IITs come closer to students

Mumbai: Engineering students from across the globe will now be able to get lectures on their iPods delivered by the faculties of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Students will also be able to get answers of their queries by the faculties of IITs or by their peers, as the IITs are going to permit students of various institutes to post questions and doubts relating to their courses on a special website which will be answered by their professors and students.

This initiative has been taken to make more efficient use of the IITs' intellectual resources by making them accessible to a wider audience across the globe under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning.

Kannan Moudgalya, Head, Centre for Distance Engineering Education at IIT-Bombay said, "We need to cope with the latest technology to transmit courses as the technology across the world is changing rapidly."

The seven older IITs and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore are involved in the programme, which will help students catch up with world-class institutions, which make lots of resources available online.

This unique initiative will be helpful for all engineering colleges in the country, which do not have enough faculties to impart education.

"Students can post their queries by March which will be answered by IIT professors or peers," said Prof. Mangala Sunder Krishnan of IIT-Madras.

The new facilities are part of the National Programme's second phase, for which the government approved Rs.90 crore earlier this month.