Information Technology has taken the world by storm. E-learning is the use of electronic educational technology in teaching and learning. Computers have become increasingly common in the classroom and the increasing access to computers is also changing the way classes are taught. Not only is the popularity of technology increasing because of its increasing availability, but also because of the capabilities of technologies that traditional classroom materials such as chalk and blackboard alone do not provide. Vidyalankar has always been a step ahead when it comes to being tech-savvy. The institute has a digitally enabled learning environment. Academic administration plans, assignments, solutions after examinations, quizzes, lecture presentations, syllabus, study material etc. are all made available to students.
Following are some more e-learning methods which reinforce this view for the benefit of the student community :TRAINING ON VIRTUAL LAB, MHRD PROJECT BY IITB, NODAL CENTRE AT VIT
VIT was approached by IITB for starting a nodal centre of Virtual Lab at our institute and after meetings and discussions with expert advisors; the expression of interest was submitted by the institute to start a nodal centre. 35 different virtual labs on the VIT server were installed. Subsequently, training for faculty members of all departments was conducted in March 2015 with an introduction to IITB’ s virtual lab project and in which was explained how the virtual is useful for reaching technology to remote areas. The trainer also explained the objective of Virtual lab project, how the lab is used and about the usage of lab remotely on a time sharing basis. Faculty members were encouraged to go through the labs of their subjects and to try doing experiments and give feed back.
Students can use virtual labs for additional preparation where the lab equipment is not available. They can use these labs for practical training and for self study through experimentation. The theory material available in the experiments is of excellent quality and can be used as notes. The quizzes provided are really thought provoking and students get exposure to IIT level of exams.
DIGITIZATION OF STUDY MATERIAL/E-CONTENT GENERATION
Moving ahead along with the dynamism of the times, study material for students has been completely digitized. Subject teachers have added images, animated videos, videos and lectures by eminent industrialists and academicians on each topic, web links, multiple choice questions, quizzes and games to the e-notes. These are uploaded on to the internal server and VidyalankarLive. This site has forums for each division and class where the e-notes are posted even before a particular topic is taught so that students can be prepared for interactive lecture sessions.
Students are involved in creating and designing e books using IPad.
REPOSITORY OF E-BOOKS
E-books have many advantages over typical hard copy books and that is what Vidyalankar exactly wants to pass on to each and every student. E-books are easily copied to multiple locations. One can print any or all pages from one’s computer with original quality. They are lighter and take up less space. Very importantly, they save trees and cost less. Students can have quick and easy access to hundreds of books on their desktop computers, notebooks or eBook readers. There are very portable, last for ever, never fade and one can’t spill coffee on them!
Vidyalankar has acquired more than 200 e-books which include many reputed international publications.
The institute went a step ahead by providing a brief synopsis for each book for students to browse through the essence of each book before launching into a detailed study.
The institute has membership to the IITB Library and the British Council Library
Online subscription of IEEE-IEL & J. Gate (Engineering) and many other national and international journals.
NPTEL Video Lectures (e-resources on website) are uploaded semester wise on the internal server for students to benefit.
High grade broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity ensures that e-learning goes on smoothly