Virtual classroom to come up in UP

Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) is working towards making virtual classroom a reality in UP. The university has embarked to create an information technology hub at Noida. Initially, the hub will cater to ten nodal centres and will be made accessible to 50 other colleges in the state.

Through this initiation, UPTU aims to bring experts from various fields across the globe to deliver lectures and interact with the students. It will create a model, under which a single teacher can connect through video conferencing to all students in various engineering colleges across UP.

The move is expected to help reach more students with fewer teachers. Given the disparity of faculty crunch, virtual classrooms will facilitate UPTU improve its faculty-student ratio.

“Quality education is the aim towards which we are working and to achieve this we want at utilise various information and communication technology (ICT) tools,” said Prof Prem Vrat, vice-chancellor, UPTU. He was speaking at a meeting organised by the Computer Society of India (CSI).

Prof Vrat said the education systems around the world are under increasing pressure to use the new information and communication technologies to teach students the knowledge and skills they need in the 21st century.

“With the emerging new technologies, teaching profession is evolving, from an emphasis on teacher-centered, lecture-based instruction, to student centered, interactive learning environment.”

On the need of ICT usage in disseminating education, he said that being equipped with IT related skills is the need of the hour.