IIT video classes not on techies' list

HYDERABAD: BTech students are largely ignoring video classes provided by the IIT faculty under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning. It was planned by the Centre as an innovative e-learning initiative to help engineering students across the country to learn from IIT faculty. The e-learning classroom is available on YouTube and as video streams besides text lessons. The service is free and available 24x7.

Almost all engineering colleges have digital libraries with desktops and headphones but experts say the e-classrooms were being used more by teachers than by the students. IIT-Delhi director Dr V. Ramgopal Rao said that the approach of a majority of students was exam-oriented rather than going deep into concepts. “A majority of them think only from the exam point of view, like which lessons are important, which questions are repeatedly asked in an exam,” he said.

Prof G.V.K. Reddy, Vardhaman Engineering College said teachers, especially the new ones, follow the e-classes. Engineering students listed out reasons for not using the e-classes. According to Ms Ayesha Farheem, who completed BTech this year, not even 10 per cent of the students in her college benefited from e-learning.

“Most of the students prefer studying from books rather than listening to long lectures. It depends on how well we master the lessons off-class to score good marks,” she said. Mr K. Manohar, a second-year student, said more awareness should be created regarding NPTEL.