KITE Introduces new 'KOOL' Open Online Learning programme

: The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has rolled out-- KOOL, its Online Open Learning training platform.

The platform can be used to train teachers, students and the general public.

To start with, teachers would be trained and the first batch will commence next month.

Registration for the training began Sunday.

With the state's schools going Hi-Tech, requiring teachers and students to be trained on different domains simultaneously, it was decided to launch KOOL, a press release said.

KOOL has been designed in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model, which is becoming popular worldwide.

"KOOL is a major step by the State of Kerala to become Indias first complete digital state in Education", said Prof C Raveendranath, state Education minister.

Learning Management Systems were a part of the approach paper on 'Samagra' resource portal and KOOL has been developed as an expansion of 'Samagra', the resource portal of the education department.

KOOL has an array of features for learners in the form of animated learning assistants, video tutorials and checklists for practicing the activities,a press release said.

"We have 200 mentors with a capacity to train 4,000 persons at a time", K Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, KITE said.

It is compulsory for teachers to successfully complete 45 hours of computer course in order to clear their probation.

Over 5,000 teachers have approached KITE so far seeking such courses and the initial training in KOOL has been incorporated with relevant modules.

The first batch of KOOL will include 2,500 teachers in the proportion of one mentor for every 20 teachers.

The six week course includes creation of word documents, spreadsheet, presentation, image editing, video-audio editing, development of digital resources, Malayalam typing, internet, educational applications.

Teachers who successfully complete the course would be awarded certificates.

KITE has already submitted a proposal to the state government, seeking approval to declare the KOOL Certificate acceptable for declaring the probation of teachers.

"KOOL would be the largest online training programme in the state.

KITE has plans to introduce more courses in KOOL which would not only benefit the teachers and students, but for the general public as well," Sadath said.