MHRD to connect 20,000 colleges using A-VIEW

During the first national meeting with 60 Vice Chancellors of leading Universities recently, Higher Education Secretary, Mr. Ashok Thakur said, "Most of the universities invited here have a large number of affiliated colleges and form an ecosystem with their colleges. These 60 Universities have around 12,000 colleges associated with them. Among themselves, they can use the video-conferencing system A-VIEW especially designed for online classes, faculty training, and online meetings. We are on course to connect 20,000 colleges via A-VIEW all over India."

A-VIEW (Amrita Virtual Interactive E-Learning World) is an internet based knowledge sharing platform, developed under NME-ICT project of MHRD by Amrita University, Kollam, Kerala. It enables online education and meetings using various communication modules like Audio/Video, Whiteboard collaboration, Content sharing. It also works on Aakash tablet.

Addressing the senior academicians, Shri. Thakur urged them to start using A-VIEW for various programs enhancing the quality of education in their Universities and affiliated colleges. He further stated, "The lack of qualified and skilled faculty has severely impeded the higher education system of the country; A-VIEW can assist in overcoming this challenge. A-VIEW provides a near classroom experience free of cost".

Several universities are actively using A-VIEW; Mumbai University, NITTTR Calcutta, Pondicherry University, IIIT Hyderabad, Babasaheb Ambedkar University are some of them. Dr.Rajpal S Hande, University of Mumbai, said "A-VIEW is working very well at our end. We have connected 300 colleges. We are running a program known as EYES (Enlighten Yourself Every Saturday) and we telecast this program to all colleges through A-VIEW."

Universities with colleges in remote areas were pleased by this program since this would help them to reach remote colleges. Such universities include: Assam University, Kashmir University, Bihar University, Jammu University, North Maharashtra University. Dr. Bekington Myrboh, Pro VC, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, said, "A-VIEW is a very attractive program especially for us here in the remote areas. We have around 100 colleges affiliated to us and they are all in remote places. This kind of facility will really help us."

A-VIEW has already been deployed at more than 450 Universities and 2000 colleges across the country. According to Prof. Kamal Bijilani, Director, E-Learning Research Lab, "With A-VIEW one good teacher can interact with tens of thousands of students simultaneously at different locations all over India, as though in person. A-VIEW can connect all students and teachers; it can give India a major edge."

For more information about A-VIEW, please visit www.aview.in or email [email protected].

Source: K Govindan Nampoothiry, Media Manager, Amrita E-Learning Research Lab