IIIT-A to develop e-content for IT courses

The Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad is developing e-contents in 18 Information Technology subjects for the entire IT courses in the country.

As part of National Knowledge Mission programme of the Human Resource Development Ministry,the Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad IIIT-A is developing e-contents in 18 Information Technology subjects for the entire IT courses in the country.

To spread education about information technology in the northern belt of the country,the HRD Ministry had entrusted the IIIT-A with the responsibility of training mentors and developing IT modules for technical institutions like IITs and National Institute of Sciences.

We have already started the project and have finalised contents of 120 chapters each for web courses and video lectures. The subjects are civil engineering,computer science,electrical,electronics and communication,mechanical engineering and all core science and humanities courses, said IIIT-A director M D Tiwari,adding that the ministry had released a sum of Rs 75 lakh for the project.

The IIIT-A has been developing information technology-based courses and designing curriculums for engineering colleges in the country. The curriculum was pooled from model engineering course syllabi designed by All India Curriculum for Technical Education AICTE,Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University and Visvesvaraya Technical University.

Experts from IIT-Madras,IIT-Kanpur,IIT-Delhi,IIIT-Allahabad and IIT-Guwahati have been roped in to develop the contents. Before developing the contents,suggestions were taken from nearly 500 teachers and senior faculty members and heads of 50 institutions. Besides,four workshops were held in different regions.

The institute has stressed two major components content generation,and connectivity along with provision for access devices for institutions and learners. It plans to focus on appropriate pedagogy for e-learning,providing facility of performing experiments through virtual laboratories,online testing and certification,online availability of teachers to guide and mentor learners and Direct to Home DTH platform,training and empowerment of teachers to effectively use the new method of teaching and learning, Tiwari said.

He added that within a year or so these e-contents would be ready to be uploaded at the HRD Ministrys educational website Sakshat.