VTU's online study material now free, forward-looking

 Engineering students in colleges affiliated to the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will soon have access to freshly designed online learning material for their syllabus.

This is being drafted to help students, especially those in rural areas, to easily grasp the concepts in the syllabus.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, VTU Vice-Chancellor Maheshappa said that the material would be available in the servers of all the 200 colleges affiliated to the university. “This is a pilot project and is different from the material that the university has now provided. It is free for students. What is currently available is Edusat-based learning material.”

The Edusat-based learning involves video-recorded lectures. The new study material would have experts talking about concepts along with video and 3D description of concepts, the vice-chancellor said. “Students can download it in their pen drive and access it any time. They can even see and learn the procedures for laboratory experiments,” he said.

In several rural colleges there might not be adequate number of faculty. The students will now be able to overcome this shortcoming. “Our intention is to push up the pass percentage. There have been complaints that a large number of students are not able to clear the exams,” Maheshappa said. The facility is likely to be available in colleges by the end of this month.

The existing material has not been of much use to students or lecturers. The VTU's e-learning centre started in 2003. As per the e-learning centre website, the material includes Edusat-based live transmission of lectures apart from web-based e-learning where the topics in the syllabus are hosted online.

However, most part of this learning material has not been accessible to colleges. Even the little bit of material available online is inadequate. The lecturer of a private engineering college in the city told Deccan Herald that neither the students nor the teachers depended on this material.

“I would rather prepare my own notes and share it with students. I even have a blog where I update all my notes for students to access.” The lecturer said that several of them follow this practice. For further information, they depend on other websites that provide e-learning material for topics prescribed in VTU syllabus.

Student friendly

Experts talk on concepts, along with video, 3D description of concepts
Available on servers of all 200 colleges affiliated to VTU
New system may be better than Edusat-based learning material
It will prove to be a boon for rural students