplines include chemistry, commerce, economics, history, botany, zoology and mathematics.

Elaborating on the kind of content the institute intends to generate, Bakhshi said, “Use of ICT in education does not mean replacing classroom teaching but supporting it and making it better. Sometimes a teacher feels handicapped in the class while explaining various concepts. This is where ICT can play an important role. We can explain concepts through animation, pop-ups, videos, and so on. Also, the use of additional glossary, historical facts and multiple-choice questions can change the way classroom teaching is done; All this will be used in the pilot project.”

The biggest challenge for imparting education through ICT is teacher training. He added, “It is the teachers who have to use ICT to improve teaching. But, most of them are not tech-savvy.” With this in mind, DU recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft. “Around 25 teachers will participate in the week-long workshop. Microsoft will impart training on MS Word, excel, PowerPoint, internet usage, and so on,” informed Bakhshi.

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DU proposes national centre for e-content

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